After buying the Smoke-EZ conversion unit I had great success smoking pork loins, ribs, leg of lamb, Italian sausage, chicken and various vegetables, I even tried corn on the cob on the lower rack while smoking a pork loin on the top.  However my goal was to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving.  I had a test turkey run the weekend before Thanksgiving with a 13lb fresh turkey.  I applied a turkey rub we had used in the past.  Following the warnings about allowing the turkey to remain within the “bad” temperature zone (40-140) for too long , I decided to bake the turkey for two hours at 225 and then smoked for about 7 hours to achieve the correct meat temperature.  That turkey turned out great but nothing spectacular.

So after I bought the frozen 19.8lb turkey (pre-basted Jennie-O young turkey) for the Thanksgiving feast, I read online about not using a turkey over 14lbs for smoking.  However after reading the recipes on the Smoke-EZ website I noticed that part of making a great pork shoulder is to truly pre-cook at a reasonable temperature for the meat.  Facing certain death, I completely thawed the turkey, brushed on a layer of molasses and garlic olive oil, used a slight variation on the basic rub on the Smoke-EZ site, stuck a beverage can half filled with triple sec and several whole cloves up the backend of the turkey, set the turkey upright (on the can), legs extended on a roasting grill in a roasting pan, covered with a piece of parchment paper (the rub eats aluminum foil sometimes), sealed with aluminum foil and let sit overnight.

The next morning I baked the turkey still covered and sealed in a 375 oven for 2 ½ hours.  Then I transferred the turkey using the grilling rack to my Smoke-EZ converted Weber grill.  The drippings from the pre-bake were used to make the gravy for the feast.

I then smoked at around 250 for only about 4 hours, basting every once in a while with olive oil.  After checking several times for correct meat temperature I removed the turkey, covered to retain heat and let rest for about 45 minutes

Needless to say the meat fell off the bones and the guest ate as much as is reasonable for a Thankgiving feast.  In addition I have never been able to remove so much turkey from a carcass so easily.  Next we boiled all of the remaining carcass for flavorable broth.

I got one of the first smokers produced, and lemme tell ya, it’s impressive. It cooks like a dream and looks fantastic sitting on my old Weber grill. I’ve never smoked anything before in my life, and following the recipes on this site, I cooked a Boston butt the other day that was just outstanding. And the cooking process was as simple as it sounds - low and slow. I prepped the meat on Saturday, started the smoking process early Sunday morning, and by the time church let out, you could pull the pork apart with a spoon.