The Thanksgiving day plan **advice and suggestions wanted**

[desertfox59]

My wife and I are hosting our first Thanksgiving tomorrow and I'd love to here advice and suggestions on My Thanksgiving day smoke meal plan. My primary concern is with the stuffing, I'm worried about contamination. Here is the plan:

Smoker - MES at 230* mixture of woods apple, cherry, sassafras and mesquite

from bottom to top of smoker here's the list:

1. drip pan - just water
2. Sage and pork sausage stuffing. The pork is raw.
3. 12 pound brined and rubbed turkey breast side up empty cavity.
4. My smoked corn off the cob.

The idea here is to have everything baste down on top of the other item. The corn will baste the bird. The bird will baste the stuffing. It should take about 6 hours

Should I be worried about the Stuffing? What do you all think?

 

[meat hunter]

Sounds like a tasty Turkey day meal. Is the bird going to have the stuffing in it?

 

[desertfox59]

No. The stuffing will be just below the bird catching the drippings, unless someone can convince me that it's a bad Idea.

 

[meat hunter]

If it were me, I would try to separate the two. Not a good idea to have the poultry juices dripping down onto the pork. I may be wrong on that, but I have been called out on it a few times when I posted pics of my smokes when smoking multiple things. If you can do them side by side, that would be better, otherwise, maybe do the stuffing in the oven. Or you could make a foil tent over the stuffing pan and the poultry juices would just roll off it. The great smoke of the bird will more than satisfy anyone at the table. I would also supplement the basting of the bird a bit, maybe every hour or so, brush it down with some melted butter. I don't believe the corn will provide enough baste for the bird. Also, when the internal temps are getting close to what you want, 175 degrees at the breast, jack those temps up to around 300-325 to crisp up the skin, otherwise it will come out rubbery. Maybe when the bird hits 170, jack those temps up. Once its done, remove and wrap it in foil if you can, and let it rest for at least 20 minutes. Let those juices redistribute. Take some pics of this one for us, we would like to see. Any other questions, ask away. Ill help the best I can.

 

[desertfox59]

Thank you for your replies...they lead to more questions:

how is the turkey drippings falling into the stuffing any different than if I stuffed the bird with the stuffing and cooked it?

My whole family grew up with the the stuffing surrounding the bird and stuffed inside it. those birds were cooked in the oven but no one ever got sick from those. how is this any different?

 

[meat hunter]

Well now that I think about, yeah, it is the same thing. I just got flack for having poultry above anything in my smoker and dripping down on the other meats. Maybe that is because the red meats I was smoking would have been taken off at a temp that is lower than the safe temp for poultry. I'm surprised no one else has chimed in on this question. I surely do not want to give you any bad info. Do you think there would be a problem with too much drippings and making the stuffing soggy? I guess as long as the stuffing is at 180 degrees, there really would not be a problem as that is the safe temp for poultry. Thinking about it is making me really hungry. Stuffing with sausage and Turkey drippings MMMmmm.

 

[desertfox59]

The stuffing is an old family one and it is a wet stuffing, a very wet stuffing. Some might even call it soggy, but it is truly delicious and unique like no other I've ever had.

What if I pre-cooked the stuffing for a couple of hours then put it under the bird?