Hi all,
I smoked my 15lb turkey for 4 hours and then continued to cook it for 3 more hours at 220 degrees. I based my cooking time on someone elses post but my bird never got over 125 degrees internally. At that point I was forced to finish it in the oven. Does anyone know where I went wrong? I brined the bird as well which I heard speeds up the cooking time. I can't find anywhere where it says how long to cook a per pound or anything like that. I'm now thinking I should have cooked this thing for like 12 hours at least? Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.
John
Hi John,
Welcome to the forum. A few of questions for you to maybe help us determine what may have happened. What type of Bradley do you have, digital or original? How were you monitoring the temp in the box? Was your Bradley outside and if so, what was the outside temp and was it windy? How open was your vent? Did you preheat your Bradley prior to putting the turkey inside? All of the items I asked about can have a direct bearing on how long something takes to fully cook.
KyNola
The thing about smoking (IMHO) is that you never really know exactly how long it will take when smoking. I feel this is one of the top reasons folks move their meat inside after a smoke (much easier to regulate temp inside an oven than to have to worry about wind, etc). However, in an effort to try and understand what went wrong, if we had the answers to the questions KYNola asked, we might be able to pinpoint a cause. If using the door thermometer on your Bradley, they're not very accurate and that could be a source of the problem. Please let us know what went wrong; there are some absolutely brilliant monds on this board (unfortunately, I'm npt pne of them) that can help figure it out.
Regards,
SD
John;
Welcome to the forum. The additional information will be helpful.
Brining does lessen the amount of time it needs to cook. On average it takes me 8 hours to smoke/cook a 12 pound bird at 225°F; but there have been days it takes 10 hours. So 12 hours would have been a better guesstimate for a 15 pound bird. A lot depends on how fast your smoker recovers and get back up to 225°F.
Generally I only apply about 2:20 -2:40 hours of smoke.
Welcome to the forum John...
I also heard that it could take between 1 hr. 15 mins to 1 hr 30 mins per pound to cook a turkey at 215 to 225 and like others have stated it depends on how fast your box recovers as well as ambiant temptures.
so 15 to 20 hours for a 15 lb turkey is not un heard of... most smoke in the smoker and finish in the house oven
W E L C O M E to the Forum ollavac_j!
I don't have an explanation for you. I was just as belwildered to find that after 6 hours @225F, Our 14lb bird was at an IT of 162F... 3 hours early.
How open was your vent ?
Was it a fresh or frozen bird ?
Did you let the bird sit @ room temp for 1 hour while you preheated the smoker ?
Hey guys thanks for the warm welcome... Here is the break down of what I have/did.
I have a four rack digital model. It doesn't have the door thermometer. I was thinking of sliding a thermometer in the top of the vent but wasn't sure if that is the proper way of doing it. I preheated the oven (220) for an hour and the bird was a fozen bird at room temp. My vent was slightly open because I thought it would help keep heat in. It was rather cold, probably about 35 degrees and a slight breeze but I was cooking just slightly inside the garage to cut down on the breeze. I'm not sure how accurate the digital gauge is on my model but I can tell you that it fluctuated from 207 to 220 at times. Not sure why. My digital guage only goes to 320. Also my bradley drips from two spots on the bottom of the door and one spot in the rear. Is that normal?
Oh and I also used a 13x9 inch aluminum tray on the rack just below the bird to help with cleanup later. Not sure if that screws with heat distribution at all.
With any type of poultry, you want the vent wide open. The drips are from the condensation from the bird. This probably contributed quite a bit with the length of time. I never use anything but the V-drip tray that comes with the Bradley. Simply spray with spray oil and easy clean up afterwards. This probably contributed to the dripping as well. I never rely on the temp setting with the digital. The best thing you can do is buy a Maverick ET-73 remote thermometer. This will give you a much better reading as to what the actual box temp is versus digital readout. I've seen large temp swings using only the digital readout and the Maverick takes care of that issue pretty well. I would recommend buying one from Bryan at www.yardandpool.com. You can also PM him; his screen name is begolf25. You won't find a better person to deal with and he'll set you up good.
I'm sure there's something I've missed and others will be around to help.
Good luck!
