Question About My Smoked Turkey Breasts

GeorgiaBorn

Hey everyone. On Thanksgiving I smoked for the first time on my egg. I did two 5lb boneless turkey breasts that were brined for about 15 hours. I had wanted to smoke them at 225 degrees but I had a heck of a time getting my Egg below 300.

I filled the Egg with the normal amount of charcoal and about a cup and a half of soaked wood chips. When the temp got up to near 250, I started closing down the dampers but couldn't get the temp to stabilize. It kept going up. After it hit 350, I closed the entire Egg down. Everything was closed. The temp still didn't get below 300 for nearly two hours. The breasts were cooking a lot faster than I wanted and it looked like they were going to be ready 2 hours before the rest of my meal.

Finally the temp started to drop to near 250 and the cooking process slowed a bit. Any thoughts on why I couldn't get the temp down even with the Egg completely closed down? Thanks.

Oh and by the way, these were absolutely the best smoked meats I have ever tasted in my life!

cdnewman

I think of the temperature inside the egg in two components: the temperature of the air (which can change rapidly) and the temperature of the ceramic (which changes slowly). If you get the ceramic above 300, it is going to take a while to get down to 250. If you waited until the temp was almost 250 to shut things down, you waited too long. The lower the target temp, the earlier you have to start slowing things down (in my limited experience). I've never smoked anything at 225, but for my thanksgiving breast, I left the dome open for about 10 minutes to get the fire going, then closed the dome and immediately closed bottom vent 1/2 way. Temp climbed slower, but I was in no rush. I started shutting things down further at 200 and never let it exceed 260. After about 1/2 hour of chasing the needle, it steadied out at 250 and on went the meat.

gdenby

For lower temp cooks, start shutting your vents well before reaching the desired temp. For a dome of 225, start shutting down at 150. And, a dome of 225 would mean a grill temp closer to 200, at least at first.

Usually, if you over run, and catch it right away, even as high as 450, it should come back down a lot quicker than 2 hours. Have you checked the gasket area with the "dollar" test. That is, place a piece of paper on the gasket, and shut the dome. Is the paper being held snug everywhere?

CBBQ

Based on what you wrote, you never had it completely stabilized before you put the turkey in. Sometimes people, and I'm not implying you, try to get their egg up to temp too fast. Yours hit your target of 250 on it's way to 300 degrees. When I'm doing a lower temp cook I try to be a little conservative in bringing it up to temp. Then I make sure it stays there for a while before putting the meat on. If the temp drops after putting the meat on you need to leave it alone. It's the cold meat affecting the gauge not the fire temp.

GeorgiaBorn

Well there you go! I knew there had to be a logical explanation. I obviously waited too long and let the egg get too hot before stabilizing it and shutting it down a bit. Thanks to all that replied!