Rotisserie Chicken

I needed some rotisserie chicken for another recipe (baked Mac and Cheese with Buffalo chicken) so I got a couple 4 1/4 pound birds and put them in the grill with my rotisserie. I'm using this recipe for Roadside Chicken from TVWBB. I marinated the birds in the RS mix for about 2 hours before they went on the rotisserie on my Gold C. I made a foil pan to put under the chickens to catch the grease.

I preheated the grill and then turned all burners to their lowest setting. I put some apple and mesquite in a smoking wood box under the flavorizers. I'm not sure it made any difference.

I put some of the RS mix in the now empty Worcestershire sauce bottle and sprinkled it on the rotating birds about every 15 minutes during the cook.

time	temp	comment
4:50 PM		birds on!
5:15	253°/255°
5:30	280°/255°	front burner up a notch (mid and rear still on low.)
5:50	315°/280°
6:27	395°/310°
6:48	379°/300°	meat pulling back on legs - need to check temp soon.
7:00		birds off!

Temperature reading: Maverick ET-73/Hood thermometer.

The birds came out tasting pretty good. The skin was not crispy but I suppose I'd need direct heat for that.

First Real Smoke

I've done a few things on the grill, most recently some ABTs at our son's house warming. On our previous visit to them (Mid January) I tea smoked a couple ducks on their Performer. This will be the first low 'n slow smoke. I wanted to get a part made for my tractor (really just a bent bar for a trailer hitch, but beyond my fabrication capabilities.) I went to Peerless Fence in West Chicago and they made the part from some scrap they had on hand. they did it while I waited, and then didn't charge me. (More about them at the end of the post.) So I'm going to thank them with some pulled pork. It's going into the mini-WSM this afternoon and I plan to smoke it overnight. This will be my first overnight in the mini and I'm not sure I've ever done one one in the WSM. My goal is to have the meat ready to take to Peerless at about lunch time.

for the record, this smoke started on 2012-02-21 but I didn't finish until after midnight so that's probably when this blog entry will be dated.

Weather: 37° F and cloudy. We had some snow earlier. Wind is brisk at 20 mph. (Did I mention that I've bought material to make myself a wind shelter?) The wind is out of the WNW.

Meat - Two 5 lb bone in pork butts that were on sale at Valli for $1.69/lb.

Seasoning: I use an oily rub (mostly dry spices and herbs mixed to a slurry in peanut oil.) In the rub went:

• Garlic - about 1/2 bulb of fresh crushed garlic.
• Rosemary.
• Coriander.
• Black pepper.
• Cumin.
• Rubbed sage.
• Adobo chili.
• Ancho chili.
• Cayenne.

That's about one tablespoon each except for the cumin, chili, and cayenne which were about half. The rub goes on the pork before I head out to prep the smoker so it gets about 45 minutes to marinate.

Fire is using good old reliable KB (Kingsford Blue) briquettes. For smoking woods I am using hickory, maple black walnut and some apple (and maybe some cherry if that is what was on my chopping block.)

I had difficulty starting the few coals I put in the chimney due to the wind. I finally resorted to using paper with a squirt of peanut oil. It finally got lit and I spread on the rest of the unlit coals and smoking wood. In about 15 minutes the top layer was lit so I loaded up the meat.

Temperature is measured with a Maverick ET-73 with the meat probe in the butt on the upper grate and the grate temp also on the upper grate. I'm not going to bother with the dome temperature until I get a better thermometer for the dome. My goal for the meat is to hit 190° F.

time	temp	comment
2:12 PM		Meat on! At this time I shut the bottom vent to about ½.
2:37	45°/155°	Off to a good start!
3:27	96°/206°	Stabilizing? Wind seems to be mostly out of the southwest now. I just rolled up my Silver A with cover in front of the mini to help block the wind. Let's see if that helps.
3:50	115°/197°	Temp seems to be bouncing between 190° and 200°, perhaps depending on wind direction. There is still steam coming from the smoker so heat is adequate or even a little high. Time to head to the gym.
5:59	158°/232°	I can hear sizzling so the water must be gone from the bowl. I'll watch this for a while and at the first sign of dropping temps, I'll add more charcoal. Maybe I should think about reducing air flow as well.
6:56	168°/314°	Trimmed the bottom vent a bit. Ambient is now 39° and wind has dropped to 10 (but feels pretty calm.)
7:37	175°/259°	Trimming the bottom vent did the job. Time to load on some more briquettes now.
8:22	175°/272	the smoker seems to be recovering from the load of briquettes and smoking wood I added. I might need to trim the bottom vent even more. I'm also not sure I'm going to run this over night either.
8:42	176°/273°	Trimming the bottom vent ever so slightly. It's about ¼ open now.
9:01	180°/273°	Must be past the plateau.
9:34	183°/268°
10:37	186°/246°	Hmmm... Temp suddenly dropping? Maybe time for more bottom vent. Observation: Plenty of briquettes left. Looks like the bowl under the coals may be full of ash. Stir and tap to settle and allow for further air flow.
11:15	193°/279°	Time for the meat to come in and rest for a while.

