Had a great compliment from an unexpected cook.

[realdocBBQ]

Yesterday I fired up the giant offset to do a single turkey for a friend. I had too much to do on Thursday (another thread coming for that one) and they weren't eating until Friday, so she brought me a turkey around 11AM Friday morning to cook up for their 4PM meal.

This was about a 15lb bird she had pre-rubbed some seasoned butter or something under the skin, and left me most of a small shaker of Head Country seasoning to put on it.

I fired up the smoker with a chimney full of coals from Royal Oak lump (I won't use this stuff again) and some pecan splits and got it in the cook chamber.

As I was working on this, a neighbor lady walked over from across the street and asked me what I was cooking, so I told her, just smoking a turkey for a coworker's get-together. She mentioned she had a turkey breast sitting around, if I wanted, I could throw that on. I didn't mind, I mean a breast takes less than a whole bird, and I had more than enough room, hell I coulda added a whole hog in there without crowding the turkey.

Anyways, so she brings it over - unseasoned, unbrined, etc. Just a whole double breast on a paper plate, skin and all, I didn't know what she had meant by a breast, but it was essentially the front/top half of a whole bird with the wings removed. She mentioned her dad had a 'smokehouse' when she was young, and she said she 'never really developed a taste for it.' Meaning smoked meat. I was surprised, then, that she wanted me to smoke her turkey breast, but oh well, no skin off my nose. Maybe her husband likes it.

Also in passing she mentioned the turkey her son did for their family get-together yesterday (Thanksgiving) and she says, "It was BLACK!" I got the impression she didn't like it much. Well, I know it's not for everyone, and I also know how people exaggerate things, too, and if she didn't like smoked meats growing up, I guess it wouldn't surprise me.

So I seasoned her breast with some of the Head Country, stuck a probe in it and smoked it up to 150s - I actually lost track of time and it was about 158 or so when I pulled it, I think. Put it in a foil pan, covered with more foil and sent The Boy to take it across the street and drop it off. I didn't think any more of it while I finished smoking the whole bird and then got the family ready to go to Tulsa in the evening for a Broadway show (SIX - very good, recommended). While we were at dinner (Red Lobster, I'm a sucker for Cheddar Bay biscuits), The Wife gets a text from neighbor lady across the street - "Oh my God, I told him I wasn't hot on smoked meats, but this turkey breast he did for us is AMAZING!!!"

This wasn't a finished pic, things moved kinda quick for me at the end with other things going on, but you get the idea:



Well, I was flattered she liked it, I mean, I didn't do anything special to it, and I tell people all the time, most of this stuff is pretty easy, it's almost hard to mess up. Well, except brisket, apparently, but that's another topic (and subforum).

Then she sent a pic of the turkey she had the day before, she said it was her son's first try, he had a new smoker and this is what he brought - this is the turkey I though she was exaggerating was 'black':



Ummmm.....


Ummmm.....


Uhhhhhh.....


What???


I mean, I really don't even know what would lead to that?!?!?!? I suppose it had to be a stickburner/offset, and I mean, I guess it looks really, really oversmoked??? But how can you get a turkey that black in the short time you cook a turkey? 3 hours? 4 hours at most???

I suppose it coulda been done on mesquite and been vastly oversmoked with really dirty smoke and gotten all 'creosote' or something, but... I dunno.

Ya'll tell me what you think?

But anyways. I'm not making fun, believe me, I've had my share of disasters, and if it weren't for The Pit and endless hours of YouTube learning, I don't know that my first forays on the stickburner might not have come out similarly. But for the Grace of God, there go I. I was just struck by the appropriateness of her word 'black' and my assumption that it was an overstatement. And no, that's not Cajun blackened seasoning, either, I don't think. That's from the smoke.

I just can't imagine. Wow.

Anyways, hope ya'll enjoyed my long-windered yarn, but I felt nice to get the compliment like that from someone who previously thought they didn't like smoked food - until they tried mine!!!

[DaveD]

Big success! Thanks for the tale

[fzxdoc]

Nice story, and a happy ending as well. I'm betting that the neighbor will be sending her son over for some tips.

Kathryn

[klflowers]

That's cause you are the man

[smokin fool]

If I use a dry rub with a lot of sugar or put too much dry rub on I've gotten them pretty dark but never that dark.
And hey you have room in the grate wht mot help people out.
Warning: Next time yiu light up the smoker you may have a line up of people down the driveway looking for space on the grate....

[HawkerXP]

I did one of them black ones once.

Whole turkey on the PBC, temp probe said in was done. Pulled it out on to a platter. Probed around in the breast and found it wasn't really done. Reposition temp probe. Rehung in the barrel. The lid was off the whole time. Before I could get the lid on all the turkey drippings ignited. Grease fire. Black turkey. The insides were fine. Who eats the skin anyway.

Why do you think I keep reminding people in the PBC world to keep that lid on!

[HawkerXP]

By the way. Look at all the juice in that black turkeys pan. My guess, grease fire.

[Draznnl]

I too would guess the black turkey was caused by a grease fire. Not that I have a lot of experience with such things. Nope, just enough.

And congrats to you on the compliment from your neighbor. Nothing like a little outside validation.

[Steve R.]

I got a bitter taste in my mouth just from looking at that black turkey. I'd say it was cooked way too low and slow, with a smoldering fire. An ex-BIL of mine used to cook turkeys that looked just like that one.

[realdocBBQ]

Yeah, dirty, dirty smoke was my first thought.