Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and the guy who my family has been buying smoked turkey from for the last 20 years has retired, so now I'm in charge of cooking the entire meal (I was already making the mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and dressing/stuffing). Has anyone smoked a whole turkey before? I'm looking at brining it overnight, but I've also seen people rub in some compound butter under the skin. Is it good to do both, or are both methods just a way to add/retain moisture, and doing both would be too much? And do you bother with trussing the bird, or do you not worry about it?
As far as cooking method, I'm good with leaving it whole as opposed to spatchcocking it; I'm not sure I could fit a spatchcocked turkey in my WSM, anyway. And I've got a couple rubs that I've narrowed it down to, but I think I'm going to buy a couple breasts soon to test them out and see which one I like better (and have sandwich meat for weeks).