Results are pretty good. After cooling a bit it pulled easily. There were crunchy bits that were exposed to more heat but overall it seemed pretty moist. I rate flavor as excellent! The folks at Peerless really enjoyed it too. But... My timing was awful. The boss was out of town the day I served and it was Ash Wednesday - some could not eat meat. I wound up returning to serve again on Thursday the following week.

What to do next time? I should start with less air - stop the bottom vent down even more. That would keep the temp a little lower later in the smoke when the water has boiled away and should make the fuel last longer. It might also benefit to reduce air part way through when the meat is less a heat sink.

A note about Peerless... I wanted a steel bar 2"x1/2" and about 10" long to make a mount for a ball to put in a draw bar hitch on my Wheel Horse tractor. I can attach the draw bar mount to the hydraulic lift on the tractor and to use it, I can just back up to the trailer and lift the hitch under the tongue. I think that will be pretty slick. But I need about a 45° bend in the middle of the bar and I have no way to bend a 2"x1/2" steel bar. I went to Peerless because among other things, they make wrought iron fences so I thought they would have the capability to bend something like this.

It turns out they're in a tough spot right now. Business is off due to the recession and on top of that, they have not had frozen ground to get into a lot of work sites this winter. They wait until the ground is frozen to get into athletic fields and such so that their trucks don't tear up the field. Recall that I was spading my garden a couple weeks ago. They simply have not had cold enough weather to get to these jobs and the weather is warming even more.

Anyway, their guy found a suitable piece of steel in the scrap pile and cut it to length. He asked me if I needed holes and I told him I could drill those myself. However they had a machine that could punch a 1/2" hole through 1/2" steel like it was butter! A couple seconds and I don;t have to take the time to drill holes. :D Then the guy I was working with grabbed a big oxy-acetylene torch and started heating the piece in the middle. When I could see some color in the piece I picked up a small sledge (leaving the big sledge where it sat. ;) ) and started banging away on the piece. Each hit moved it a fraction of an inch and in a few minutes I had the desired 45° bend.

I walked back to the office with the piece in hand and asked how much. The boss handed me his card and said if I knew anyone looking for a fence, please pass their name along. (That's Peerless Fence, 3n381 Powis Road, West Chicago IL 60185.) They seemed to be pretty nice people and I appreciate their help so I plan to thank them with a lunch of some pulled pork.

Reflections on 2011

This was a big year for smoking and grilling. Late 2010 year I bought a Weber Smoky Mountain and gave myself a big step up in the smoking department. Before the end of the year I added a mini-WSM to the mix and turned into a smoking fiend.  This year I almost literally went hog wild. Add to that beef, lamb and fish. Throw in some fowl as well.

Let's start with equipment.

• I got tired of not having sufficient work surface by my grill so I found an older Weber Platinum. That's a 22 ½" kettle similar to a Gold and with a plastic table mounted on a cart. It's very similar to a modern day Performer but without the charcoal bin or propane starter. It works great as a kettle or simply to roll next to whatever smoker I'm using. Here it is - not a very good picture - with the Magic Grate.

