This is an Orion Cooker. It's a convection cooker, and it uses coals on the outside, while the food cooks on the inside.
I tried to make a cheap, makeshift "do it yourself" orion cooker, using the bottom of my charcoal grill and a steel metal bucket, turned upside down.
Did it work? Absolutely. Would it have been much easier to use the Orion cooker? Absolutely.
I used my makeshift "do it yourself" orion cooker to make what is known as "trash can turkey", or as I prefer to call it, "turkey in a can".
Thankfully, I only had a 10 pound turkey, because that 5 gallon steel bucket proved to be very small. Not sure a bigger one would have fit.
You MUST use a turkey stand. I used a ceramic "beer can turkey" stand, to make the turkey stand vertically. Actually it's called a Sittin' Turkey Steamer.
I prepared the 10 pound turkey by injecting it with Tony Chachere's Creole Butter injectable marinade. This is imperative. You don't have to use that particular injectable marinade, but you do have to use some type of injectable marinade, or the turkey will be too dry.
After injecting generously, I brushed the outside of the turkey with what was left in the bottle, and poured the rest into the "beer can turkey" stand.
Placed some heavy duty aluminum foil on the bottom of my Old Smokey charcoal grill, and placed the "beer can turkey" stand on the foil. Placed the prepared turkey vertically on top.
Put the stainless steel 5 gallon bucket upside down over the turkey. Note that the bucket was NOT galvanized; you should not use galvanized metal for cooking food.
Put coals all around the bucket, and some coals on top. Lit the coals and let them burn.
It only took about an hour and 20 minutes to roast the turkey. I couldn't see the turkey to see if it was done; I smelled the very good roasted turkey coming from the bucket, and figured maybe it was time.
In retrospect, I should have used a remote thermometer.
I had to use welding gloves to take the hot bucket off the turkey, and rotisserie gloves to remove the hot turkey and put it in the pan for carving.
It was a beautiful golden brown turkey.
You can do this with a small turkey. If you want a bigger turkey, you either need to find a bigger non galvanized metal bucket, which I could not, or maybe an empty beer keg... or just buy an Orion cooker.
