# SMOKED TURKEY



## USMARINEhuntinfool (Sep 15, 2007)

Planning to try smoking one tomorrow. Who has pointers?


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## pkred (Jul 9, 2009)

I would do it hot and fast 350 for 4 hours. brown sugar and herb butter smeared all over the skin and stuck in the skin pockets. I did this for thanks giving and everybody loved it.


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## Gumbo (Sep 22, 2007)

http://www.cookshack.com/turkey-101


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

My favorite is to make a brine, pump a fresh bird, refridgerate for a couple days, drain, then cold smoke with cherry wood until meat is 152°. The bird is cured, and smoked.

If I'm in a hurry, I make a solution that has fruit juice, liquid butter made from Butter Buds, and some spices in it, and then I pump the meat with the solution. Cook it in a hot smoker until it's....ah....that plastic thingie pops out. Use cherry or apple wood for the smoke. It's OK. There's a jillion recipes on the web to do a turkey in this fashion.


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## USMARINEhuntinfool (Sep 15, 2007)

Well went off with out a hitch. It was freaking delicious. I cut up celery, onion, sugar, cinamin and apple and placed them in the cavity of the bird. I then lathered the outside with butter and cinamin sugar. Cooked for 5 hours on hi. Pulled out served and ate. It was moist as heck and DELICIOUS. Thanks guys.


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## martymcfly73 (Sep 17, 2007)

USMARINEhuntinfool said:


> Well went off with out a hitch. It was freaking delicious. I cut up celery, onion, sugar, cinamin and apple and placed them in the cavity of the bird. I then lathered the outside with butter and cinamin sugar. Cooked for 5 hours on hi. Pulled out served and ate. It was moist as heck and DELICIOUS. Thanks guys.


By high do you mean 250? I've been wanting to try one for a while now, but been a little nervous.


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

i have done about 4 of them so far 2 of them with mesquite wood chips and one with cherry and one last night with apple wood i will pull every thing out of the bird and throw it all away and clean the bird out really good and sometimes cut up an onion and some whole celery and stuff the bird with that but other times i have done it empty and then i just rub the bird down really well with salt inside and out then i take a meat thermometer and stick it inside the thick part of the breast of the bird just make sure its away from the bones and definitly not touching any bones at all and then i slow cook them on very low heat for about 10 to 12 hours until the internal temurture on the bird reaches 180 degrees the time has actually varried from anywhere in 8 to 12 hours for me and i have actually pulled it out at around 160 degrees and it has tasted so good each and every time just keep up on the wood chips as you want the bird to be flavoured as well as the water in the bowl and the bird will come out so moist i wont ever eat a turkey out of the oven or a roaster pan any more and the meat will just peel right off the bones as well


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## Gumbo (Sep 22, 2007)

One thing you have to be careful of when cooking a turkey is its size. Too big of a bird cooked at too low of a temp will result in it being in the danger zone (40 - 140 degrees) for too long, rendering it unsafe to eat. So always start with a 12 pound bird or so.

Next, I've had some store-bought smoked turkeys that were nothing more than ham--all red in color and hammy tasting. Yuk. If I want ham, I'll buy a ham! I like to brine my birds before smoking, but keep them in the brine too long and you'll have a hammy bird. I usually brine mine just overnight.

Next, I pefer to hot-smoke my birds around 350 - 400 degrees. I like the skin, but cook a bird at 250 and the skin will be rubber and inedible. I still get plenty of smoke flavor cooking hot, and the skin is to die for.

Last, I cook mine to an internal temp of 155 - 160 degrees. The carryover heat will raise the internal temp another 10 degrees or so while resting, leaving you with a juicy breast.

I grew up hating turkey because my mom cooked it until it turned to sawdust. But I'll eat one of these all day long.

[attachment=0:2sij56gy]turkey.JPG[/attachment:2sij56gy]


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## USMARINEhuntinfool (Sep 15, 2007)

I could mine at between 300 and 325 took about 4.5 hours to get an internal heat temperature of 165. Pulled it out and there ya go. It did rise between 5 and 10 degrees while resting. It was the juciest turkey I've ever had.


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## Gumbo (Sep 22, 2007)

Sounds awesome--next time post some pics!!


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## USMARINEhuntinfool (Sep 15, 2007)

Thanks I most definitely will. Hopefully next time wont be a rush like it was this time.


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