SD
Wow SD that Maverick ET-73 sounds cool... So there are two guages--one for the meat and the other for the oven? So the benifit of that thing is so you don't ever have to open the door right? Thanks for the help...
John
Absolutely, John. I highly recommend it and Bryan from Yard and Pool. Both are top-notch. You know the old saying: If you're looking, you ain't cooking! This takes care of that and really helps when it's cold outside.....no more going out all the time when it's cold! You do, however, need to check on it (with your choice of beverage in hand) just to prove to people how hard smoking food is! ;D
SD
Yeah I told my buddy I bought an electric smoker and he jumped all over me saying that I was cheating... Whatever : )! It's all about good flavor to me. I could care less if I'm taking the easier way out : ) I look at it like this, work smarter not harder!
Hey SD, so if if my bradley is set to the digital 220 and it's only actually say like 210 in there it's okay to raise the oven temp to get it more acurate right?
Yea, that's what I do when I use the Digital. I always go with the Maverick reading over the Bradley. It wasn't uncommon to have a 20 degree difference between the Bradley and the Maverick. I'm thinking that might have made a big difference in the time of your bird. You may have thought you were smoking at 220 but it could have been much less than that. Once you get a Maverick,. you'll understand why.
I like when the guys who say electric is cheating are smoking and I am. I really like when they have to stay at home all day to tend the smoker and stay up all night to tend the smoker and I go over to visit them when I'm smoking as well. Don't get me wrong; I smoke conventionally as well but reserve the conventional when I'm doing a whole hog and it simply won't fit into the Bradley. Sure, you don't get the smoke ring, but I've moved way past the looks and really only care about the flavor.
SD
I hear you. Yeah I'm new to smoking and am just trying to get this bradley down as quick as possible. I will probably defianatley pick up one of those mavericks for sure... Thanks for the tidbit : )
No problem at all John. If you run into any more problems, just give a shout and anyone here is happy to help!
SD
Thanks SD. BTW do you know of anywhere on the forum where I could pick up a good smoked ham recipe?
Sure, John.
You can either do a search under the meat section or give this site a try: http://www.susanminor.org/
This is where most of the recipes we use are stored. I suggest you bookmark this place as you'll want to keep going back to try new things there. Oldman (that's his screenname) started the site and I believe Habanero Smoker now takes care of it. It's a great site and all sorts of stuff to try out there.
Marc
Quote from: ollavac_j on November 28, 2008, 07:06:55 PM
Thanks SD. BTW do you know of anywhere on the forum where I could pick up a good smoked ham recipe?
Ollavac
If you haven't been over to Old's recipe site you should head over there. Just click on the smoker in the bottom of my post. Tons of great recipes for the Bradley all contributed to by the fine folks here on the forum. There is a couple ham recipes as well.
Mike
Geezzz SD.... Your beatin' me to everything tonight! :D
Mike
That should give you a clue as to how pathetic my life is without a job :o
Look these over.
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=465
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=53
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=84
Quote from: Smoking Duck on November 28, 2008, 07:14:45 PM
That should give you a clue as to how pathetic my life is without a job :o
:D :D ;D
Ya but what's my excuse! ::)
Mike
Quote from: Mr Walleye on November 28, 2008, 07:24:25 PM
Quote from: Smoking Duck on November 28, 2008, 07:14:45 PM
That should give you a clue as to how pathetic my life is without a job :o
:D :D ;D
Ya but what's my excuse! ::)
Mike
You wanna be like me ??? ??? ??? ;D
Thank you all for all the help. It's been a real pleasure ;D
The others have you set. As SD stated, when smoking/cooking poultry with skin keep the vent wide open, for at least the first several hours until most of the moisture is expelled. Moisture build up in the smoker; among other things, will keep the temperature down. Also that's a large pan to collect drippings, that is the size of the tray. Covering the tray like that will also block the heat, and may cause damage to your unit. I would use a smaller pan to collect drippings.
Thanks HS... I might not even use one next time. I will probably smoke a ham for Christmas, can't wait. Although my bird was finished in the oven it was the best tasting bird I ever had and my wife gave it two thumbs up. I will never cook one fully in the oven again :)
Get this, I originally bought a Masterbuilt smoker based on Cabela's reviews and sent it back. It was so poorly constructed it looked like a bunch of metal shop kids put it together. Got a great deal on the BS at Sportsman's Warehouse so I'm real happy. The only thing that made me nervous about buying a Bradley is if the company ever goes out of buisness and I can't buy the pucks anymore.
