14.5 lb Butterball Turkey - Two Days Earlier Than Thanksgiving

 

I had to cook this 14.5 lb Butterball Turkey two days earlier than Thanksgiving Day because we had purchased the turkey too early and it was thawing out in the refrigerator before it should have.

The turkey was brined for a full day in the refrigerator with kosher salt and then dried with a paper towel and then put back into the refrigerator for an hour just to make sure it was dry enough to put oil on the skin and then the rub.  I used Weber's Kickin' Chicken on it.

I put the turkey on the 18.5" WSM to smoke at 350 degrees for 3 hours.  The smoker had the water pan in there but no water.  The charcoal was placed in the smoker without using the minion method to insure that the temperature of the smoker would remain hotter than normal smoking.  It did the trick.

I smoked the turkey until the internal temperature of both breasts were at least 157 degrees and then I took the turkey off the smoker.  The internal temperature continued to rise during the rest and went to 167 degrees... just 2 degrees higher than the ideal 165 degrees.

The turkey was really good.  I removed the skin as usual but it was crispy.  Too much salt in that rub, but I had hoped it would impart good flavor into the meat.  The turkey was moist throughout.  Probably one of the best turkeys I have smoked so far.

8.5 lbs of Smithfield Pork Butt On The 14.5" WSM

 

I made a YouTube video of this cook which you can see here: https://youtu.be/wBzV6WnBi_I

Trying to duplicate the last cook on the 18.5" WSM, I wanted to see if the 14.5" cooker could do it.  While the taste was identical, the meat did not pull apart as easily and had sections that were hard to pull.  Even after 8.5 hours, it just did not match.

I think it's all because of the quality of the meat and the fact that the 14.5" smoker could not keep a lower temperature through most of the cook.  In the beginning, the temperature was pretty much 315 degrees for at least the first couple of hours.  I would have preferred a lower temperature, but it's hard to do any kind of thing similar to the Minion method for charcoal in such a cramped space where the charcoal ring is at.

I refilled the water level once in the smoker and added just a little bit more charcoal about and hour before the cook finished.

Overall, the 14.5" WSM just is a lot harder to keep temps correct for low and slow cooking.  Still took 8.5 hours and it wasn't anywhere close to the quality of the easy pulling from the 18.5" WSM cook from last time.

Watch the video for more details.

9.5 lbs of Pork Butt on the 18.5" WSM Smoker

 

It's been a while since I last smoked something but the weather was going to hit the 70's today, so I thought I'd smoke up some pork butt!

9.5 lbs of Hormel pork shoulder (bone-in) went on the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker today and I cooked it at 275 degrees to start and then allowed the smoker to drop to the 235 degree range.  I cooked the meat until the stall and then wrapped it at around 155 degrees internal temp.

The total time was 9 hours to finish the cook.

This was undoubtedly the BEST pulled pork I've ever made!  Total time to pull the meat was perhaps 10 seconds!  It literally fell apart.  The bone came out cleanly.  I think it may be due to the quality of the meat.  This Hormel pork shoulder was soft in the packaging unlike other pork shoulder (pork butts) I have bought in the past.  The extra nice thing was that it was on sale for only $0.99 per pound!  I will get another one and make Char Siu out of it before the sale ends!