• I resurrected the old Coleman Powerhouse 25 propane grill. The thin grate troubled me so I dug up one of the cast iron grates that was in our yard when we moved in in '87. It was a little short but fit perfectly front to back. I wire brushed the rust off it (angle grinder == awesome tool!) and put it into service.  Unfortunately Powerhouse adequately describes its performance. It is way too hot to be useful for most cooking needs. It did have the saving grace that it has a glass front so you can watch what's cooking and it has a side burner. The side burner is ideal for lighting charcoal in a Weber chimney. I started watching Craigslist for a more suitable Weber gasser.
• My first Weber gasser is a Weber Genesis Silver A. I paid $30 for it without tank, cover or good flavorizers or grate. Nevertheless, I considered it a decent deal though I would do better in the future. My first need (aside from a propane tank) was a set of flavorizer bars. I was lucky to find a set of stainless flavorizers listed on the East Coast by a seller willing to ship. I bought this set for $31 shipped. They were actually for a larger model but were easy to fit with the help of a cutoff wheel on my angle grinder. The other need for this grill was a decent grate. I checked and found that the CI grate I had put in the Coleman also fit the Silver A. It didn't sit on the ledge that's supposed to support the grate but rather sits on the flavorizer bars. because the bars for the grate are about ¾" tall this seems to work well. the grate is probably less than an inch lower than the factory grate.  An interesting thing about this grate is that fits a lot of things which leads into another noteworthy piece of grilling equipment.

• My Magic Grate. When we moved to Winfield in '87 we found a small pile of cast iron grates in the back yard, probably used in a fire pit the previous owners had back there. I hadn't done much with them until I wanted to upgrade the Coleman with a decent grate. I was pleased to find it fit the Coleman with only small gaps in coverage at each end. When I got my Silver A, it was badly in need of a grate as well. I test fit the CI grate and found it fit with about 2" gap at each end. There were additional grates so I grabbed a broken one and cut it to fit (using the cutoff wheel on the angle grinder.) I cleaned both grates up and seasoned them. I love them. There's nothing like a massive cast iron grate to soak up heat and produce a great sear on meat, fish and vegetables. Based on the results I was getting with cast iron on this gasser, I looked into a CI grate for my charcoal grill. =8-O  (<= Sticker shock.) They're available but not cheap. However... I test fit the CI grate in a 22 ½ Weber kettle and was very pleased to find that it was a perfect fit. Corner to corner it just makes it into the kettle sitting on top of the regular grate. If I align it with the long edges parallel to the hinged sections of the grate, I can open them up, though there is slight interference. In my judgement, it is a perfect fit. The only drawback is that it sits a further ¾" away from the coals, but this can be overcome by loading a bit more charcoal. Another useful aspect of this grate is that the spacing vs. the width of the bars is about equal. I think of that as duty cycle. That gives me lots of hot cast iron in contact with the food and results in great grill marks.

• Weber Genesis Silver B. It pays to watch Craigslist. I picked this up for free. As a bonus it had been upgraded to include stainless flavorizers and factory grate. The grate is stamped metal so it's not as nice as my magic CI grate, but it should last a long time. I cleaned it up, bought a cover that fit and eventually wound up selling it when I came across a newer Gold B for $40. I kind of hated to see it go as it was a merfect match to my Silver A, but between it and the Gold B, the enclosed cabinet moved me toward the Gold B.

• Weber Q-220. This one was listed on Craigslist as "not working" but in fact it did. However I'm not sure it's getting as hot as it should. I might have to replace the regulator. But for $30 and including the stationary cart, It's a deal and gives me a portable propane grill.

 

• Weber Genesis Gold B. This came up on Craigslist (with tank and cover) for $40. I bit and snagged it. It's very similar to the Silver B except it came from the factory with stainless flavorizers and grate and has the extra work space and enclosed cabinet. It also has a liner in the hood which provides some insulation. (Both Silver A and B have a porcelain coated single layer hood.) The tank came with the valve jammed open. I disclosed this to the store when I asked if I could exchanged it and they had no problem with it. 

• Lodge Logic Sportsman Grill. This is a hibachi made of cast iron. Along with my magic grate, this provides another cast iron grate for grilling. It has a fire grate and air shutter that admits air below the fire and provides reasonable heat control. The cooking grate itself has a fairly high duty cycle and like my Magic Grate is good for grilling stuff like asparagus that tends to want to slip through the grates. It's a perfect size to roast four red peppers to make fire roasted red pepper dip. It's also good for burgers, steaks and chops and satay. Though the grill has no lid, I can close the air shutter and put heavy duty foil between the bucket and top grate to suffocate the coals.

That's about it for major equipment this year. I'm still on the lookout fora modern 26 ¾" Weber Gold that I can build into an island with a burner for starting charcoal and otherwise cooking out of doors.

