Let me start off by saying that the turkey hangers that they sell Pit Barrel Cooker Co. are, I am sure, way better than what I came up with, and I am an no way saying that you should make some of these instead of buying the ones from those folks that make the PBC cause those guys are awesome. But I am one of those guys that often times sees things and says to himself "oh I can totally make that with a coffee can, pipe cleaners and duct tape and save fifty cents" at which point my wife rolls her eyes and knows she won't see me for the next four hours as I tear apart the garage....
Anyway for the first time this past November we are having Thanksgiving at our house and the wife's whole family is coming up. I volunteer to take on the turkey makin' with my PBC that my wife got me for my birthday in June. Looking to have about 25 people eating for the annual turkey sacrifice ritual so I'm thinking of doing two smaller birds instead on one ginormous one. Beginning of Nov. wife says to me, "you are going to do a trial run with the turkey, aren't you?" "uh yeah, of course, totally already had planned to do that...." at which point I ran to Kroger to buy a "trial turkey" to do that weekend.
Now, how to hang the thing in the PBC? I first scope out the turkey hangers at the PBC website, they look fantastic, made of quality stainless, nice sleek simple design...., but I'd have to buy two, and no chance to get them here by the weekend without expedited shipping and as already noted above, I am way to cheap for that kind of behavior... I look at using the included meat hooks, but where and how to hook two birds hmmm I don't know....so I head to Lowes to wander around the hardware section in search of inspiration (a common behavior of mine).
After scoping out the design at the Pit Barrel Cooker website I'm thinking I need a central bar to go through the cavity and cross bars at top and bottom, at least one of which has to be removable. I want the height to maybe be adjustable so I can position the bird in the cooker properly. I pause at the "metal by piece" section and spy some aluminium bars and angles that are only a couple of bucks a piece. So I grab 'em and hit the garage. Here is what I came up with:
Materials (can make two hangers)
1 3' piece of aluminum angle
1 3' piece of aluminum bar 1/8" thickness
The angle I cut to 13.5", the cross bars cut to 10". To make the slots for the crossbars I just used a 1/8" drill bit to drill 3 holes and then shaped them with a file. The bottom crossbar slots are positioned at 13" from the top for the bottom slot, then 11" for the upper slot. I put a slot through each arm of the angle for the top crossbar so I could rotate the bird 90 deg if needed for space. All of the lengths I just kind of eyeballed by looking at a turkey so that is why they aren't nice round numbers. I will say the 13" bottom crossbar slot hung the bird a little too low in the pit. 10-11" is about the right height. Keep the shape of the slots as near as possible to the cross section of the crossbars and when they are inserted they won't rock or slide out when they are loaded. The little notch in one wasn't necessary, in fact made the crossbar a little more wobbly.
I know this is nothing too spectacular, but total cost was about 6$ and it took me about 15 min to make one of them and they worked great on short notice. One day I may order one of the nice turkey hangers from the PBC company, maybe when I order one of those hinged grates that I've had my eye on for some time.
So back to thanksgiving, the trial bird was a success so I had the green light for the big day. Thanksgiving morning the birds are prepped and ready to go according to Meathead's Ultimate Turkey guide. Guests are arriving for dinner at 2:00, my plan is to have the birds in the PBC at 10:00 but......my buddies are wanting to play football for our annual "Turkey Bowl and my two boys are begging to go play, so we jet to the football field. Of course we had to play "just one more game" and didn't get home till 10:30. At which point my wife informs me that she was about to come out and find me, which we can all agree wouldn't have been pretty...Hung the birds at 11:00 cracking the lid often to keep the temp over 325 and took them off at about 2:15. They were fantastic. Several commented that it was the best turkey they ever tasted and I ate thanksgiving dinner in my dirty, smelly football clothes.....awesome ;-).
Two birds ready to hang
Hanger in action on the trial turkey
Trial Turkey finished....mmmmm
I didn't get any photos of the two finished birds on Thanksgiving cause there was a crowd of hungry folks, and my wife was giving me the eye....so I carved them up pretty fast.
​​​​​​
​​​
Anyway for the first time this past November we are having Thanksgiving at our house and the wife's whole family is coming up. I volunteer to take on the turkey makin' with my PBC that my wife got me for my birthday in June. Looking to have about 25 people eating for the annual turkey sacrifice ritual so I'm thinking of doing two smaller birds instead on one ginormous one. Beginning of Nov. wife says to me, "you are going to do a trial run with the turkey, aren't you?" "uh yeah, of course, totally already had planned to do that...." at which point I ran to Kroger to buy a "trial turkey" to do that weekend.
Now, how to hang the thing in the PBC? I first scope out the turkey hangers at the PBC website, they look fantastic, made of quality stainless, nice sleek simple design...., but I'd have to buy two, and no chance to get them here by the weekend without expedited shipping and as already noted above, I am way to cheap for that kind of behavior... I look at using the included meat hooks, but where and how to hook two birds hmmm I don't know....so I head to Lowes to wander around the hardware section in search of inspiration (a common behavior of mine).
After scoping out the design at the Pit Barrel Cooker website I'm thinking I need a central bar to go through the cavity and cross bars at top and bottom, at least one of which has to be removable. I want the height to maybe be adjustable so I can position the bird in the cooker properly. I pause at the "metal by piece" section and spy some aluminium bars and angles that are only a couple of bucks a piece. So I grab 'em and hit the garage. Here is what I came up with:
Materials (can make two hangers)
1 3' piece of aluminum angle
1 3' piece of aluminum bar 1/8" thickness
The angle I cut to 13.5", the cross bars cut to 10". To make the slots for the crossbars I just used a 1/8" drill bit to drill 3 holes and then shaped them with a file. The bottom crossbar slots are positioned at 13" from the top for the bottom slot, then 11" for the upper slot. I put a slot through each arm of the angle for the top crossbar so I could rotate the bird 90 deg if needed for space. All of the lengths I just kind of eyeballed by looking at a turkey so that is why they aren't nice round numbers. I will say the 13" bottom crossbar slot hung the bird a little too low in the pit. 10-11" is about the right height. Keep the shape of the slots as near as possible to the cross section of the crossbars and when they are inserted they won't rock or slide out when they are loaded. The little notch in one wasn't necessary, in fact made the crossbar a little more wobbly.
I know this is nothing too spectacular, but total cost was about 6$ and it took me about 15 min to make one of them and they worked great on short notice. One day I may order one of the nice turkey hangers from the PBC company, maybe when I order one of those hinged grates that I've had my eye on for some time.
So back to thanksgiving, the trial bird was a success so I had the green light for the big day. Thanksgiving morning the birds are prepped and ready to go according to Meathead's Ultimate Turkey guide. Guests are arriving for dinner at 2:00, my plan is to have the birds in the PBC at 10:00 but......my buddies are wanting to play football for our annual "Turkey Bowl and my two boys are begging to go play, so we jet to the football field. Of course we had to play "just one more game" and didn't get home till 10:30. At which point my wife informs me that she was about to come out and find me, which we can all agree wouldn't have been pretty...Hung the birds at 11:00 cracking the lid often to keep the temp over 325 and took them off at about 2:15. They were fantastic. Several commented that it was the best turkey they ever tasted and I ate thanksgiving dinner in my dirty, smelly football clothes.....awesome ;-).
Two birds ready to hang
Hanger in action on the trial turkey
Trial Turkey finished....mmmmm
I didn't get any photos of the two finished birds on Thanksgiving cause there was a crowd of hungry folks, and my wife was giving me the eye....so I carved them up pretty fast.
​​​​​​
​​​
Comment