Test-cook of the Christmas turkey

[LordRiffenstein]

Christmas tradition in my family means stuffed turkey. It's a recipe that my grandfather used for +40 years. Several years ago, my dad took over the turkey duties. After having smoked turkey at our place earlier this year, he said that I should take over the turkey duties. So a few months ago he handed me my grandfather's recipe and said I should feel free to change it if I wanted, "please cook this on the smoker" is what I think he was saying :mrgreen:

My sister and her father-in-law have been raising some turkeys the last couple of years and these birds always taste excellent. So I asked her to raise 1 extra so I could do a test cook. The turkey in question was 8 kg cleaned.

The original recipe has a number of herbs and spices and a way to apply them. It also has the ingredients for the stuffing which is minced meats, spices, herbs, etc. The turkey is always cooked in the oven and basted with a butter/spices mixture. I decided to adapt this to my way of cooking poultry which means I'd be dry-brining the entire turkey. I thawed it in the fridge and made the rub (about 1.5% salt, black pepper, oregano, sage, etc etc.) and give it a good rub inside and out. I then let it sit in the fridge uncovered for about 60 hours. (Wed eve -> Sat morning). On Friday we made the stuffing: ground pork, beef and chicken livers, same rub, chopped onion and garlic, cognac.

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On Saturday morning I stuffed the bird, closed it up and put it on the Traeger. I choose the Traeger because I don't want to spend my Christmas day tending the offset while everybody else is having starters and booze. My plan was to run the cooker at 250F for an hour to get some smoke into the meat and then raising the temp to 325F until it hit the right ITs. The big question was the timing. I looked at at least a dozen websites and cookbooks to get a rough idea about the time it would take to cook the turkey but they were all over the place. I figured I'm better off starting early and letting it rest for a bit longer then running late. So at 11am, the turkey went on.

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After the 1st hour, I noticed that the ITs were already moving ahead nicely so I decided to stick to 250F. At the 3 hour mark I thought we were going to be done WAY early so I lowered the temp to 225F. That slowed things right down, just a bit to much actually so for the last 1,5 hours, I turned up to 325F. We were going to server the turkey at 8pm, it was done at 7:15pm so I could let it rest for 30mins before carving.

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The turkey was pretty damn amazing, juicy as hell and the taste was excellent, all cooked to perfection, the breast was moist, the legs/wings were great. The stuffing was spot on. We served it with veggies, onion gravy, curry sauce and rice.

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My dad went into nitpicking mode for a few minutes, because I made a bunch of changes to the recipe but in the end he said that it was as good as it gets. And then got up to fill his plate for a 3rd time :tongue::tongue:

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Christmas turkey is 12kg, so it's going to be a TIGHT fit in the Traeger but this is how it's going to happen this year. Let's hope I can make my grandpa proud, he's 98, we nearly lost him a few weeks ago so this could be my only chance.

[BuffettFan]

Great looking bird!
Sounds like you've got the timing down perfectly.

[ModelMaker]

Carry on youngster...
Ed

[seakuv]

The torch has been handed to you and it looks like you're doing a fine job of carrying it. Very Nice!

[rwalters]

Fantastic thread! That turkey looks absolutely amazing :-)

Any chance of spilling the secret family recipe for the brethren? [emoji120]

[seakuv]

Any chance of spilling the secret family recipe for the brethren? [emoji120]

I solemnly swear that IF you share it, and IF I share it with someone else, that I will tell them that it's a family recipe passed along from a Belgian Lord...

[OklaDustDevil]

I am surprised it cooked so fast. I often have smoked turkeys on my offset at 225, and it usually took 10-12 hours when the bird was unstuffed! Well done and looks great!

[jermoQ]

That looks very good. :thumb:

[Big George's BBQ]

Parental approval is always good I find brining a turkey seems to make it cook faster I have always done mine at 350* as I don't want too much smoke Yours looks excellent and a 3rd helping is a good recommendation

[Smokin'Butts]

Christmas tradition in my family means stuffed turkey. It's a recipe that my grandfather used for +40 years. Several years ago, my dad took over the turkey duties. After having smoked turkey at our place earlier this year, he said that I should take over the turkey duties. So a few months ago he handed me my grandfather's recipe and said I should feel free to change it if I wanted, "please cook this on the smoker" is what I think he was saying :mrgreen:

My sister and her father-in-law have been raising some turkeys the last couple of years and these birds always taste excellent. So I asked her to raise 1 extra so I could do a test cook. The turkey in question was 8 kg cleaned.

