Has Anyone Tried the Turkey Canon?

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mneeley490

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
SMF Premier Member
Jun 23, 2011
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Everett, WA
Got this yesterday from Amazon. (Not my turkey.)


Plan on taking it for a test drive tomorrow on the Weber OTG. Sort of like a beer-can chicken. 

The box says it is supposed to cut down on the cooking time, which would be nice, since we will be supplying the family turkey this year. Just wondered if anyone else had tried it yet?

Thanks,

Mike
 
Ive seen it and wondered about it. Cant wait to see your results
 
Ok, things went well. I had a 13 lb. bird after prepping, and decided to try injecting, instead of brine this time.

Onto the Turkey Canon. This was filled with the leftover injection liquid, which consisted of melted butter, apple cider, beer, & spices.

The Canon raises the turkey up, so it was too high & didn't fit in the Weber, Plan B, into the fridge conversion.


Side view


AMNPS filled with 50/50 maple and apple pellets. The fridge conversion smoker was chugging along at about 290°, +/- 5°. I'm afraid to set it much higher, as I don't know what the limits might be on the Brinkmann replacement element. Wouldn't want to burn it out.


About the 3 hour mark. Notice how little liquid has pooled underneath. I think most of it stayed inside the bird.


Okay, it hit the 165°+ in 4 hours. Not bad. I almost forgot to get a shot of the done bird. This is the "unhacked" side.


And plated.


Looks like I've got enough leftover pellets for another one.


So the verdict? I think a combination of injecting and using the Turkey Canon kept the bird every bit as moist as when I brine. In addition, the Canon also seemed to speed along the cooking time. Not to a huge degree, but I think it shaved off maybe an hour on a 13 lb. bird.

I may use this route from now on, and save myself the time of brining (not to mention the salt & sugar.)
 
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Good to hear. Thanks for the review and it looks great.
 
Not a turkey fan here, but that does look good!

Never saw the turkey cannon before.  Looks like a cross between beer can chicken and a torture device? 
biggrin.gif


Looks like it worked well, though!

Good luck and good smoking.
 
I wonder if you could load it with black powder rather than the left over injecting liquid. Then add a fuse, light it and have a high speed turkey delivery device. Who says turkeys don't fly?

In all seriousness, I tend do to question the effectiveness of such gadgets, but if it works I'm happy to be proven wrong.
 
Does the instruction say how the cannon is suppose to speed up cooking time?  Is it simply because it's not sitting in it's own juice?  I'm often worried about these gadgets being all marketing in order to make a few bucks. 
 
Hey Mike........I like the way it lays the bird back a bit........not so tall. My turkey stands are like beer can chicken stands on pills and the bird is too tall for my small smoker (fits fine in the big one). Looks like you found a keeper.......

Brad
 
The 4 hour cook time makes me a little dubious. That's roughly the same time it takes me to smoke a bird in the 300˚-325˚ range, so it's maybe a 5% improvement if any. I guess for fans of the beer can, steam from within method, this does offer that functionality without the bird standing straight up. To me, it still reeks of the marketing guys looking for a problem to fit their solution.

This is my personal opinion. I've never used nor seen one of these in person, so again, if it works for you I'm happy to be proven wrong.
 
 
The 4 hour cook time makes me a little dubious. That's roughly the same time it takes me to smoke a bird in the 300˚-325˚ range, so it's maybe a 5% improvement if any. I guess for fans of the beer can, steam from within method, this does offer that functionality without the bird standing straight up. To me, it still reeks of the marketing guys looking for a problem to fit their solution.

This is my personal opinion. I've never used nor seen one of these in person, so again, if it works for you I'm happy to be proven wrong.
I roughly figured the cook time at 4 hours for 325°, also. This was smoking at a lower temperature, and I opened the door a couple times in the last hour to check on it. So that is why the revised estimate. As I said, I don't think it was a huge time difference, but it was significant.

BTW, I am having some breast meat right now for lunch. It is still moist, and cuts like butter, even with a flimsy plastic knife.
 
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