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Smoking Food Thread

The chickens from the homecoming tailgate:

(pre)
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(post)
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As before, the temps stayed in the ideal range this cook, but I think I'm going to add some more air inlets to the firebox. The creosote from the smoke was a little much for my taste visually, but it didnt impact the flavor at all. The new ABT's turned out even better than the previous recipe.
 
Firing up the smoker to do a turkey breast today; test run for Thanksgiving.
 
Wife is out of town for a birthday trip with the mother-in-law. The house is stocked with nothing but dudes until Tuesday. Plan is to cook very meal---morning, noon and night---on either the smoker or the grill.

Smoked a chicken last night, steak in a cast iron skillet tonight, baked potatoes tomorrow for lunch and grilled homemade pizza for Veteran's day.
 
So I volunteered to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving this year. I've actually got a bone-in breast on right now as a test run. Because of travel logistics, I am going to need to smoke the turkey on Wednesday. It's going to be about a 5 hour drive down to the Outer Banks. Any suggestions for how to do it so it will be the best for Thursday?

I was thinking I would wrap it in foil and put it in a roasting pan over ice in a cooler. Think this will work? Any suggestions on the best way to warm it up?
 
Its just a personal preference, but I wrap them in cellophane and then foil. It tends to hold the moisture in better.

As far as reheating, I'd put it in a roasting pan, cover with foil and slowly bring it up in temp in the oven. Too fast and it'll dry out.
 
I smoked 15 racks of St. Louis spare ribs for the Duke tailgate today, and they were banging. I was able to foil and baby them better than my typical mass production. They were a huge hit.
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Oh, and this is my first smoke with the wireless thermometer. This thing is great. I don't know how I ever managed without it.
 
Smoked a 13 pound turkey yesterday over apple wood and it was fucking delicious. Finished in about 2 hours so we wrapped it in foil to hold it until party time, but it was a big hit. The gravy we made using the dripping had this really nice smokey flavor to it that made it unlike any other gravy I've had before. Both the turkey and the gravy were a big hit at Friendsgiving last night.
 
Set out my Thanksgiving meat in the cooler to start thawing out. 2 turkeys, 2 deer shoulders, a beef brisket and a pork butt. Thursday should be glorious.
 
How are you doing that in the cooler?

I moved my turkey from the freezer to the refrigerator on Thursday night. I need it thawed by Tuesday night to start brining.
 
We didn't have room in the fridge to thaw everything so I've got one of the 144qt 7 day coolers. It keeps the meat slightly above freezing so they'll slowly thaw out.
 
wfumike02 said:
So I volunteered to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving this year. I've actually got a bone-in breast on right now as a test run. Because of travel logistics, I am going to need to smoke the turkey on Wednesday. It's going to be about a 5 hour drive down to the Outer Banks. Any suggestions for how to do it so it will be the best for Thursday?

I was thinking I would wrap it in foil and put it in a roasting pan over ice in a cooler. Think this will work? Any suggestions on the best way to warm it up?
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This one is tough. Poultry doesn't reheat well and there's almost no way that you'll be able to crisp up the skin after the cook/cool/reheat process so you may want to ditch it if it ends up chewy. Might as well uncover, crank the heat (with convection if you have it) and try to crisp it up for a few minutes at the end. I would definitely quarter or butterfly it to reheat. It won't look as nice if you want to carve at the table, but it should speed things up so you don't dry it out.

I see some recommendations to bring it up to room temp before putting it in the oven. Either way, you need 165 internal for 15 seconds to kill the bad stuff but I would probably fib a bit since bacteria is unlikely to find its way inside of the chicken between the time you finish smoking it and reheat.
 
How do you guys thaw and brine? I don't have the fridge space for open air. In the past, I think I submerged the frozen turkey in a cooler in the garage. Two days thaw, then brine. Et tu?
 
jhmd2000 said:
How do you guys thaw and brine? I don't have the fridge space for open air. In the past, I think I submerged the frozen turkey in a cooler in the garage. Two days thaw, then brine. Et tu?
Click to expand...

Bought fresh turkeys this year so we didn't have to thaw. Used brining bags, instead of buckets, in the fridge.
 
We use bags and would put them in a cooler on the back porch, but they're always thawed before we start. I've never tried to brine from frozen.
 
I think I'm gonna ask for a wireless thermometer for Christmas. I don't want many things so that will be fun. I'm sure I'll get some weird looks.
 
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