It’s Christmas Day and I’m doing my turkey on the Bullet (of course). The day is partly cloudy, 45°, with a very light breeze.
At 10:00pm the night before, I brined a 9.6 pound bird using a previously prepared and refrigerated solution containing a gallon of vegetable broth into which I dissolved 1 cup Kosher salt, and 3 Tbsp. of liquid Louisiana crab boil. For those of you unfamiliar with the stuff, crab boil is available as either a bag of seasonings to be used in boiling crabs and other seafoods like shrimp and crawfish, or as a convenient liquid. The seasonings it contains include clove, allspice, pepper, and bay. I placed the bird breast side down into a 3 gallon plastic bucket, and poured in equal amounts of my gallon of brine solution, and of ice water until the bird was completely submerged– about 1-1/2 gallons combined. I placed the bucket in the refrigerator until just before lighting the Bullet the next day– a total of about 14 hours.
At 12:00noon Christmas Day, I lit a Weber chimney-full of charcoal, which took about 25 minutes to get going. While I waited, I removed the turkey from the brine, patted it dry, coated it entirely with canola oil, and sprinkled on some rub. I quartered a lemon and half a large onion, and placed them in the cavity. At 12:25pm, I poured the lit charcoal into the charcoal ring and added another Weber chimney-full of unlit briquets. When they got going, in about another 15 minutes, I assembled the Bullet, putting the foil-covered water pan in place– empty– and leaving out the middle cooking grate. With the bottom vents each open halfway, the temperature quickly rose to 500�. I closed the vents down to 50/0/0% to bring the cooker down to my target cooking temperature of 350�.
At 12:55pm, the cooker had dropped to 425�, and I placed the bird on the top rack. I placed 1 chunk each of apple, pecan, and hickory on top of the coals. I waited until an hour into the cook to insert my new Taylor thermometer probe once the cooker stabilized at 350 or below. I did this to avoid damaging the probe, which is rated to a high of 392°.
Five minutes after placing the bird in the Bullet, the temp was down to 300°. Not in the mood to battle getting the temp up like at Thanksgiving, I opened all the vents to 100%. The temp hit 320 in about 15 minutes and stayed steady for almost an hour.
At 2:05pm, the temp rose to 350, and, by 2:30pm was at 370. I set all the vents down to 50%. The Bullet dropped to and hung at around 330° until 3:00pm, at which time the bird was done.
What have we learned? I think this was a pretty uneventful cook, which was a good thing. The turkey turned out great– I will use the crab boil again next time. I also think that, when the Bullet tops out at 500° after assembling it, I will put the bird on at that point and then work to stabilize the temps down to my target cooking range. I think this will have a beneficial effect of crisping the skin, and may speed up the cooking process as well.
Next time, Pork Loin End Roast.