Big Green Egg? and its cousin the lil brown Egg

Nice Rig

Very nice job!
Looks tasty!

Looks delicious. I might have to try it sometime soon.

Plato said it 2500 years ago

"Necessity, who is the mother of invention."

Nice job and so rewarding in several ways.

My assistant manager for my department want's me to smoke a small turkey for him.
First, how long will it take, and second, how much should I charge him?

I'm not sure how long your setup will take--yours runs a lot cooler than mine does. That piece of meat you did was pretty solid, so it might be similar in cook time to a hollow bird. Do you have room under the lid to stand it up so that smoke can get into the cavity? That would help. Stick a meat thermometer in a thick part of the thigh and wait until it's at the recommended temperature (170F for the breast and 180F for the thigh).

I would definitely suggest using a water pan to keep the turkey moist. My mother in law does turkeys frequently, with a simple 50% brown sugar and 50% kosher salt rub. The meat is delicious but the skin is usually quite dark and smoky--don't count on everyone wanting to eat it.

I've never been paid for such a service, but if you take a look at store-bought prepared turkey, you'll probably find that you can undercut those prices and still make a little money.

The size of the bird will allow me to stand it up.(work at whole foods )
I am sure I can crank it up and get it in the 220-230 degrees range.
My problem is, it's going to take me all day to babysit the bird (I might try and put a rack of ribs in there too so it wont be a total loss)
So I tried getting him to pay me my hourly rate, but he didn't want to pay 120 for a smoked turkey

I think maybe $20, and then I can spend the day working on razors too

Good lord! I'm so hungry from looking at those pictures! I tried to grill yesterday, but my parents didn't really take care of the grill while I was gone. So now, I have a dirty, rusty grill, no propane and now I'll have to starve to death . This might be an excellent alternative!

I calculated the cost of the parts. It comes out to $70.49 (including 6% sales tax). That cost doesn't include the hickory chips. How much does an Egg cost?

KarthVader said:

I calculated the cost of the parts. It comes out to $70.49 (including 6% sales tax). That cost doesn't include the hickory chips. How much does an Egg cost?

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A whole sh***load more than $75.00 . I've got a large BGE, as other members around here do also.

The first year I did a turkey, it was a 26lb. monsterbird. Soaked it in a brine overnight and put it on around 3 A.M. I don't think it finished until mid afternoon. It was made worthwhile by the praise lavished on me. It really did turn out amazing. I also made a thick (pasty) herb rub that went uner the skin, in the cavity and on the outside.

I may have to make one of these to complement mine. Never can seem to get enough ribs going.

Kevin

Leatherneck said:

A whole sh***load more than $75.00 . I've got a large BGE, as other members around here do also.

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Yeah, looked up the cost of a BGE on the interwebs. The cost starts at 10x the cost of a homemade one. I think this will be my weekend project. I just wish I had seen or heard about this sooner.

Doing a pork butt, and whole chicken right now.
Pork butt is seasoned with fennel, garlic, chili flakes, pepper, salt, mustard powder, and a little rosemary.

Chicken is seasoned with a 50/50 blend of coarse sea salt and brown sugar, with some rosemary too.

Should be an interesting smoke, as the chicken will be done far before the pork.

Very impressed. That meat looked delicious.

Definitely post some bird pictures!

Fnord5 said:

Doing a pork butt, and whole chicken right now.
Pork butt is seasoned with fennel, garlic, chili flakes, pepper, salt, mustard powder, and a little rosemary.

Chicken is seasoned with a 50/50 blend of coarse sea salt and brown sugar, with some rosemary too.

Should be an interesting smoke, as the chicken will be done far before the pork.

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The rosemary sounds like a nice touch. I will add some the next time I do birds.

The bird turned out great, super moist even after being in the smoker for 7 hours or so.
The pork butt isn't falling apart, but has a well defined smoke ring, and is juicy, tender, and delicious.

If you are getting eatable results already then you are more than on your way. I do have a concern that with these larger cuts of meat and you mentioned a turkey that your temps are too low. You have to be very careful about the time any meat or bird is in the danger zone for bacteria. If at all possible get your cooker temps up to 230-250. This will minimize the time that the meat will be above 35 degrees and below 145 degrees.

Thanks for the advice.
I will give it a shot Wednesday, I'll crank the burner to high, and see where that gets me.

It does get to 160 very quickly, but it still didn't break 200 this time, and I had turned it up a little.

Maybe I should just set it at the highest, and just check on it more often.

With the higher temp, will a water pan be necessary, or will the bark hold the good stuff in?

Fnord5 said:

I will give it a shot Wednesday, I'll crank the burner to high, and see where that gets me.

It does get to 160 very quickly, but it still didn't break 200 this time, and I had turned it up a little.

Maybe I should just set it at the highest, and just check on it more often.

With the higher temp, will a water pan be necessary, or will the bark hold the good stuff in?

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A water pan can help keep the environment friendly for flavor absorption and to stabilize temps-start with boiling water. For more flavor a couple of 100% charcoal briqets can be added to the wood dish.

Thank you Jim!
I now have to figure a way to get another layer of stuff in there for the pan...

I am so building one of these! Way cool!