PSA: Smoking Large Turkeys

SaintJohnsEgger

I got this in an email yesterday from Jeff Phillips (smoking-meat.com). His logic makes sense to me so I thought I would pass it own. However, it seems that most of us are not really smoking but rather baking with smoke added.

As most of you know, I do not recommend smoking a turkey that is larger than 12 lbs.. 14 lbs is pushing it. This is due to the fact that the larger turkey takes too much time to reach a safe temperature at the low temperature. It is risky at best and in my opinion, is raising the chances that your family and guests could get a food borne illness.

To make it safe, keep the turkey on the small side (12 lbs is about right) and if you need more turkey, just smoke multiple turkeys figuring on about 2 lbs of raw weight per person.

I just usually figure a 12 lb turkey for every 6 people and it gives me plenty of turkey with a few leftovers.

So you’ve already purchased a big ol’ 22 pounder so what now? Well, you really only have a couple of options for smoking it safely.

SmokeyPitt

That is interesting. It seems often people equate "smoking" with temperatures in the 225-275 range.  I am planning on cooking in the 325-350 range, but using a little wood. I guess that is "smoke roasting". 

My understanding of the "danger zone" is it refers to the ambient environment. I'm not sure I agree that there would be any harm in slow cooking a turkey if you wanted to. It would seem to me if you follow this logic we shouldn't be slow cooking anything such as a large butt or brisket where it can take more than 4 hours to reach a safe temp.  I suppose one consideration is a turkey has the cavity so the inside of the cavity could be at an unsafe temp for a longer time.  However if you leave the bird un-stuffed then I think it would be perfectly safe to cook at a lower temp if you wanted to.  

JustineCaseyFeldown

Bacteria is on the meat, not in the meat

billt01

I've "smoked" several large birds for customers, prolly in the ball park of ~100 birds over 6 year period....never had an issue with internal temp....sure did some take longer than others?, yes...I measure the temp between the leg and the thigh....pull it at 165 and let it rest for an hour, it will continue to climb to around 170 or so....I put salted butter under the skin of the breasts to keep moist....

long of the short...I'll agree to disagree