First ever smoke in pa today.

[k-dog80]

Spatchcocked 15 lb butterball
1 rack of spare ribs
2 heads of cabbage
Pics to follow
This is a test

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• k-dog80
• Jan 14, 2017

 

[flip me over]

Sounds ambitious and delicious!
Scott

 

[k-dog80]

scott, very aggressive i know....go big or go home!

was going to just do just the turkey, but my equally ambitious wife convinced me to do the cabbage we had, then after a couple beers, the spare ribs.  we had a friend bring some over a few months ago from his smoke, and we both were blown away how good they were....

should the ribs really be a 5-6 hour smoke?  im planning on trying to keep the temp min 250f and 275. 

 

[k-dog80]

I used Al's technique for the turkey, but i only put black pepper and thyme on the turkey.  should i use butter and wipe all over the bird?

 

[flip me over]

I'm sure butter wouldn't hurt. If you can, try to get some butter under the skin, especially on the breast.

 

[SmokinAl]

It's easier to melt the butter & brush it on.

I like to add some rub to the melted butter too.

Al

 

[crankybuzzard]

:welcome1:

I'm watching this one!

 

[k-dog80]

My brother and neighbor had an interesting go with this. The turkey ended up being 5.5 hour smoke. My internal smoke finally hit 165, I took it out and noticed the thighs were not quite fine. I've read they take a different temp like 185 or something.
Anyhow the breast was very juicy and moist and had terrible flavor. I put the undercooked thigh back in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes. Still came out juicy with crisp skin. I figured air there is a major temp discrepancy between the top of my vertical chamber st the bottom next to the firebox. The Chinese piece of shit river grill smoker my wife got me for Christmas came with a gauge at the top of the chamber only. I installed a gauge at the bottom to see the heat coming in. I did the boiling water test and both were in a few degrees of each other. I also had to gasket both doors and put lava lock in the seams around and on top of the chambers. My modifications seem necessary and to be much needed.
I used kingsford charcoal to start and kept the heat with hickory logs and apple chunks. It took 2.5 hours to finally get the TBS.
the ribs were good too.
The cabbage was shit.
I want to get a better smoker already.