Thanksgiving bird.

This year, we were again fortunate enough that no less than two families wanted us to come over for Thanksgiving. Maybe they just wanted to see Ava, but there is baggage associated with that (Celia and I). As such, we didn't have any leftovers for ourselves. I picked up a smoker at the end of summer and have been toying around with various cuts of meat and flavors, so I decided to smoke a turkey breast the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was the whole breast "cavity" so there were actually two breast sections, plus the carcass and some other bits left over to make stock.

I stuffed some olive oil soaked sage (from the garden) under the skin and used apples, cider, beer and bay leaves in the water pan. All I had in the wood department was apple chips and hickory chunks, so I started with the chips, then added the chunks about halfway through. The result was really good, given it was the first turkey I'd ever cooked. Really moist with a sweet, smoky flavor. I didn't really notice much in the way of an apple aroma or taste, but I'm sure it helped mellow out the smoke a bit. Rumor has it we're hosting Thanksgiving next year, so I'm really looking forward to coming up with a couple good ideas for turkey and some other animal to cook up.