Smoked Turkey for Dinner!

[WeldrDave]

Scotty, you should have stayed through the weekend, Today's dinner for everyones viewing pleasure.

20lb'r will have lots of leftover's for lunch, Sparked the coals at 7am on the grill at 9am.
Just added the cherry wood, will smoke/cook all day with the cherry......

Beer, hardboiled eggs, potato salad, and smoked turkey,,,,,,,,,,, sounds like an explosive nite

 

[WeldrDave]

And 7 hours later.......

 

[Lake Girl]

Recycled oil tank for your smoker? The bird looks good

 

[StihlHead]

Yah, an old heating oil tank. Never saw a BBQ made from one of those, but it looks like a good setup. The bird looks good. Beer alone would have been good enough!

 

[WeldrDave]

Recycled oil tank for your smoker? The bird looks good

Yes. Thanks for the compliment. Smoked it all day, 7hrs let it cool for about 30+ min and had dinner with some good friends and family.

 

[WeldrDave]

Yah, an old heating oil tank. Never saw a BBQ made from one of those, but it looks like a good setup.

Thank's , It's a simple (but very effective) smoker, coal's and wood way down on the bottom. Food grates up hign. Problem with it is "rust". They don't last but maybe 5 years down here in the salt air, so I build another when the bottom falls out. I scrounge around and usually one pop's up in our local "sell it" paper cheap or find one junked.

 

[Lake Girl]

We've got 2 or 3 sitting at the local landfill waiting to be crushed to send for scrap metal. Nice to see them used a few more years before scrapped
Any special tips to rehab as a smoker?

We cut our old one in half and are using it for a fire pit.

 

[WeldrDave]

Any special tips to rehab as a smoker?

I'll give you a quick step by step, It's not hard. do you have access to a welding machine or a welder?

 

[Lake Girl]

Between the hubby and the neighbor, they have the tools and the know-how ... Hubby used to cut and weld underwater! They rehabbed an old, old fridge for a smoker but the bottom burned out - one of the larger icebox style before they went electric - can't find that style fridge any more

 

[WeldrDave]

Between the hubby and the neighbor, they have the tools and the know-how .

Ok, Piece O Cake..... I got some yard chores to get done, on lunch break now, when I come in I'll give you the run down and post some pic's to go by..... It's faily easy, I designed it "years" ago, It's most likely # 3 or # 4. since the first one.

 

[StihlHead]

Between the hubby and the neighbor, they have the tools and the know-how ... Hubby used to cut and weld underwater! They rehabbed an old, old fridge for a smoker but the bottom burned out - one of the larger icebox style before they went electric - can't find that style fridge any more

We used to build those here, out of the old metal refrigerators/freezers and metal racks. Nice large square box for smoking salmon in. We used the early electric ones, but they all turned to plastic in the 60s though and that ended that era.

 

[WeldrDave]

Nice large square box for smoking salmon in.

Yum.....I have done some different fish, but not salmon, out here is $$$. But I love most all types of fish. Stihlhead, what was your wood of choice please?

 

[StihlHead]

Yum.....I have done some different fish, but not salmon, out here is $$$. But I love most all types of fish. Stihlhead, what was your wood of choice please?

Salmon (and steelhead) is out of range in price this year here as well. Line caught is all I can afford any more, or some I get from a ski patrol buddy that goes out and catches a lot of salmon.

For fish my favorite smoking wood of choice is red alder, a west coast light hardwood species with a neutral smoke flavor. Traditionally for PNW salmon, alder is mixed with apple, my second favorite smoking wood that I use for pork. I also like cherry and maple. Oak is OK for beef and large roasts, but it can leave a bitter taste when overdone. I have a Brinkman offset barrel smoker that I use apple, maple, cherry, alder and white oak wood in. I also have a Trager 'lil Texas pellet smoker that I use mostly alder and apple pellets in (or a mix of both), but I also have and use some pecan and oak pellets. I buy competition grade 100% hardwood pellets from Bear Mountain, a pellet mill near here.

Pork: apple is my wood of choice; or apple and alder mix, or maple/cherry and alder mix
Chicken: apple and alder mix, maple is also good
Salmon: alder is my wood of choice, or alder and apple mix, sometimes cherry thrown in
Beef: alder and oak mix, also pecan

 

[WeldrDave]

For fish my favorite smoking wood of choice is red alder

That sounds awesome! I know we don't have alder out here in Jersey. Sounds like you have got some great experience smoking... It's funny, I spent many years in the military, and my last duty station was in Connecticut, I bought the same brinkman you have, "i believe" from Home depot because I missed smoking so much I was renting a small place. My landlord was a great guy and I was sitting on about 8 acres, he told me I could take what I wanted from his wood pile, he had "everything" in the wood dept. Up there I did some fish with red and sugar maple, turned out very good! I don't get pecan unless I buy it, but get mostly everything else. I do alot with the fruit woods, love the cherry and apple. I do a pig once a year for a club I belong to and I have them "vote" on what I'm smoking it with, last year was hickory I think it may be the same again this year. The "old timers" REALLY love their hickory...

Nice to also talk to a person who likes smoking meats and fish! It's a hobby for me and been doing it for quite some time, I have no desire to cater. If weather hold's out for next weekend, I'm gonna do some apple smoked ribs....