Tried a whole Turkey a week ago..... Came out too dry and chewy. Read up on the Spatchcock method and decided to give it a shot...
Have to get it right before the family comes down for Thanksgiving. Spatchcock wins hands down for me...
Fifteen pound freshly killed local farm Turkey.... Cut the backbone out, trimmed the excess fat & butt, split it buy pushing down on the breast side (used cleaver to chop a little of the bone) and it was ready to prepare.
Nothing elaborate.... Oiled both sides of the Bird... Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Flakes, and some Treagar Poultry Rub on both sides. Not a heavy coating....
Set the Smoker (Yoder YS 480) to 325 with Hickory Pellets. Just got the Tappecue WiFi Reader, so I was excited to try that.... Put the chamber probe in and left the other three outside, ready to put into the Bird.
Prepping the Bird and went out to check the temps... All were reading around 58! Darn.. Must be something wrong with the Tappecue! Not measuring the chamber temps... WRONG! Felt the pit and it was cool as a cucumber. I had just cleaned the pit and upon reassembly forgot to put the Pellet Grate back into the fire box! Soooo.... The box was filling with pellets and not igniting. Oooops!
Removed the pellets, put them back in the hopper and put the pellet grate back in and started the process all over.... In twenty minutes I was up to temperature and ready to put the bird in.... Kind of figured from what I've read, dinner was going to be a little late. All kinds of time info out there with wide variation in rage.
Inserted a probe in each Breast and one in the thigh to see the differences between light and dark.... Chamber probe was toward the front right near the stack....
Much to my surprise in less than two hours the Bird was up to Temperature..... Breast was 160 and Thigh was over 180.....
Bird was delicious.... Moist, Juicy, and full of flavor. I know the family will be happy.... The only con is that the skin was not as crisp as an Oven Cooked Bird, but I'll sacrifice that any day of the week for the flavor of that Turkey.
Want to do two Birds for Thanksgiving.... One on the bottom grates and one of the shelf... I know it will take longer, but anyone have a guess as to how much longer?
The Tappecue is a very cool device.... You can get the data on your Cell or Pad anywhere..... Don't have to stick around the house...
It also graphs the entire cook so you can see pit temp variation as well as cooking temps over the cook time from each probe. The four probes can be used for any combo of pit or food temps.
I'll post some photos.... Since it was my first time using the Tappecue there are some wire management issues that need to be cleaned up, so please excuse the mess. :-)
Richie
Have to get it right before the family comes down for Thanksgiving. Spatchcock wins hands down for me...
Fifteen pound freshly killed local farm Turkey.... Cut the backbone out, trimmed the excess fat & butt, split it buy pushing down on the breast side (used cleaver to chop a little of the bone) and it was ready to prepare.
Nothing elaborate.... Oiled both sides of the Bird... Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Flakes, and some Treagar Poultry Rub on both sides. Not a heavy coating....
Set the Smoker (Yoder YS 480) to 325 with Hickory Pellets. Just got the Tappecue WiFi Reader, so I was excited to try that.... Put the chamber probe in and left the other three outside, ready to put into the Bird.
Prepping the Bird and went out to check the temps... All were reading around 58! Darn.. Must be something wrong with the Tappecue! Not measuring the chamber temps... WRONG! Felt the pit and it was cool as a cucumber. I had just cleaned the pit and upon reassembly forgot to put the Pellet Grate back into the fire box! Soooo.... The box was filling with pellets and not igniting. Oooops!
Removed the pellets, put them back in the hopper and put the pellet grate back in and started the process all over.... In twenty minutes I was up to temperature and ready to put the bird in.... Kind of figured from what I've read, dinner was going to be a little late. All kinds of time info out there with wide variation in rage.
Inserted a probe in each Breast and one in the thigh to see the differences between light and dark.... Chamber probe was toward the front right near the stack....
Much to my surprise in less than two hours the Bird was up to Temperature..... Breast was 160 and Thigh was over 180.....
Bird was delicious.... Moist, Juicy, and full of flavor. I know the family will be happy.... The only con is that the skin was not as crisp as an Oven Cooked Bird, but I'll sacrifice that any day of the week for the flavor of that Turkey.
Want to do two Birds for Thanksgiving.... One on the bottom grates and one of the shelf... I know it will take longer, but anyone have a guess as to how much longer?
The Tappecue is a very cool device.... You can get the data on your Cell or Pad anywhere..... Don't have to stick around the house...
It also graphs the entire cook so you can see pit temp variation as well as cooking temps over the cook time from each probe. The four probes can be used for any combo of pit or food temps.
I'll post some photos.... Since it was my first time using the Tappecue there are some wire management issues that need to be cleaned up, so please excuse the mess. :-)
Richie