I've been smoking meat for just over 3 years. I bought a restaurant in 2012 with a behemoth of a smoker out back. This thing is monstrous and it intimidates me every time I smoke. Most of the research I do is for small smokers so I just have to do the best I can to translate the info to my smoker. I learn something every time I do it. Something I've learned is that no matter how bad the meat looks on the outside, it's probably gonna taste pretty good unless you've just burned it to a crisp by cooking too high. My smoker uses real wood and real fire and it's very hard to regulate. It's an end fire box so that sometimes makes my meat not look smoky enough. I have to move things around inside the smoker but my stuff usually turns out well. The only complaints I've had were with my first batch of ribs and I used Billbo's rub on those. I love Billbo's rub but it's not good for ribs - in my opinion. I've changed recipes, and they are a fav at my restaurant.
I smoked 9 turkeys and 8 Boston Butts this past Saturday night 11/21-22. Butts are easy. I use Billbo's rub 2 days before, smoke in alum. pans. fat down. Very easy. I smoke for 8 hours around 225 - 250 F. If the internal temp is 180 or above at 8 hours and it always is, I throw on 3 - 4 hickory logs and clamp down my smoker so it's not getting any air. It'd old so there is just enough air that seeps in to make it burn very low and slow the rest of the night. I take butts out around 6 - 7 am the next morning.
I rubbed my 12 - 14 lb turkeys first in Lawry's seasoned salt. Slather with land o lakes sea salt & olive oil butter (melted). I've got an all purpose poultry seasoning that I found at Sam's club in the big shaker. Shake that on last. I stuff a whole onion and 3-4 celery sticks in the cavity. I put mine on a thin short disposable aluminum pan. 2 birds per pan. That was a mistake. I had to move 17 chunks of meat around inside my smoker and the pans are not sturdy enough for moving around on this old rough iron grate smoker. I lost a lot of drippings/juice As the turkeys cooked, about every hour, I sprayed with a concoction I came up with: chicken broth, olive oil and that same land o lakes butter. Lightly spray. You don't want to knock the seasoning off. After the first hour, it's fairly well attached to the skin though so don't worry too much about it. I cooked them for about 5 hours along with the butts. So, they sat in the smoker all night with the butts and I was afraid they'd dry out. The did not however. Very nice smoky flavor. I may try taking them out of the smoker instead of leaving them but those last few hours of slow smoldering is what I think sets my smoked meat apart from my competitors in this area who use more modern or gas smokers.
Everything turned out great this batch. We served the turkeys at the restaurant on Sunday as the special. Sold out commpletely. We gave away 2 to customers which was fun. The shoulder was pulled and we'll server that over the course of the next few weeks for our menu bbq sandwiches and our specials.
Oh, almost forgot. I used my Roman Pork Puller for the first time. Much easier than pulling by hand and way less waste.
I love smoking meat and it's a vey rewarding hobby. Keep smoking meat and you'll learn what works best. Here are my birds. Happy Smoking & Thanksgiving!