Thanksgiving Warm Ups.... Turkey
Posted: November 2nd, 2014, 8:34 pmTried my first turkey (14Lb Fresh Killed) a week ago. Smoked (Hickory) whole at 275. Injected with my standard Poultry injection. Put it in a disposable Aluminum Roasting pan. Used a homemade rub and stuffed some Bell Peppers & Celery inside. Seven hours later internal temp was 172. Pulled it, rested it :20 minutes and sliced it. Was delicious cold, but didn't cut it for a Thanksgiving Bird. Breast was too dry and a little chewy.
Read up a bit and decided to try Spatchcocking the next test subject. Got a 15 Lb Fresh Killed Bird from my local farmer. Cut the backbone out, turned it over and split the bird's breast bone. Trimmed the extra fat and the butt.
Oiled the bird on both sides.... Salt, pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Flakes, and a little Poultry Rub on both sides.
Decided to smoke this one at 325. (Hickory also).... Added a new toy to the arsenal... The Tappecue Temperature Monitoring System. Put the Probe in the unit and left the three other meat probes sitting outside the the smoker. Went in to prep the bird and let the Smoker come up to temp... I came out and looked at the probe temp and it's reading 58, the same as the outside probes. Ha... must have a defective unit here. Then I felt the smoker..... Cool as a cucumber. Then the Duh! moment hit me.... I had just cleaned the smoker and guess who forgot to put the pellet grate back in the fire box? Opppps! Turned it off, took it apart, vacuumed the pellets out of the fire box and put them back in the hopper, installed the pellet grate and restarted the smoker... Within twenty minutes it was up to temp and all was ready.... Getting much mixed info on the web (surprise surprise) as to the time this was going to take I figured dinner was going to be a little late....
Put the Bird on the lower shelf and in a little less than 2 hours the breast probes were in range (160) and the dark meat probe was above 180. Took it off and tented it for about twenty minutes....
Spot on.... Just ordered two more 15 pounders for Thanksgiving.... The Turkey was juicy, tender, and delicious. May leave it on a hair longer next time to soften the dark meat a little more.
The skin was not as good as an oven cooked Bird, but I'll give that up for the overall taste any day....
As for the Tappecue... Totally cool tool.... It has four ports that can be used for any combination of pit probes and food probes. It's networks with your home WiFi and can be read on your smart phone or tablet. Both Android and IOS apps available. It also graphs the entire cook so you can see what's going on from anywhere you have WiFi or Cell Service. After the session you can request the data to be emailed to you.... That part is a little cumbersome, but it does work. It's easier just to take a screen shot of the graph and email it to yourself. I'll try to attach some pics here.... I know.... In need of some serious wire management!
Richie
Read up a bit and decided to try Spatchcocking the next test subject. Got a 15 Lb Fresh Killed Bird from my local farmer. Cut the backbone out, turned it over and split the bird's breast bone. Trimmed the extra fat and the butt.
Oiled the bird on both sides.... Salt, pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Flakes, and a little Poultry Rub on both sides.
Decided to smoke this one at 325. (Hickory also).... Added a new toy to the arsenal... The Tappecue Temperature Monitoring System. Put the Probe in the unit and left the three other meat probes sitting outside the the smoker. Went in to prep the bird and let the Smoker come up to temp... I came out and looked at the probe temp and it's reading 58, the same as the outside probes. Ha... must have a defective unit here. Then I felt the smoker..... Cool as a cucumber. Then the Duh! moment hit me.... I had just cleaned the smoker and guess who forgot to put the pellet grate back in the fire box? Opppps! Turned it off, took it apart, vacuumed the pellets out of the fire box and put them back in the hopper, installed the pellet grate and restarted the smoker... Within twenty minutes it was up to temp and all was ready.... Getting much mixed info on the web (surprise surprise) as to the time this was going to take I figured dinner was going to be a little late....
Put the Bird on the lower shelf and in a little less than 2 hours the breast probes were in range (160) and the dark meat probe was above 180. Took it off and tented it for about twenty minutes....
Spot on.... Just ordered two more 15 pounders for Thanksgiving.... The Turkey was juicy, tender, and delicious. May leave it on a hair longer next time to soften the dark meat a little more.
The skin was not as good as an oven cooked Bird, but I'll give that up for the overall taste any day....
As for the Tappecue... Totally cool tool.... It has four ports that can be used for any combination of pit probes and food probes. It's networks with your home WiFi and can be read on your smart phone or tablet. Both Android and IOS apps available. It also graphs the entire cook so you can see what's going on from anywhere you have WiFi or Cell Service. After the session you can request the data to be emailed to you.... That part is a little cumbersome, but it does work. It's easier just to take a screen shot of the graph and email it to yourself. I'll try to attach some pics here.... I know.... In need of some serious wire management!
Richie