3 hour turkey

[Neilthepilot]

I bought a #2 about 6 months ago and have smoked a handful of different meats in that time.  Before that I had a Brinkman electric smoker for 14 years.  For some reason my food usually takes a little longer than expected to cook.  Being my first Turkey in over a decade I went through the forums for tips.  I brined my 12.1 pound bird 12 hours and stuffed the cavity with carrots, onions and celery.  I slipped Irish butter under the skin for moisture. I got up at 6 to put him in and had the door closed at 6:18.  I set the temperature to 250 and went back to bed figuring on a 1pm or later completion time.  At 9:30 I looked out the window and the thermometer read 173.  I rushed out thinking I hadn't placed it right but when I opened the door he looked done.  I stuck him 5 times with two different thermometers to be sure but he's done.  I've been running my #2 empty while I typed this to test it and it looks like the temp is through 310'.  So I guess that's what went wrong.  :-(

 

[Neilthepilot]

Just an update, the temp initially went to 310' and I thought I had a bad temperature controller but as I let it run the temperature is dropping through 158'.  So that begs the question "why did it cook so fast"?

 

[swthorpe]

I am doing a 12# turkey this afternoon and expect it to take about 4 hours at 230F.  At a temp setting of 250F, it would definitely finish quicker.  The temp swings in the unit can be +/- 25F, so a reading of 310F seems really high to me.    With the turkey done, you could lower the smoker temp to 140F and let the bird sit on "warm and hold" for an hour or so.

 

[drippings]

Mine cooked really fast too in my #2.  16# bird that I brined for 3 days.  Put in in at 3:15 AM at 225 degrees controlled by auber.  Got up at 6:45 to check on things, and the crazy bird was already to 155 degrees.  Went back to bed, got up again at 8:15 and the auber had already gone into the hold mode and the cabin temp was already down to 155.  I had the auber set to 170 for final internal temp, so I am figuring that the bird probably hit 170 at about 7:30.  I'm wishing I had set it to final temp of 165.  So, a 16# bird done in 4 hrs....@225!!  I guess the 3 day long brine had it half cooked already.  We'll be finding out shortly if I killed it or not. 
I will update to let ya'll know the results.

 

[swthorpe]

Three days for the brine?  Wow!  I did 12hrs for my 12# bird.  Let's know how it turned out, but I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how much moisture the bird retains.

 

[drippings]

Yeah, I always do at least a 2 day brine.  Have done that for years.  Well, it wasn't the moistest bird I have ever had.  Not terrible dry, just was hoping for a little moister.  I have a feeling that since I had the auber set to 170, that the bird probably ended up hitting 180ish.  I was going to go back out last night just after I started it and lower the final internal temp, but I had already locked the doors, and it was cold, and I was tired...so I just left it.  I figured that I would be up anyway before it was anywhere near being done.  Tasted good!...just a little drier than I have done in the past.  I'll nail the next one.  For one thing, I won't put it in till like 8:00 in the morning!

 

[Pork Belly]

I go 12 to 16 hours max for whole turkey. I don't use an equilibrium brine and wont risk the extra time.

 

[Neilthepilot]

Well we just ate, my turkey wasn't bad, if I could have removed it earlier it would have been really moist instead of just moist.  My empty run of the #2 ran between 255-300 degrees.  Maybe I'll take time and calibrate the temp scale.

 

[DivotMaker]

Wow, a 3 day brine!  Unless you're curing it, that sure seems like a long time!  But hey, if it works for you, by all means!  One thing to note is that brining can actually reduce the cooking time by as much as 30%.

 

[drippings]

Yeah, it definitely reduces cooking time.  This was my first turkey on the #2.  I had always smoked our turkeys on an offset stick burner before, and the birds always cooked faster than I expected.  Of course on those things I always had to monitor the temp like a hawk, and still the temps would get away from me a few times during the cook.  So.....I figured that since my #2 is so good at holding the temp steady, my cook time would surely be longer.  But not the case - at least with this particular birdie. 
Neil, glad to hear that your turkey came out okay.  Sounds like we both had similar results in that if we could have been awake to get the birds out when they should have come out, we both would have enjoyed much moister turkey.

 

[NDKoze]

Well we just ate, my turkey wasn't bad, if I could have removed it earlier it would have been really moist instead of just moist.  My empty run of the #2 ran between 255-300 degrees.  Maybe I'll take time and calibrate the temp scale.

Testing your smoker temps with an empty smoker will give you some wild temps like you saw.

With a full smoker your temps should be a lot tighter.