TR: An Orion Thanksgiving

[WoodCore]

With a little persuading of the doubters in my family and my acceptance of the huge burden of responsibility that comes with cooking the Thanksgiving turkey the Orion did not disappoint the masses.

Cooked a 14.5 lb turkey in roughly 2 hours that was given rave reviews by all the dinners at the table. In fact the turkey came out so good that the family is already requesting the Orion be used to prepare our x-mas dinner carnage!!!

I didn't get over fancy with the prep and simply did a dry rub of salt, pepper and some store bought poultry spices. I didn't have any wood chips available and per the advice in the manual when cooking without them, didn't add any liquid to the drip pan, simply placed the bird in the cooker and fired it up!

Two side notes:

I placed some of my Mothers homemade stuffing in a foil pocket on the top grate to see how it would come out and was surprise to find out that it was almost as good as if where stuffed in the bird!

Although the bird was fully cooked, flavorful, tender and very juicy the lack of wood chips in the cooker did not provide for a browned and crispy outer skin.

Here's some pictures....

 

[RootDKJ]

Looks great! Congratulations! The only drawback I can attribute to the Orion is because so much moisture is retained inside the cooker, even with a full load of wood chips, the skin really won't get very crispy. But hey, how much of the skin do you really eat anyway (in terms of % of the total bird). Same it true with ribs, which is why I finish them on the grill.

 

[WoodCore]

Looks great! Congratulations! The only drawback I can attribute to the Orion is because so much moisture is retained inside the cooker, even with a full load of wood chips, the skin really won't get very crispy. But hey, how much of the skin do you really eat anyway (in terms of % of the total bird). Same it true with ribs, which is why I finish them on the grill.

Amen!

 

[Johnskiismore]

Stomach grumbling loudly, now even louder!

 

[drjeff]

Nice looking bird Woodcore!

Got my Orion loaded up in the back of the car right now ready for a trip to the parking lots outside of Gillette Stadium where I will de-virginize my rib racks!

 

[RootDKJ]

Nice looking bird Woodcore!

Got my Orion loaded up in the back of the car right now ready for a trip to the parking lots outside of Gillette Stadium where I will de-virginize my rib racks!

Expecting a full TR Jeff!:smile:

 

[drjeff]

Expecting a full TR Jeff!:smile:

Atleast in text, don't know about pics as the group I go with has an unwritten rule of "what happens during tailgating stays at tailgating"

 

[RootDKJ]

The best suggestion I can offer you is use hickory, apple or a combination of both with a good dry rub.. My personal favorite for ribs is 50/50 hickory & cherry.

Rubs I've had good success with are
#1 Favorite

#2

 

[Glenn]

Nice work WoodCore! Cool that you were able to convince them to you let you take over the cooking.

 

[drjeff]

Expecting a full TR Jeff!:smile:

The TR: (sorry, no pics today)

Food Great! Weather + my beloved Patriots, not great

Well, the Orion cooks just as good in a 35 degree steady rain as it does on a nice dry day. Within minutes of setting the orion up today I had multiple other tailgating groups asking me what it was and "is this an Orion?" heck, between some of the guys I tailgate with, and other tailgaters near my grop, I probably help sell as 3 or 4 of them today

Todays menu was just plain and simple, RIBS 3 racks totalling just under 15lbs of pork goodness I put just a simple "swine rub" on them, put some hickory chips around the drip pan, and donated a Magic Hat Roxy Roles from last years winter sampler pack(not my favorite beer by nay means) for some mositure.

75 minutes later, I not only had 3 perfectly done racks, but a bunch of fully sold Orion fans

 

[RootDKJ]

I'll venture a guess that they might have just been some of the best ribs you've had!

 

[WoodCore]

Dr. Jeff, sound like the ribs came out great. I assume there weren't any leftovers.

 

[drjeff]

Dr. Jeff, sound like the ribs came out great. I assume there weren't any leftovers.

The only thing left in the serving pan was the random bits of swine rub seasoning that few off

Still tough for me to believe that the Orion can take 15 lbs of ribs from raw to perfect in 75 minutes! Plus, I will say that seeing the cooking vessel all loaded up with a rack of ribs on each rib hanger was a glorious carnivorous site!

 

[RootDKJ]

Still tough for me to believe that the Orion can take 15 lbs of ribs from raw to perfect in 75 minutes! Plus, I will say that seeing the cooking vessel all loaded up with a rack of ribs on each rib hanger was a glorious carnivorous site!

Yeah I know right, magic!