Need Help Please- 2 Butts and Turkey Breast--

[bownutrob]

  I am new and really enjoying learning.. I have cooked a couple of Butts, 3 Turkey Breasts, few racks of ribs and misc meats, ...Worked out good so far. Question is, This thursday I want to cook one 8lb turkey breast, and two 8lb butts at the same time. I have the MES 30.. Can someone give me an approx time it will take to cook these?? Should the Breast or Butts be on top??

  The Turkey is for my sons office party and I don't want to be late... Thanks in advance for the help....Merry Christmas to all!!!!

 

[forluvofsmoke]

If you fall back on your previous turkey breast and butt smokes, that should give you a good base-line for time on smoking. It will slightly increase your overall cooking time, as the smoker being filled with more meats will take longer to recover chamber temps...once it recovers, you're back to normal, as if only one piece of meat were being smoked. Also, if you open the chamber door to add meats, this will increase the cooking times for the meats that are already in the smoker when more is added.

A couple things to consider with verticals is that each large piece of meat will somewhat baffle heat to the one above it, so you may consider running chamber temps about 20* hotter.

Most will say poultry goes on bottom, due to higher safe cooking internal temps. The turkey should be finished much earlier than the butts, due to lower finished temps (165* minimum recommended), while the butts are taken to ~200* for pulled pork (assuming you're pulling and not slicing).

I don't run electric smokers myself, and every type/brand has varying convection efficiencies, so I can't say just how long yours will actually take.

Eric

 

[shooterrick]

Poultry should not be placed above the other foods.  Always place it below or to the side of something else.  As far as time goes alot will depend on the smoker temps and how steady you hold those.  You should not cook by time but by internal temp.  The butts will take about 8 hrs to reach over 200F internal but you can not be sure without a probe thermo.  Also if they stall it may be longer.  Start testing the poultry at about 4 hrs to make sure they are past 140 in that time.  I take my poultry to 170-F a bit higher than FDA regs suggest.  It is all about internal temps my friend.   

 

[bownutrob]

Thanks Eric and ShooterRick, appreciate you taking time and sharing.. Anyone out there tried this w/ a MES 30??

 

[SmokinAl]

Good luck! Don't forget to take pictures!

We love seeing a full smoker!