Spider, Adjustable Rig, and Mad Max Turkey Setup

Cagey

Today I attempted and completed my first Mad Max turkey grill. I have to thank and commend Mad Max for replying to my e-mail questions so quickly and so prolifically yesterday. He made my turkey cook go off rather well. The family was please.

I started out by completely cleaning out the BGE. I then filled the the egg with lump to the fire ring, and just below the spider. I then lit the lump and let the egg start to warm up. Below you can see the photos of my setup for grilling the turkey.





I purchased a Wearever 15x10 roasting pan from Walmart for a grand total of $9.00. It just fits inside the adjustable rig. Though you have to make sure you use hot pads gloves when you place it in the heated rig to protect your fingers. I had purchased some Weber grill mites this week, they seemed to work well on the egg.

At my local restaurant supply house, I found some "firegloves" for cleaning commercial fryers. The lady told me they were rated to 500 degrees and you could immerse your hands into the hot oil without concern. They cost $35, but I was thinking about getting a pair and covering them with the Weber mites, to move the adjustable rig and the pizza stone. The "firegloves" were mite style just like the Weber ones. If any of you out there have used these types of gloves, I would be interested in hearing about them.

I did find these Front Line Kevlar 600-900 degree rated gloves online.
http://www.frontlinesales.com/Burn.htm I am not sure what they cost or how well they would work on the egg.

I used Mad Max's recipe, though I mixed Grill Masters Chicken seasoning with my butter. And I cut down on the amount of butter in the recipe. The turkey was a 12 pounder non-frozen bird from the local market. Below are a few photos of it on the adjustable rig, ready for the lid to be closed. I had not poured in the half bottle of wine prior to taking the photos.





The cook went well, except after about the first 40 minutes or so the temperature jumped up to 420 degrees. Luckily I caught it fairly quickly. I thought I had allowed the temperature to stabilize rather for about an your, but as this was the largest volume of lump I have ever fired I probably should have allowed more of it to have lit and for the temperature setting/temperatures to have settled down a bit. I rotated the adjustable rig about every 20 minutes when I basted the turkey. After about 2 hours and 45 minutes the breast read 165 degrees and the legs read 185 degrees. I was a little nervous about pulling the turkey off the egg as the installed temperature probe had not popped out. I figured my temperature gauge was more accurate as I had calibrated both the egg's and my hand held thermometers that morning.

I drained the bird and made Max's gravy while the turkey cooled. Here is a photo of the finished product.



The whole family liked the turkey. The only mistake I made was that I failed to mix in the apple chips with my lump. After the first 20 minutes of cooking, I dropped a small handful of wood onto the lump on both sides of the turkey. The skin and the gravy had a good smoke flavor, but the bird did not pick up much of the taste. In any case it tasted great to me. The meat was cooked and very juicy.

After I pulled off the turkey, I made brownies on the egg with the same setup. I cooked them for the time on the box, but unfortunately the edges burned. The center sections were still good, and the we all enjoyed them.

It looks like I am ready for Thanksgiving. I will learn from my mistakes, and hopefully the bird will turn out even better.

Turk

I have seen references to the Mad Max recipe but cannot find it. Where is it. Your cook looked great.

Turk

Also, forgot to ask, where did you find the spider rig?

Cagey

You can find it below:

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/madmaxturkey.htm

There are also videos of his setup/cook on YouTube.

The spider came from the ceramic grill store.

http://www.ceramicgrillstore.com/ceramicgrillstore/

I hope this helps.

Turk

Thank you.

Q-Ball

Whenever I've tried a similar set-up, the drippings turn into a burned up mess---I mean burned up. Unless I'm wrong, it seems like any gravy made them would be pretty nasty. What's Mad Max's secret?

crghc98

do you have airflow between the pan and the stone? if the pan is directly on the heat barrier the drippings will burn. You can also add a little apple juice, wine, or whatever you like to the drip pan just to keep it from burning up until you have enough drippings in there.