Behad and All BBQ Experts.....

Here's about what I used the last time I roasted a turkey. You could use the same thing for smoked turkey:

two gallons water
2 cups coarse kosher salt
1 cup honey
2 long sprigs of fresh rosemarry
1 large bulb of garlic--cut in half; you don't even need to bother peeling it
2 tablespoons coarsely cracked black pepper
2 lemons cut in half

Boil about a quart of the water and disolve the salt and honey in it along with the rest of the ingredients (other than the remaining water). Let simmer for about ten minutes or so, and then let cool for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, have the rest of water in your brining container in the fridge getting cold. After the cooked water is cool, add it to the rest of the cold water and put your turkey in it to soak. Don't use a metal container to soak it, and give it about eight hours or overnight.

 

Wow, I've never been in a topic for a thread before.

Looks like Pole and RMTex have this covered, all can add is this: DON'T MAKE YOUR FIRST ATTEMPT WHILE PEOPLE ARE WAITING TO EAT. This is a common mistake. You'll rush things and will either undercook or burn it. Other than that, do what the others have said:

Use pecan wood.
Throw the wood on the charcoal fire after the coals are white, and then put the meat on.
Keep the meat as far away for the flames as possible.

I don't really want to give you times and temps, because every smoker is different, and you have to go on past experiences. Practice makes perfect.

And for the absolute, without a doubt, best site for tips, training, and recipes, go here: www.barbecuen.com . This site has all the answers, I promise.

 

Here's www.barbecuen.com's version of smoked turkey:

http://www.barbecuen.com/turkey.htm

 

LMAO! And then you have the nerve to ask "what's a good brine recipe to soak my meat in and how long should I soak it?"

 

Excellent post, Pole.....

 

Hmmm, don't know, I've never used anything but pecan. I've heard apple wood is very good, but I would suspect that would be harder to find than pecan. Personally, I always thought mesquite was too bitter to use as a smoking wood. Never tried hickory.

I wish I could tell you more, but like Pole said, this isn't something you can sum up in a post and make you into a smoker. Trial and error is the only way.

 

As to your questions about wood. I like the smell that hickory smoke gives, and I'm a bit less enamored with Mesquite. Both of them are better than nothing at all though. Mesquite burns HOT, so it's a great choice to use for things like fajitas when you want to cook them real fast and burn off any of that outer membrane that you didn't catch with the filet knife. (I'm now talking about direct heat cooking....where you cook the meat directly over the heat source--as opposed to the smoking that you will be doing).

Also.....I'd be REAL careful about brining those legs for too long. There is a such thing as too salty. You'd be fine just putting them in the brine right before you go to bed on Friday night and taking them out Saturday morning. Eight hours should be fine for those legs.

 

Ahhhhhh! I was thinking RocketmanTex ... not BigTexxx (sorry BigTexxx) when I made my last entry. I still have not made it by the infamous Q shop you mentioned, but I willlll!

 

By the way, I've had some luck with scrub oak from the Hill Country. You have to put an extra grate on it because it pops like crazy, but it has a nice flavor.

 

I have been using some oak lately...burns nice and hot (so you can use less) and has a nice mellow flavor.

Next brisket Im gonna use pecan tho, since my BBQ hero swears by it.

Pun, if you are goin got get serious about doing some serious smoking...get this kind of pit, makes things soo much easier.

btw...did my first brisket last weekend. Yum Yum

 

the Rib master is in da house

lil pun if want my adapted Behad recipe, drop me an email

 

As long as you can build a fire on one side and have the meat on the grill without being directly over the flame, you should be fine.

 

so in that picture, is the fire actually burning down in the bottom right compartment? if so, i'm assuming there is just some charcoal lit with wood on top of it?

 

Sure ya can...I smoked many a rack of babybacks in the days before I got the big smoker.
its all about keeping the meat away from the firer and achieving lots of smoke.
Those points have already been covered earlier...keep experimenting with it till you get your own methods down.

Question for the others..
...
I had always heard that smoking poultry was harder to get right, wouldn't it be better for a novice to get some practice on easier cuts of meat before jumping in with both feet by smoking a turkey?
I didnt smoke a turkey till after I had already cooked many other cuts of meat, so I was already used to the procedure beforehand..

 

correct.

no charcoal tho...it's all wood.

I use a little charcoal when I first fire it up to get the fire going...but after that it is all wood.