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quick help please!

noregard
noregard Posts: 306
in EggHead Forum
Hi everyone, doing my first spatchcock turkey (15.5 lbs) right now for family tonight.  I had the LBGE dialled in at 410 for  a solid hour warming up, put the bird on (raised direct) and temps plummeted.  It's sitting at 275 now after one hour, question is should I be trying to get the temp back up to 400 or do I leave it alone??

Thanks
Lethbridge, Alberta         LBGE & MM
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Comments

  • NPHuskerFL
    NPHuskerFL Posts: 17,629
    Did you load up the lump, good airflow? Did the temp just drop because of the bird being loaded into the egg? If so, the temp will recover. To many variables that are undisclosed to give a solid answer here.
    LBGE 2013 & MM 2014
    Die Hard HUSKER & BRONCO FAN
    Flying Low & Slow in "Da Burg" FL
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  • henapple
    henapple Posts: 16,025
    One hour seems a long time. Check your settings. What's your vent and wheel gaps set at?
    Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN 
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  • bud812
    bud812 Posts: 1,869
    Is your thermo hitting the bird?

    Not to get technical, but according to chemistry alcohol is a solution...

    Large & Small BGE

    Stockton Ca.

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  • grege345
    grege345 Posts: 3,515
    +1 what mr @henapple said.
    LBGE& SBGE———————————————•———————– Pennsylvania / poconos

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  • henapple
    henapple Posts: 16,025
    Thermapen the bird.
    Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN 
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  • theyolksonyou
    theyolksonyou Posts: 18,459
    Are you looking at dome or grid temp?

    may try tapping bottom of grate to free up small pieces.
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  • Grillmagic
    Grillmagic Posts: 1,600
    You can leave it alone or bumped the heat up either one will work it'll just take longer to 275, keep an eye on, always go by temperature not time and I go 165 and 185. Good luck and I bet it comes out great!
    Charlotte, Michigan XL BGE
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 36,882
    All in with the "believe your indications" as long as you know they (it) are calibrated.  If not, then...
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period. CHEETO (aka Agent Orange) makes Nixon look like a saint.  
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  • noregard
    noregard Posts: 306
    Cleaned the egg this morning, good load of lump should burn good I'm pretty sure.  

    When I put it on I noticed right away the thermo was touching the bird, pulled it out a bit, but it is still quite close… maybe the bird is acting like a heat sink and I'm not getting an accurate reading? 

    Can you pull the thermo out quite far and still get accurate reading?

    Bottom vent is mostly open, daisy is all open with a small crack on the main top vent, this is my usual 400* setting with a small cook.  
    Lethbridge, Alberta         LBGE & MM
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  • noregard
    noregard Posts: 306
    Calibrated my thermo this morning also, was still bang on.
    Lethbridge, Alberta         LBGE & MM
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  • theyolksonyou
    theyolksonyou Posts: 18,459
    Pull the thermo back and see what you get.
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  • Foghorn
    Foghorn Posts: 10,228
    Supplement your grill thermometer data with other data and put the whole picture together.  See if meat temp is rising as one would expect for how long the bird has been on.  Look at the skin and get a sense of the temp when you open the egg.  Anywhere between 275 and 400 is fine - although higher temps will crisp the skin better - as long as you use meat temp to determine doneness. 

    XXL BGE, Karebecue, Klose BYC, Chargiller Akorn Kamado, Weber Smokey Mountain, Grand Turbo gasser, Weber Smoky Joe, and the wheelbarrow that my grandfather used to cook steaks from his cattle

    San Antonio, TX

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  • grege345
    grege345 Posts: 3,515
    Trust your settings. If you could pull your thermo and retaining clip out. Then put retaining clip on stem of thermo and stick in from the outside. This will act as a spacer so your stem doesn't go in as far. You can also use a cork as a spacer among other things.
    LBGE& SBGE———————————————•———————– Pennsylvania / poconos

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  • noregard
    noregard Posts: 306
    Not sure how i didn't see it but the egg thermo had slipped down and was in the bird a bit, made a tinfoil spacer so its just thru its retaining clip now.  I had jumped the gun and opened up the vents for a bit while I was typing my first post, got a little warm on the underside, I attempted to put some tinfoil under the bird to stop the charring…d'oh.

