Ok, i am very excited because i will be doing my first smoked turkey on the WSM and this will also be the 2nd time that i use my new WSM since i got it.

I have a few questions please. I want to try my best to make this cook a success.

First, i did not find any unstuffed ones at store and they only had Butterball stuffed and seasoned turkeys. They are frozen and it says on it not to thaw and to cook from frozen.

I want to thaw it first before putting it on the WSM to make sure that it cooks properly and to also make cooking time less. I read that it takes about 30 mins per lb for cooking. Can i thaw it or is there something special about this kind of turkey that i have to cook it frozen? I cant understand why it says not to thaw it on the turkey?

Second, i will be using the minion method to keep the charcoal going for long time on low temp. It is a 6.5 kg turkey. Any idea how much charcoal to start off with, lit versus unlit?

Third, i want to use apple wood for smoking. How many handful of that do i need in the cooking process and is it better to put them in at first, middle or both? I will be putting the wood in aluminum foil and throwing it on the charcoal with small holes in the foil.

Fourth, can i put the turkey in a metal tray instead of directly on the cooking grates of the WSM. I dont care about sauce or gravy from the turkey. I just want to make cleaning easier and not to dirty the water pan of the WSM. Will using a tray under turkey or putting turkey in a tray affect its quality in smoking process at all?

thanks

elmo

Ideally, a fully thawed, unstuffed turkey is what you want to use. In this case, I would err on the side of caution, and follow the package instructions, duplicating, as closely as possible, the 325° oven temp in your WSM. It will be a bit tricky, as not only will you have a cold mass of meat, you'll have a frozen mass. In fact, it may just be too tricky to chance trying to do it all in the WSM. So, here is what I suggest:

In light of the fact that poultry does not benefit from low & slow, nor from too much smokewood, I would fully light a Weber chimney of charcoal. Dump the lit in the charcoal ring, assemble the cooker with a dry pan, and place a drip pan on the bottom rack. (I don't think much will drip, though.) Alternatively, you can place the turkey in a pan, as you wish, and the application of smoke will not be materially affected.

With lid on and all vents fully open, allow the cooker temp to rise to at least 425°, higher if possible. Quickly add the turkey to the top grate and replace the lid. The temp should drop sharply, but start to rebound in 20-30 minutes. If the temp does not appear to be nearing your 325 target in that timeframe, prop open the door an inch to let more oxygen in to stoke the fire. Use one packet of your apple wood with two handfuls of chips, and smoke roast for an hour or so. The amount of smoke applied during this time will be more than ample. Pre-heat your oven to 325°, and transfer your turkey to the oven for the remainder of the cook time, until it reaches the internal temps specified on the package.

Now i know why all the unstuffed ones were sold out

I will go to store tomorrow to try and get an unstuffed one and return this one.

But if i cant, how about i completely thaw this bird and empty the stuffing from it before putting it on the WSM? Will that work? I am guessing at this point that the only problem is that the fact that it is stuffed makes it a bad choice for smoking, although i dont really understand why.

I really want to cook low and slow and dont want to go above 275 or 300 in temp. I also want to use the water pan to keep temp steady during cookout.

I want to see how the WSM will make a difference with cooking a turkey and transferring it to an oven will defeat the purpose. If i do that, i might as well use the oven for the whole cooking process.

elmo

Roasting a stuffed bird is often a bad choice in terms of cooking and of food safety. The heat can't circulate in the cavity as well, and, if the stuffing is not brought up to a safe temp in the name of not overcooking the meat, there is a potential for causing food-borne illness. If you have enough time to safely and completely thaw what you have now in the refrigerator, I don't see why you could not remove the stuffing and proceed as planned, cooking the stuffing separately. However:

Low & slow cooking of poultry is not necessary from the standpoint of tenderization or preservation of moistness. In fact, it may be detrimental. With other BBQ meats like butt or brisket, low temps and long cooking times favor the breakdown of connective tissue, and the rendering of intramuscular fat, neither of which meaningfully apply to poultry. Check the package to see if it states the turkey has been enhanced with a solution of salt and phosphate. With Butterball, they usually call it "self-basting". This is akin to brining, and may help preserve moistness should you decide to stay with the low temp plan.

