For The Love Of Port

Anyone have special ways of cooking their bird?

I like to cook my turkey in the barrel smoker with maple or apple wood for about 1-2 hours then finish in the oven like a traditional turkey. Always cook the bird unstuffed except for some lightly cooked garlic, carrots, linguica, onions, and celery with fresh herbs in the cavity. I'll cut the veggies & linguica up after turkey is done and mix with the stuffing I made seperate.

Some years I brine, others I do not. I do not think I'll brine it this year. Like to inject a marinade of paprika, tumeric, ground herbs, maybe a touch of allspice steeped in butter or olive oil.

The herbs depend on what's still alive in my backyard.

I like to do a full smoke in the barrel smoker, 6 to 8 hours usually. Sometimes I brine, sometimes I don't, depending on my mood and lazyness. I think I usually use hickory for turkey, although I may have used mesquite as well. I have some cherry this year that I might use. In my other efforts with cherry I found it to be a much more subtle smoke flavor, and no, I couldn't really taste cherry. Maybe I need to use more for that.

If I was doing the whole bird on the smoker, I would start off with a fragrant wood and then move to white ash so the final product is not too smokey. I put it into an oven for so I don't have to address the fire and wood, have the turkey be ready on time, and to prevent it from getting too smokey tasting.

Our turkey is usually the smallest one I can find since our dinner is normally 5 people. The hotel style birds are nice to use too. Then again, I cook turkey all year round...