Some really awesome entries guys!
I hope you don't mind I joined in on the US Thanksgiving fun... I am a total turkey noob and need more practice (this is my 2nd on the kettle) so go easy on me
I'm normally a planner and have everything laid out for cooks well ahead of time... not so much this time around! I started out late and didn't pick up my FROZEN turkey until Wed at about 5pm... hoping to also get some brine time in I knew I was going to really be cutting it close. Thankfully with the help of my 24/7 Turkey Hotline (
@Idahawk)
He recommended submerging it in real cold water and then changing the water out with new cold water every couple hours until morning. I set my phone alarm and religiously woke up every 2 hours and swapped the water over and sure enough come 7am it was thawed out and ready for the brine!
Bright an early! Already shaping up to be a really nice day:
Here is the turkey dropped into the brine - only oranges, lemon and ginger in there so far:
In the saucepan is Sea Salt, Brown Sugar, Allspice, Bay leaves, Garlic, Onion, Cracked Pepper...
Into the main pot it goes!
Next it goes outside in the deep freeze and bathed for a solid 8 hours:
The Black Pearl gets the call today - normally a smoker cart she also doubles as my roti rig:
Represent!
All set and ready to go along with some Royal Oak Briquettes and some Cherry wood a'la'Hoss
When the bird came out of the brine I strained out all the water leaving me with a good amount of the lemons, limes, garlic, ginger and onion. This was all stuffed into the cavity of the bird along with some fresh rosemary sprigs. Next up it was skewered onto the spit on placed onto the grill but almost immediately my silicon grilling band across the middle of the bird snapped! In a panicked state I took it off and re-tied with butchers twine. Back on and holding in less than 5 min
I wanted to go for crispy so I oiled the living poop out of the skin and seasoned with salt and more cracked pepper. Also stuffed some more rosemary wherever It would hold...
Now here is where I decided to try something a bit different... Last year I did not use the roti and went with a two basket indirect setup with the bird in the middle. This time since I was using the roti I wanted to try to make a super even bed of heat so that all areas would see roughly the same heat. To do this I stole the char ring out of the WSM and placed it over the standard 22" Performer charcoal grate. It actually fits so perfectly it snugs down right over the grate and the friction alone hold it in place [emoji106]
I covered the bottom of the grate completely with a single layer of briquettes, and then dumped a full chimney overtop of that and spread it out evenly. It actually worked out just as planned so that was nice:
Still spinning...
Finally off the grill and ready to come inside... it smells so good!
Here's the final product pre-carving! Not the flawless golden brown some of you lads get but it was nice and crispy nonetheless:
And finally the plated meal - Served up with some candied Yams and Yorkies
I hope you and yours all had a great Thanksgiving and thanks for sharing all the excellent cooks!
Matt
