Cross Border Thanksgiving

Canugghead

Late for canuck thanksgiving early for u.s. thanksgiving but wanted to cook a turkey to free space in freezer.

First, an egret ham, fooled by crappy iGrill remote thermo, pulled at 140 IT but thermapen read 150. Likely user error, too busy to verify with thermapen sooner. Still moist.


Now the turkey, with many firsts for me...

• Injection
• Cooking whole in Traeger
• Low and slow initially instead of 325+ all the way
• Breast down initially

Injected with poultry brine from MCAH, rested overnight uncovered. Oiled cavity, applied little fresh ground pepper and garlic powder, stuffed with garlic, onion, lemon, thyme, sage.
Oil/pepper/garlic powder on skin. No fancy ice bag on breast treatment. 

Cooked for almost 3 hrs at 180 till IT 100, breast down in roast rack first 1.5 hrs. Cranked temp to 350 and pulled at 165 breast 170 legs. Evenly roasted with crispy skin. Small 12 pounder, total cook time just over 5 hrs. Of course will be faster in egg since you can't do stage 1 at 180.

Looked way nicer than this before the 45 min rest under foil tent...




Even the breast was moist. It literally squirted juice when I tried to separate the legs. Thankfully the large Concave board was able to rein in all the juice, barely.


This just became my go to for whole turkey cook. Excuse the boring details, I need this as future reference for myself, it's also why I don't want to bury it in what are you chaffing or doing thread.

Thanks for reading, hope everyone's weekend is going well.

WeberWho

Fantastic!!!

Can you notice any difference between the Traeger and the BGE with the turkey?

Canugghead

WeberWho said:

Fantastic!!!

Can you notice any difference between the Traeger and the BGE with the turkey?

Thanks. Biggest difference for us is smoke profile, pellet cooked poultry is less smoky and leftover doesn't taste even smokier. And I seldom add smoking wood in egg.

lousubcap

Great cook right there.  I get that rest and the downgrade of the appearance on the skin.
BTW- you went to some effort on the carving and presentation on both.
Around how long was the total turkey cook time and turkey weight? 

Canugghead

lousubcap said:

Great cook right there.  I get that rest and the downgrade of the appearance on the skin.
BTW- you went to some effort on the carving and presentation on both.
Around how long was the total turkey cook time and turkey weight? 

Thanks cap. Small 12 pounder, total cook time just over 5 hours. Will be faster in egg since you can't do stage 1 at 180. Carving the breast was easier than deboning the still screaming hot legs.

Good questions, I've updated above.

StillH2OEgger

The food looks great and the carving to match. Very impressive.

Canugghead

StillH2OEgger said:

The food looks great and the carving to match. Very impressive.

Thanks. Actually I had another shot with neck and butt but deleted it!

lousubcap

@Canugghead - I always give you credit for your turducken masterpiece.  I am even contemplating giving the Tur piece a run this Thanksgiving.  I likely should give another chix a go first just to kill the urge.  

JohnInCarolina

Turkey looks great, Gary!

Canugghead

lousubcap said:

@Canugghead - I always give you credit for your turducken masterpiece.  I am even contemplating giving the Tur piece a run this Thanksgiving.  I likely should give another chix a go first just to kill the urge.  

Haha, it was a crazy endeavour to get it off my bucket list  Looking forward to your Thanksgiving cooks.

Canugghead

JohnInCarolina said:

Turkey looks great, Gary!

Thanks John, what’s up your sleeve for Thanksgiving?

JohnInCarolina

Canugghead said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Turkey looks great, Gary!

Thanks John, what’s up your sleeve for Thanksgiving?

Not sure exactly.  In past years, I've come to like just doing turkey breasts instead of a whole bird.   But the KBQ does have me wondering if I shouldn't mix it up a bit...

Canugghead

JohnInCarolina said:

Canugghead said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Turkey looks great, Gary!

Thanks John, what’s up your sleeve for Thanksgiving?

Not sure exactly.  In past years, I've come to like just doing turkey breasts instead of a whole bird.   But the KBQ does have me wondering if I shouldn't mix it up a bit...

Indeed, with KBQ  you got so many possibilities.

GrateEggspectations

“Even the breast was moist. It literally squirted juice when I tried to separate the legs. Thankfully the large Concave board was able to rein in all the juice, barely.”

If ever there was a sign that you’re doing it right, this is it. 

Great looking cook. 

