Flash Roasted Turkey

You've heard of a flash mob, flash floods, flash freezing...have you heard of flash roasting??  Yeah, neither had I until earlier today.  I have wanted to grill a turkey for a while.  I remember a Thanksgiving or two when I was a kid, my Grandfather grilled out Thanksgiving turkey on the red Weber grill that still prowls my Mom's backyard some 30 years later.  I can remember the smell like it was yesterday.  Unfortunately I have a ferocious summer cold/sinus infection situation so my smelling and tasting skills are sorely diminished at the moment so I had to take the word of Chris and the kids.

I was following directions from another food blog called Fuster Cluck Farm; well, at least the grilling part.  We had brined our turkey using a recipe Chris had found online and I will post it later.  I got the grill going and if you ask Chris and others in my family I am a little heavy handed when it comes to heat on the grill.  I can cook hot dogs in about 45 seconds on a good fire.  At any rate, we have a grill that actually has an internal thermometer so I can get a feel for how long it's going to take...they say 12 minutes per pound.  I had a turkey that was just shy of 12 pounds; you can do the math, right?

OK, it took a bit to get my fire going, and it was lopsided as usual but I put the turkey on and set the timer for an hour.  The intermal temp was just shy of 300 degrees.  Not bad.  After an hour, I went out and added 15 briquettes and the temp was 345 degrees.  Another hour on the timer and suddenly I am realizing that we are going to eat early!  The color on the bird was fantastic...I am still kicking myself that the bird was carved already when I thought to take a photo.  After the second hour, the internal temp on the grill was about 365 and the little timer thing that comes in a turkey had popped.  I came in and got my meat thermometer, pulled the bird off the grate and took its temperature.  182 degrees on the first try---we're eating VERY early.  I pulled the bird and almost 90 minutes later we were still over 300 degrees on the grill.  We couldn't eat until the potatoes and stuffing got finished but dinner was done and the kitchen was clean before 5pm in my house today.  I even got a post dinner nap!

I'll have to grill a turkey again soon.  I want to be able to smell and taste my handiwork...oh yeah and we need a photo!