Smoking a Turkey for Thanksgiving?

It seems that fried Turkey may not be as popular as it once was, and turkey on a smoker may be coming back for some, and the usual way to cook Thanksgiving dinner for others.

A few imortant things to keep in mind when cooking a turkey in the smoker;

1. The best size to smoke is no larger than 14 lbs, above that, depending on the type of smoker you have, airflow, and consistent temp may be an issue.

2. If your cooking your bird on an offset cooker, consider putting cheese cloth over top of the turkey while it cooks. This will prevent ash and creosote from ruining your Thanksgiving Turkey.

3. Last, but certainly not least, be very careful with the smoke. Turkey is a very mild flavor, so a very light smoke is all it needs.

Below is a segment from my DVD “Backyard BBQ with HomeBBQ.com”, this segment is fixing Turkey. The video itself is from my channel on YouTube.. Enjoy!

�

The HomeBBQ.com DVD’s can be purchased through www.homebbqvideo.com or Amazon.com

What Appeared to be Becoming Fiction, is Now Reality

For over a year I have been talking about it, and almost 9 month’s ago, they were filmed, and now they are a reality. As of today, Grilling With HomeBBQ.com and Backyard BBQ with HomeBBQ.com are officially available for sale, and shipment.

At the begining of January, I sent out a notice to all of my loyal customers letting them know they could purchase the DVD’s, pre-release at a substancial discount. Many purchased them, the unfortunate thing was, they were not ready until now. I deeply apologize to those who have been waiting patiently for these, this is something I am brand new to, and had no idea what obstacles I was about to face. I have lots of boxes outside my front door right now waiting for USPS to pick up, and they are finally on their way to you.

The DVDs are initially being made available through CreateSpace.com’s on Demand program, and are now also available through Amazon.com, the product ASIN’s at Amazon are as follows;
Grilling With HomeBBQ.com - B001DKY3H2
Backyard Barbecue with HomeBBQ.com - B001DL1DKG

You can purchase them directly through CreateSpace.com here;
Grilling with HomeBBQ.com - http://www.createspace.com/252519
Backyard BBQ with HomeBBQ.com - http://www.createspace.com/252518 

In about 3 to 4 weeks, they will also be available through Amazon’s Unbox. This is an exiting time for us, and hope you thouroughly enjoy these DVDs.

HomeBBQ.com releases 2 New DVD’s

HomeBBQ.com has released 2 DVD’s for the backyard cook. “Grilling with HomeBBQ.com” and “Backyard BBQ with HomeBBQ.com”.

In “Grilling with HomeBBQ.com”, Kevin Bevington (5 time FBA Team of the Year Champion) demonstrates cooking on gas and charcoal grills. He starts with the basics and then goes into some great food, including full recipes, and preparation. This DVD will include; Hamburgers, Steak, Chicken, Tri-Tip Roast, Pork Chops, Grilled Salmon, Shrimp, Stuffed Flank Steak, Baltimore Pit Beef, Pork Loin, and much more..

In “Backyard BBQ with HomeBBQ.com” Kevin Bevington (5 time FBA Team of the Year Champion) demonstrates cooking low and slow on a small offset cooker, and a bullet style water pan smoker. He starts with the basics on how to start your cookers, maintaining even temp, goes through full meat prep, and the process of cooking and finishing these meats. This DVD includes full recipes, and preparation. Included are the following; Boston Butt (pulled pork), Beef Brisket, St Louis Style Ribs, Baby Back Ribs, Country Style Ribs, Standing Rib Roast, Turkey, and much more.

These DVD’s can be purchased now via CreateSpace.com through the links below.

Grilling with HomeBBQ.com - http://www.createspace.com/252519

Backyard BBQ with HomeBBQ.com - http://www.createspace.com/252518

We will make these available as packages on HomeBBQ.com online store soon.

Is My Barbecue Ready Yet? – Cooking Beef Brisket

Join the forum discussion on this post - (3) Posts

By Kevin Bevington
Now that we have our rub, the right equipment, and we are able to control a consistent temperature, we are ready to attempt the toughest meat to cook, Beef Brisket. Lets first discuss how to select the meat you are about to cook. Beef Brisket can typically be sold in 3 different size cuts.

First, is the whole packer cut, this whole cut includes the 2 very distinctly different muscles that make up the entire cut, you have the flat which would be considered the flat long piece of meat, the point, which includes the nose end, and the meat layer underneath the flat, which is separated by a layer of fat which is also known as a deckle layer. The whole packer cut is the most desirable cut to cook in your smoker, the main reason being, the tremendous amount of fat that can be left on this cut to give it plenty of moisture to draw from while cooking.

