First smoking attempt ever pork / turkey

[JerryVO]

Hi everyone… this is my first attempt at smoking. I got a Cuisinart vertical propane smoker for Christmas. I ran the included tray all wood chips and chunks and got a good burn down to ash with it. I used a separate water tray on the lowest rack filled with apple juice. I smoked a ~4lb pork butt and a ~3 pound turkey breast. Smoker internal temp was between 225 – 235 the whole time. I seasoned everything the night before and did not do an injection. I put the butt in at 04:00 and as of 17:00 it had not risen above 170. It seemed to stall at 140 for 4-5 hours then again at 160 for a few hours. At 17:00 it was only at 170 and I started to get worried about dryness as I have read everywhere about 2 hours per pound and at ~4 pounds it should have been about 8 hours and I was going on 13. I know 205 is the goal for pulled but I was gun-shy at this point. I had it sliced and it was tender with a decent bark but the fat was not rendered and of course I could not pull it since it did not get hot enough.

I put the turkey breast on at 08:00 and pulled it at 15:00 when it hit 160. It had a great bark but was a little dry. I am thinking I will pull it at 155 next time.

Any advice on what I can do differently next time and any thoughts on what went wrong on the cook time with the pork. Do I just need to be more patient?

P.S. I was using 2 Maverick ET-733 thermometers (one of mine and one borrowed from a neighbor) to monitor both meats and the smoker temp. I also used an instant read meat thermometer every 2 hours starting at the 6 hour mark to verify temps.
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[JckDanls 07]

Everything sounds good... My only suggestion would be to brine (search function) the turkey breast... You can always foil butts to help push through the stall if there are time restraints ...

 

[hardcookin]

I would suggest checking to see how accurate your gauges are.
7 hours for a 3lb Turkey breast seems to long.
I like smoking turkey at 300. I'm doing 15lb turkey in just slightly over 3 hours.
Your PB seems to have been taking a long time also.

Once you check to see how accurate your gauges are. We will be able to better figure things out.

 

[donaltman3]

I do smoked turkey fairly often on my mes smoker and it does a great job. I think your dryness could be one of two things. It is possibly a little over cooked. I tend to take mine off about 155-160. Or perhaps you didn’t let it rest long enough and all the juices came out when you sliced it. By allowing it to cool before slicing the juices remain in the meat. A 20 minute rest is standard. I also have another tip. I usually take the bird off at 155 and then move to my oven on broil for 7-10 minutes. This allows the skin to color up and also crisp, followed by that 20 minute rest. The extra time in the broiler and rest will take your bird up another few degrees.

 

[chilerelleno]

#1 Brine your birds, even if they're just a breast, wet brine or inject.
#2 Cook poultry at higher temps, they don't benefit from low and slow.
275°-300° is a good start, I cook at 350°-375°.
For a breast alone cook to an IT of 160° and it'll carry over to 165°.
Parts such as thighs and such can go to 180° and carry over to 185°, and still be juicy and tender.
When cooking whole birds I always spatchcock, spatched or not I check IT in both breast and thigh and aim for 160° in the breast.

As for the Butt, those stalls can and do happen, you just have to get through them one way or another.
You can increase pit temp, crutch or simply let temp and meat take their time.
I seldom think about time except in general terms and always allow for much more than needed.
Times can vary so much, a 9lb Butt can take anywhere from 12-20 hours without a crutch.
I watch pit and meat temps and am not afraid to kick the pit temp up as needed to hasten a piece of meat along.

IT is another variable for doneness, tenderness is not variable.
Watch IT and start probing for tenderness, that IT can vary from 195°-205°.

As long as your thermometers all agreed within a degree or two, I think it's safe to say they were good to go.

 

[noggin]

For turkey breast (not whole turkey):

• Remove the skin, backbone, liver, and all that other junk
• Brine overnight (Most turkey breasts are already brined, so I skip the overnight brine)
• Rub with 2 parts salt 1 part pepper
• Smoke at 275 for about 2 to 3 hours (Internal temperature of about 140)
• Lay out two layers of foil, place a stick of butter on the foil, place turkey (meat side down) on the butter
• Wrap foil around turkey breast
• Cook until internal temperature of 157 (1 to 2 more hours)
• Wrap bird and foil in towels and let it rest in a cooler for an hour

We did this for Thanksgiving. Four adults ate two entire turkey breasts. Did it again for Christmas, two adults, a four year old, and an almost two year old ate one and a half turkey breasts. I'm sure the stick of butter did a lot of the work for us.

Pork butts are seriously forgiving too, don't worry about them drying out or about cooking them too hot. I've done 24+ hour cooks on port butts at 225 and they came out just as moist and tender as any other pork butt I've done. I've also done pork butts at 275, and again, they come out just as good as any other. So, just wait for the temperature even if it is 3 or 4 hours per pound. If you think it's taking too long, crank it up. Or if you want to do a turkey or a chicken at the same time, crank it up.

Pork butts are AWESOME to smoke while you're learning cause you almost can't screw them up unless you forget about them or let the fire go out.

 

[saltysandman]

no advice on turkey since i haven't tried it yet but for the butt......as previously stated, they are extremely forgiving. i've done at 225, 250 and 275 Fahrenheit. i wrap mine (crutch) in a foil pan at 155-165, drop in about a cup or so of apple juice/cider/bbq sauce and then put in my oven at 275. or 225 or 250 but usually at 275 and wait for IT to get to 205. I like to then transfer to a insulated box/cooler for at least an hour. some butts take a while to go through the stall but they will get there.