Canugghead

GrateEggspectations said:

“Even the breast was moist. It literally squirted juice when I tried to separate the legs. Thankfully the large Concave board was able to rein in all the juice, barely.”

If ever there was a sign that you’re doing it right, this is it. 

Great looking cook. 

Stop it, this is a family forum! I should clarify the breast was already carved and plated when I attacked the legs that fought back. Breast was brought back for photo op in the pool because it looked nicer than the mangled legs 

loco_engr

someones going to eating good in the neighborhood!
nice cooks

caliking

Wow. Just... wow!

Photo Egg

Beautiful…I know this is an Egg forum, but I would sure like to see a photo of the bird cooking in the grill.
 Thanks

Canugghead

@loco_engr @caliking @Photo Egg Thanks.

@Photo Egg
Sorry didn’t get any photos of the gobbler in Traeger. I recall covering the butt and end of drums to prevent over browning, also rotated it 180 a few times for good measure. Sometimes I do that in the egg too.

 IIRC you got a Weber Smokefire right? What do you think of poultry cooked in egg vs. pellet grill?

Photo Egg

Canugghead said:

@loco_engr @caliking @Photo Egg Thanks.

@Photo Egg
Sorry didn’t get any photos of the gobbler in Traeger. I recall covering the butt and end of drums to prevent over browning, also rotated it 180 a few times for good measure. Sometimes I do that in the egg too.

 IIRC you got a Weber Smokefire right? What do you think of poultry cooked in egg vs. pellet grill?

Thanks for the tips.
Yes, Weber Smokefire EX6. 

It’s still a work in progress. I’m having temp control issues big time. It’s reading the temps OK but it just can’t reach high temps all time. If I clean it out real good I get 1 good cook, even if it’s just a quick cook, then it fails on the next cook only getting to about 325 as a high.
It does better at lower smoking temps around 250-300.
Back to poultry. I like the mild smoke profile from the Pellets. Never any off taste and it’s almost a sweet smoke profile no matter the 3 brands I have used. As with the Egg, I’m still trying to dial in the skin on wings. The forced fan dries the skin better but I almost think it needs a little water pan to add some moisture. That’s why I was curious about your turkey but your pictures look perfect.
I’m thinking about trying a turkey on it this year but it’s a larger bird, #18.

Canugghead

@Photo Egg 
Have you tried Weber tech support? Perhaps you need an updated controller or firmware.

Sometimes I have trouble reaching high target temp on Pro 34 so I set it higher to compensate. The smaller Ranger is way better and faster for high temp. Not needed but I habitually clean out the drippings and ash almost after every cook, just peace of mind to avoid grease fire. I use a scraper and spoon, more efficient than shop vac.

Couldn’t agree more with pellet cooked chicken. The whole turkey after tented rest looks shriveled, wish I took pix earlier. Really like the idea of starting the cook breast down, basted by drippings from above.

For wings I sprinkle cornstarch on both sides and air dry, cook at minimum 350. 

Photo Egg

Canugghead said:

@Photo Egg 
Have you tried Weber tech support? Perhaps you need an updated controller or firmware.

Sometimes I have trouble reaching high target temp on Pro 34 so I set it higher to compensate. The smaller Ranger is way better and faster for high temp. Not needed but I habitually clean out the drippings and ash almost after every cook, just peace of mind to avoid grease fire. I use a scraper and spoon, more efficient than shop vac.

Couldn’t agree more with pellet cooked chicken. The whole turkey after tented rest looks shriveled, wish I took pix earlier. Really like the idea of starting the cook breast down, basted by drippings from above.

For wings I sprinkle cornstarch on both sides and air dry, cook at minimum 350. 

Weber is no real help. When it won’t reach temp, it tells on display to keep lid closed as it’s trying to reach temp. Setting the temp higher does nothing to change anything.
I’m on the Virtual Weber forum all the time as well. Seems like just a little build up in the fire bowl can causes issues. If I don’t do a total break down clean job I can’t get higher temps. Lower temps 300 and below are normally not a problem. Sometimes shaking the grill helps a little. I’ve had temps drop from 450 to 300s a several times and 2 complete fire gone out shut downs in the middle of cooks. WiFi notifications and connection is very unstable. I have gotten grill shut down notifications a day or 2 after I have used the grill. When it works it’s great.
These plastic dough scrapers also work great for cleaning.

Canugghead

@Photo Egg call me ocd I make sure pellets are dust free with a dollar store colander, also empty hopper after cooking. Yup, no safety guard.