It’s Turkey Day, and what better way to prepare the bird than let it spend a bit of time taking in the vapors in the ‘ole Charbroil Masterflame 8000! Yeah, the 8000. When we moved to Villa Mantua back in the late ’90’s we needed that penultimate guy accessory, a barbeque grill. At the time I knew nothing more than “gas or charcoal?” Naturally I opted for the easy way out from Home Depot and the Masterflame 8000 became our weapon of choice for hot afternoons next to the pool. And she did the job well. Fast forward to about ’06; The old 8000 was getting long in tooth and was replaced by a our beautiful new Pinnacle stainless steel wonder at about six times her cost. The Pinnacle was our darling for quite some time as we experimented with every new cooking technique we came across. Meanwhile the old girl languished. Too good to throw out she was only to be pressed into service on those occasions requiring more cook space that the Pinnacle had to offer. Then smoking moved into my culinary vocabulary. It quickly became apparent that the Pinnacle while great for searing steaks, etc., was lousy for smoking. Like all of its contemporaries it was heavily vented for its high BTU output. Sealing the long opening across the back and the vents on the top proved to be impossible. Yes, she was great for grilling and high heat searing but hold smoke? No way.
And so the Masterflame 8000 was back. The old girl was just waiting for her turn again, so it seemed. The sealed domed cover as it turns out, holds smoke in beautifully and the double rack system works oddly well for racks of ribs. Hmmm… with the addition of an aftermarket smoke box accessory and a real temperature gauge, new life was breathed back into the old girl and now she stands proudly in her faded green finish next to the Pinnacle grill while she does things that it can’t. She has produced some very tasty ribs over several summers and last year we took the quest for the perfect bird to a new level; smoked whole turkey. The tasty results meant that this year was in for a repeat so this Thanksgiving I loaded her up again with hickory chips and put our 12 lb spatchcocked bird on the lower grill for another go. It took about 4 hours at about 275-300 to get a nice, deep smoke ring and the breast meat to 163-5. We let the tented bird rest for about 15-20 minutes to re-absorb juices while we finished the rest of the sides and then served it up. The bird served up once again tasty and juicy with all that lovely smoky goodness to boot. We had yet another winner! Happy Thanksgiving, indeed!