Thanksgiving Turkey on a UDS!(large pics)

Boy, do I have a story! One I certainly wouldn't be able to tell without having found this forum, that's for sure.

So I've never run a smoker before, the closest I've come is a kettle grill with the vents set to get it going as low as possible and some wood chips. This past week I built a UDS, and thought "Why not smoke a turkey for thanksgiving?" I started looking for recipes and methods, and eventually decided to do the "Apple Brine" method found on TWVB website and cherry wood. If you're keeping track, that makes this not only my first time running a "real" smoker, but also my first time using a UDS, *and*(thought I didn't mention it) my first time cooking a turkey.

How did it turn out? I'll let you see the pictures and decide for yourself, but at the table I got several "Best Turkey Ever"'s, and I even had a couple people standing on their chairs demanding "More turkey!" at the top of their lungs. Hey, 3-year-old lungs can be pretty loud when they want to be!

I just want to say thank you to everyone here, more than anything else. Thank you for the huge UDS thread with just about every question you could ever ask already answered. Thank you for taking the time to organize the roadmap thread which gathers together everyone's best methods for cooking this and that. Thank you for being willing to share and post every experience on this forum so that someone like me could come here and, with absolutely no experience, turn a 55 gallon drum and some parts from home depot(in one week, at that) into a great smoker that produced the best turkey I(and several other people at the table) ever had. Without you, all of you, it wouldn't have been possible(not in this time frame, and not on my first try), so once again:

THANK YOU!

The Drum:


The Turkey at 1hr or so:


The Turkey, just before carving:


You're still here? Great! I have a question for you; Have you used RO briquettes before? Was there a fair amount of ash? I found myself banging on the drum/charcoal basket a fair amount at about the 2hr mark, and I was thinking that this would be no good for a really long low/slow cook on a pork shoulder or something. On the other hand, my charcoal basket was only about 1/3rd to 1/2 full, so maybe that would make the ash problem worse as the charcoal burns down? Canadian Tire had RO briquettes on sale for a good price, so that's why I bought them.

Congrats on first cook and that is a amazing looking bird.

Phubar said:

That's one big bird!

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It was 13.8lbs as far as I know, pretty much as big as I'd want to go I think.

mikeTRON said:

No idea on the RO briquettes and Great looking turkey!

One suggestion: crop the photos just a little so we don't have to move to the left and right to read your comments :thumb:

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I had meant to copy the "thumbnail" code, obviously I messed up, and now I don't see an edit button? I'd fix it if I could, or if a mod wanted to resize them that would be fine, but I don't see how to get back in and change them :/

^^That's pretty much what I figured, but never having used either RO briquettes(yes I mean Royal Oak by RO) or a UDS(or any smoker, really) I wasn't sure. Does that mean that I'd be better off using lump for really long overnight cooks then? Or do I just need to be vigilant with my charcoal-basket jiggling? The amount of ash that seemed to creep up into the top of the cooker when I did that was a bit concerning, but then again it didn't seem to affect the bird much/at all.

Thanks for all the compliments everyone. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and once I get the drum back home(it's at my Wife's parents house right now) I'll be sure to post up more pics when I decide what to cook next.

mikeTRON said:

haha! You know we are spoiled when we get to see this much quality Q AND we want it in an easy to read format :icon_smile_tongue:

I like to preview my post before I post it because I always end up doing something stupid and catch it :redface:

What are you using for a lid?

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Yeah previewing the post would have been a good idea, I'll have to keep that in mind for the future lol. I'm using the lid off a 22" kettle grill, brand unknown as I found it(in the garbage room at my building, but it was brand-new never used, only the handle on the lid was broken). I spent a LONG time trying to grind down the lip on the drum hoping the lid would fit(and it *looked* like it would), but eventually I just switched to a cutoff wheel and zipped it off completely. The lid doesn't seal that well, but it seems good enough as I had no trouble maintaining 325-350. The temp rarely moved, and once I had it up to where I wanted it I only needed the ball valve open less than halfway...makes me wonder if I'll have trouble holding lower temps, or if simply starting with less lit charcoal will take care of that.

Crazy Harry said:

Nice looking bird and the UDS looks good also.
I had the same ash problem with K briquettes along with taking forever to get rid of the white smoke. I switched to lump and I get better temperature control and no white smoke. After a 12 hour smoke, I still have half a basket left.

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That's good to know, the white smoke was bugging me as well. I still have another 18lb bag of the briquettes so I guess I'll use them up and then try to stick with lump in the future. How big is your basket? Mine's 14" diameter and 12" high.