am i in over my head?

It's pretty tricky keeping temps at first. If you practice with several cooks over the weekend and early next week you should be able to pull it off. Good luck.

Hey Stones, I was just asking about you the other day. What size did you end up ordering?
And dont practice with a tub of water for cryin out loud(sorry Freddie) practice with burgers, brats, ribs, etc.

Hey stones:

Freddie indicates that you should watch the real cook carefully and often...

Good advice, just don't lift the dome too often to peak as that could result in temp fluctuations. Being new to the game, you don't want to be fiddling with vents, etc. trying to over correct temp when it might not be necessary.

In my opinion if the temp on your dome is stable and the temp on your remote is progressing nicely, you can check your bird through the daisy wheel and / or while you're basting ala Mad Max.

Good luck!

Michael

oh, and check the calibration on your thermometer as soon as you get it.

Thanks for clarifying Michael. When I said check often I meant keep an eye on your temps. You should very rarely have to lift the dome. I never lift the dome until I think it is done. I then double check with my thermapen and only rarely do I cook any longer.

Freddie
League City, TX

Stones,
You can do it!! Since you are not really familiar with the egg, temp control is your biggest obsticle.
1. Fill the lump to the fire ring scattering smoking wood chunks throughout the lump.
2. Light it in 4 or 5 different places on top.
3. Once you know it is lit shut the dome and leave the bottom and top vent fully open.
4. When the dome temp gets to around 250, close the bottom down to about 1/2 to 1 inch and slide the daisy wheel over leaving it about 1/4 inch and the spinner fully open.
5. Monitor the temp every 5-10 minutes. As the temp rises make small adjustments to the bottom and top vents to stabilize where you want it.

If you are going to use a platesetter (I assume you are), put it in just after lighting the lump so it will come up to temp with the egg. Otherwise you will be trying to drive the temps and be very frustrated.

The main thing to remember is take each step slow. Trying to rush the egg is very bad juju :huh: You don't want to make it mad :laugh:

Good luck,

if it were me i would cook a small turkey saterday, not only will you get some good experience for the big cook, you will have your gravey ready for tday, one less thing to do on tday if your the type that panics on the big cook. two things, wait for the smoke to burn clean before the bird goes on, and i wouldnt use any smokeing wood on your first cook or maybe go really light with it

all the advice you've received is excellent. i agree with fishlessman. cook a practice turkey. assuming that the grocery chains in your area have turkeys as loss leaders (here they are 40 cents/lb), i would buy one the same size you are planning to cook for thanksgiving. assuming you'll want to practice cooking it this weekend, you may need to rush the thawing of it using hot water, but if you PROMISE not to eat it, don't worry about how you thaw it.
i egged my first turkey after using the egg for about a year, so i had plenty of practice with temp control etc. however, even with mad max's excellent instructions, there were a couple of things i learned about during my first try that didn't matter to my immediate family but i would have been bummed out if i had a large group for dinner that i was trying to impress!
good luck!!
ps--i think you asked about the orientation of the plate setter. you want it legs up. then as mad max advises, use the 3 green egg feet to support your roasting pan, so it's not in direct contact with the plate setter. this will help prevent the drippings in the roasting pan from burning. however, as i learned the first year, if your roasting pan is larger than the plate setter, the part of the roaster that overhangs the edge of the plate setter will receive the radiant heat from the coals, so the juices in that end of the roaster will burn. during your practice run, you can determine if that's a problem and fashion a solution.