Experience has taught us that the blandness of poultry meat makes very little smoke application necessary to provide adequate smoke flavor. Too much smoke will cause an unpleasant, bitter taste, and oversmoking is so easy to do that sometimes people are apt to use no smokewood at all, leaving the charcoal alone to add a light smoky flavor.

thanks for the info Doug.

I called store and they said i can return the frozen stuffed turkeys if i have to. I will go check first tomorrow morning to see if i can find an unstuffed one at a store (frozen or fresh).

The only thing is that thanksgiving is in a day here and most places are sold out on turkeys.

The thing with the stuffing and bacteria, wouldnt that depend on what type of stuffing you use? Like if you use vegetables only?

I used to cook stuffed duck in oven and would stuff it before cooking it with apples and its chopped heart and giblets and whatever else came with it. But i would pan fry all these things first for a bit before stuffing them inside the duck. I did not realize that this can have a safety risk and make it harder for heat to cook bird though. I also used to pack the stuffing tight in there, which i know that is not a good thing to do now.

If i do get stuck with no other turkey to buy tomorrow and i go to plan B and thaw this stuffed turkey i have and remove stuffing from it before cooking. What would be safest way to thaw in order to do this? Will thawing in cold water for about 30 mins per lb be best?

Thanks again Doug

elmo

The concern with any stuffing placed inside the bird is that if the stuffing has not been safely handled before going into the bird (pre-cooked or not), it may not be brought to a high enough temp inside the bird. In other words, the thermometer may tell you the meat has reached a safe temp, but the stuffing may have not. But cooking to achieve safe temp in the stuffing may result in overcooking and drying out the meat.

My preference is to loosely place aromatics like onion, lemon, apple, cinnamon stick and fresh rosemary in the cavity, and cook any stuffing separately.

The USDA FSIS says thawing in cold water, changing it out every 30 minutes is OK. 30 minutes per pound is their estimate as well.

You really want to hot smoke your bird. I've done turkey breasts a few times and always smoke them between 325 and 350 degrees without a water pan but with an aluminum pan on the lower grate to catch the drippings. This also acts as a barrier between the coals and the bird. I don't really season the skin before I cook it but I smear it with soft butter and baste it twice during the cook w/ butter. You can also place a few pats of butter under the skin.




Good Luck!

Thanks guys for all the help.

It is early morning here and i tried calling a few store but they are all sold out on turkeys.

I am going to do a last attempt to find a non stuffed turkey at costco. They open in 1 hr. If that fails, i will be thawing the stuffed frozen turkey i have with cold water immersion and removing that annoying stuffing from it before smoking it.

I learned a lot about turkeys and stuffing so far. I did not realize that there is so much to know about cooking a turkey Cant wait to see how the WSM will do with the turkey.

elmo

So i went out tried looking for an unstuffed turkey and all sold out.

So the stuffed one i have is now thawing in the sink with water and will use that as my first turkey on the WSM.

Will be taking pics tomorrow and will post back with result and how it went.

elmo

here is an update.

the turkey is now on the wsm since 10:30 this morning and it has been 3 hrs.

I have removed all stuffing from it and just poured some apple juice on it yesterday and left it in fridge overnight.

I have a maverick monitor connected to smoker and meat temp but the meat temp is now showing 164 C. I think i did not put it in a proper place in the breast. There is no way that it is already done after only 3 hrs at average smoker temp of 275F.

I will wait another 3 hrs before opening the cover of wsm and checking it.

I peeked with a flashlight from the vent opening on cover of wsm and trukey still looks very white and still needs lots of time to cook.

I put apple woodchips in a smoker box and put that on top of charcoal but it took me like 30 min to finally put cover on the wsm with the turkey in there, after putting the smoker box.

This is my first time with the maverick unit and it was a big hassle trying to find a way to put the probes and pass them from the inside of WSM to the sender unit.

I dont have eyelets and ended up passing probe wires from cover vent holes and it was very unpleasant experience with all the smoke and heat coming into my face and eyes and now i smell like charcoal.