All of this equipment means nothing unless I use it to make something. Some of my highlights this year are:

• Beef back ribs. This was probably the best new thing I tried this year. I cook them on a kettle, indirect at about 275° F for about 3 hours seasoned only with cracked pepper and salt.They're great! (big, greasy, tasty. :) )
• Beef brisket. I finally got around to trying a brisket this year. I did them using Raichlen's coffee rub abd was very happy with the results.
• Atomic Buffalo Turds (ABTs.) These are lovely. The only difficulty is getting hot enough Jalapeños. Most are so mild these days. :(
• Lamb chops. We got some of these from the kids and I grilled them on the Sportsman. Some garlic, rosemary and pepper and keep them rare and they're terrific!
• Bananas. I grilled some bananas with caramel/coconut milk glaze and they're pretty good if a bit sticky. Best served with vanilla ice cream.
• Blackened (sort of) fish. I did both walleye and bluegill seasoned with blackening spices on a cast iron grill over charcoal and propane. They come out really good. (This is not true blackening which is a different process but the seasonings work well for grilling.) 
• Salmon smoked with cherry. I discovered just how good salmon can be when smoked with some cherry wood. Cherry really does work well for fish.
• Roasted red peppers dip. This is sort of like hummus made with red peppers that are roasted directly on the coals. It's another recipe I got from Raichlen and when these peppers were 99¢/lb in late summer, we made a lot of these.

Special recognition goes out to Steven Raichlen who's Primal Grill provide inspiration and recipes for many of the new things I made this year.

For 2012 - what can I add to my repertoire? One thing I want to roast/smoke a beef rib roast (AKA prime rib.) Something else I want to explore is duck as we have two in the freezer thanks to our son who raised them. 

A little smoke

Cindy bought a single rack of baby back (pork) ribs from a co-worker. That's a 3.42 lb rack. It looks like I'll inaugurate the 2012 smoking season with a pop instead of a bang. I'm just going to smoke the one rack in the mini. In addition to the ribs, I'm going to bake 4 small potatoes. I've got them wrapped in foil with some peanut oil. I had originally planned to put them directly on the coals but I had forgotten about the lack of clearance between water bowl and coals. (In fact the water bowl is sitting directly on the coals until they burn down a bit. I'll just arrange them around the ribs and later on I can put them on the coals.

For seasoning I crushed some rosemary, black pepper and coriander and added adobo powder, ancho powder, rubbed sage and a little cumin. In these dry ingredients I crushed four cloves of garlic and mixed  in peanut oil to make a slurry that I rubbed on the ribs. The ribs were cut in half in order to fit the 14" grate from the mini-WSM.

Weather right now is 28° F, light wind at 9:00 mph and skies clear.

For smoking I'm using what's left of the Coshell briquettes from a previous smoke and some good old BK Blue. For smoking woods I'm going with hickory, maple, apple and oak.

Lit coals on a modified Minion lay at about 1:10.

time	temp	comment
1:10 PM		Lit recycled Coshell coals on the MM lay. All vents wide open.
1:35	240°/150° (grate/dome)	Ribs go on - spuds barely fit around the edge!
1:46	262°/	Temp recovering a bit too fast so I'm going to close the bottom vent to about half.
2:17	264°/
2:46	258°/	I peeked. ribs are cooking but not starting to pull back. Still not enough room on the coals for the spuds.
3:12	235°
4:00	262°/180°	Peeked again. The meat is just starting to pull back on the ribs. I put the spuds on the coals and one felt done but not the others. I'll need to take them off in about 20 minutes.
4:21	252°/150°	Spuds off - meat not yet done by the 'poke test.' Thicker parts of the ribs have not yet started to pull back and present resistance to poking. I should probably take the smaller piece off soon.
4:44	292°/	I need to get the smaller piece off and close the bottom vent a bit a bit more. When I picked up the smaller rack from one end, it broke in half. Done! The larger half remains on the cooker.
5:30	283°/155°	Took the larger end of the ribs off and closed up the vents.

(grate/dome) => Grate temp is the reading form a Maverick-73 probe near the edge of the top grate. Dome is a dial thermometer mounted in the lid. Due to a short probe on the dial, it reads way low.

They came out great!

Mexican Weather Forecast

Chili today, hot tamale!

In fact this morning when I started my next smoke, the weather outside was 21°, wind about 10 mph and sunny. I'm going to be smoking about 20 lb of pork butts which will be used to make tamales tomorrow. Puns all the way 'round!

