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<p>The breast meat is a probably a bit overdone, but overall not too bad. I usually wait until the pop up timer has either popped or is right on the verge. It’s pretty hard to get the deep interior thigh meat of a turkey done (165 degrees) without the breast meat being at 180+ degrees).</p>
<p>I really don’t like rare poultry…</p>
<p>Has anyone here ever cooked a whole turkey on the grill before? I am intrigued with the idea.</p>
<p>^ there’s some grill threads and links here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1020089-considering-deep-frying-turkey-hints.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1020089-considering-deep-frying-turkey-hints.html</a>, plus links to the prior years’ turkey, gravy and stuffing, pie threads.</p>
<p>Never a whole one on the grill, but I’ve done stuffed and whole (up to 14-15 pounders) using the charcoal/ hanging from a tripod method. Also works great on beef, pork. Once did a 16 pound standing rib roast while camping. Sure made the neighbors jealous. Anyone interested, I’ll post the method.</p>
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<p>Counting helping my dad, I have about 45 years of experience cooking Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys outside, mostly on Weber kettle grills. The logistics are a bit different, but conceptually it’s the same as the oven – indirect heat, roasting at 325 to 350 degrees.</p>
<p>These days, I use a Weber charcoal kettle with extension rings and an electric spit. The turkey is some distance above the fire, indirect heat only. The rotating spit makes the whole affair self-basting and gets the entire turkey uniformly golden brown.</p>
<p>For roasting on a standard Weber, do indirect method (coals on either side), turkey in a roasting pan. I recommend wrapping the turkey in cheesecloth moistened with water and melted butter for the first couple of hours as the turkey is quite close to the heat at the sides and top and the skin can get too dark. You can pull the cheesecloth off for the last hour or two to get the skin golden brown or just keep basting thru the cheesecloth.</p>
<p>One of the tricks is to collect your drippings for gravy after the bird has been on for just an hour or two. You don’t want your gravy drippings to have been in the grill for hours and hours and hours or it will give you too much of a smoky flavor.</p>
<p>How to grill a turkey outside:</p>
<p>Prepare turkey in the usual way and shove in your preheated over. Come back in an hour and find the oven doesn’t seem hot enough. Check again in twenty minutes and find the oven has conked out! What to do? Go outside and start charcoals on grill. When the coals get covered with ash shove them around in a circle. Do you have a v shaped turkey holder? Good. Put that <bad word=“”> turkey on it breast side down, carry outside and put on the grill. And I hope you have a turkey under twelve pounds or a big grill. Why are the coals in a circle? Because you put a foil tray in the middle, you need some drippings for gravy. At some point, turn the turkey over. Go inside and stay warm, mash the potatoes or sweet potatoes and wonder when turkey will be done. Of course you will check the temperature with a meat thermometer.</bad></p>
<pre><code>It will be one of your best turkeys ever. My true life adventure.
Yes, do not burn the drippings. No v shaped rack? Better yet, use roasting pan lined with carrots, celery and onion.
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<p>Mine is the classic one above, saute onion and celery in butter. Dump into bowl. Brown and crumble a pack of sage seasoned sausage, dump in with onion and celery. Add bag of sage seasoned croutons. Melt and add some more butter. Add some chopped walnuts (used to use chestnuts but I’m getting lazier as I age.) Add some dried cranberries. Generously season with poultry seasoning. Add chicken stock until very moist. I don’t pack the bird anymore, but I pack this stuffing into an oven proof bowl and stick in with the turkey to brown and “cook.”</p>
<p>for all who harken back to the “old days” when thinking about food born illnesses, please remember that our food supply has changed over the years. Salmonella wasn’t a wide spread problem in poultry and eggs prior to the dominance of factory farming. Tomatoes used to have more acid, so my mother-in-law’s method of oven canning (not water bath) may have been safer back then, and so on.</p>
<p>I just read the New York Times article on Marilyn Monroe’s stuffing recipe: <a href=“Marilyn’s Stuffing - The New York Times”>Marilyn’s Stuffing - The New York Times;
<p>" Has anyone here ever cooked a whole turkey on the grill before? I am intrigued with the idea. </p>
<p>I have , but only because I lost my electricity in a hurricane…actually, I called char-broil and asked them how to maintain the temperature of the grill. I not only cooked the turkey , but the side dishes as well. The only thing that didn’t taste good was the gravy…tasted like charcoal ;D</p>
<p>But back to the topic at hand. I stuff my bird and have for over 20 yrs. We are a family that likes it kind of simple, and my personal taste has always been the guide. I do not like fruit or nuts , but love sausage in there. I use Pepperidge Farm as my base , follow their basic instruction and add fresh herbs ( sage, rosemary, parsley ), saute’d onions .
Not all of it fits in the bird , so whatever doesn’t gets put in a covered dish large enough to hold it all. I mix the in bird and out of bird and pop it back in the oven to make sure it all blends and no one dies of salmonella poisoning.</p>
<p>So far , no one has become ill from my Thanksgiving dinner :)</p>
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<p>Other things have changed, too.</p>
<p>Eating rare hamburgers or raw eggs used to be considered reasonably safe. Now, with changes in the types of bacteria in the food supply, both are dangerous.</p>
<p>And I think there’s a greater awareness of food safety issues nowadays. It’s likely that many of the illnesses that in past times were called “stomach bugs” are now recognized as food poisoning.</p>
<p>I gave up stuffing the bird quite a few years ago because of concerns about foodborne illness. The turkey cooks quicker when unstuffed, too.</p>
<p>I still stuff the bird, but don’t do it the night before and keep the bird in the garage overnight as my MIL did :eek:</p>
<p>mafool, you had me at hello. Your recipe sounds so wonderful that I don’t think I’ll even need to read the next three pages of posts. I always host Thanksgiving and was told by two different family members this week that I need to redeem myself for last year’s awful stuffing recipe. Each year I’ve tried a new recipe in the hope of finally striking gold. Hope this is the year. Thank you for sharing.</p>
<p>worrywart- I hope they like it! That recipe has never failed me.</p>