Post by davenott on Jan 4, 2016 21:52:32 GMT
Now I've very successfully cooked 2 turkeys in my wood fired stove, I thought I'd write it up, as I found it very hard to find much information on the Internet. Please feel free to share your experiences or question anything.
My oven in a fire brick barrel design which is fairly well insulated.
I cooked my first turkey Christmas Day and it weighed 10.5kg including stuffing and took 5 hours to cook.
My 2nd turkey I cooked New Year's Day and it weighed 7.5kg stuffed and took 3 hours to cook.
My cooking procedure is to light the oven the day before using well dried logs and to get the fire hot enough to clean the soot off the fire brick walls of the oven, and to put plenty of heat into the structure, then as I haven't yet made an oven door, I bricked up the doorway with firebricks and closed the chimney to retain the heat overnight. In the morning I checked the oven temperature with a thermal gun and left the door open a while to allow the temperature to drop to my required initial cooking temperature of approx 200'C.
I then prepared my turkey by putting some fresh herbs and fruit and onion into the body cavity, and I pushed my hand under the skin to separate it from the turkey breast beneath and then packed under the skin about 100g of butter which I had seasoned with some dried mixed herb. I then stuffed the neck cavity with stuffing. I also placed streaky bacon over the turkey and seasoning.
I then inserted the probe of a wireless meat thermometer into the thickness meat of the thigh; this was set for a target temperature of 85'C, and tells me when the turkey is properly cooked.
I placed the turkey on a wire rack which lifted the turkey about 1cm off the metal baking tray, and then wrapped the turkey in foil. I removed the foil for the last hour of cooking. I didn't baste the turkey during cooking or turn the bird, but I did move the tray round once or twice to help ensure even cooking.
Both turkeys cooked really great and the meat was really moist and tasty, I tried to take a photo to show how moist the meat was during carving. The turkey was far better than any of the many turkeys I have cooked in conventional ovens; I think that one of the reasons, is that there is much more space around the bird in the wood oven and the heat comes evenly from below and all around.
I also found there was plenty of room in my oven for several other roasting trays; I had another large tray for roast vegetables, another for a vegetarian option, using olive oil rather than goose fat, and another tray for honey roast parsnips. Using my thermal heat gun I was able to choose the correct temperature zone for each tray.
I found that when I started with an oven floor temperature of 200'C, that by the time the turkey was cooked 5 hours later the average floor temperature had dropped to 170'C. (I was using residual heat and not a live fire) 24 hours after the turkey came out my oven had dropped to 130'c, and 24 hours after that it was 70'C.
Initial fire hot enough to clean fire bricks and put plenty of heat into structure to help maintain heat for cooking the next day.
Heat gun proved essential for checking oven temperature.
1st turkey I left out overnight to reach room temperature, 2nd turkey I placed in oven straight out of fridge, both cooked great.
Both turkeys were really moist and juices.
Plenty of room in my oven!
Foil was removed for last 45-60 minutes of cooking to allow it to brown nicely.
Wireless meat probe
My oven in a fire brick barrel design which is fairly well insulated.
I cooked my first turkey Christmas Day and it weighed 10.5kg including stuffing and took 5 hours to cook.
My 2nd turkey I cooked New Year's Day and it weighed 7.5kg stuffed and took 3 hours to cook.
My cooking procedure is to light the oven the day before using well dried logs and to get the fire hot enough to clean the soot off the fire brick walls of the oven, and to put plenty of heat into the structure, then as I haven't yet made an oven door, I bricked up the doorway with firebricks and closed the chimney to retain the heat overnight. In the morning I checked the oven temperature with a thermal gun and left the door open a while to allow the temperature to drop to my required initial cooking temperature of approx 200'C.
I then prepared my turkey by putting some fresh herbs and fruit and onion into the body cavity, and I pushed my hand under the skin to separate it from the turkey breast beneath and then packed under the skin about 100g of butter which I had seasoned with some dried mixed herb. I then stuffed the neck cavity with stuffing. I also placed streaky bacon over the turkey and seasoning.
I then inserted the probe of a wireless meat thermometer into the thickness meat of the thigh; this was set for a target temperature of 85'C, and tells me when the turkey is properly cooked.
I placed the turkey on a wire rack which lifted the turkey about 1cm off the metal baking tray, and then wrapped the turkey in foil. I removed the foil for the last hour of cooking. I didn't baste the turkey during cooking or turn the bird, but I did move the tray round once or twice to help ensure even cooking.
Both turkeys cooked really great and the meat was really moist and tasty, I tried to take a photo to show how moist the meat was during carving. The turkey was far better than any of the many turkeys I have cooked in conventional ovens; I think that one of the reasons, is that there is much more space around the bird in the wood oven and the heat comes evenly from below and all around.
I also found there was plenty of room in my oven for several other roasting trays; I had another large tray for roast vegetables, another for a vegetarian option, using olive oil rather than goose fat, and another tray for honey roast parsnips. Using my thermal heat gun I was able to choose the correct temperature zone for each tray.
I found that when I started with an oven floor temperature of 200'C, that by the time the turkey was cooked 5 hours later the average floor temperature had dropped to 170'C. (I was using residual heat and not a live fire) 24 hours after the turkey came out my oven had dropped to 130'c, and 24 hours after that it was 70'C.
Initial fire hot enough to clean fire bricks and put plenty of heat into structure to help maintain heat for cooking the next day. Heat gun proved essential for checking oven temperature. 1st turkey I left out overnight to reach room temperature, 2nd turkey I placed in oven straight out of fridge, both cooked great. Both turkeys were really moist and juices. Plenty of room in my oven! Foil was removed for last 45-60 minutes of cooking to allow it to brown nicely. Wireless meat probe