Seasoning for the pork is going to be a little different. I added some Ancho chili powder because I thought it would cast it a little more toward a Mexican flavor. I used:

• rosemary (ground in a coffee grinder)
• coarse fresh ground black pepper
• rubbed sage
• about a bulb of crushed garlic
• two dried red peppers (from my sister's market garden)
• Ancho chile powder
• cumin

I mixed in enough peanut oil to make a kind of slurry with the spices. I think a little oil helps to keep the meat moist. Here's the pork rubbed and ready to go on with the tamale steamer we'll be using tomorrow.

Weather conditions at 9:30 AM - 27°, sunny skied and winds light at 7 mph.

This smoke is going on to the WSM (18½ inch Weber Smoky Mountain.) I'll be using mostly mesquite lump (with a lot of fines) and some Stubbs to ignite it. Smoking woods include a little mesquite, hickory, maple (box elder, actually) and some crab apple. The larger butt - probably about 50% bigger than the smaller one - is going on the top grate. I'll put some sausages on there as well to take advantage of the extra space.

time	temp	comment
9:22		Stubbs in the charcoal chimney and on the propane burner.
9:30		Lit coals on a minion lay and then assembled smoker with about a gallon of water in the bowl.
9:45	175°/?/? (dome/grate/meat)	Lots of smoke coming off the smoker so I closed two bottom vents to see where it goes. I also put the remote in place. Within a minute or so it's already reading close to 200°. In a couple minutes I'll put the meat on the smoker.
9:55	?/220°/?	Time to put the meat on! The larger one goes on top where the temp is probably a little higher.
10:20	175°/179°/41°	TBS! (Thin Blue Smoke - the epitome of smoking. ;) )
11:08	160°/205°/59°	And it already smells good! I'm not concerned about the cold dome temp as it probably reflects the large cold piece of meat right under the probe.
11:20	150°/x/x	Heading on on some errands and dome temp seems to be dropping so I opened one bottom vent about half. That leaves one closed, one open and one about half.
2:02	160°/224°/117°	Looks like the bit of additional air was a good idea. Time to put some sausages on.
3:05	205°/215°/127°	Took the first batch of sausage off and put another on. A little earlier the grate temp had spiked to about 263° but it seems to have settled down again.
3:12		I stirred the fire a bit. I could hear sandhill cranes migrating overhead. That's the second flight I've seen the last week or so. It seems like they're moving a bit late this year.
4:10	200°/241°/135°	Second batch of Polish sausage came off. Brats now on. I really don't like opening the smoker that much, but I really like smoked sausage.
5:10	240°/244°/141°	Brats off the WSM.
5:37	?/239°/145°
7:00	200°/?/?	Threw another dozen briquettes on the fire. I'm out of lump and finished the bag of Stubbs so I used some Coshell that I had open.
7:00	?/246°/157°
8:45	195°/211°/159°	Threw in 15 more Coshell briquettes. the previous bunch had lit and were now about half size from when they went in. I'll probably have to add more every hour or two until the pork is ready to come off.
9:32	200/214°/159°	Looks like the meat is at the plateau. And I should probably throw on a few more briquettes. (12 more.) Outside temp is down to 28°
9:49	245°/231°/159°	The temperature difference between lid and grate has flipped. Perhaps an indication that things are moving along despite the meat seeming to be stuck at 159°
10:11	?/249°/161°	Temp moving again. That big butt must have started out about 12-13 lb. It's a big one.
10:35	?/?/164°	I was concerned that the smaller but might be ahead of the bigger one so I lifted the top one out of the way and used a hand held digital therm to check the bottom one. It was about 155° so my concern seems to be unfounded. There is no more water in the bowl.
11:10	?/233°/169°	Moving right along...
11:26	?/217°/170°	Throwing some more briquettes on. 8 more and a couple more chunks each of oak and maple. I think this is going to be the last of the wood I add. I'll open the vents a bit the next time temp drops and if needed, finish the pork in the oven.
12:27	220°/247°/174°	Bottom vents now open at 2.5/3.
1:00	220°/237°/176°	Bottom vents all open.
1:20	?/215°/177°	Time to bring the meat in. Now it needs to rest.

Dome temperature is the lid thermometer on the WSM. Grate is the remote reading from the Maverick ET-73 which hangs in the middle section below the grate and about 3" from the side of the smoker. It should more or less be in the heat rising from the coals. The meat temperature is the other ET-73 probe stuck in the larger butt.

