Lazy man's way to smoke a turkey!

[aggie91]

Edit:

Sorry for the disruption and for not having proper temp guides.  I did not mean to lead anybody astray from cooking with temp probes.   I just thought that a post showing another way to cook a turkey with pans/foil would be good and would allow others to extrapolate for correct temps with their equipment.  I have deleted the info & would encourage EVERYONE to find a reliable temp probe and determine proper temps & times for your personal cooker.
 

I will be sure to incorporate temps when I get them for my next post

 

[richoso1]

I didn't read any mention of monitoring internal temp, or the weight of the turkey. Can you expand on this? Thanks.

 

[mballi3011]

Yes sir thats one thing we do here. We smoke by temp most of the time and specialy poultry. I would make sure that it's at 165° in the breast meat.

 

[Bearcarver]

Looks good, but I gotta agree with Rich and Mark. It would be a good thing to know if it went through the Danger zone hot enough, etc.

Thanks for showing,

Bear

 

[aggie91]

Internal temps will have to wait until sometime this holiday season.  I have never used any type of temp gauge.  That is one thing I am going to work on this year.  I learned from old men that always said:  "feel that boy?"  "That's about the heat you want to use".  I realize that that is not the "proper" way to do it now, but that is why I also posted: 

"The best I can say for the temps is that the cooking time depends a lot on your pit.  If nothing else, the pit can always be fired up the next morning for additional cooking time.  Just want to make sure the bird stays at at a good temp & doesn't get cold enough to spoil.  Food poisoning for t-giving day would NOT be good!"

The size of the turkeys is normally 18-22 lbs, and like I said, I normally start off with the pit pretty hot to bring up the temps in the meat & then back off to cook overnight.

I have found some good advise on thermometers here & am planning on purchasing one this year, so I will start to accumulate data on the temps I use for various meats.  I am also looking to the rest of the forum to "educate me" on some good times/temps for "que".

 

[eman]

Internal temps will have to wait until sometime this holiday season.  I have never used any type of temp gauge.  That is one thing I am going to work on this year.  I learned from old men that always said:  "feel that boy?"  "That's about the heat you want to use".  I realize that that is not the "proper" way to do it now, but that is why I also posted: 

"The best I can say for the temps is that the cooking time depends a lot on your pit.  If nothing else, the pit can always be fired up the next morning for additional cooking time.  Just want to make sure the bird stays at at a good temp & doesn't get cold enough to spoil.  Food poisoning for t-giving day would NOT be good!"

The size of the turkeys is normally 18-22 lbs, and like I said, I normally start off with the pit pretty hot to bring up the temps in the meat & then back off to cook overnight.

I have found some good advise on thermometers here & am planning on purchasing one this year, so I will start to accumulate data on the temps I use for various meats.  I am also looking to the rest of the forum to "educate me" on some good times/temps for "que".

Without a thermometer how do you know that your turkeys have not dropped into the danger zone overnight ?

Or for that matter that the upper ranges have been safely acchieved?

 It may have worked for you,But i would not recomend to anyone to try to smoke this way.

 

[pandemonium]

I know for sure where I wont be eating Thanksgiving dinner lol

 

[tjohnson]

Lots of info....Use the "Search" feature, look at some WIKI's or Stickies

TJ