We "earned" a free turkey from the local market around Thanksgiving. My wife arrived home with a 20# Butterball. This thing is huge.

I plan on cooking this for Christmas Eve. I've watched the movie but have never smoked a turkey previously. Weber's recommendation is for a 10-12# bird. How long should I expect the 20# turkey to cook?

The video shows the bird being smoked on the grill. I imagine there is no issue doing this in the WSM. Anything I should consider that would be different than on a grill?

If I were going to smoke a butt at the same time, will there be a problem? Should turkey go over pork or pork over turkey?

I appreciate the guidance.

Do I need to double the brine and gravy ingredients on this if I double the size of the bird?

Rd, You can smoke it on the WSM no problems. You'll prob want to keep the bird on the top, since it's so big, easier to remove. What size butt are you planning on cooking. That will have to start earlier than the bird. Do you want to cook low and slow or high heat? As far as the brine goes here's and easy way that doesn't require a double batch of brine.

This will be easier as 2 person operation, but works awesome. you can but put the turkey in a oven brown bag neck end in first, legs facing you, then place it in the bucket. Then pour brine into bag leaving some space in the bag. While one person holds the bag closed but open enough for the air to go out, the other person pours ice cold water in the bucket till the brine in the bag comes up and covers the turkey except for the very ends of the leg bones where their feet were cut off. work as much of the remaing air out as possible and seal it up tight. Then just place the whole shebang in the fridge. HTH, B

Thanks for the advice, Bryan.

What is an oven brown bag? Searching all I come up with are regular shopping bags.

The butt is about six pounds. I plan on throwing that on tomorrow night.

About how long should I expect this turkey to take?

quote:

Originally posted by RDOwens:
Thanks for the advice, Bryan.

What is an oven brown bag? Searching all I come up with are regular shopping bags.

The butt is about six pounds. I plan on throwing that on tomorrow night.

About how long should I expect this turkey to take?

RD, Here's a link on the bags for you.
How long the Turkey depends on the Temp at which you cook at. Cooking at a grate temp of 250-260º or there abouts will prob take about 4.5-5.5 hrs for the Turkey to cook.

The turkey was excellent!

I did this on the OTG as Purviance showed in the video. The roasting pan barely fit. I did not re-butter the bird after the flip. You can see the skin was not perfect along the breast. This took a little over four hours to cook. The temp was a little high initially.

The big time gravy was good. I kept repeating "big time" like Purviance does as I made it. My wife was bemused.

I am not a great carver, but the breasts were so large, it was difficult to mess it up too much. I enjoyed the flavor very much. This is an easy preparation.

The carcass will make lots of stock. Woo hoo! Good stuff and we'll be eating turkey for some time.

Thank you for the help.

Wife says to me that she really liked the turkey from Christmas Eve. A minute later she says, "How about if you make it again?"

"For tomorrow," she adds.

I told her if she went out and bought the bird, I would brine it today and smoke it tomorrow.

It's nice to get requests.

If you can't find the oven brown bags that Bryan mentions use the xl xxl zip locks. You should be able to find the browning bags though. They are cheaper.

To be honest though I prefer the added durability and heavy weight of the big zip locks. They have a double seal and can take some abuse and puncture less readily. I have had a browning bag tear on me while brining a heavy turkey once so guess I'm a little biased. If you aren't moving it around too much you probably don't need to worry.

I typically will lift the bag out an turn the bird over a few times during the brining, the zip locks keep things from wanting to leak out. I will actually bunch up the bag under the zip seals and tie off as well.

Large 1.25 ft. x 1.25 ft., 5 per box
Xtra Large 2 ft. x 1.7 ft., 4 per box
XXtra Large 2 ft. x 2.7 ft., 3 per box

This message has been edited. Last edited by: r benash,

Thank you for the suggestion. I appreciate it.

quote:

Originally posted by RDOwens:
The turkey was excellent!

I did this on the OTG as Purviance showed in the video.

The big time gravy was good. I kept repeating "big time" like Purviance does as I made it. My wife was bemused.

RD, you have a link to that video? I've searched but can't find it. TIA.

It's at webernation.com. I tried to link up the video but couldn't. http://www.webernation.com/Home.aspx

quote:

Originally posted by Dave/G:
It's at webernation.com. I tried to link up the video but couldn't.

I looked there but no go. I'll try again. I mean the recipe is there but no video? Thanks Dave.

This may be a stupid question, but did you click on the grilling classes tab near the upper left?

The way Weber has constructed their site does not permit direct linking, although they freely permit one to dl the video. Go figure.

Dave/G is correct in that one needs to go through the Grilling Classes link in the site's navigation. That is separate from the recipes.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave/G:
This may be a stupid question, but did you click on the grilling classes tab near the upper left?

That did the trick, Thanks Dave.