BPS drum vs Pellet cooker: Turkey battle

scooter

Moderator
Staff member
Mrs scooter and I always like to have a turkey dinner a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Sort of a prep for the big day. Went to Costco today and the turkeys are in, Foster Farms for $.99/lb. They also have organic for $2.99/lb.
Bought a 12lb'r (non organic) and decided to do a cooker face off, MAK vs BPS drum.

Note: I cut out the backbone and placed it with the neck onto the MAK before cooking the bird. When the backbone and neck were cooked I placed them into a pot with water and celery then boiled it down to a yummy turkey stock. Made a roux and added the turkey stock. After the bird halves were done and resting in the dripping pan I added some water to the drippings and loosened them up then strained it and added the dripping stock to the gravy. Sensational!

I split the bird right down the middle and seasoned each half exactly the same with garlic olive oil, Jalapeno Seasoned Salt, Desert Gold and Plowboys Yardbird (on the skin).
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One half on the MAK with BM hickory pellets
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The other on the SS drum with K blue bag briquets and a chunk of applewood
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Halfway done flip over
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Done and resting, MAK on the left, drum on the right
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Appearance of the MAK skin
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Appearance of the BPS drum skin
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Appearance of the MAK skin
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Appearance of the BPS drum skin
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Plated with mashed taters and gravy, peas and cranberry sauce. MAK turkey on the left, drum on the right. Now for the results of taste and texture. Both my daughters thought the MAK produced the best tasting bird while Mrs scooter and I preferred the BPS drum turkey. The Jalapeno Season Salt with Desert Gold was a great combo on the bird! Looks like I'll be splitting my birds from now on to please the entire family! It's great to have multiple cooker options on the back deck.
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sheepdad

New member
Wow...All I can say is our plane arrives the day before Thanksgiving .....pick us up at 4:37am..... sharp . Don't worry. We will bring our own forks...don't look like we need knives to cut that smokey tenderness
 

scooter

Moderator
Staff member
The difference was depth of smoke flavor. The drum bird had great smoke flavor from the apple wood chunk. The birds were cooked mostly in the 300-350 range. That is a notoriously efficient range for a pellet cooker where little smoke is put out. The MAK was at a disadvantage due to it's efficiency at those temps.
 
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