pumphrey@ttidcb.UUCP (Larry Pumphrey) (11/19/85)
Here's something a little different for all you pilgrims. It has been a
tradition in our family for over twenty years to go camping on
Thanksgiving and cook our turkey outdoors. I guess this is only
practical in warmer climes that permit late November camping, so please,
no flames.
I won't give any stuffing recipes as you can use your own favorite with
this method of cooking. There are three caveats which _must_ be obeyed
or your turkey is guaranteed to be a failure.
1. The turkey must be sown closed with needle and string. This
is because the turkey is going to be wrapped in foil and you
cannot risk the foil being punctured by any sharp skewers or
other metallic fasteners.
2. You cannot use a butterball or other self-basting turkey as
you will have a fire on your hands.
3. You cannot use a turkey with a pop-up thermometer as this can
also puncture the foil as described in 1) above.
Prepare your cooking fire with charcoal until the coals are covered with
a gray ash. Place the grate over the coals so that it is about 6 inches
above the coals (I'm assuming you have very hot coals, you may want to
put the grate closer if the coals are not so hot.)
The first stage involves browning the skin on the turkey by placing the
bird on the grate and cooking each of the 4 sides about 5 minutes until
the skin is brown. At this point, you'll want to have a pair of thick
pot-holders in order to wrestle the hot turkey around. I use those type
of pot-holders that slip over your hands like gloves. To keep the skin
from sticking to the grate, slide the turkey in a back and forth motion
parallel to the rods on your grate every 15 seconds or so. You could
also lightly oil the bird but this tends to create flames. If the bird
does start flaming, raise the grate to a height at which flaming ceases.
Having now rotated the turkey through each side for browning, remove
from coals to a convenient table or working area.
You must now wrap the turkey in foil. A wide _heavy duty_ foil must be
used and you had better have at least a full roll for wrapping. A full
33 sq yd roll should be sufficient. The layers must alternate as shown
in the diagram below.
|------|
| even |
|layers|
| |
| oo |
|--------||----||-------|
| odd ||bird|| |
| layers |\ /| |
|--------| \--/ |-------|
| |
| |
|------|
Use eight layers of foil, sealing each with a rolled tuck at the top of
the bird. After the first 4 layers (2 in each direction) turn the bird
over so that the last 4 tucks will be on the opposite side from the
first 4 tucks - this makes for a better seal.
Return the bird to the grate. Lower the grate if you previously raised
it during the browning phase. Now, continually rotate the bird every 15
minutes (using your pot-holders) through each of the 4 sides and then
just keep repeating this rotating procedure. It requires 12-15 minutes
per pound until your turkey will be done. Use 12 minutes for hot fires
or smaller birds. I normally use the 15 minute figure as our turkeys
are usually in the 20 lb. or larger range. Also, you will probably need
to add new charcoal to your fire every 45 minutes or so to keep it hot.
The fire should be hot enough so that you can just hear the turkey
sizzling. There's not much to do between rotations so I utilize this
idle time to catch up on my beer drinking :-)
The purpose of the 15 minute rotations is to allow the natural juices to
baste the turkey from all 4 sides on a continual basis. Have faith that
your turkey will be done in the allotted time, if you try to unwrap and
peek ahead of time you'll have a mess on your hands.
-sabrosa