Abstract:

Every year, I do my Thanksgiving turkey a bit different. A good gobbler is high art as far as I'm concerned, I am a fool for smoked turkey. It may just be one of the world's most perfect foods. Now that I've indoctrinated myself into the cult of 'que, there was no way that I wasn't going to show my Thanksgiving turkey the smoke. This smoked turkey starts with brine that infuses said poultry with all the flavors of fall, and finishes its journey in my barbeque basted inside and out with a Bourbon whiskey apple butter mop.

Purpose:

Last year, I did a brief post as to what I did to my Thanksgiving Turkey. I figured I could do a bit better this year, so as the dust has indeed settled from the Thanksgiving Holiday, I went back to my notes (you do keep notes when you cook, right?) to see what I could share about this year's T-day experience. A friend of mine who smokes birds with the Wichita Wagonmasters had told me about rubbing down a turkey with apple butter before showing it the smoke, and almost a year later I was still obsessed with that notion. All the same, after sitting on that idea for so long, it's bound to evolve just a little bit. So, as I'm doing my recipe planning, I wanted to see if there was anyone else out there doing their turkey with apple butter; and of course there was. Butter? Bourbon? Apple Butter? Smoke? Up to this point, I'd never smoked a whole turkey, but given all the "enhancements" along with the smoke, I was almost sure there was no way I was gonna screw it up.



I know I'm not exactly known for my brevity, but given the length and complexity of this recipe, I'm gonna try to keep the intros short. This is Thanksgiving; we all know why we're here. Let's get to it!