This is another blog post that I'll be updating throughout the day as the smoke progresses.

Gobble-Part 2

This is my second turkey in recent days. The first was the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving for our family celebration. This one is to take to First Friday. I got a 16 lb frozen (injected) bird and will see how that goes. Since it was already injected, I did not brine. I seasoned it by stuffing with apples and onions and some fresh rosemary packed into the neck and body cavities. I also pushed some rosemary and garlic under the skin on the breast.

Weather this afternoon is 43°, cloudy and light wind at about 5 mph. There seems to be little chance of rain before the smoke is finished.

Fire is with mesquite lump and smoking woods are oak, apple, cherry and maple (box elder.) Fire was started using the Minion method and once closed up, only one bottom vent was left open. The top vent is open of course. The water bowl is loosely lined with heavy duty foil and there is a foil drip pan under the bird (on the bottom rack.)

Stuffing has been prepared with:

• bread dried in a warm oven
• Three Jonathan apples
• three mediun onions
• some garlic
• about 3/2 lb crisped bacon (pepper bacon.)
• fresh rosemary
• several stalks of celery
• walnut pieces
• a couple splashes of turkey stock

Onions, celery, garlic and rosemary were cooked a bit before mixing in with the rest of the stuff. Additional seasoning included thyme, sage, marjoram and oregano.

time	temp	comment
3:37 PM		Bird on!
4:36	245°/261°/x (dome/grate/bird)	x
5:20	x/x/x	Opened a second bottom vent and poked the meat probe into the turkey.
5:40	x/299°/120°	Going to put the dressing under the bird.
6:18	x/292°/143°
6:59	x/331°/160	x
7:10	x/x/163°	While taking the temp with another thermometer, the 'turkey done' thing popped up. Done! And off!

Results? The dressing tastes great! Evaluation of the turkey will happen tomorrow when it is served.

Gobble

For at least two meanings of the word. I picked up a 14 lb. free range turkey from Kaufmann Farms (AKA Hoka turkey) and will cook it on the smoker. Time may be a little tight so I don't plan to slow smoke it, but I'm sure we'll get the benefit of the oak, mesquite and cherry that I added to the charcoal.

Weather conditions: 32° with a bit of morning fog. Wind is light at about 6 mph. It should be clear with temperatures going into the 40s today. There is heavy frost and frozen rain on stuff on the patio.

Preparation: I brined the bird since yesterday afternoon in a brine of:

• 2 qt water
• 2 qt apple juice
• 1 1/4 C sea salt
• 1 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• tsp cloves
• tsp allspice
• medium sliced onion
• tbsp pepper corns
• several bay leaves (well, the recipe called for them but I forgot.)

I brined in a roasting bag in a cooler packed with ice. That's the easiest way to do this and ensure that there is good contact with all parts of the bird. This morning I removed the bird from the brine, rinsed it and seasoned it for cooking.

Seasonings consisted of fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, an apple cut up into wedges and a couple small onions sliced. These were all stuffed into the body and neck cavity to provide flavor during the cook. In addition, I also mixed some fresh thyme and rosemary with a little peanut oil and pushed it between skin and breast meat.

The stuffing was made with cubed whole grain bread that I had put in the oven to dry a bit a couple days ago. To that I added sautéed onions and celery with garlic, pepper and fresh thyme, rosemary and parsley. I also mixed in some walnut chunks and an apple sliced to about the size of the bread pieces. I moistened with a mix of turkey stock and beaten eggs. And bacon. Don't forget the fried bacon.

Smoker setup us modified minion using mesquite lump charcoal and adding oak, cherry and a little mesquite for smoking woods. I loosely foiled the water pan and placed a drip pan in the lower grate. Once the coals were starting (and the smoke smelled divine at this point!) I put the turkey on. The desire is to serve at 1:00 PM. I'm starting out with one bottom vent fully open but I'll probably open more after an hour or two to bring the temperature up.

