By JOHN CARLSON
jcarlson@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE — He seems calm now, but B.J. Crumes is steeling himself for the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
That’s when this son of local barbecue legend Q.L. Stevens, aided by his mother, Paula Crumes, will shut himself into the place that carries his grandfather’s given name and face down the incoming hordes.
Hordes of turkeys, that is.
“We’ll get about 420 to 450 turkeys those three days,” he said, describing how customers will drive up to the nondescript white building with the barbecue scents wafting from it, then hand their holiday birds through the window.
“Just bring it, we’ll cook it,” said the soft-spoken 27-year-old Crumes, his grandfather’s heir apparent. “And we’ll have it for you the next day.”
Each bird is smoked in the brick pit that Stevens built with his own two hands.
“Most of the time with turkey, the oak cooks the best,” Crumes said, noting that after it’s done, it’s doused with Q.L.’s own famous sauce. “If people want it de-boned, we cut it up in bite-sized pieces. Most of the time now, people want it de-boned.
He’ll smoke and barbecue your turkey for $17.
For $25, he’ll smoke it, barbecue it and de-bone it.
“We don’t care the size,” he added.
So how do his customers react to their mouth-watering birds when he’s through with them?
Very enthusiastically.
“Especially the first-timers,” he said, smiling. “That wood taste, and that pit taste, just gives it a different flavor.”
Of course, if your Thanksgiving tastes run to other birds, he’ll smoke and barbecue them, too, even if he has to hold his nose.
“We’ve had an ostrich come through,” he recalled with a grin, then a grimace. “It was terrible smelling, but I cooked it for ’em.”
Smoked or otherwise?
Of course, most likely you’ll have a hand in preparing your own turkey for Thanksgiving.
Greg Fisher, owner of Fisher Meats, says that means you’ll likely eat your basic baked bird, unless you happen to be reading this is Portland. There, the folks buy their turkeys smoked by a rate of about 10 to one.
Why not here?
“They haven’t had very good ones in Muncie,” he said.
Fisher’s roots, of course, go back to that Jay County city, where they have been cooking and smoking their turkeys for years.
“I’m 31,” Fisher said, “and I don’t ever remember Thanksgiving not doing it.”
Once Fisher and company cure and smoke a bird, it’s cooked. To cure a turkey, it is injected with water, salt and sugar, then rested for 48 hours. After that, it’s smoked for 14 to 15 hours, until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
Once that’s done, after the bird is chilled down, a couple of hours in the oven heats it through and makes it ready for eating.
His family’s personal Thanksgiving menu?
“We do each. We do smoked, we do fresh,” he said, adding they also serve up a spiral-sliced ham.

That personal touch
Cooking your turkey from scratch? Then Ron Lahody of Lahody Meats has some advice.
“I try to cook real simple,” he said. “When you eat beef, you want to taste beef.”
Ditto for turkey.
First, he lets his bird sit, unstuffed, at room temperature for an hour-and-a-half.
“No more than that,” he cautioned.
Next, tuck the wings and tie the drumsticks, then put in a 400-degree oven, but here’s the kicker.
“Breast side down for the first 45 minutes,” Lahody said.
Then he turns it over, sets it on its back and roasts it at 325 degrees until it’s done. All that time, by the way, it’s uncovered.
It’s done, he added, when the thigh meat is 180 degrees. If it’s stuffed, he added, the stuffing needs to hit 165 degrees.
As for rubs and such, he uses a little oil, salt and pepper on the outside, and lightly salts and peppers the inside of the turkey, too.
Let it rest 20 minutes before carving, Lahody added.
As for amounts required, he added, figure a pound-and-a-quarter for each guest. That’ll feed them dinner.
“And there’ll be some left over,” continued.
By the way, he added, owning a meat market is tantamount to running a cooking school.
“Fifty percent of the people that come in here,” Lahody said, “want to know how to cook something.”

Smoke ’em if you got ’em
Feel like smoking your own turkey? Amateur chef John Pinckney does so.
After working his way through charcoal and propane smokers, he has settled on an electric one, with great results.
“They say don’t put things in the (turkey’s) cavity, but I’ll put in maybe an orange or an onion, or both,” he said.
He’s also been known to inject the turkey with some seasonings, or soak it in a special brine before smoking it. Another thing he does is rub it with olive oil, garlic and salt.
Then, of course, he adds wood.
“I like to use applewood,” he said, noting he smokes it at a temperature of 220 degrees.
Next?
“Don’t get in a hurry,” he advised.
Pinckney smokes it until his digital thermometer, stuck deeply in the breast, shows it has reached the recommended temperature on the cooking instructions, then takes the bird out and lets it rest a while.
“Then slice away,” he continued, with a sense of relish that came through the phone lines. “Or let it fall off the bone. Oh, it is wonderful.”