Big Bird - Small Egg - Near Perfect

Daryl

Thanks to all who helped with their ideas on the big turkey cook. The 21 lb bird soaked in salt/sugar brine for about 48 hours before starting to cook on Saturday morning. It sat, breast up, on the grill with a 9" pie pan under the grill, and roasted at 225 initially, rising to 325 near the end. The results were fantastic. We had about 30 people at dinner and many expressed their amazement at how juicy the turkey was. I loved the smoke flavor! I filled the drip pan half full of water before starting the bird, It was half full of drippings when the cook was done. I suppose it served as a heat deflector, because the bird did not get scorched, even on the bottom.

Char-Woody

Daryl, congratulations..[p]Great cook experiment with the bird, and I wonder if you noticed any difference in skin texture and color from top side to the underneath?
Cheers to ya..
C~W[p]

Daryl

Char-Woody,[p]Right you are C~W, the wings, legs, and bottom of the bird were very dark, not charred, just nearly black. The skin on the top of the bird was med-dark brown.

char buddy

Daryl,[p]I tried a big turkey (20 lbs) over the weekend as well. I cooked it at 250* and kept going until the brest temp reached 183* - just to see what would happen. it came out like the egg version of fried turkey. The drip pan (about an an inch and half deep) was full the brim with grease and drippings. All the fat in the bird had been turned to cracklin, the skin was crisp and the insides were like a turkey version of pulled pork. I put a "ham and scallion" butter under the skin - and that's where a lot of the fat came from. So the flavored butter drip out of the turkey, but enough seeped into the bird to give it the flavor I wanted. I cooked it over pecan wood.

Daryl

char buddy ,
Were you cooking in a Large egg? I thought the egg cooked turkey was better than the fried turkey. Tender and juicy were similar, but, fryer can not compete with that wonderful smoke flavor! I too used pecan. I'll bet that even with your butter rub, your bird still has much less grease in it than the fried variety. Did you brine the bird?

char buddy

Daryl,[p]I did not brine it. I can only imagine what that would have done. I agree that the egged turkey (done this way) is superior to the fried turkeys I have tried.[p]