Before you use the time/temperature notes below to estimate how long your turkey might take to cook, please be aware that when I switched meat thermometers at 10:50 I started using one that read 187° in boiling water. The original thermometer was reading correctly after all. Needless to say, I highly recommend that you check calibration of your meat thermometer before starting your Thanksgiving turkey,

Cooking log:

time	temp	comment
6:40 AM		Lit coals on the smoker.
6:55		Bird on!
7:33	190°/x/212° (dome/meat/cooker)	This is just about where I want to be right now. <checking vents on smoker> Whoops! I had only one bottom vent barely open. I opened it fully so that fire can get going.
8:31	x/x/236°	Temp progressing nicely. In a half hour or so I'll open another bottom vent to bring the temp up a bit more. The meat probe is sitting out on the table for one of my gas grills and now reads 38°.
9:18	250°/x/248°	Opened one more bottom vent for more temp. Threw a little more oak and cherry onto the coals.
10:16	317°/x/305°	Wonderful!
10:29		Put the meat probe in the turkey by the thigh and observed.
10:33	x/158°/x	Put the stuffing in a large pan under the turkey where it can catch some of the drippings. Looks like the turkey has come along well! It might wind up with an extended rest time. I want to take the thigh to about 160° and the breast to about 150° before taking off.
10:50	x/176°/x	:( I was alarmed because the reading at the thigh was up to 165° so I used another thermometer to read the breast. I got 144° with that. I moved the remote probe to that and it now reads 176°. I think my remote probe is not reading correctly. I would not expect the bird to be done buy now.
11:30	x/188°/x	153° breast 148° thigh These are using an instant read thermometer. Maverick meat probe is way high. :(
11:46	x/x/281°	Will be checking meat at intervals using the instant read going forward.
12:20	x/x/300	165° breast and thigh so the turkey is coming off. It's in a warm gas grill to rest.

(dome/meat/cooker) - Temperature is measured using the built in thermometer (dome) and a Maverick ET-73 remote reading thermometer. an 'x' means that I have not inserted the probe or have not bothered to walk outside to read the dome. ;) )

The 14 lb bird is an easy fit on an 18" Weber Smoky Mountain:

While I have the turkey on the smoker, I 'm simmering the giblets and some vegetables inside in a stock pot.

I'm using an Alton Brown recipe for this mostly because he claims that the addition of potato starch interferes with the propensity of flour based gravies to set up solid as they cool. Maybe I should try that other suggestion to puree the vegetables used to make the stock for thickening rather than add flour. I have time to think about these.

I've started my third contribution for dinner - the stuffing. I put that under the turkey on the smoker to catch drippings as it cooks. I also put the meat probe in to see where the turkey is at. I also snapped some pictures.

The setuffing came out when the bird came off. It was clearly done.

Apologies for not getting a picture of the bird when it was finished. I guess I had other priorities at that point. It looked pretty much like the picture at 10:30 (two hours before it came off) except it was a couple shades darker yet. I rested it in a gas grill (because other stuff was in the oven) which I held at 150°-200° for over an hour. There were still some other things to  prepare and then we had soup first. It was nice to know that I had hit the ready to serve point at 1:00 and the additional hold time caused no problems.

Everything came out great! The bird was flavorful and juicy though the skin was more tough than crispy. I knew that would happen as a result of smoking. The stuffing had some liquid in it when it came off, but it seemed to absorb that as it rested. It was really good as well. The gravy had a more translucent quality to it due to the starch and it did not harden as it sat. It tasted vary good as well. Overall I'm entirely pleased with the results. I had been a little concerned that this would not be enough for 7 adults but it was plenty.

Post Scriptum:

1. Before an important cook like this, be sure to check thermometers using boiling water as a standard.
2. Do not be so quick to condemn the Maverick. It turned out that the other quick reading thermometer was reading 20° low and caused me to overcook the bird by 20°. <growl>

---

As an aside, I have not been blogging all of my cooks. I have been doing some grilling and that's usually pretty quick, leaving me little time to wax eloquent... But I have a moment now so I can go back and hit some highlights.

A couple days ago I decided to grill some lamb chops that we had gotten from our kids. (They bought a couple lambs at a 4H or county fair.) I decided to do them on my new toy - a Lodge Sportsman's Grill. This is really a hibachi and has a nice cast iron grate. It also has a means to control air which works surprisingly well. Unlike the Weber grills, this one has no lid to control combustion air. I fired it up with a full load of mesquite lump and seasoned the chops with EVOO, fresh pressed garlic, fresh cracked black pepper and (not so fresh) rubbed rosemary. I grilled them at a relatively high temperature along with some thawed frozen broccoli florets which were also coated with EVOO.

The lamb came out astonishingly good! I gave it only a few minutes on eacyh side and these 1" thick chops were still very rare inside.