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I’m up in northern Ontario and I have family in the James Bay area. I’m Ojibway / Cree and I’ve gone to see my family up there many times. One of my favourite traditional foods up there is smoked Canada goose. Cut, flayed and deboned, then hung like a mat on racks over a smoking fire for about two or three days in a teepee.
The food comes out tasting like beef jerky and can last for a month or more without refrigeration but with proper storage.
The photo is a bad example … I remember my mom and her aunts making these 30 years ago and they could stretch out the flesh to about two or three feet long … folded! And mom said that when she was a young girl, the women in her family produced even longer strips because they had to preserve the food so well it had to last until the early summer. And you had to be a skilled butcher with a sharp knife to carve a single bird in one continuous piece to get them to three or four feet long folded, meaning that it was a continuous piece that was six feet long!
That picture looks like someone smoked a facehugger from Alien.
Lol … yeah as dumb kids we used to play around these things. I remember knocking a few of them off the rack a few times and getting into a lot of trouble with my parents. Never thought of draping one over my face … it would have been funny only because my face would have covered in goose fat and salmonella if it were partially cooked goose.
That’s awesome. I want some goose jerky.
First of all, that’s really cool!
That said, I feel like cold-smoked bird jerky and hot-smoked barbecue bird are kinda entirely different dishes.
Did all the different parts (esp. legs and wings) turn out well when cooked in a natural pose like that? I would’ve guessed it’d be better to tuck the wings under or spatchcock it or something.
This is spatchcocked. It cooks fairly evenly, but the breasts take the longest. Not a big deal since the dark meat tolerates higher temperatures better. I usually target 145 F internal temp. This one went over.
I’ve thought about putting together a video of my spatchcocking technique since I have it down to a few minutes. It’s a combination of a few videos I’ve watched.
Essentially, starting at the back, cut around the rib cage, separate the thigh bones, then remove the entire rib cage from the breast plate by cutting through the cartilage.
How’d the skin turn out? Every time I smoke a bird the skin winds up being rubbery.
That’s the downside. This time I had lots of time to let it rest, so I popped it in the oven at 550F right before serving for five minutes. Probably could have used a bit more time.
Looks good. How long did it take?
About 3 hours in the smoker. Turkey goes quick usually, and it comes out better at a higher smoker temperature.
was it dry? the rub looks lovely but I like juicy turkey meat…
Not dry. Came out juicy. That’s a factor of final internal temperature, not cooking method.
What temperature did you smoke at, and did you use a water pan?
This looks fantastic and now I’m hungry for turkey! 🦃
Hard to tell because I didn’t have a digital thermometer in the smoker for this cook, but somewhere around 275/315.
I rarely use water, only when I need to bring the temperature lower than I can get with the vents mostly closed. The evaporative cooling of the water keeps temperature down. I don’t use it for humidity, that doesn’t actually improve the meat. Final internal temp and cook time are the main factors there.
I appreciate the detailed response! Thank you and happy smoking in 2025!
Do you find it’s worth the loss of gravy potential?
This looks dry AF too
Turkey on top rack. Pan under top rack. Everything drips into the pan. Makes awesome gravy.
I don’t make gravy anyway so it’s no loss for me
The smoke is of course delicious, but the really important part is the final internal temperature of the meat. Doing the same cook in an oven would still come out great.
I target 145 F. There’s a PDF document by the FDA that breaks down the time and temperature needed to kill the bad stuff. 165 is instant, but 145 at ten minutes is also safe.
