Night before turkey prep and rubdown.

[speedster1]

I'm be smoking my first bird tomorrow morning. It's a 14lb that should be thawed right about now. I'll be cooking in my MES at Max temp 275 with a 30 degree outside temp. I plan to use the mailbox mod with smoke tube.

As we typically eat around 1pm so I need to get this bird smoked and out of the smoker by noon to allow for an hour rest. If I can get the bird in by 6am I think I should be okay. I'd like to stuff it with apples and oranges but not sure what to do about a rub. Maybe butter and poultry seasoning. Or a creol butter.

Just wondering if I clean the bird up tonight, rinse, dry and season and stick back in fridge for tomorrow morning?

 

[jakester]

I have a MES, make sure your MES can hold temp at 275 because most of them suffer past 250.

 

[speedster1]

I've cooked at 275 before without having any problems, but that was in warmer temps. Hopefully I can pull this off. Hopefully the turkey fits inside the MES. Maybe I'll start at 5am just to make sure to give myself an extra hour.

 

[jakester]

Not all of them have temp issues. I would season the bird tonight.

 

[speedster1]

Any recommendations for seasoning? I've read wet rubs on the outside and dry rubs on the inside? Anything between the skin and the flesh or all on the outside skin?

Lastly, should I wrap it back up in cling wrap or foil before refrigerating?

 

[Winterrider]

I would leave unwrapped so skin will dry out somewhat , or like another thread mentioned to place in 400 degree oven about 1/2hr while smoker is preheating.

 

[gnarlykaw]

you might be cutting it close. winterrider has a good point. fire up the smoker early, and make sure you can get that temp, and hold it. in the mean time, put it in the oven. think of it as a back up plan. my 14lb got done today in five hours, at 275-300.... and it was 34 when i started, and ended up at 50 outside in the afternoon.

 

[speedster1]

Thanks. That's good advice. Before I read your replies I was thinking that 3 hours into the smoke I'd have my oven preheated in case I had to finish the turkey there. The added benefit would be that it would give the skin a chance to crisp up a bit.

 

[tprice]

I have a MES and I go ahead and turn my on all night at 275, we will be in 30’s here in the am as well

I have a 15lb bird, already injected and applied rub and wrapped up in pad and wrap overnight in fridge. I will rub again first thing am and let it sit out while I get water/apple juice in water trey and applewood chips going.

We eat around 1 so I normally take it off around 12 and let it rest and tent it with foil

This year I am going to try a drip pan with neck and stuff from inside turkey to make a gravy, wife suggested using chicken broth for a base.

I do spritz with apple juice last couple hours.

I also fry 2 other birds but like most here I just enjoy smoking a turkey,in fact I buy a lot of turkeys while on sale this time of year for rest of year

 

[speedster1]

Bird went in at 5:30am. We will see how it goes.

For giggles I bought a rack of baby backs and threw them on as well. I figured if I was going to fire up the smoker I might as well take advantage of it. I'll eat the ribs tomorrow night while I'm watching football.

 

[speedster1]

2 hours in. Bird temp is 146. Can only maintain a temp of about 250. It's 24 degrees outside.

 

[speedster1]

Here is my setup with the MES and mailbox mod

 

[gnarlykaw]

im no pro at this, but it looks like your gonna make it. i would check the bird at 160 in both sides and the legs, just to make sure the temp is true. if its good, mop it one more time, get your carrying gear together, and pull it in two degrees! im curious though, where are the ribs? in a pan above the bird? wrapped below? whos juices, where?

 

[speedster1]

So I grabbed my instant read thermometer to verify the internal temps. I believe I had the temp probe into deep and was getting a false reading. My instant read shows 138 in the deepest part of the breast. I pulled the built in meat thermometer out a bit and now it's constant with the instant read. So basically I am near the 140 degree mark in 3 hours which is still considered safe. Now I need to get from 140 to 165 in 3 hours. I will definitely verify all temps in several locations prior to considering the bird clooked.

The ribs are on the very top rack about the bird. I just foiled them with some butter and apple cider.

 

[speedster1]

I'm no expert but it looks pretty good right now. Temps at 157

 

[speedster1]

I called it done at 11:30. Looks and smells good. The issue I ran into was that I didn't rotate the bird during cooking. The MES is obviously hotter near the front glass because that side of the bird read about 7-10 degrees hotter. So after rotating and getting the other side up to 165 it results in one side of the breast going over 170. We will see how it tastes in about 45 minutes.

 

[gnarlykaw]

Very nicely done!!