Advice - 16 lbs Turkey in Masterbuilt Electric

[CubexDave]

Hi all -

New to the forums - looks like a great resource! I recently got a Masterbuilt 30" electric smoker (replacing a previous one I had that was not taken care of properly), and I'm familiar with smoking at a basic level. I've done ribs, chicken, and Turkey before, but not a 16 lbs one. I did track the last time I did a Turkey:

Brine 24hrs
Turkey was 12 Pounds
Temp set @ 240F - preheated up to 260F
Bird in @ 12.50ish
Tented with Foil @ 3.30
Bird done @ 5.00

And it came out fantastic like :). My concern as I'm reading all these forums is the 4 x 140 rule - which frankly I didn't think about when smoking - and considering the size of the Turkey - could be a problem.

I guess the long and short of it is I'm looking for some advice. We are going to brine the bird for 24 hrs before cooking - but because all the recipes I see talk about 12-14 pound birds, and this one being slightly larger, should I consider pulling the bird after a specific number of hours and finishing at a higher temp in an oven or BBQ? Or should I be OK following the formula above - maybe just raise the temp a bit?

The final piece of info - for those who don't know, the max temp an electric can be set at is 275F. I know it's also going to be quite cold on T-Giving here in the northeast, so it's going to be a challenge to keep it at temp (I may bump everything 5 degrees just because of that).

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks and look forward to participating in the forums going forward!

 

[gregers05]

well im going to try to fit a 18 pounder in my MES 30 :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

sooo im also curious

 

[old sarge]

Here you go:

https://journey.masterbuilt.com/recipes/dadgum-good-turkey-3

 

[CubexDave]

So what are the thoughts on the brine? Shouldn't effect the timing at all?

 

[mosparky]

Interior of meat is considered sterile, outside is not. As long as you do nothing to contaminate the inside with bacteria from the outside the 4 x 140 rule doesn't apply so long as the cooking temp is well above the 140. Cooking heat will kill bacteria on the outside in pretty short order.
Injecting or even placing the temp probe early on will contaminate the inside. Also grinding. All ground product i.e. burgers, sausage must follow the 4 x 140 rule.

 

[CubexDave]

Great! Thanks so much. I'll post results after the cook!

 

[tallbm]

Hi all -

New to the forums - looks like a great resource! I recently got a Masterbuilt 30" electric smoker (replacing a previous one I had that was not taken care of properly), and I'm familiar with smoking at a basic level. I've done ribs, chicken, and Turkey before, but not a 16 lbs one. I did track the last time I did a Turkey:

Brine 24hrs
Turkey was 12 Pounds
Temp set @ 240F - preheated up to 260F
Bird in @ 12.50ish
Tented with Foil @ 3.30
Bird done @ 5.00

And it came out fantastic like :). My concern as I'm reading all these forums is the 4 x 140 rule - which frankly I didn't think about when smoking - and considering the size of the Turkey - could be a problem.

I guess the long and short of it is I'm looking for some advice. We are going to brine the bird for 24 hrs before cooking - but because all the recipes I see talk about 12-14 pound birds, and this one being slightly larger, should I consider pulling the bird after a specific number of hours and finishing at a higher temp in an oven or BBQ? Or should I be OK following the formula above - maybe just raise the temp a bit?

The final piece of info - for those who don't know, the max temp an electric can be set at is 275F. I know it's also going to be quite cold on T-Giving here in the northeast, so it's going to be a challenge to keep it at temp (I may bump everything 5 degrees just because of that).

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks and look forward to participating in the forums going forward!

Hi there and welcome!

I am an MES owner as well and have done turkeys. My advice:

• Crank up your MES to max temp. It is likely that you can't hit 275F anyhow but the extra heat you do get should be fine. Poultry skin does better the hotter your smoker is so a high heat is no issue to the birds
• Cook on your hottest rack, again birds do better with higher heat so nothing will be hurt by this
• Brine shouldn't affect anything timewise
• Preheat your smoker to the max temp before putting the bird in because recovery can take a while with a cold wet bird
• If you can cook the bird vertically which helps get heat in and around the bird. You would need a LARGE "beer can" style roasting rack for this. The ones that do chickens alone are too small. I have one of these:

Do at least the top 4 bullet points above and you should have no issues :)

 

[CubexDave]

Do you think tenting midway through is a good idea timewise? Also - for whatever reason the image didn't come thru on my side. Thanks!

 

[tallbm]

Do you think tenting midway through is a good idea timewise? Also - for whatever reason the image didn't come thru on my side. Thanks!

Tenting at MES temps will not do great things for the skin.
It could help time wise but I think you will be fine if you crank up the heat to max. Also if you are concerned about time then start an 1 to 1.5 hours earlier and if the chicken approaches 155F early just turn down the heat of the smoker and drag the smoke out a bit longer :)

Best of luck!

 

[jmorey]

Thanks for your original data, as that will help me with my just under 13lb bird.