My family is coming over tomorrow for our Christmas celebration. So I'm cooking the turkey today and we just got a spiral Honey Baked ham. Turkey will mature whole in the fridge overnight and we'll carve and eat tomorrow.

It's cold and very windy out, but the WSM does what it does best!! This is an 18.80lb bird and I am using Kingsford and 4 med pieces of apple wood (the last ones).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Larry Wolfe,

Turkey finished right at the 5 hour mark last night. Gonna carve later today.

Just cut up the bird.

After a night in the chiller!

Larry, that looks great. Really nice job of slicing. You ever wrote up a 'slicing a turkey' bit? I'm getting better but I can't do near as good a job. How do you do it?

Also, what color of spray paint do you use because it's an awesome color and it's unbelievable how evenly you apply it it on your birds.

Damn, that's one moist looking bird! Larry, remind me what kind of knives you're using please.

looks awesome as usual larry. i'm still regretting not using your method on thanksgiving. while mine was good and everyone loved it, i think it would have been better cooked slow. i plan to do a few apple brined breasts for christmas slow and low!!

Beautiful! Can you come over to our house and carve our turkey? Mine never looks that good on the platter!

Your turkey looks very good. That turkey seems big to me. The biggest bird I ever did on the WSM was about 15 lbs. I have a 20 lb. bird in the freezer. Yours cooked for about 5 hrs. Now I know what kind of time to expect when I finally do my big bird. It sure looks tasty there. Great job.

Don't let Mr. Wolfe fool you. It's one of those paint by numbers things. Nobody can slice a turkey like that. Not sober anyway.
Looks nice Larry. What were you drinking?

I bet Larry got an egg slicer (spaced wires) made big enough for a turkey.

quote:

Originally posted by Shawn W:
Larry, that looks great. Really nice job of slicing. You ever wrote up a 'slicing a turkey' bit? I'm getting better but I can't do near as good a job. How do you do it?

LOL thanks Shawn....just remove the breasts, legs, wings and thighs. Slice the breast width wise and chunk up the thigh meat and place on the platter. Trust me it looks nice but ANYBODY can do the same.

quote:

Originally posted by Shawn W:
Also, what color of spray paint do you use because it's an awesome color and it's unbelievable how evenly you apply it it on your birds.

Via low PSI canister sprayer, you get no orange peel either!

quote:

Originally posted by LarryR:
Damn, that's one moist looking bird! Larry, remind me what kind of knives you're using please.

I use a combination of a Forschner slicing knife and a Forschner 6 inch Chef's knife. I have 'better' (more expensive) knives, but the Forschners are my favorite knives to use. You get a whole lot of bang for your buck and they hold and edge very nicely.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael C.:
Your turkey looks very good. That turkey seems big to me. The biggest bird I ever did on the WSM was about 15 lbs. I have a 20 lb. bird in the freezer. Yours cooked for about 5 hrs. Now I know what kind of time to expect when I finally do my big bird. It sure looks tasty there. Great job.

Michael, typically I do try to get a bird in the 15lb range, but depending on the crowd I'm feeding will vary. I've done birds as big as 24lbs with great results, just extended cooking times.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave/G:
Don't let Mr. Wolfe fool you. It's one of those paint by numbers things. Nobody can slice a turkey like that. Not sober anyway.
Looks nice Larry. What were you drinking?

You have me figured out Dave! I sliced the bird around 10 a.m. as I was finishing a pot of coffee. After that I did pop a Miller Lite and they continued until around 5pm and then I started enjoying New Castles!

Larry, Great bird as always. Been wanting to ask you this for awhile now since you cook so many Turkeys. I'm really not a fan of Turkey and always buy them in the 10-12 lb. range. You get the larger birds, and my guess from looking at your pics, is that with the larger turkeys, most of that extra meat is in the breast? Cause that's alot of breast meat on that plate.

Thanks for identifying the knives, I've had my eye on a Forschner slicing knife as I've heard good things about them and they seem to be reasonably priced.

Larry I know you do your birds low and was curious, when you're carving do the legs "pull" off or do cut them off?

I'll have the opportunity to do another bird over X-mas and I'm going to try and find one around 15 lbs too, seem to have better results at this size.

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan S:
Larry, Great bird as always. Been wanting to ask you this for awhile now since you cook so many Turkeys. I'm really not a fan of Turkey and always buy them in the 10-12 lb. range. You get the larger birds, and my guess from looking at your pics, is that with the larger turkeys, most of that extra meat is in the breast? Cause that's alot of breast meat on that plate.

YES. There is not a lot of difference in the big birds other than the breast. Legs, wings and thighs are longer, but not meatier. I wish the thighs were bigger, I much prefer dark meat, especially smoked dark meat.

quote:

Originally posted by LarryR:
Thanks for identifying the knives, I've had my eye on a Forschner slicing knife as I've heard good things about them and they seem to be reasonably priced.

Larry I know you do your birds low and was curious, when you're carving do the legs "pull" off or do cut them off?

Larry, you will not be disappointed with the Forschers and will not go broke buying them either.

The legs do not pull right off, you will need to make one cut on the cartiledge. There may also be a little site of blood (which is fine)at the joint on the leg as well as the thigh. If the folks you're feeding will have a fit over that, simply debone the meat (which will not have any sign of blood).

quote:

especially smoked dark meat.

I get turkey drums $1/lb sometimes I LOVE brining and smoking those.

I think the big deal about your breast slices is that you low and slow, I HH cook em and often on HH it overshoota a bit, at least the outside of the breast can get dry, then the slices crumble. You low n slow so it doesn't overshoot giving you those great slices.

That's a beauty Larry. That puppy riding bareback? Don't see any signs of rub. Brined?

Beautiful color.

quote:

Originally posted by r benash:
That's a beauty Larry. That puppy riding bareback? Don't see any signs of rub. Brined?

Beautiful color.

Thaks Ray. Yep, my turkeys go bareback. I never rub them, it's a waste of rub in my opinion if you're not eating the skin, which you won't going low with turkey.

This was just an enhanced bird, I did not brine either. Simple unwrapped, rinsed and popped on the WSM.

Thanks for the additional info. Nothing wrong with keeping it simple!

Larry: Nice Looking Bird! Question, at what temperature did you cook this tasty morsel? On Christmas Eve I plan to cook a 12lb bird at a temperature of 300F. I figure one(1) hour to preheat my WSM in order to bring up to cooking temperature and then four(4) hours once the bird is on the WSM. I plan on lighting the charcol at 12NOON, put on the bird at 1pm and add two(2) hickory wood chunks to the fire. I figure that my bird should be ready around 5pm.

Richard

WSM, OTG 22 1/2" with Smokentor

quote:

Originally posted by richard garcia:
Larry: Nice Looking Bird! Question, at what temperature did you cook this tasty morsel? On Christmas Eve I plan to cook a 12lb bird at a temperature of 300F. I figure one(1) hour to preheat my WSM in order to bring up to cooking temperature and then four(4) hours once the bird is on the WSM. I plan on lighting the charcol at 12NOON, put on the bird at 1pm and add two(2) hickory wood chunks to the fire. I figure that my bird should be ready around 5pm.

Richard

WSM, OTG 22 1/2" with Smokentor

Thanks Richard. I cooked in between 245-265º and pulled at 163º in the breast.

Your timing sounds good to me as well.