The original recipe has a number of herbs and spices and a way to apply them. It also has the ingredients for the stuffing which is minced meats, spices, herbs, etc. The turkey is always cooked in the oven and basted with a butter/spices mixture. I decided to adapt this to my way of cooking poultry which means I'd be dry-brining the entire turkey. I thawed it in the fridge and made the rub (about 1.5% salt, black pepper, oregano, sage, etc etc.) and give it a good rub inside and out. I then let it sit in the fridge uncovered for about 60 hours. (Wed eve -> Sat morning). On Friday we made the stuffing: ground pork, beef and chicken livers, same rub, chopped onion and garlic, cognac.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/088d06693ff367fe7b60f2d5f63492cb.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/202e7e0d3bdd3fdf0c3becb33a728c96.jpg

On Saturday morning I stuffed the bird, closed it up and put it on the Traeger. I choose the Traeger because I don't want to spend my Christmas day tending the offset while everybody else is having starters and booze. My plan was to run the cooker at 250F for an hour to get some smoke into the meat and then raising the temp to 325F until it hit the right ITs. The big question was the timing. I looked at at least a dozen websites and cookbooks to get a rough idea about the time it would take to cook the turkey but they were all over the place. I figured I'm better off starting early and letting it rest for a bit longer then running late. So at 11am, the turkey went on.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/4454578f84b5a654869c884eade13979.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/b085a02bc8e51722132ccc07ae866174.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/396fd661ab64822a46524f931ce0318e.jpg

After the 1st hour, I noticed that the ITs were already moving ahead nicely so I decided to stick to 250F. At the 3 hour mark I thought we were going to be done WAY early so I lowered the temp to 225F. That slowed things right down, just a bit to much actually so for the last 1,5 hours, I turned up to 325F. We were going to server the turkey at 8pm, it was done at 7:15pm so I could let it rest for 30mins before carving.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/f82e38d7dd42bf037863113eab58fa88.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/d5ab7dbbeb8209520a9344e9a8354045.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/9abf35f6b51075afaf4aa3d9d3261f59.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/af39c5e6479671567f458f8262f67667.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/d917ad415216e21259c89e48e1b066bf.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/9e232d411b288e739e00185753229509.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/134425f5c254b5ce359cfbf1b1c9ac31.jpg

The turkey was pretty damn amazing, juicy as hell and the taste was excellent, all cooked to perfection, the breast was moist, the legs/wings were great. The stuffing was spot on. We served it with veggies, onion gravy, curry sauce and rice.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/57e46e21e4ea781818ae49e63471bc14.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/952e5f486f514a9db58d462bea9d6a39.jpg

My dad went into nitpicking mode for a few minutes, because I made a bunch of changes to the recipe but in the end he said that it was as good as it gets. And then got up to fill his plate for a 3rd time :tongue::tongue:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181203/b28f4c2b90f84f36b15dc7a12db6799a.jpg

Christmas turkey is 12kg, so it's going to be a TIGHT fit in the Traeger but this is how it's going to happen this year. Let's hope I can make my grandpa proud, he's 98, we nearly lost him a few weeks ago so this could be my only chance.

It looks wonderful. And I am sure your Grandfather is proud of you no matter how the turkey comes out.

[Stingerhook]

Dayuum Yoeri, looks great!

[16Adams]

Outstanding

[campdude]

Best thing about practice cooks is you get to eat it twice! Looks like you nailed it perfectly.

[LordRiffenstein]

Fantastic thread! That turkey looks absolutely amazing :-)

Any chance of spilling the secret family recipe for the brethren? [emoji120]

As always with these things, it just turned out that they were keeping things simple to begin with. The rub is salt, pepper, sage, oregano, marjoram, paprika, tarragon. Nothing fancy.

I used 50/50 paprika/smoked paprika and no tarragon because I can't stand it :mrgreen: And I had to wing the amounts because the directions were not very accurate. :mmph:

The stuffing is minced pork/beef and adding heart/liver of the turkey. Same rub to season. Add chopped onion, chopped garlic, cognac (+ extra for the chef), bread crumbs.

I'm guessing it is roughly based on a recipe you'd find in a French cookbook.

[LordRiffenstein]

I solemnly swear that IF you share it, and IF I share it with someone else, that I will tell them that it's a family recipe passed along from a Belgian Lord...

:icon_smile_tongue::icon_smile_tongue:

[LordRiffenstein]

I am surprised it cooked so fast. I often have smoked turkeys on my offset at 225, and it usually took 10-12 hours when the bird was unstuffed! Well done and looks great!

I was surprised as well and it was the main reason to do the test cook. I'm not really much wiser regarding the timing but I know that I can adapt if needed and still end up with a tasty bird.