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Why Turkey cooked so fast?

MissingNOLA
MissingNOLA Posts: 6
in EggHead Forum
Hi, looking for some thoughts from folks here. Yesterday, we cooked a 16 lb turkey on my friend's egg. Turkey was brined, rubbed with a butter made of rosemary and thyme and truffle salt. We stuffed the cavity with carrots, celery and and orange. After lighting the egg, we let the dome temp get to 450 then brought it down to 320. Because we were running late, we put it one before letting it stabilize. After putting some pecan, the plate setter and a drip pan, we put the bird on. The temp fluctuated to under 300 to around 375 - at the dome. We put a probe on the grill but it was in the back so I think was reading lower than the true temp as it was 253. Anyway, my friend texted me that it was 175 in the breast after 2 1/2 hours. We pulled it off immediately. I turned out ok but I can't figure out why it cooked so fast. Any ideas? 


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Comments

  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 36,791
    First up, welcome aboard and enjoy the journey. Above all, have fun.
    Were all your thermos accurate/calibrated?  If so, then all I can say is good that you caught it before it overcooked.  The true cook weight was less than 16 lbs once the offal is removed but still it was quick.  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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  • jtcBoynton
    jtcBoynton Posts: 2,814

    This is a general guide that I check for planning purposes.  You had about 15 pounds in the 300-375º range, so 2-2.5 hours is right on schedule.  Your bird did not cook so fast.  Remember that the egg acts as a convection oven. When checking timing charts always use the charts for convection cooking, not normal oven charts.


    COOKING at (325°F)

    WEIGHT COOK TIME (UNSTUFFED) COOK TIME (STUFFED)

    6-10 lbs. 1½ -2 hrs. 1¾-2½ hrs.

    10-18 lbs. 2-2½ hrs. 2½-3¼ hrs.

    18-22 lbs. 2½-3 hrs. 3¼-3¾ hrs.

    22-24 lbs. 3-3½ hrs. 3¾-4¼ hrs.

    Southeast Florida - LBGE
    In cooking, often we implement steps for which we have no explanations other than ‘that’s what everybody else does’ or ‘that’s what I have been told.’  Dare to think for yourself.
     
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  • johnnyp
    johnnyp Posts: 3,932
    edited November 2017

    I have some additional thoughts about the cooking temp of your egg.  It seems to me that you fell into the trap of chasing temps.

    You mentioned that you overshot your temp and then put your bird on before you had restabilized at your lower, desired temp.  It seems you put in a platesetter and 16 lbs of cold meat between the fire and thermometer. 

    This resulted in a decrease in measured temp, but not a decrease in the actual heat in your cooker.  while chasing the measured temperature back up to 375F, your cooker was likely running hotter, but hadn't reached a new equilibrium to allow for accurate measurement by the thermometer. 

    My advice.  In the future, it is ideal to stabilize your temps before adding the meat.  Even if that isn't possible, resist the urge to chase your thermometer.


    welcome and happy egging

    XL & MM BGE, 36" Blackstone - Newport News, VA
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  • SmokingPiney
    SmokingPiney Posts: 2,319
    edited November 2017
    Once you get the Egg lit, install all of the hardware (plate setter, drip pan, etc) and let it come up to temp and stabilize. When you put the meat on, don't chase the temperature. It will recover once the meat starts cooking.

    The cold plate setter and bird tanked your dome reading, but you still had a hot bed of coals going.

    @johnnyp is spot-on with his assessment. 

    Living the good life smoking and joking
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  • westernbbq
    westernbbq Posts: 2,490
    My birds tend to be ahead of schedule as well.  I thinking it's because the probe is next to a cold bird and the guru setup overshoots the egg temp.  But I will be preheat ing bge with smobot for future long term cooks and ultimately the intermediate term cooks like Turk for tgiving....not giving up guru entirely but am pretty excited about getting a feel for the smobot....
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  • MissingNOLA
    MissingNOLA Posts: 6
    Thbaks everyone for your thoughts. I thought this was the issues but wanted to here from true Egg experts. 
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  • Stuss
    Stuss Posts: 75
    Too hot, too long and when you are cooking low temps for longer periods…patience is crucial.  I speak from experience.   Really hard to regulate the temp quickly when your egg gets too hot.   Easier to heat up than cool down.   Im no expert but i would suggest 275ish for temp, and i plan for about 20 min per pound.  
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  • Rte1985
    Rte1985 Posts: 304
    Agree with above posts.  Get your temp stable with plate setter in the egg.  I did a 14.5 lb bird.  Cooked it at 300 and it took exactly 4 hours to hit my 165 it
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