Note: Over the next few weeks, Register Reporter Eric Spruill will be going around to local barbecue joints, getting tips from the pros on how an everyday person can create a delicious holiday or game day meal on a smoker or grill.
Since moving to Kansas, I have become enamored with smoking meat. Thanksgiving and Christmas give me the excuse I needed to learn how to smoke a turkey. There are various ways of doing so. One can spend hours on the internet reading recipes and tips, but its hard to replicate it by watching a three-minute video on YouTube.
Thanks to Robert Thompson, who runs Papa Robs Eats for Everything food truck, I was allowed to see firsthand how the process works.
Thompson had me drop off my 13.6-pound turkey the night before, so he could make sure it was thawed out properly. Thompson also had a 24-pounder for Sheriff Bryan Murphy, which looked more like a pterodactyl compared to my turkey.
Get to my house around 6 in the morning, he said. We will throw the birds in the smoker around 7. It is all about timing when you are smoking meats.
Rob Thompson, with Papa Rob Eats for Everything, prepares the turkey. He stuffs the turkey with rosemary, mint, oregano and thyme, along with a stick of butter. He then applied a light sprinkle of his homemade rub.
Weve all had dry turkey before, and I am not a fan. Rob assured me this meat was going to fall off the bone like butter. You may think I am crazy, but you wont even need to de-bone this meat, he said.
I didnt really know what to think at this point. I had always heard the expressions fall right off the bone, and melt like butter in your mouth, but had never received the compliment personally.
Thompson loves food. You can hear it in his expressions and how he views cooking as a way to make people happy.
People say the key ingredient is love, he said. And it really is. I love to make people happy and I can do that through food.
