For Christmas dinner, a six pound turkey breast spent eight hours in the smoker at ~230 deg. F.
As Monty Burns would say: "EX-cellent":D
I'm partial to the white meat, and the wife doesn't much care for turkey, so I figured I was better off with a breast than a whole turkey - although it did force me to alter my normal prep a bit. When prepping a whole bird, I boil the giblets in water to make a broth for preparing the stuffing and gravy - with no giblets with the breast, I trimmed off some of the rib bones to use to make the broth. Obviously with only a breast, the stuffing couldn't go inside, so I used a casserole dish to hold the stuffing and put the breast on top - the juices dripping from the breast made a tasty, moist stuffing :ok:.
I was a bit surprised, the wife usually skips the turkey and sticks with the 'fixings', but not only did she take a good sized slice of the smoked turkey, she actually went back for seconds of both turkey and stuffing :E

Guilty as charged, Mr. BEagle!
I truly wished to be the creator of that culinary masterpiece, but alas I am not.
Sadly, in the country where I'm living now (ex-commie block), wurstels and hot dogs are considered a great meal....and I thought that Yanks were bad!

DirtyProp, have you tried cooking up some Cigánypecsenye on a Weber? Or Transylvanian Fatányéros?

Ribs, chicken wings, pulled pork, beef joints, whole turkeys & chickens are to be found on American grills. Weber-Stephen is of course an American company.

My UK colleagues come over to stay, and are amazed at what can be cooked on a proper grill (with a lid). They are used to flashing their thin steaks on an open grill, and wonder why they end up with uncooked, but burnt, sausages!

A tiny bite there from me :)

I have not.
And thank you for pointing them out to me, 'cause I never heard of them before.

I rest my case. :E

Turkey on a Weber?

That was fairly common in Portadown Way, JHQ for many years, because the gas pressure for the crappy little MQ ovens was sadly reduced on Christmas Day.
My Big Red One from 1990 is still going strong, but our meal on The Day was an away game this year.

JHQ was fine for a posting, but sod actually living there. As you intimate, the MQs were arse. All the buildings were arse, come to think of it. No longer an issue, all gone.

Slow-smoked turkey always tastes better to me than plain roasted, so the Big Green Egg's been preferred for many years now. Weber kettles are OK, but the Egg is streets ahead.

DirtyProp
As I understand it, the 'art' of proper BBQ - slow smoking meat for several hours (and definitely NOT to be confused with grilling over high heat which is all to often mistakenly referred to as BBQ) - originated in the American south. The black slaves discovered that they could take the lousy cuts of meat their white masters didn't want and make them not just eatable but quite tasty by slowly smoking the meat for many hours. Even today, many if not most, of the best BBQ places in the USA have old black guys as the 'head cook' :ok:
It's only been fairly recently that large parts of the middle and upper class have discovered just how good proper BBQ really is, and applied it to better cuts of meat, making it just that much better.:D
BTW, having travelled over much of the world, the only place where I struggled to find a good meal was the UK (until I was told to avoid the domestic stuff and head for the Indian restaurants).:ugh:

Perhaps the portions were not big enough?

Thank you, Tdracer.
Yes, culinary-wise the Brits have been a MAJOR disappointment....:E

"culinary-wise?"

The simple food is good.

Regarding the origin of slow-cooked smoked meat in America, would this have been as a result of knowledge the slaves brought with them from their homelands? Given the African climate, surely a way of extending the life of raw meat would have been developed by the native population?

When on detachment to Barksdale AFB in 1979, I certainly recall a meal in a 'Louisiana smoke house' just outside the base. Rather a rough and ready place, lacking much in the way of fancy furniture and fittings, but the ancient black woman who ran the place produced some very tasty food.

On the topic of old black guys, can any of our US PPRuNers confirm whether old Charles Baker is still with us? A few years ago he celebrated his 60th year as barman at the Barksdale O Club. Pilots who first knew him when they were lieutenants would later come down to chat with him as multi-starred generals!

British food? Often dull, bland and unimaginative. In 't North they still eat the unmentionable parts of animals which civilised folk scorn. And as was once said, to eat well in Britain one needs to eat breakfast three times per day!

British Railways dining cars served appalling food back in the 1950s and 60s - Brown Windsor soup, turbot, boiled silverside and bread-and-butter pudding. The buffet car sandwiches - two slices of thin white bread, cheap margarine and a few scraps of ham - gradually developed a dihedral angle proportional to their staleness as the train slowly chuffed its way to destination.

Thank heavens for the Chinese and Indian restaurants which appeared in increasing numbers during the 1970s!

Portion sizes? Try finding a 'light lunch' in a pub these days....:(

British food
 

Beagle

I well remember Charles from GV 80 - a real gent, who looked after us royally. I suspect that previous posters have not been in Britain recently as the food has, to me an occasional visitor, improved enormously. I visit the US about once a year and have to say that the three breakfasts a day rule applies there too.

Whatever else may be wrong with the USA, if you can't find a good restaurant meal you're not trying very hard. As a general rule, if you're looking for consistent mediocrity, one of the numerous national chains will do. But if you want a really good meal, look to the local joints.
One of the interesting aspects of BBQ in the US is there is something of an inverse relationship between the restaurant appearances and the quality of the food - most of the best BBQ is sold in hole-in-the-wall joints (similar thing applies to Mexican/Tex-Mex, and to a lesser extent to Chinese/Asian places).

In the beginning was the and it was good...
 

I've enjoyed this thread, as a non-combatant observer for years. This from MSN today:

Complete with dodgy American spelling.

Rgds SOS

Railway food
 

Hi Beags.

I travel regularly by train and now that British Railways is a faint memory, on most journeys you are fed plastic food in plastic wrapping from a small industrial trolley. How I long for - .

Rgds SOS

Train catering ...
 

When I was a very young boy (early 60's) my Dad took me to see the Golden Arrow when it called at Dover Marine Station to meet the Cross Channel Ferry ... I vividly remember the sight and smell of the Driver and his Fireman preparing their breakfast that morning ... wonderful !

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...s50ufjqsx.jpeg

Image Credit : Unknown

Not the Golden Arrow ... But you get the picture :ok:

Our two versions: big red Weber and Big black Satans backsidebreath, are about to be relocated ............ when I have relaid 40 paving slabs. Looking at the weather [and indeed the forecast] for these parts, I need not hurry the re-laying of slabs.

The freezer is fully stocked with all the favourites, and we would like to celebrate May Day in traditional Portadown Way JHQ style, but I am NOT REPEAT NOT going to light the bugger until the mercury crawls north of 20C.

So there!

I fired up my trusty blackfellow a couple of weeks ago before the traditional Easter monsoon, but it's been back in hiding at the back of the garage since then....

But tomorrow looks reasonably promising, if the weather-guessers are to be believed.

We are not to be believed, believe me.