Help with turkey

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missed-em

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Sep 25, 2011
125
14
Dorchester, Il
I've had a spatchcock turkey on my UDS for 4 1/2 hrs and barley made the 4/140* treshold  Smoker at 250-260* for 1st 3 hrs, then jumped to 300* - 74* outside, strong wind (windsceen in place), 10 lb bird.  Why the slow increase in internal temps?  Does location of vent have a bearing - over bird vs other side of smoker?  Help apprecated....
 
Willing to bet it's the wind.  Even with a good windscreen the heat will get pulled away by the wind passing around the windscreen.  Remember that unless the bird is injected you only need to get the surface to 135 in 4 hours.  A Spatchcocked bird should not of had any problem getting to a save temp unless the smoker was overloaded.

If you need someone to sample it for you.......

Btw  sometimes the location of the vent determines how heat is held in the smoker.  If the vent holds heat it also holds smoke, a no no in my experience.
 
Finaly done, started at 10, finished at 4:30, 6 and 1/2 hours for 10 pds.  Once I spiked the smoker to 300*+ it started raising in temp, strange as I've cooked several turkeys in my MES at 250* w/ no problem.  Another turkey in the freezer so we'll see what happens next time.  Thanks for the input.
 
Wind is always a problem for outdoor cooking for sure.  This may be a simple solution but are you sure your thermometers are accurate?  I ask because I frequently do whole turkeys in the 14+ pound range at 220 degrees and I've never had one take over 3.5 hours to reach 140 degrees in all the good meaty areas.  It may also help (if you are not doing so) to let them sit out at room temperature while you warm your smoker up so your starting temperature isn't so low.
 
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