Muddy Pond Turkeys

muddy pond · Nov 18, 2007

Well it started at about 6:00 am and I just finished its 5:30'..... wow what a long day. I will start with the cleaning of the Meadow Creek and work thru the day of smoke cooking about 90 lbs of turkey. These first few shots will be of a hickory and pig but dirty smoker. By the way this is done after every cook so please bear with me as I will explain why over the next few posts.

muddy pond · Nov 18, 2007

Here are the tools that are involver to make this ready for the next cook.The Purple Power and the power washer make easier but it will involve some elbow grease.

muddy pond · Nov 18, 2007

A complete scraping of the drip tray and a cover of purple power along with the spraying of the grills with the Purple Power and what it does to burnt on grease and smoke... whew it is awesome stuff.

muddy pond · Nov 18, 2007

With the power washer powered up and the use of the remaing tools and that all important elbow grease I mentioned this is the end result. Notice I even clean out the fire box...... Why all of this work each cook.... stay tuned as you are about to enter Muddy's cooking land now...

richoso1 · Nov 18, 2007

Those are some mighty powerful cleaning tools. You're probably the "Mr. Clean" on your block! Glad to know you're trying to keep the smoking area clean, good healthy practice.

cowgirl · Nov 18, 2007

That does look good Muddy Pond. Hmmm, what are you doing tomorrow?

....or the day after?

muddy pond · Nov 18, 2007

Now the set up of the smoking machine This is a very important step to process the smoke properly to the meat for the cook. Also getting the fire started is a little trick that I have found that works for me. This will be shown why in the next post

muddy pond · Nov 18, 2007

Well by now most of you will have noticed the log grate and the cardboard.... it helps keep the charcoal which is only about 2-3 lbs close to the wood at intial firing. it is fired by a propane torch for about 5 minutes with the wood over the coal. You will also notice I use only all natural chunk coal as there are no fillers to stink up the cook. The wood is apple that I have kiln dried at 100 degrees in my old Braunfels smoker. The reason I use log grate is that it allows me an infinite amount of control of temps thru air flow. The reason for the all natural col is it is hot, lights easy and more economical overall.

muddy pond · Nov 19, 2007

I will be cooking for the next 3 day, six each day abd this process will be done each day. Here are the young not frozen turkeys weighing in at 13-13.2 lbs all washed oiled, rubbed gaused and injected.... they are ready for the smoker. Now that the temp has been reached they are ready.

walking dude · Nov 19, 2007

muddy........what are those birds covered in?

you do this cleaning between EACH SMOKE session?

d88de

muddy pond · Nov 19, 2007

Now with in the OTBS it will not be opened for about 6 1/2 hrsAnd the end result....., are you drooling yet????? lol

muddy pond · Nov 19, 2007

Hope you all enjoyed this little work out but it was designed to help those to who may want to go professional that the reason for my undertaking these steps each and every smoke is that consistency has given me the same taste, smell and flavor each and every cook which bring my customers back to me. Last years turkeys anf this years turkeys along with yesterdays butts and tomorows butts all will always taste as good as they remember. It's what I expect of myself and what the public expects of Muddy Pond Barbeque.

Sorry for such a time consuming read but I just hope it helps my fellow smokers.

walking dude · Nov 19, 2007

great thread dude........but.....i will ask again.........what was that covering the birds?

looks like shrouds.......hehe

d88de

bbq bubba · Nov 19, 2007

Wow Muddy, that's all i can say................

Well almost.

Nice pit, very comparable to a Lang, which i have had some use on so thus my question's........
Why in the world do you do that "cleaning" process EVERY time?
I like your set-up for starting your coal bed but wonder why you use lump at all? The weed burner would have the same effect on straight log's if you split them down a bit.
Believe me, very impressed with your cleaning method but after a cook, why not just spray it down with some water while it's still warm, has the same effect and doesn't remove all the seasoning in the pit!
Last question, after scraping and cleaning with those chemical's, do you re-season the pit or at least give it a good burn to burn all that stuff out?

Impressive thread, not knocking anything you do, just curious about your methods..........that's how we all learn here!!

muddy pond · Nov 19, 2007

It's cheese cloth which can be purchased at any fabric store. It helps keep the birds that beautiful color.... And to answer your previous question ... yes I clean between each smoke along with cutting and splitting hickory and apple wood Ok ok I also have my honey do list.....

walking dude · Nov 19, 2007

you smoke with that cheese cloth on?

wow........learned summin new today

d88de

muddy pond · Nov 19, 2007

bbq, the cleaning with the chemical is pretty much washed away with the power washer. As for the why, again we sell to the public and it's consistency of flavor and from repitition. I know if I was just smoking for myself that I would not need to. For us my consistent ways has given us a jump on the local bbqs in the area.

When we have been out to those cook offs and then go to their place of business the meat never tastes the same twice in a row. I look at the grills cleanliness and have determined that if you use a different spice one time it will infuse your next cook with a different flavor even if you dont notice it yourself some on who has not eaten as often as you will pick up on the difference.

As for reseasoning it,to get the temp where we cook at burnsishes the cooker.in so we rarely have a problem with an unseasoned grill. It idles at the 220 mark for about an hour as there is a lot of metal to heat up.

As for the use of lump coal, I find that even with split wood the cost of propane far out weighs the use of lump to carry the weight of keeping heat enough to ignite the wood. As the fire gets rolling I will use logs unsplit in the 6-8 inch diameter by 14 inch length so to carry the heat longer between refuelings as the constant temps stay more consistent.

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