I injected this turkey with a mixture of melted butter, white wine, and cinnamon and applied a rub made of a secret blend of spices, then rough chopped an onion and a couple carrots for the body cavity to add some flavor to the meat.

This is after basting when it had been smoking about 6 hours.

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It was also time to add more firewood to the firebox. I smoked it with maple.

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It took 11 hours in the smoker to cook it thoroughly. I continued to baste it often with the juices in the pan.

This is the finished bird. The parts that looked dry are not.

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After breaking the bird down I put the meat into the pan drippings for extra moisture and to add flavor. Before putting what was left after we ate into the fridge I used the baster to remove most of the broth to put in a separate container. That can be poured over meat or used for soup or any other application requiring turkey stock.

looks good Life, i've never tried using maple wood to smoke, sounds interesting.

Did you say it was time to eat? Be right over

I started using maple when the top of the maple from the neighbor's yard fell on our fence and the roof of our shed. I figured if it was going to make me repair our shed and fence, I was going to get some good out of it.

We're going to be eating on this bird for some time. Here's today's lunch. Starting off, a BBQ turkey sandwich undressed.

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Then add the toppings.

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Finally we have a BBQ turkey sandwich cleverly disguised as healthy food.

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The bun is homemade also, using a whole wheat bread recipe that includes wild honey and molasses.