The next cut would be just the flat cut. The flat is exactly that, if you buy this piece of meat, it will likely be closely trimmed, and that makes it more of a challenge to cook in your smoker, without drying it out.

Ok, now lets discuss the grade of meat you will need to choose, I will only touch on this briefly, because this subject could easily be an article of its own. The 3 beef grades we will discuss here are as follows;

Select - This grade is a leaner animal, and with beef brisket you need marbled fat to help get this fibrous cut tender, without falling apart, and being dry. This is not the grade to choose.
Choice - There is actually more than 1 level of choice, however, as a whole, choice has more marbled fat, and would be the one to pick, based on availability. You can cook a choice brisket until it is tender, without it falling apart, and without it being dry.
Prime - This grade has the highest level of marbled fat, and as a result, if cooked properly can produce a brisket of extreme quality. However, it can be very difficult to find.
Based on what is available to you, you need to select your brisket based on marbling (a web like appearance) of fat, and size. I would normally choose a heavier whole packer brisket, my favorite size somewhere between 14 and 16lbs. I would not cook one under 10lbs.

Now that we have our meat selected, you will want to marinate this piece of meat, either using a dry rub, or a combination of a marinade and a dry rub. You can also inject this piece of meat, however because it is so fibrous you will have to be very careful injecting, the majority of your injection could end up everywhere, instead of inside the brisket. If you do decide to inject, I would inject in the same direction as the grain.

Once you have placed your desired rub, and or marinade on your brisket, let this piece of meat marinate for at least 6 to 8 hours. I prefer to give it 10 to 12 hours marinate time.

Here is my recommended method for cooking this piece of meat. Your cooking temperature should be between 225 to 250 degrees F. Place the brisket in your smoker, fat side down, and cook until it the bark reaches the desired color. The internal temp at this point should be between 150 - 170 degrees F. Double wrap in aluminum foil, and put it back into your smoker, and continue to cook until tender in the thickest part of the flat. Using your instant read thermometer, the internal temp should be between 190 - 196 degrees F, and your thermometer should slide easily in and out of the meat. Then remove from your smoker, and let rest in a warmed environment, for a minimum of 1 hour. Then remove the brisket from the foil and slice against the grain, to a thickness of 3/8 of an inch. Serve immediately with your favorite bbq sauce.

The New HomeBBQ.com

Join the forum discussion on this post - (6) Posts

Welcome to our new website, it has certainly been a challenge, getting this together. I apologize for the re-register and realize it has just been 2 1/2 years since we did this before, but this was something that needed to be done to keep up with the times, and as a result of ongoing security concerns.

The cut-over to the new site was premature, due to several sql injection attacks on my site, the latest this morning.

Many new features here, that I think you will enjoy. This web site is now capable of all the new blogging and social craze going on with the web.

What is most exciting about this new website, is we have several contributing to this site now. The authors are as follows:

Kevin Bevington - HomeBBQ.com (owner)

Brian Pearcy - TheBBQGuy
Brian has 2 websites, http://www.thebbqguy.com, and his own blog at http://www.bbqguyblog.blogspot.com  Brian has been a friend of mine for several years, and was a member of the original version of the HomeBBQ.com competition team in 2002, and early 2003. Brian brings alot to the table here as a bbq competitor, and his thorough approach. We are very excited to have him with us.

Tim Cochran - We have known Tim since January of 2005, when he and his partner David cooked right behind us at a contest. Tim has contributed much to the BBQ Brethren Forum, and we are exited to have him here with us at HomeBBQ.com.

Dan Colmerauer - Dan has been a big contributer to HomeBBQ.com since it’s inception, and has helped 100’s if not 1000’s of people as they asked their questions on the www.homebbq.com website. We are very excited to have Dan with us in this role.

Greg Rempe - You might already know Greg from the BBQ Central Forum, Show, and Podcasts http://bbq-4-u.com/ . Greg will be sharing much with us, I know I have enjoyed his podcasts, and I am looking forward to his contribution here at HomeBBQ.com.

Our mission here at HomeBBQ.com is to be the definitive source of information to the Backyard BBQ Chef, and Griller. If you have comments or suggestions, please let us know.

I hope you enjoy the new website!

Kevin
HomeBBQ.com