Behad and All BBQ Experts.....

Where's BigTexx when you need him?

 

Two words: YAHOO SEARCH.

 

bahhh! Yahoo blows... I think you meant to say GOOGLE SEARCH!

 

The way you smoke roast meat is by never having the meat over the flame. Some of the best smokers look like oil drums turned sideways. You build the fire at one end of the smoker. Soak the wood chunks in water for 30 minutes. Put the chunks on the fire to get the smoke going. Place the meat fat side up on the other end of the smoker, and then close the door to the smoker and let it go.

You can find the best smokers in the world (I own the Wild West Tradition, and I love it), plus tips and techniques, at:

New Braunfels Smoker Co.

The other tip: When you grill, use any kind of wood you like. When you smoke, use pecan wood only!

 

I'd soak the legs in brine (salt water) over night, then season them with your favorite seasoning (like Tony Chachere's, but with extra black or cayenne pepper....because the legs will already be salty from the brine).

Use your pit, and build a smallish charcoal fire on one side. Put your legs on the other side so that they're not over direct heat. You can put your soaked wood chips directly on the fire. Soaking them is supposed to make them produce more smoke, but I don't believe that. What soaking really does is keep them from being consumed as fast because it takes them longer to burn. It also adds water vapor to your smoke which gives the illusion of more smoke. Water vapor isn't a bad idea though because moist air is good for roasting meats. That's why most Viking ranges are "dual fuel" ranges....that means the cook top is gas and the oven is electric. Why? Because electric ovens burn dryer than gas. You can always add moisture (like with a drip pan) when you are roasting meats, but you can't take the moisture out for when you want to do things like bake bread.

Instead of wood chips, I'd probably throw on a few wood chunks. They'll produce the smoke for you, but they'll also burn longer and produce heat (you'll need to smoke these bad boys for a while). Try to keep the heat between 300 and 350, and cook them for a couple of hours. You can also put a tray of water directly over the fire to keep the air moist inside the cooker.

The best wood is pecan....especially for poultry, and you can get a BIG bag of pecan chuncks at Academy for just a little money.

This time of year, you can usually buy turkey REAL cheap. I'd probably buy a couple of whole turkeys and smoke the legs, wings (the best part), and the thighs. Keep the whole breast along with as much skin as possible. This you can roast or deep fry, and it will be excellent!

 

I completely defer to Behad on this one. My skills lie in eating BBQ, not preparing it. I think Pole is also good at this BBQ, perhaps he could help.

 

Looks like RMTex and I wouldn't argue too much about how to grill and smoke.

 

Nope. We'll save the arguing for other topics!

 

Wait 15-20 minutes. Then put the wood on and put the meat on immediately after you've put the wood on.

 

That's like saying, "can you quickly tell me how to play the guitar like Stevie Ray?"

All meats, and for that matter, the various cuts of the same meat, can be cooked differently. In fact (I'm surprised no one pointed this out), the temperature I gave you for "smoking" your turkey legs is really more of a roasting temperature. You'll get plentry of smoke flavoring in your turkey with that temperature, but you'll also get the crispy skin and juicy goodness of a roasted meat.

If you want your turkey leg to be closer to a "true" smoked turkey leg, you'll want to bring the temp down a bit to around 250 to 275, but you have to be careful that you cook that thing long enough so that it's really cooked.

A more "happy" medium would be to set the temperature at the 350 that I mentioned and then let the fire burn down in such a manner that an hour or so after you've started, the temperature has come down to around 275 or a bit lower. If it was beef, I'd drop the temp even lower. How do you do that with your grill? No one here can tell you.

Grilling and smoking meat is an art, and no amount of help from us can make you an expert. You need to get out there and "just do it." As you cook more and more, you'll discover what you like and how to duplicate that taste, aroma, texure...etc.

The good thing about cooking on the grill is that its hard to screw it up. As long as the meat is cooked through and through and not overdone or burnt, it should be good. When you're cooking decent sizes of meat at low temps, there's a HUGE window from which to remove the meat and it will be good. Only by learning how to cook on your grill (through trial and error) will you learn when to take the meat off at the right moment where it's perfect.

 

I know what I am eating tonight. Can't wait for supper Pun.

 

Doesn't yahoo use Google?