Thanksgiving Brisket

[Dirtytires]

I really dislike 2:30 am but really enjoy a good brisket. Had the alarm set for 4:00 but couldn't sleep so figured I'd get the pit fired up and get the show on the road.

I've never been a big fan of turkey so this year decided to break the trend and picked up a full packer, prime cut brisket. Trimmed and salted yesterday then put my home-mixed rub on this morning. Got the brisket in a little after 3 so we will see if it is ready in time for the meal. My wife lets all the cooking for me but, somehow, she decides what time we should eat.

Anyway, hope someone is out there firing up their pits since I hate the idea of being up alone! Best wishes for a happy and safe Thanksgiving Day to all.

[Barrion2018]

I got up early and started my pit aswell, but not that early.

I brined a 14 pound turkey for the first time ever yesterday, going to pull it out of the frig and inject it with some butter and through it on the pit in a couple of min from now.

[Dirtytires]

Glad I'm not alone!

I've done some really good turkeys in the past and convinced that smoking them is the best method. It's probably too late, but I've found they will cook faster and stay moister if you spatchcock the bird. I do this with my chickens as well and have never been disappointed.

[SeenRed]

I actually ran my pit yesterday...wanted to be able to enjoy today without worrying if the meat would be done in time for a 12 noon feast (just like you, DT, my wife sets the time - I'm expected to meet it). My bunch (esp. Mrs. Red) expects a variety of Thanksgiving day meats, so I smoked a large bone-in turkey breast and the biggest pork tenderloin I could find. And Mrs. Red did a honey ham in her crock pot all night.

You guys enjoy your day - Happy Thanksgiving!

Red

[Barrion2018]

I didn't even think about spatchcocking the turkey!

We are planning on eating around 3pm, so everything should be done by then. I'm going to cook/smoke it low and slow for the first 3 hours, then cover it and bump the temp up to 325 and finish it.

Like Red, we'll be having a variety of meat also (smoked of course). We'll be having the turkey I mentioned, plus I' bought a Seafood Jambalaya Turducken, never had one before. We thought it would be fun to try. We are also having freash wild hog ham that I made, it turned out great, going to reheat it with a honey butter glaze.

I'll try to post some pics later.

You enjoy your day too Red. You too Dirtytires!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

[Dirtytires]

Sounds like you guys had a successful cook....glad to hear all turned out as expected.

I tend to run late by about an hour but today ended up cooked and hour-rested with 3 hours to go till mealtime. Oh well, at least I wasn't the hold-up this year!

[SheffSmoker]

Happy thanksgiving you guys. Not got much done in the way of smoking here for a month or so as the weather has been storm after storm with heavy rain.

[Barrion2018]

Happy thanksgiving you guys. Not got much done in the way of smoking here for a month or so as the weather has been storm after storm with heavy rain.

Thank you SheffSmoker!

Heavy rain?? that sucks! I would have thought you would be getting snow this time of year.

Hopefully it will clear up soon, so you can get back out there smoke something.

Thanks again SheffSmoker!!

[towtruck]

We were going to have a friend over on Thanksgiving and I was going to cook a leg of lamb in my wood fired oven but she ended up going to her daughters instead. We did a turkey instead. I wanted to smoke our turkey this year as I did one earlier and it came out great. The wife wanted to stuff it so it went into the oven. I have been working some crazy hours for the last five months and have not had the time to do much smoking. I have bbq'd a few things on the old Webber in the last month but that is about it. Looks like the next opportunity will be cooking a prime rib for xmas in the wood fired oven.