Grilling Notes: THANKSGIVING Double Trouble - Both RecTeqs Engaged - 26 November 2020

[Sscottfitz]

Note: Moving this Grilling Note to "The Lounge" as it covers both the Trailblazer and Bullseye for the same event.

Not sure why we put so much effort into a Thanksgiving meal that at most will serve 6 people... We’re taking meals to as many neighbors who will take them, and we’ll probably still have enough leftovers that will get us to Christmas….THAT SAID, we just get pumped up for this holiday, and I get to prove once again, that I’m as accomplished a griller as I am a bass fisherman… Those who know me (especially my fishing buddies) are laughing right now….. I'm VERY mediocre at both skills…..

This is a 2x Grill event - We’re smoking a ~6 lb Boneless Turkey Breast on the Trailblazer and doing a “Double Smoked Maple Syrup Injected, Bourbon Glazed Spiral Ham” (~8 lbs) on the new Bullseye. Both cooks are going to be in the ~225-250F range, but there will be basting, and glazing, etc. So these will probably 3~5 to 4 hour cooks.

• Grill Location: Hot Springs Village, AR.; 34 37 60.0N 92 54 55.4W - actually one of the cooler days we’ve had this month, but that’s OK, it fells a little more like fall outside - more importantly NO RAIN! Thanks again Mother Nature for cooperating this year!
• Weather at START time of Grill: Mostly clear and sunny somewhere above the fog, but it seems to be burning off pretty quickly Temp 35F, Humidity 100%.
• Total Grill Times:
  • Trailblazer: 5 Hr 37 Min (08:22 - 13:59 CST)
  • Bullseye: 4 Hr 19 Min (08:22 - 12:41 CST)
• Total Event Time: 6 Hrs, 42 Min (does NOT include the time spent Wednesday morning making Brine for the Turkey Breast, and Maple Injecting and making and applying the initial Rub for the Ham - that was probably about 2 hrs worth of effort.
• Grill Plates: No
• Temp Probes:
  • Trailblazer: Yes, x 2, just because I don’t trust these probes……<grin>
  • Bullseye: Yes
• Pellets Used: Rec Tec Ultimate Blend ( I did get bags of Kingsford Hickory and one of Maple, but it was too big of a deal to change out the pellets just for one cook…….I swear I’m getting lazy in my old age…)

• Meat & Meat Prep
  • Meat:
    • 1 x Boneless ~6 lb Fresh Turkey Breast (Clampits Meat Market) - brined in a Apple Cider based fruity brine.
    • 1 x Smoked Spiral Sliced ~8 lb Ham (also from Clampits Meat Market) - Maple Syrup Injected, Bourbon Maple based rub and glaze.
    • Total Meat Prep Time: Turkey Brined for ~19 hrs, Ham cure after inject and rub, ~18.5 hrs

• Sides:
  • KILLER Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
  • Deviled Eggs
  • Green Beans - “Southern Style” (means lots of bacon thrown in for good measure)
  • Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce provided by Nice & Nephew
• Deserrts:
  • Pumpkin Cheesecake, Apple Pie, & a Chess Pie (if you are NOT from the south and you’ve never heard of a Chess Pie, shoot me a note, I’m glad to share this gem…….I only get it for Thanksgiving & Christmas……it’s THAT good, and THAT bad for you…..

Misc Grill Observations - all times are CST

• Grill Start to Target Temp
  • Trailblazer: 56F to 250F ~ 21 min (08:22 - 08:43 CST)
  • Bullseye: 41F to 225F ~15 min (08:22-08:37 CST)
• Meat On the Grill
  • Trailblazer (Turkey Breast) ~08:49 CST, Breast placed on Rack over Drip Pan - Target Temp 165F
    • Started off at 250, bumped it down to 225F around 10:06, meat temp at 106, bumped down to 200 at 10:38, meat temp at 124. Bumped the temp back up and eventually to 350 for the last 10~15 min to get up to the desired 165F (this was based largely on a desired “ready to eat time”). Continually based the breast with Sam Adams October Fest beer (usually we use Red’s Apple Ale, but didn’t have any, and we may have a new base liquid of choice…..)
  • Bullseye (Ham) ~08:41 CST, Sprial Ham on Rib Rack over a Drip Pan - Target Temp 140F
    • Finally bumped this down to the low setting ~12:15, as temps were at 134,
    • 1st on grill Glaze was at 120F, (~11:48 CST), 2nd and final Glaze was at 135F
    • Ham was at 140 and removed from Bullseye ~12:45 CST

General Comments:

• Hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving holiday!
• Last year, we did a full bird in the oven, a little larger ham on the BGE, and some ribs using the insta Pot and Gril, but we were serving ~23 folks - MUCH smaller crowd this year, and knowing the pellet grills were both providing us good smoking AND keeping the temps constant really helped.
• Very happy with the performance of both recteqs. They both performed as expected, holding temps consistently during the entire cooks.
• From an overall results rating, I’d award the Turkey Breast an easy “10” - mosts everyone said it was an absolutely delicious smoked Turkey Breast. We’re giving the Ham a solid “7”, we THINK we should have 1) started it a little later (maybe an hour), and 2) cooked it at either 200 or even the Lo setting, and raised it to 225 or maybe even 250 for the last 30 min…….it was a little “crusty” for some reason, we think it might of been a hotter cook (another hint that the Bullseye is burning a little hotter, AND of course has a more compact cooking space.
• Not captured in the heart of the grill notes, but the wife did throw in an experiment near the end of the session since the ham came off early - Smoker Pull Apart Bread (off of Pinterest) - I only tracked that it went on the Bullseye at a 350 setting, not 100% how long, but it was pretty good