Bring me your turkey cooking ideas.

Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. We traditionally go camping with a crowd of other families. I am in charge of turkey for 20 people. That is a huge responsibility requiring a lot of beer to be drunk as the turkey cooks. For the last 5 or so years I have employed the "bury the turkey in a bed of coals" method. I dig a pit twice the size of the turkey, put about a 6 or 8 inch layer of coals down, put the tin foil wrapped and stuffed turkey in the hole, backfill the hole with more coals (and briquettes if I run out of coals), and build a fire on top. Drink beer for 2.5 hours, scrape down to the tin foil and insert thermometer, and either cover up and have another beer, or uncover and eat.

It is awesome once you have the technique down, but I wanted to try something new this year. My brother in law does something similar with a steel garbage can and a lot of briquettes, but it is difficult to monitor the doneness factor.

So I am looking for other ideas. Must be true and tried with very good instructions as feeding 20 people burned, raw or cold turkey will not go over well and I would have to go on the 3 hour hike the next year while someone else has a go. Don't want to loose my position. Also planning to do a massive ham using the same method.

For camping? Portable propane deep fryer.

Can you carry a smoker where you're going? A brined and smoked turkey is heaven on a plate.

that fire pit method sounds pretty good actually.

I am dying to rotisserie a turkey but have not got around to trying it yet. Also wanted to do a beer can turkey....would need a fosters beer can I think.

rotisserie will net you juicy all around inside and out, beer can nets you crispy exterior (skin) and juicy inside.

We've tried the beer can technique a few times with poultry. Always ends up tasting like someone poured a flat and stale beer into the bird. Can't say it enhanced anything in a way any of us actually liked.

Remember, juicy doesn't come from water. Not in meats.

Brine, Inject maple syrup with syringe, dry rub outside, smoke. That or rub some seasoning under skin and toss in hot oil. Either wins

For where you are going to be I think you've dialed in the method.

If you can use a smoker, then yes a brined and smoked turkey is heaven on earth. I did one last year on my Traeger.

I've had garbage-can chicken, and it's really tasty. Want to try it myself, but would first have to acquire a steel garbage can and then burn it off before I use it, and I realize I'm just not that motivated.

We've done fried turkeys for years, and that would certainly fit your requirements. Pros: Quick and bulletproof--recipes are all over the web with exact to-the-minute cook times based on bird weight; fried skin is delicious; breast meat stays nice and moist; equipment is definitely camp-friendly. Cons: You are always a tiny error away from grievous injury; oil expensive and it's wasteful (because we don't otherwise deep fry things); no drippings for gravy (deal-breaker for me, which is why I always roast a turkey, too); no stuffing (not as big a deal, because I make stuffing patties and bake them nice and crisp-tender); carcass is lousy for soup (another deal-breaker); mess to clean up.

My favorite turkey spends a couple of nights before t'giving in a plastic bag with a couple of bottles of wine (I like one red and one white), comes out on the counter a couple of hours before it goes in the oven, then gets patted dry, herbed butter gets inserted under the skin of breast, legs and thighs, inside and outside are generously rubbed with salt, and a couple of onions and carrots and several stalks of celery go inside the neck and body cavities. Put into a hot oven (450 degrees) for the first 20 minutes, then turn down to 325 and roast. Total time will be 5-1/2 to 6 hours for a 20-22 pound turkey. Take it out when temp reaches 165 degrees, let rest while you finish mashed potatoes, carve.

Margie

After weighing the options, I am going to either stick with the true and tried, or roast it on a spit. Thank you for all the suggestions. The nice thing about the pit method is that it is very easy. It seems like most of the other methods require supplies and a lot more effort than I am willing to expend on a Sunday afternoon in a campsite. I did pick up a handy tip though, namely to make a wire handle to use to lift the turkey out of the coals. I usually dig most of the coals out and get my gloved hands underneath which is a little touch and go sometimes.

For the record, if anyone tries this you need dry soil as if you have had enough rain to saturate the soil the coals will cool off and you will have raw turkey. If done right (lots and lots of coals!) it takes about 2.5 hours for a fifteen pounder.

All I can contribute is the fact that a fresh turkey is always better than a frozen one. Its true with most meat, but with turkey it seems to be really true.

In reply to Streetwiseguy: I have never seen an appreciable difference between fresh and frozen for the cost difference, with fresh starting at 5x more than w frozen bird.

In reply to Marjorie Suddard:

What time is dinner?

foxtrapper wrote: We've tried the beer can technique a few times with poultry. Always ends up tasting like someone poured a flat and stale beer into the bird. Can't say it enhanced anything in a way any of us actually liked. Remember, juicy doesn't come from water. Not in meats.

You don't necessarily have to use beer. Try coke, root beer, etc..

Fwiw I've never had one I felt tasted much like beer.

Forgot to mention earlier. For extra crispy brush with olive oil and season the inside and outside of bird. and brush additional oil every 15-20 mins or so while cooking.

foxtrapper wrote: Can you carry a smoker where you're going? A brined and smoked turkey is heaven on a plate.

Can confirm. Father-in-law brines and smokes a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner and it is berking phenomenal. I'm going to miss it bring ~2000 miles away this year.

I have a twist on frying that makes for a remarkable bird. Wind. One year my father and I stumbles upon the best fried bird by accident attempting to deep fry the bird in 25-30 mph winds. The propane fryer was only able to heat the peanut oil up to 250-270 degrees. Deciding that the bird would eventually get up to temperature we went for it. It ended up taking over 3 hours, basically as long as it would've for an oven cooked bird and we were concerned if it would've absorbed too much of an oil taste. But it came out fantastic. Still a nice crispy skin, juicy tender meat and definitely a slow cooked feel and flavor to it. Now if it's not windy we actually take box fans out so that we can knock the propane flames down enough to control the temperature to keep the oil in the target range as the flame control on the propane fryer doesn't have the most precise controls.

1/2 lb bacon
several sprigs of fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage (stems removed)
three cloves of garlic

Put those things in a food processor and make a paste.

Separate the skin from the breast leaving it intact.

Smear that paste all over the breasts under the skin.

Smoke, bake, deep fry, doesn't matter. Yummy.

In reply to curtis73:

That's my go to, but with olive oil instead of bacon. Bonus points for another farm animal though. You should make a pigturdukin