Families line up for smoked birds each year
While some people struggle to get one good turkey on the table
each Thanksgiving, Jon and Juanita Mansmith cook more than 100
turkeys in November.
Families line up for smoked birds each year
While some people struggle to get one good turkey on the table each Thanksgiving, Jon and Juanita Mansmith cook more than 100 turkeys in November.
“They cook slow so they are still juicy and moist,” Jon said. “It cooks about four hours.”
The turkeys are covered with a special secret spice blend the couple doesn’t sell with their other line of spices, which includes grilling and poultry blends, as well as others.
Jon and Juanita sell about 60 turkeys a year at $50 apiece. The turkeys are between 20-24 lb. and are ready to eat straight out of their smoker or to take home and reheat. The couple packs the turkeys in a plastic wrap that is oven proof and puts them in a foil pan for pickup the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Nov. 21 this year. They include instructions on reheating the bird at a low heat to keep it from drying out.
“We use a special blend that is not on the market,” Juanita said. “The smoke flavor is a delicate one – delicate smoke is used for poultry.”
Many customers have ordered turkeys for several years in a row, and they will be taking orders Nov. 16 at their Friday afternoon barbecue stand at Bertuccio’s on Airline Hwy. Orders should be placed by Nov. 18 and can also be placed by calling the San Juan office.
This year, one of the turkeys is going all the way to San Diego. A regular customer ordered a turkey to take home with him and is still trying to figure out how to get it on an airplane.
“To me it’s really fun when people start coming Wednesday,” Juanita said. “We’ve got a pretty good handle on it.”
The cooking and packaging of the turkeys for pickup is all handled by Juanita, Jon and their son Mike, who manages the catering part of the business.
Though they have been cooking their turkeys for years, Juanita said she still anticipates the first bite.
“I just want to pull a drumstick right off,” she said.
The way the couple came to smoking turkeys is very much like how their business evolved. They started selling a grilling spice and a barbecue paste more than 20 years ago at street fairs. They would hand out samples of their sauces on chicken wings or a drum stick. At one fair, they sliced up tri-tip and put it on a slice of french bread. Soon people were clamoring for more samples of the sandwich.
“We couldn’t keep giving them away for free,” Juanita said. “People then wanted to know if we catered.”
They branched out into catering and every time someone asks if they can cook something they add it to the menu. They now have 12 options for cartering and they can do all the sides to go with the meal.
The couple was soon barbecuing up tri-tips at Baler football games, they said.
“Our son played football for four years, but we cooked for seven years,” Jon said.
Some days during the season, they would start out grilling at the Hollister Farmer’s Market and then move the operation with the fire still lit and meat on the grill to the high school.
“The fire department probably wouldn’t be happy to hear that,” Juanita joked.
“Or the health department,” Jon added.
The couple has been involved in the community in other ways, and Thanksgiving is a special day for them.
“We are usually tied up with the Holte dinner,” Jon said. “I think we’ve been eating [Thanksgiving] with the homeless the last 20 years.”
The San Juan couple has been smoking turkeys for Thanksgiving since 2002. The first year they bought their smoker, which can hold up to 750 lbs. of meat at a time, they offered to cook the turkeys for the Marley Holte dinner.
“We could cook them 30 at a time,” Jon said.
He and Juanita are still on board for the dinner and are looking forward to this year’s event.
“Rich or poor, people without family,” Juanita said, of the people who come to the annual dinner. “People who are just alone can come.”
This year the board members are in need of monetary donations for the dinner so that they can purchase all the necessary fixings for the meal.
“We need money for the peripherals,” Jon said. “Volunteers want to help cook stuff. They want to be chopping the onions and celery or making the salsa.”
The dinner includes all the trimmings.
“He likes to go because he can go and get any kind of pie he wants,” Juanita said. “And it’s fun to see people come and appreciate it.”
The couple still has a lot of work ahead of them next week, when they will be cooking the Holte turkeys and the turkeys they are selling to customers.
Mansmith’s smoked turkeys
$50 for a 20-24 lb. turkey.
Reserve turkeys by Sunday, Nov. 18, by calling 623-4981 or stop by the Mansmith’s barbecue pit at Bertuccio’s farm stand on Airline Hwy., today, Friday, Nov. 16 between noon and 7 p.m. Turkeys will be available for pickup Wednesday, Nov.21. The turkeys must be prepaid by check, cash or credit card.
Holte Thanksgiving Dinner
To donate to the Holte Dinner, please drop off monetary contributions at San Benito Bank, 300 Tres Pinos Road, care of the Holte Holiday Dinner Account. Donations of turkeys, potatoes, chicken broth and stuffing mix can be dropped off to Dave Baumgartner’s office at 470 Tres Pinos Road.
The dinner will be at the Hollister Community Center, 300 West St., from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Nov. 22.
For more information, call 637-0566.
