The other day I finally got around to smoking the turkey

ref: Mooseboy Gets His Bird

Anyhow, this was about a 15 pound jake. I started about 0700 concocting an injected marinade of

1 stick of butter
1 container of lime juice (you know the little lime-shaped) container with lime juice in it
1 medium jar of grape jelly.

. . . and a bunch of jerk-type spices by the teaspoon load: garlic powder, allspice, curry powder, ginger, pepper etc.

This made a gawdawful looking greenish bile-like substance that I then injected into the bird in every conceivable way. Later, I showed up at the bedside of Girlfriend with a tablespoon dripping in the stuff.

“:Here, stick this in your mouth”

“What is it?”

“You don’t want to know.””

Girlfriend is used to being awakened with this sort of request; she agreed that the marinade was disgusting in appearance, but heavenly to taste.

I then prepared a fire of mostly red oak with some pear thrown in for the heck of it. The bird went on after the smoke started flowing. I covered it with a piece of cheeze cloth to keep it from charring. I kept the temp about 150 for the next 10 hours. I basted every hour with what was left of the marinade dissolved in a can of chicken broth. This was a very lean bird, so there was not much fat.

Along about 1800, I pulled him off the fire and carted him over to my folks house. It was Mooseboy’s triumph, and this turkey was worthy of such an auspicious occasion.

It’s always a bit different when you’re working on preparing an animal for the table that you know had a social life, buddies, and a sex life. I personally think it makes the meat taste all the better. What’s more, he came from our farm. That made him a tenant. Having grown up in a family dominated by the day-to-day life of being an apartment landlord in a big way, I have to tell you that eating Jake was a poignant and fun twist on the whole thing. When I was Mooseboy’s age, my Dad was carting me around while we did the bidding of the tenants. Now, a generation later, I take Mooseboy going about the business of shooting and eating the tenants. What fun!

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