Brine the Bird
There are many methods for smoking turkies. I developed this method on Thanksgiving and have not strayed from it. Its pretty simple. Soak, or brine, the turkey in apple juice. I added about 3 tablespoonfuls each: table salt and poultry seasoning. Let it soak in the fridge 2 days. The plastic wrap followed by foil is a throw back to my restaurant days.
Prepare the Grill
Water smokers have many parts that need cleaning. Ash pit, coal grate and ring, water pan and two grills. I wire brush the barrel too. Wood needs to be chopped and water boiled. I pre-boil the water so the unit comes up to temperature quicker and ready for meat sooner.
Enter the Bird
With the grill ready and all stacked together its time to start the process. Using the digital meat thermometer this now turns into a waiting game. On this occaision a misplaced meat probe was telling us the internal temperature of the meat was rising way too fast. The internal temperature rose from 35 degrees to 100 degrees in 35 minutes. Not wanting to pull the probe out and place it in a better spot, for fear of losing precious juice, just had to be done. Moving the probe shaved 25 degrees off of the internal meat temperature.
The Phoenix Arises
Lets eat!. Adding coals to the water smoker is a process that can be challenging. My solution is an old stainless steel culinder and some wok tools, also made of stainless steel. That means neither will rust and both stand up to heat. As a side bonus the wok tools make for great grill cleaning tools.
