Sometimes failure is inevitable.

SGH

First I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. I hope your holiday cooks were a home run. With that said, mine was a total disaster. 

We all like posting our triumphs and victories here on the forum. I’m going to go a different route today and share a total failure. By all means, feel free to offer your thoughts at the end. But I will tell you right up front that I chalk this one up to “$hit happens”.
As always I fried a turkey for Thanksgiving today. A total bomb this time. I have fried hundreds of turkeys before and never had one issue until today. Here is how it all went down. 

Thawed the turkey for 7 days in the fridge. 

Air dried the turkey for 2 days in the fridge. That’s 9 days in the fridge for a 10 pound bird. 

Let the turkey sit at room temp for 5 hours. I stress the above points strongly because everyone’s first reaction will be the turkey had frozen spots in it. It did not. I verified this with a Thermopen. The coldest reading was 50 degrees. The turkey was loose and pliable. I am absolutely 100% certain there were no frozen spots. 

Preheated oil to 400 degrees. 

Dropped the turkey in. 

Maintained oil at 365 for the entire cook. I monitored the oil temp with 2 thermometers and they were within 4 degrees of each other. 

Fried the bird until the internal temp in the deepest part of the breast was 158 degrees. I normally pull them at 155 but I overshot this one just a little. The thighs and drums were temping at 189. 

With all the above said, the turkey had several undercooked spots in it. What is even stranger is that there was done meat below some of the undercooked meat. This should be theoretically impossible. But I saw it with my own 2 eyes.  

Also what was really strange is it was very small spots that were undercooked and they were scattered at various depths and locations. They way that it cooked it is almost as if there were voids in the meat. But there were not. 

I stress again that I know beyond all doubt or reason that the bird was absolutely 100% thawed. Not only was it thawed, but the internal temp was 50-58 degrees. No question of it my friends. I also know for sure the oil temp during the entire cook never fell below 355 degrees. I monitored it from take off to touchdown. 

With all that said, feel free to offer your thoughts and opinions. But I think today’s failure proves one thing. No matter how many times you have done something, no matter how much time and effort you put in, no matter how closely you control all variables, sometimes $hit just happens for no reason. 

wardo

That's pretty bizarre.  Thank goodness you're checking on it though.  No one is gonna die at least.

SGH

wardo said:

That's pretty bizarre.  

Without exaggerating at all I have deep fried hundred of turkeys. Possibly over a thousand in my time. I have never seen anything even vaguely similar to it. 

wardo

I would love to hear the science behind how this is caused.  I wouldn't think something like that could even happen.  I have however fried zero turkeys in my life.

SGH

wardo said:

I would love to hear the science behind how this is caused.  I wouldn't think something like that could even happen.  I have however fried zero turkeys in my life.

I would like to hear the science behind it myself because in my mind it should not be able to happen. If I had not seen it myself I probably would not of believed it. However seeing is believing my friend. 

Gulfcoastguy

Sometimes the Bluebird of Happiness just poops on your head. It happens.

SciAggie

How did you judge that it was undercooked? By look or by temperature? Sometimes perfectly cooked chicken is still pink. 

https://www.thekitchn.com/chicken-still-pink-after-cooki-157168?amp=1

SGH

@SciAggie
Brother Aggie, I certainly appreciate you trying to be kind, but trust me, it was terrible. There were sections that for whatever strange reason did not cook. I have never seen anything like it and I have seen a lot my friend. 

I am usually very good at diagnosing problems, but I am at a total loss on this one. I don’t even have a guess. 

DoubleEgger

Saline injections from the processing facility?? 

JRWhitee

The problem Scottie is you didnt cook Beef Ribs lol. 

SGH

DoubleEgger said:

Saline injections from the processing facility?? 

I have considered that along with many other things. However I have ruled them out. I do not see how it could affect it unless there was sand or something solid in the fluid. I have deep fried hundreds and hundreds of birds that was very heavily injected with no issues. I truly think that this was one of those very odd occurrences that just happens sometimes. 

