Flutterby™! : Smoked Turkey

Had guests over for dinner last night, and we tried out some of the recipes we're going to be using for Thanksgiving as well as a few others. The turkey was, in the words of one guest, worth being born for:

• 12 lb turkey
• half gallon apple cider
• 5 juniper berries, crushed
• 5 allspice berries, crushed
• 2 fresh bay leaves, crushed
• 1 cup kosher salt
• enough water to fill the brining pot

Marinate in the fridge for 36 hours, smoke with charcoal and hickory chips for 4 hours, have the smoker hit and knocked over by a visitor's car, pick everything back up and smoke for another hour, then get nervous and finish in a 350°F oven until done (180°F). I think you can skip the getting run over by the car thing, and I think I'll have a better handle on smoker temperature on my next run, so we'll smoke all the way through. I'm also going to up the juniper berries by a few.