When I powered up the BS for first time I noticed the meat light was out. I called BS and they told me they did that on purpose because some people thought that the light meant the internal temperture of the meat. I thought that was kind of odd. I mean I know it's a cheap fix to just turn out the light but are they goingto make a new digital display eventually?
John
Not sure what their plans are on design, John. What I've found is that I believe the original is much better than the digital or at least more versatile for me. I have both the digital and original (I added a PID to the original) and I use the Original much more than I use the digital because of it's ease of use with all different types of smokes and the ability to pinpoint temps a lot better with a PID. This is not to say that the digital is inferior. It's just meant to say that is what I prefer.
I wouldn't worry about Bradley going under any time soon as I believe they're a relatively stable corporation. However, I'm sure if it were to happen, someone would step in and fill the void left with bisquettes.
Be sure to let us know how that ham turns out!
SD
What's a PID? Sorry for my ignornance :D So how do you regulate the temp on the original? From the picture it just looks like and on off switch. I bet I can turn mine into and original right? I would just need a new smoke generator maybe. Are they interchangeable? How much do they run$$$?
ollavac_j
No need to go to that extreme. You can add a PID to the DBS without a problem. That's what I run and have been for a number of years. Here is a link to a write up on the PID. This is a home built one, Auber, the supplier of most of the PIDs that everyone here is using also sell a couple of plug and play models.
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?p=504#post504
Here is Auber's site....
http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=8&zenid=b91052f7854204528ee29a1ccc71014d
Mike
John,
Looks like Mike and the Duck have you hooked up! You'll get the hang of your BDS before long. I have the 4 rack BDS and for the most part like it OK. If you only buy one thing for your BDS, get the Maverick ET-73 that Duck told you about. You will be stunned at the difference in temp reading.
Good luck and hang around with the rest of us.
KyNola
Hey KyNola. So if I just get the Maverick am I going to have to sit outside and continually jack with the BS setting over and over do to fluctuations or will it be a one time adjustment?
Ollavac_j
The ET73 will monitor the temp of the smoker and it will monitor the inside temp of whatever your smoking. The probes extend into your smoker so you don't have to keep opening the door to check them. It also has a remote receiver that will display both temps up to 100 feet away depending on what it has to travel through.
On the other hand the PID controls your smokers temperature, usually within a couple of degrees to the set point.
They are totally separate items that do different jobs. If nothing else, you need the ET73 so you can monitor whatever your smoking.
Hope that helps..
Mike
If I had to choose one or the other, I'd get the Maverick first and then worry about the PID. If you can afford to get both, you won't be sorry. And, if you can afford to get both, how bout helping a brother out and buying me a ton of bisquettes? ;D
I'm just kidding about that.........I don't need a ton :o ;) :)
John,
Mike has you covered on the ET-73. You may have to adjust your temp setting on the BDS once you see what's going on but don't over react as the temp will stabilize as the meat comes up to temp. Assuming your married don't tell your wife that you don't have to tend to the smoker with beverage in hand. ;)
KyNola
Quote from: KyNola on November 29, 2008, 02:33:57 PM
John,
Mike has you covered on the ET-73. You may have to adjust your temp setting on the BDS once you see what's going on but don't over react as the temp will stabilize as the meat comes up to temp. Assuming your married don't tell your wife that you don't have to tend to the smoker with beverage in hand. ;)
KyNola
Ya... Ya! It's hard work!.... A guy gets thirsty ya know! ::) ;D
Mike
I hear that. The one good thing about winter is the beers stay as cold as can be : ) And I can keep a crap load of it cold on the garage floor ;) Hey guys I have a good question. Lets say If I bought the $1500 Smokin' Tex Smoker, would I have to worry about temp control like on the Bradley? I guess I never expected to have to buy extras for an electric smoker because that's what I thought was the perk about smoking electric in the first place. This is also my first smoker too, so it'll explain how much I know...he he. I'm trying to figure out a way to tell the wife I need more stuff after just spending $300 bones. She's looking at me like I need to return this unit and get a different one...