This Thanksgiving is going to be my first opportunity to smoke a turkey
for my entire immediate family. I'm expecting 15 people for dinner, and
I own a Brinkman electric water smoker.

What's the best way for me to feed everybody? (without buying a good
smoker :-) ) I've never smoked a bird over 14 pounds, and a quick
Google search makes me think that my little Brinkman can't handle
really big birds. My guess is that I should do a 20 pound turkey to
make sure that we won't run out. I would be willing to cook 2 smaller
(10-12 pounds) birds if that would work. Would it? Or I'd be willing to
do a turkey plus something else like a pork shoulder, chicken, or
salmon. Any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Rufus

When it comes to cooking for a crowd, my advice (fwiw) is to avoid doing
something you haven't tried before, preferably several times. If you
stick with the turkey size range that you've successfully done before in
your smoker, you should be in good shape.

I haven't seen a Brinkmann electric smoker in person, but my guess is
that it would be hard pressed to handle anything larger than a 14 pound
bird. So you could smoke a ten-to-twelve pounder in the Brinkmann and
do another small one in the kitchen oven. That way people will have a
choice of smoked or not, and there will be plenty of food for everyone
(double the drumsticks, thighs and wings, too).

If you have any room left over in the smoker, you could do something
else, like you mentioned, ideally something compatible with the type of
wood you're using for smoke. (I'd use apple, which is excellent with
turkey and also great with most other stuff, imo.)

Good luck,
Bob
==========================
In article . com>,
says...
> This Thanksgiving is going to be my first opportunity to smoke a turkey
> for my entire immediate family. I'm expecting 15 people for dinner, and
> I own a Brinkman electric water smoker.
>
> What's the best way for me to feed everybody? (without buying a good
> smoker :-) ) I've never smoked a bird over 14 pounds, and a quick
> Google search makes me think that my little Brinkman can't handle
> really big birds. My guess is that I should do a 20 pound turkey to
> make sure that we won't run out. I would be willing to cook 2 smaller
> (10-12 pounds) birds if that would work. Would it? Or I'd be willing to
> do a turkey plus something else like a pork shoulder, chicken, or
> salmon. Any other suggestions?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Rufus
>

I've had pretty good results with big turkey's in my ECB with the beer can
chicken method. Except that owing to the size of a turkey, I use the "oil
can" size of Fosters beer instead of the standard 12 oz can.