Thanksgiving Turkey
I've been busy cutting firewood this week. It's all from laps left over when trees were cut for timber and I am amazed how much useful wood is wasted. As much as I hate to see trees chipped for cellulose, at least everything is used, including the laps.
Anyhow, here's the CFO and the dogs with my growing woodpile.
While cutting the laps, I found the top out of a large American beech and decided to give that a try for smoking the Thanksgiving turkey. After all, the tree produces a fruit, is dense and burns nicely. Bad idea.
It took twice as long as normal to warm the pit and I started smoking a smallish 12-pound bird about noon. The CFO and I went for a walk with Sam and Murphy.
Suzy Q. took a looong nap in the CFO's laptop case. When the turkey should have been done after 4 hours, it still had another 20°F to go. Turns out that beechwood makes very cool coals that burn "dirty" with lots of smoke. I finally gave up and finished with some very hot oak coals after 6 hours. I'll leave the beechwood to AB Inbev for make Bud Light.
Although a little darker than I like, the turkey meat turned out really well, juicy with a huge smoke ring. We enjoyed it for dinner with collard greens, roasted sweet potatoes, dressing and giblet gravy.
Anyhow, here's the CFO and the dogs with my growing woodpile.
While cutting the laps, I found the top out of a large American beech and decided to give that a try for smoking the Thanksgiving turkey. After all, the tree produces a fruit, is dense and burns nicely. Bad idea.
It took twice as long as normal to warm the pit and I started smoking a smallish 12-pound bird about noon. The CFO and I went for a walk with Sam and Murphy.
Suzy Q. took a looong nap in the CFO's laptop case. When the turkey should have been done after 4 hours, it still had another 20°F to go. Turns out that beechwood makes very cool coals that burn "dirty" with lots of smoke. I finally gave up and finished with some very hot oak coals after 6 hours. I'll leave the beechwood to AB Inbev for make Bud Light.
Although a little darker than I like, the turkey meat turned out really well, juicy with a huge smoke ring. We enjoyed it for dinner with collard greens, roasted sweet potatoes, dressing and giblet gravy.
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