Special Turkey Smoking Tips

October 13 , 2005 | Issue 15

Good day and welcome to the October edition of the Smoking-Meat.com monthly newsletter. I am your host, Jeff Phillips and we will be talking about some interesting aspects of smoking in this issue.

Welcome

Fall is upon us here in Oklahoma with much cooler days and wonderfully cool nights bringing with it the wonderful thoughts of the holiday season that lies ahead of us. It is the time of year when I do more smoking than anything else.. I love smoking them turkeys for christmas and Thanksgiving and I usually throw on a lot of ribs, chicken and pork shoulders all in between the actual holidays. What can I say.. the cooler air just gets me in the mood!

I don't smoke pumpkins or we would definitely be dealing with Halloween in this edition of the newsletter but just around the corner is Thanksgiving and time to start thinking about smoking the perfect turkey. For those of you who have never attempted this let me assure you that it is not as difficult as you may think and after you do it a time or two you will feel like a pro. We have about 6 weeks till the turkey day and plenty of time to pick one up and give it a full practice run. I am going to be giving you some tips to help you out so keep reading.

How to Smoke the Worlds Finest Turkey

As with anything else that we tend to smoke, there are as many ways to smoke a turkey as there are guys and gals who like to smoke them and if you have your own special way of doing it.. you know that tried and true method that always gets great results then by all means don't change things up but for those of you who are new to this and are not sure where to get started then listen up. I am going to give you a few tips on how to smoke that gobbler like a professional.

Let me encourage you to stick with a turkey that is at or below 12 pounds.. anything bigger than this and it takes too long to smoke and stays in that danger zone of 40 to 140 degrees for way too long. Another thing is to not stuff the turkey.. when smoking at lower temps the heat needs to be able to circulate inside the cavity as well as the outside and this is impossible when it is stuffed full of mama's homemade dressing.. just make it on the stove and if you want it inside the turkey you can put in in after the turkey is done.

When buying a turkey, get one that says "MINIMALLY PROCESSED" on the outside of the package. This means it has not been injected by anything and is certifiably fresh. If the turkey is frozen then you will need to thaw it out in the fridge where it is safe and NOT in the sink with cold water or any other dangerous method. Make sure the turkey stays in an environment that is less than 40 degrees until it is time to place it in the smoker.

The first thing you should do is remove all of the giblets, neck and other body parts from the cavity of the turkey. You can throw these away or save them for making gravy or whatever. Wash the entire turkey real good with cool water using your clean hands to scrub the outside of the turkey. Remove any visible fat and set the turkey aside on a flat pan like a cookie sheet.

I like to cut up a few onions, carrots, celery and apples, with some brown sugar and worcestershire sauce and place it in the cavity for some extra flavor. (note: this will be discarded once the turkey is done smoking.)

Be sure and leave the skin on the turkey as this protects the meat during smoking.. if you are smoking a breast or other part of the turkey that is skinless then you can wrap it in cheese cloth using some twine to hold it on. This will still let the smoke through to flavor the turkey but will serve to protect the meat from drying out. You may also want to periodically mop the exterior with olive oil, melted butter or some apple juice.

Whether to put a rub on the turkey or not is entirely up to you.. I usually do not rub my turkeys and if I do I make sure to get the rub very carefully up under the skin so it will actually flavor the meat and not just the outside of the skin.

When it comes to smoking the turkey I recommend a good fruit wood such as plum, apricot, peach, apple, etc. however you can also get great results using other non-fruit woods such as oak, pecan, hickory, and mesquite. I smoked several turkeys last year using plum wood and the flavor was absolutely unbelievable!

Use a good lump charcoal as your base for all of you charcoal smokers and be prepared to use upwards of 10 pounds or so before the turkey is finished smoking. You will want to maintain around 225 degrees and avoid opening the door or lid of the smoker any more than you have to.

Place the turkey in the smoker breast side down for the first hour or so and then flip it over for the remaining time.

If you have one of those good Taylor probe thermometers then use it to monitor the temperature of the turkey by sticking the probe in the thickest part of the breast or thigh and make sure you do not pull the turkey until it has reached at least 165 degrees. My magic temperature for turkey as well as chicken is 172 degrees.. and the meat is never dry and no one has ever gotten sick from my smoked meat. Safety is a key factor in smoking meat.. don't ever forget that.

You will know when the turkey is getting close to being done because it will be dark golden brown.

Next month we will be including some additional last minute tips for smoking the holiday turkey and I will be sharing some of my family's favorite recipes for the holidays.

Check out the turkey smoking section of the website for more information

The eCourse Gets Even Better.. Soon.

I have had received tons of email from some of you thanking me for writing such an informative eCourse and I am glad you like it but is it possible to make it even better? I think so and let me tell you what is in the works.

The eCourse in its current state is 16 pages long..lots of words and lots of reading and it is not necessarily the easiest reading since I tried to cram a lot of information in there.

well..

I have decided to turn this eCourse into an audio CD so you can listen to it in the car or at work and get the information without having to read it for yourself. I may even break it up into several downloadable mp3's for those of you with high speed internet and then you can use the iPod or other mp3 player while you jog or work in the yard.

This may not impress some of you but for others it is a life saver.

I am hoping to have this ready in the next month or two and as always I will keep you abreast of the progress on this project.

Click here to get the free 5-day eCourse in your inbox or if you would like to get the course in PDF format you can acquire it for only $3.99 by clicking here.

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Have a Wonderful Day and Keep Smoking (meat that is)!!!

Jeff Phillips
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