After reading Jeff's newsletter about smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving, that's all I could think about. Unfortunately I was flying to Tx and arriving at 1 am Thanksgiving morning so it took some considerable long distance team work between my father-in-law and me.
We used the buttermilk brine recipe that Jeff gave in the newsletter and set the turkeys in a cooler the day before Thanksgiving. After I arrived and got a few hours of sleep I was up bright and early in the morning to get things started.
I once again was lucky enough to use a friend's smoker.
I love this smoker. My father law had a pear tree that died years ago in his yard so we cut a bunch of it down and used it for the smoking wood.
Once the smoker was going it was time to go back to the house and finish getting the turkeys ready. I sliced up some butter and put it under the skin on the breasts of the turkeys. I added some rub we had lying around and took them down to the smoker.
I put the turkeys in the vertical part of the smoker, one above another so the top one would drip on the lower one and got the smoker running right at about 250.
After a few hours the turkeys were done perfectly and they were on the table and enjoyed by all. It was amazing how quickly the bird was gone. My mother-in-law also cooked a turkey in the oven just because that's the was she's always done it. My turkeys were gone well before hers :-)
All in all it was a good Thanksgiving with lots of good turkey. The smoked turkeys turned out good and were tender and juicy. Too bad I'm not a big turkey fan :-) I need to start doing the christmas brisket and fatties :-)
Sorry for the sideways q-view. One of these days I will learn to do it right.
We used the buttermilk brine recipe that Jeff gave in the newsletter and set the turkeys in a cooler the day before Thanksgiving. After I arrived and got a few hours of sleep I was up bright and early in the morning to get things started.
I once again was lucky enough to use a friend's smoker.
I love this smoker. My father law had a pear tree that died years ago in his yard so we cut a bunch of it down and used it for the smoking wood.
Once the smoker was going it was time to go back to the house and finish getting the turkeys ready. I sliced up some butter and put it under the skin on the breasts of the turkeys. I added some rub we had lying around and took them down to the smoker.
I put the turkeys in the vertical part of the smoker, one above another so the top one would drip on the lower one and got the smoker running right at about 250.
After a few hours the turkeys were done perfectly and they were on the table and enjoyed by all. It was amazing how quickly the bird was gone. My mother-in-law also cooked a turkey in the oven just because that's the was she's always done it. My turkeys were gone well before hers :-)
All in all it was a good Thanksgiving with lots of good turkey. The smoked turkeys turned out good and were tender and juicy. Too bad I'm not a big turkey fan :-) I need to start doing the christmas brisket and fatties :-)
Sorry for the sideways q-view. One of these days I will learn to do it right.
