tony b Posted November 23, 2012 Report Share Posted November 23, 2012 Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Here's some shots of today's turkey cook. Turkey was brined overnight Tuesday, went into the fridge to air dry all day Wednesday, cooked today - grill at 375F, breast to 160F, over peach wood. n68626 n68627 n68628 n68629 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loquitur Posted November 25, 2012 Report Share Posted November 25, 2012 Re: 2012 Turkey Beautiful bird there, tonyb!! Here is a shot of mine cooked on yesterday - 18 lbs, brined 12 hrs and air dried in frig 12 hrs, stuffed, cooked over Royal Oak lump with no added smoke wood, 325 Stoker with a blast of heat at the end to 155 breast 170 thigh - about 4 hours. Stuffing was removed after the bird reached temp and placed in the oven to finish. Wish I had more time for brining and air drying but I am traveling Thanksgiving week and can't get my turkey until Friday AM. There is no way tonyb and I are the only people on this board who did a turkey this week on their KK. C'mon - let's see 'em!!! Susan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EGGARY Posted November 25, 2012 Report Share Posted November 25, 2012 Re: 2013 Turkey Beautiful bird there, tonyb!! Here is a shot of mine cooked on yesterday - 18 lbs, brined 12 hrs and air dried in frig 12 hrs, stuffed, cooked over Royal Oak lump with no added smoke wood, 325 Stoker with a blast of heat at the end to 155 breast 170 thigh - about 4 hours. Stuffing was removed after the bird reached temp and placed in the oven to finish. Wish I had more time for brining and air drying but I am traveling Thanksgiving week and can't get my turkey until Friday AM. There is no way tonyb and I are the only people on this board who did a turkey this week on their KK. C'mon - let's see 'em!!! Susan Susan, Nice job on the turkey. What kind of brine did you use ? I like details. I see you use your Stoker a lot. Is it like set it and forget it ? Happy Thanksgiving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted November 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2012 Re: Happy Thanksgiving I've had my BBQ Guru (DigiQ-II) for quite awhile now and can't imagine doing any kind of low/slow without it. Used it with the Turkey, even though it was a short cook (2.5 hrs) at slightly higher temps (375F), because it was very windy and I was afraid of runaway temps without it. Worked like a Champ, as always. Brine was a basic - 1 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup candied ginger, 1 Tbl whole black peppercorns, handful of whole green cardamom pods, and 1 gal of water. Placed bird in small picnic cooler, added brine to cover, added 2 cups of ice cubes. Put the cooler in the garage overnight (temps in the mid-upper 30's F. Removed next morning (~14 hours brining), patted dry, put back uncovered in the fridge for another day to dry. Cooking day - stuffed cavity with one red apple, one yellow onion (both quartered), 2 cloves garlic (smashed), 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, and one sprig fresh tarragon. Outside of the bird was brushed with olive oil and liberal dusting of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loquitur Posted November 26, 2012 Report Share Posted November 26, 2012 Re: 2012 Turkey Susan, Nice job on the turkey. What kind of brine did you use ? I like details. I see you use your Stoker a lot. Is it like set it and forget it ? Happy Thanksgiving. My brine solution was: 8 qts water 1 c sugar 1 c kosher salt 6 bay leaves 2T coriander seeds 2T black peppercorns 1T fennel seeds 1t mustard seeds 2 onions sliced 6 cloves garlic smashed 1 bunch fresh thyme This brine caught my eye because its easy and because of the fennel seeds since I use Italian sausage in my stuffing. I can't say that it gave the turkey any identifiable flavor but it was very juicy and tender. I will definitely use it again as a basic brine though I want to pick up a turkey breast over the winter and do the maple syrup brine. I use the Stoker for big cooks, long cooks, low temp cooks such as smoking fish and cold weather cooks because my KK is not conveniently located to my kitchen and I get annoyed having to run through my whole house plus go outside to check on it when I'm busy with other inside cooking or whatever else. With the Stoker it takes me about 15 min to light the grill and set everything up and then I monitor it from a small notebook computer that I sit on my kitchen counter or carry around with me which tells me at a glance, over the internet, what the pit temp is and the temp of my three food temp probes or however many I am using for the cook. As long as I don't see any problems, such as the pit temp starting to fall, which means an adjustment to the charcoal is needed, I don't go back outside to the KK at all until the food has reached its final temp. I wouldn't use my KK nearly as much as I do if I didn't have the Stoker due to the convenience factor. Susan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee grabowski Posted November 26, 2012 Report Share Posted November 26, 2012 Re: Happy Thanksgiving Here is our 12 lb. Turkey. It was brined for 3 days and air dried for 2 days. Cooked at 325 deg. F for 4 hours and used apple wood for smoke for the first 1 -2 hours. I followed the Naked Whiz instructions. Very good turkey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loquitur Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Re: Happy Thanksgiving Lee: Thanks for posting that gorgeous pic. Your turkey has such a beautiful color and even finish - did you glaze it? It appears as if its on the sear grill on the tall handles. If you don't mind me asking, did you cook it there the whole time? Do you find an advantage to roasting at that level as opposed to the main grill level? Susan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee grabowski Posted December 1, 2012 Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 Re: Happy Thanksgiving Hi Loquitur, I did cook it on the sear grill only because I have a long straight temperature probe and I couldn't get the probe into the breast with the Turkey on the top grate. After the first hour I also basted the Turkey with butter and apple juice every 20 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted December 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 Re: Happy Thanksgiving Beautiful color on that bird! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aavkk Posted November 4, 2013 Report Share Posted November 4, 2013 These pics look great and thanks for the details. While we will be traveling this year for Thanksgiving I'll definitely give this a go a few times this Fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...