Dobie

 I got nothing to explain that, just wanted to say sorry it didn’t come off good on Thanksgiving. We’re you able to salvage it?

Matt86m

Frostbite? I wonder, if a turkey is injected but it pools up and then its frozen could it freeze in a ball and affect the meat?

Grabbing at straws! 

Not quite what you ran into today but I previously cooked 2 spatchcock chickens on my traeger at 375* took almost 2 hours,,,,they just would not cook!

Today I put a SC turkey (17lbs) on the BGE at 375-400* and it was done in 2.5 hours! Pulled it at 163* breast and 189* on the thigh.

Go figure! At 12 minutes a lb it should have taken an hour longer, min!

SGH

Dobie said:

 I got nothing to explain that, just wanted to say sorry it didn’t come off good on Thanksgiving. We’re you able to salvage it?

I appreciate the kindness my friend. I did not risk chancing it. For it to cook the way that it did, in my mind something had to be bad off with it so I chunked it. I just wish I could figure out what the problem was. I am one of those people that something will eat at me if I can’t figure it out. 

lousubcap

@SGH I appreciate your "failure thread" but Da-n if I can offer any insights beyond your conclusion that $hit happens.  There is nothing I have learned that would physically explain what you experienced.  Same bird supplier you have used previously??

Regardless, hope you are able to salvage the remainder of the day and enjoy Thanksgiving for all the right reasons, turkey be da-ned! 

SGH

lousubcap said:

Same bird supplier you have used previously??

The same everything brother. I changed nothing. I have done this exact thing literally hundreds of times. I have honestly never seen anything like it. For one of the few times in my life I am truly baffled. 

Eggscuses

Did you take any pictures of it?

lkapigian

Just spitballing , muscular damage to the protein, ie highly bruised ?

SGH

Eggscuses said:

Did you take any pictures of it?

I did not. In a blind rage I slung it out the door. 

SGH

lkapigian said:

Just spitballing , muscular damage to the protein, ie highly bruised ?

I do not think so. It would of been visible externally if it was severe enough to affect the cooking. 

Botch

Sometimes, you just get a Bad Piece of Meat.  I don't have near your experience, Scottie, but I've cooked dozens of briskets over the years, and only had one bad one; as luck would have it, I had cooked TWO that time, purchased and treated exactly the same.  One was just.... bad.  
 
However, given the # of birds you've cooked, and the fact that there were uncooked sections on top of cooked areas, wow.  Only thing I can think of (and I'm reaching, here) is a cancerous bird, or some other disease?  I think you were right in tossing it, as much as that may have hurt.  
 
Hope your holiday went better, otherwise.  

Ike

Did you have to go dig up that brisket to salvage a Thanksgiving meal?

smokingal

Sorry your meal didn't go as planned @SGH.  What you've described is definitely bizarre.  I haven't cooked a whole turkey in about a decade, so I don't have any insight to offer.

RRP

Weird! Just plain WEIRD!

JohnInCarolina

That sucks Scottie.  I don’t have an explanation for you, and I have a doctorate in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.

SGH

RRP said:

Weird! Just plain WEIRD!

Ron, all jokes aside I have been sitting here for hours trying to figure it out. I placed a few calls and texts to a couple of folks that I consider to be Fry Gods and gurus and they are at a total loss also. 

I have cooked a lot of stuff in my almost 56 years and I have never seen anything like it. For one time in my life I am truly stumped. More often than not I can usually figure out anything related to cooking meat. This time I’m dumbfounded. 

SGH

JohnInCarolina said:

That sucks Scottie.  I don’t have an explanation for you, and I have a doctorate in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.

Brother I am at a total loss. I do not even have a good guess. 

wardo

SGH said:

JohnInCarolina said:

That sucks Scottie.  I don’t have an explanation for you, and I have a doctorate in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.

Brother I am at a total loss. I do not even have a good guess. 

Divine intervention?  That bird was not meant to be eaten.

johnmitchell

alaskanassasin

@SGH a failure for you is a win for the average man. Carry on my friend 

JohnnyTarheel

Well sometimes the protein drives the cook... good or bad....