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Yesterdays Cooks - with photos (maybe)

troutman
troutman Posts: 498
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Lots of first in this message:
- first turkey legs ever cooked by me
- first dutch oven cook on Egg
- first Photobucket account
- first time posting photos (I hope)

Had the day off and home alone, everyone else at school. Decided to cook all day and watch the Yellow Jackets spank Clemson in the evening.

Started out with turkey legs, following the advice from several of you posted here. Legs with DP Shaking the Tree:

TurkeyLegs_Wings_Pintos_Sep909001.jpg

No use wasting all that great smoke so I added some wings using the recipe at http://houseoffaulkner.com/wings.html

On the Egg at 275 degrees for about 3 hours with apple and cherry chunks

TurkeyLegs_Wings_Pintos_Sep909003.jpg

Elvis, worlds greatest BBQ companion and ball fetcher, keeps the quail and bunnies away:

TurkeyLegs_Wings_Pintos_Sep909004.jpg

Legs pulled at about 170 degrees:

TurkeyLegs_Wings_Pintos_Sep909005.jpg

Cranked the Egg up to 325 for another half hour for wings. Wings finished, but were slightly overdone and a little dry. The teenaged eating machines arrived home from school, mumbled something like "SSS really good" and made them all go away so I guess it came out okay.

TurkeyLegs_Wings_Pintos_Sep909007.jpg

Meanwhile, I roasted some garlic and anaheim peppers and followed thirdeye's recipe for pinto beans, found here http://playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.com/1998/01/side-dish-pinto-beans.html. I left out the serranos and used regular Rotel and no epazote, but kept everything else the same. Started it out on the big metal clock holder in the kitchen, boiled, then simmered for a half hour and inserted the two smallest turkey legs.

TurkeyLegs_Wings_Pintos_Sep909008.jpg

Added a bunch of hickory chips and a plate setter, put the dutch oven on a little rack on it, and got the Egg to about 350.

TurkeyLegs_Wings_Pintos_Sep909010.jpg

Cooked uncovered for about 2 hours, then added Rotel and Worcestershire and mostly covered for about another hour. The finished product:

TurkeyLegs_Wings_Pintos_Sep909011.jpg

These beans tasted awesome. Next time I will cut the heat a bit by using less chili powder so the rest of the family will like them too.

Everything tasted great, Georgia Tech won, the martini(s) were very cold, and a good time was had by all (especially Elvis).

Thanks for everyone for the recipes, advice on cooking turkey legs, and tutorials on posting photos.

God bless America on this fateful anniversary of hateful people. May they all get what they deserve, and soon.

Comments

  • Gunnar
    Gunnar Posts: 2,307
    Looks like all of your firsts' worked out. Good looking pot of pinto beans. I did some turkey legs as well on Monday. I may have to start doing these more often, but maybe with a little less smoke.
    LBGE      Katy (Houston) TX
  • Why keep the quail away? Bunnies I could see as they eat too much of our garden...but I'd love to have quail around. They'd end up on the Egg in no time.
  • You'd have to speak directly with Elvis about the quail situation, and he's sleeping right now.

    We are having a banner year for Gambel quail. We actually have a second breeding cycle happening right now, and have babies running around everywhere. I've lived out here for 16 years and don't remember another year with two batches of babies. I looked it up and it turns out there is a chemical in the quail brain that is only released in the rare years where food is plentiful (bugs). If that chemical is present, you get two breeding cycles. If it is completely absent, the birds won't breed at all. It has something to do with the amount and timing of rainfall and the hatches of little bugs the rain produces. Our area must have gotten the perfect combination of showers this year.

    Bet that is more quail talk that you wanted, huh? Anyway, Elvis is staying busy trying to catch one and quail season opens in mid-October. Should be a fun one.

    Thanks Chris.
  • Gunnar, I'm going to do the turkey again real soon but with less smoke. I'm also going to pull them a bit sooner than 170 degrees, as others here advised. These were very good but a little bit done and too smoked.

    I was surprised when I stuck one with the Thermapen and had a little geyser of juice explode out of the hole. I had let these air out in the fridge for about 4 hours to dry the skin a bit, and it worked great.
  • You were on a roll today! Great looking cooks.
  • EGC
    EGC Posts: 448
    Great job. Looks like you're well on your way!