    I was planning on putting a couple small trays of brussel sprouts under it about now, but not sure anymore, having a hard enough time with just the bird!

    Breast is about 125, and thigh is 135 on my williams sonoma dual probe temp gauge.  Buying a thermapen tomorrow! Ive said it before and always regret not doing it, tonight is no exception.


    Lethbridge, Alberta         LBGE & MM
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  • NPHuskerFL
    NPHuskerFL Posts: 17,629
    If it's raised this can happen pretty easily. ;)
    LBGE 2013 & MM 2014
    Die Hard HUSKER & BRONCO FAN
    Flying Low & Slow in "Da Burg" FL
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 23,179
    Adding a spatched turkey is like adding a Platesetter. You have changed the airflow so you would need to adjust the vents.
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 23,179
    edited December 2014
    Everyone is right about the dome thermo possibly being too close to the bird on a raised cook but I'm guessing that it's just an airflow issue from adding the bird. This isnt as pronounced if you are cooking indirect since the initial settings already account for the platesetter or stone being in place. If you add anything (food,stone, setter etc) to a direct cook, it changes the airflow and vents need to be adjusted.
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • noregard
    noregard Posts: 306
    edited December 2014
    Good morning everyone.  In all the chaos last night I forgot to update… the bird turned out good, rave reviews all around, as the cook I could see a few problems with it but that's probably never going to change.

    The timing of the temps between breast and thigh was spot on, that's very handy, pulled at 165/185. 

    For future reference/people searching cook times my results were… started the egg at 410*, temp dropped to 250* for the first hour, I opened some vents and temp fluctuated between 275-300* for the next 1.5 hours.  Total cook time 2.5 hours.


    image

    I think Cen Tex may be on to something with the airflow idea.  With the size of the bird and the extra pieces, and how high it was (the breasts were very close to touching the dome) I don't think there was enough flow.

    Actually now that I think about it that might explain this….
    image

    I've never seen it do this before.  This was when I noticed the temp was so low and cranked open all the vents and there was a raging inferno inside for a few minutes.

    After the bird came of the brussel sprouts went on for about 40 minutes while the bird sat and I made gravy and drank another beer.  (For future reference this turned out to be a 5 beer cook, pretty high on the stress meter when things went sideways!)  Brussel sprouts were awesome, rave reviews!  

    Forgot to get pics of the finished products, sorry.

    Thanks again for the help, love this place.  I don't post much, but if you could see my search count/ posts read count you'd be mighty impressed. Ha!


    Lethbridge, Alberta         LBGE & MM
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 36,882
    @noregard-Appreciate the follow-up.  Always good to see how things turned out.  
    On a definitely related note-Near as I can figure you are on a beer/ half-hour pace.  The challenge will be to sustain that for a 20 hour butt cook :)>-  
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period. CHEETO (aka Agent Orange) makes Nixon look like a saint.  
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  • noregard
    noregard Posts: 306
    lousubcap said:
    @noregard-Appreciate the follow-up.  Always good to see how things turned out.  
    On a definitely related note-Near as I can figure you are on a beer/ half-hour pace.  The challenge will be to sustain that for a 20 hour butt cook :)>-  
    Thats a tough one these days, 15 years ago I may have given it some thought but now a days… yikes!


    On a side note, my gravy was a pretty big let down.  Spent the entire day making a turkey stock from necks/backs/wings, mirepoix, fresh herbs etc.  Just didn't turn out very good, lacking in the seasoning department.  
    Lethbridge, Alberta         LBGE & MM
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  • anton
    anton Posts: 1,813
    Glad it was a save, too bad about your gravy, I did the whole pan under the bird thing, with stock makins, and the drippings, best damn gravy I've ever had.
     Using a MBGE,woo/w stone,livin' in  Hayward California," The Heart Of The Bay "
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 36,882
    If you are deep into gravy, here's recipe that gets great reviews-(will not try it-reads like too much effort)... http://www.nakedwhiz.com/madmaxturkey.htm Anyhow-FWIW.
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period. CHEETO (aka Agent Orange) makes Nixon look like a saint.  
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