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a seven-minute per pound turkey????!!!!

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imb
imb Posts: 4
in Poultry
Does anybody understand how this happened? 18 pound bird, large Egg, 325F, convEGGtor legs up, drip pan on that, with six cups of water/wine and vegetables. The bird reached 160F after two hours....I was expecting four hours, when my guests arrived! (love the presentation; Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving without showing off how beautiful the bird looks coming out of the Egg, right?...). Curious how many minutes per pound y'all have experienced. In my files, I have two BGE Turkey cheat sheets: one of them says cook time for an 18lb bird is SIX (!!!)hours...the other says 3.5 hours. I actually thought the bird was too cold going in, but then that should take longer to get hot, right?
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  • wardo
    wardo Posts: 398
    edited November 2019
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    Your experience was the exact opposite of mine yesterday.  I was expecting a couple of hrs for the bird and it took 4 instead.
    NC - LBGE
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  • saaben
    saaben Posts: 28
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    Mysteries of the Green Egg. I love Pho and no two Pho batches are the same and no two cooks are the same on the Egg. That's what they make wine for. 

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  • jtcBoynton
    jtcBoynton Posts: 2,814
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    I would have expected 3 hours +-.  Two is quick.  Sure you were at 325º?  The 325º at dome, not grate. If your probe temp was too close to the cold bird you could have been running hotter but the probe was being cooled off somewhat by the bird.
    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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  • CornfedMA
    CornfedMA Posts: 491
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    My results were all over the place. I did turkey cooks on back to back days. A 13 lb bird Weds afternoon and a 31 lb bird yesterday. Mad Max method on both. 13 lb bird took 4.5 hrs weds. So I was planning on about 7 hrs for the 31 lb’er yesterday. It only took 5. Both were outstanding and the 31 lb bird was still steaming when I carved it 2.5 hrs after it came off. 
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  • imb
    imb Posts: 4
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    Thank you to all of you—your replies made me think a little harder! Now it seems obvious to me that my thermometer must be inaccurate. It 'said' 325, but it must have been a lot hotter in there. I will check and possibly calibrate mine, if that turns out to be the problem. Or maybe I'll just replace the thing. Has anyone found a better thermometer replacement for a large Egg?

    I found the link below. Super helpful.


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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,385
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    @imb Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.
    I am a big believer in trusting your indications so you should calibrate your themro as noted in your link.  Then you know what is going on. 
    I find the tel-tru thermos to be very accurate and quite stable.  I have only had to adjust one around 10*F once in the course of several years and I check their calibration (along with the digital ones) with boiling water prior to almost every low and slow cook which means around every month or so.  The process is quick and then you can believe your indications.  Now off the calibration soap-box.
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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