Turkey cooking

Today, as we do every Thanksgiving my family is cooking a turkey.  However, we don't cook the turkey in the oven or use a deep fryer.

We have a different way of cooking turkeys that my parents have been doing for decades now.  In fact I have my own turkey cooker that they had made for me, though we haven't had a chance to use it yet as we always end up spending Thanksgiving at either my parent's house or the house of one of my siblings.

I think my parents originally learned this cooking method from my uncle (my Dad's late brother) who learned it in the Boy Scouts.  Whatever it came from I know it was many years ago.

First we start with the charcoal.  Place a good number of briquettes in a fireproof container and set them alight.

In the meantime the turkey is being prepared.  All of the items packaged inside are removed, heavy-gauge wire is strung through the turkey, and it is double-bagged.

My Dad reserves all of the guts and such packed inside the turkey because he likes making giblet gravy.  Not many in the family enjoy it as much as he does--most of the rest of us just like regular gravy.

Once the turkey is ready it is hung inside the frame.  The frame consists of four legs joined together at the top by an eyebolt from which the turkey wire is suspended so that the turkey hangs in the middle.  At the bottom of the legs are baskets made of chicken-wire.  Once the flames on the briquettes have died down then you're ready to go.  Divide the burning briquettes evenly between the four baskets.  Then fill up the rest of the basket with unlit briquettes.  As the briquettes burn they'll light the others on top of them.

Next starting near the top of the frame wrap it with aluminum foil.  It will take several long pieces to cover up the entire frame.

Make sure that your strips of aluminum foil are long enough so that you'll be able to crimp the two edges together.

Put the bottom piece of foil on last as you'll be removing it several times during the cooking process to add more charcoal briquettes.

At the end of the wrapping process after you add foil to the top you'll want to add some old towels for weight to make sure that the foil doesn't come off and let all of your cooking heat escape.

Here you can see the burning charcoal briquettes with the unburned ones that were added on top not yet burning.

When you're ready to add more charcoal open the bottom wrap of aluminum foil.

You can see that a number of the burning briquettes have crumbled to ash and there is room to load more fresh ones at the top that will catch fire and keep the cooking process going.

The inside of the frame is a hot oven cooking the turkey by this point.  It will continue until the meat is fully cooked and usually falling off the bone tender.

At the end of the cooking process the turkey looks amazing.

Five years ago I filmed the entire process and edited it together into one video, so if you prefer that style then watch it below.




I hope that you enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving however you decide to cook your turkey.

~Matt