So i am still like half way through the cooking.

We will see what happens.

To be honest though, i miss the ease of using my gas BBQ My gas BBQ is so easy to use compared to charcoal and i dont end up smelling like charcoal and heat monitoring and setting was a breeze.

So far, i find my performer a lot easier to use than my WSM. Did i mention that i burned my fingers trying to adjust the bottom vent while it was freaking hot.

I dont know if this will change in future but smoking is a lot harder than i thought it was.

elmo

Remember with poultry you're cooking to both a safe and a palatable temperature-- too high and your turkey will be ruined. Don't wait another 3 hours to remove the lid and reposition the thermometer probe-- it is probably touching bone. (Use a glove, the probe will be hot.) I just run the cables under the lid, and set the lid down gently, taking care not to kink the wires-- been doing it that way for years, the thermometer still works fine.

quote:

Originally posted by elmo:
here is an update.


I dont have eyelets and ended up passing probe wires from cover vent holes and it was very unpleasant experience with all the smoke and heat coming into my face and eyes and now i smell like charcoal.

This is the price you pay for BBQ. get used to it.

quote:

Originally posted by elmo:
here is an update.


I dont have eyelets and ended up passing probe wires from cover vent holes and it was very unpleasant experience with all the smoke and heat coming into my face and eyes and now i smell like charcoal.

For future cooks, you can simply run the wires under the lid. I have been doing it for years with the same wires and haven't had an issue.

thanks Doug D & Larry for the advice. Will try passing wires under lid next time.

So i am officially done with my first bird on the WSM. It was a long day but it was fun. Started early and finished late and there was lots of checking on the temp and wanting to make sure all is good. I think i should relax more next time

Overall, i learned a lot and although, the bird did not turn out the way i wanted, it was good nevertheless.

The meat was tender and juicy but i would like to work on the breast meat to make it less dry and more tender next time.

The thigh meat was really tender and amazing though.

One thing i noticed and i dont know why, is that my breast meat did not have that pink color to it that comes from smoking. It looked like if it came out of oven. It took a bit over 5 hrs for turkey to get done.

The apple wood chips i added were a waste because i did not do it properly and took me a long time at beginning to finally close lid after the bird was on so there was no wood smoke taste at all in bird.

One thng i noticed is that turkey tasted almost the same as the turkey i did indirect heat on my performer one time.

I thought a smoker will make turkey better as it cooks it low and slow but actually, the one from the performer was a bit slightly better.

I still have a lot to learn though with the WSM and next time i smoke turkey, i will try the brine method.

I will post the pics soon

elmo

Here is the link with the pics:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/sup...eyAndGrilledSeafood#

I tried to cut the turkey like the way Larry did in his turkey pics but that did not work. Larry is a pro and his turkey carving skills are excellent

elmo

For all the experienced smokers outthere, does anyone have an ideo why the turkey breast meat did not come out pink and tender.

I am trying to find out if there was something i did wrong or missed so it comes out better next time.

I looked at some pics of other members here who smoked turkey and the breast meat is nice and pink.

I am also trying to figure out why the turkey did not have any apple wood chips smoke flavor in it at all. It was like as if i did not use any wood chips at all.

thanks

quote:

Originally posted by elmo:
For all the experienced smokers outthere, does anyone have an ideo why the turkey breast meat did not come out pink and tender.

I am trying to find out if there was something i did wrong or missed so it comes out better next time.

I looked at some pics of other members here who smoked turkey and the breast meat is nice and pink.

I am also trying to figure out why the turkey did not have any apple wood chips smoke flavor in it at all. It was like as if i did not use any wood chips at all.

thanks

Dry meat is caused by overcooking, period. With that said, in your defense you didn't start off with a good product to begin with. You had a previously stuffed bird and removed the stuffing etc. Get a good fresh bird, brine it and go from there. From the looks of your pic's, had you had the right bird to begin with it would have turned out exceptionally well, as you did the best with what you had! I think your finished product turned out as good as it could have and you did a great job, especially on the carving!!!

Thanks Larry.

I will make sure to get a fresh unstuffed bird and brine it for at least a day next time.

elmo