23 pound beast


 
C

Christian M

New member
Went to Costco and was trying to find 2 - 12 lbs. birds for Thursday, but, of course, the smallest they had was 20 lbs. So I ended up getting a 23 lbs. beast for the 18.5" WSM and will give it a whirl. Everything I've read online says that I should expect a cooking time of around 6 hours, but my experience with smaller birds is that the final cooking time is far less than what online estimates reflect. I'm going to attempt to cook at around 325 - 350 range for the duration of the cook and will pull the bird with an internal temperature of 160 in the breast. Of course, the test cook I did was 2 - 16 lbs. birds! Let's hear it for consistency.

So the question is this: if any of you have cooked big birds like this based upon similar cooking times and internal temps, how long did your cook take? I'm guessing around 4 hours if kept in that temperature range. Don't want to keep people waiting for their turkey!

Thanks for your help.
 
I did a 20LBS in my 18 and it took right about 3.5 hours. That was at 350 average, couple times it went to 375, couple times it fell to 325. I've done several smaller birds and from now on, I'm going to cook at 375 not 350. I use a vertical stand
 
You may need to put it on the lower rack and use a stand (or a Foster's can). I'm not sure you can lay a 23lb turkey down in an 18.5.
 
I've done a cpl big birds on my 22.5 WSM. At 350*F it takes about 4 to 4.5 hrs for a completely thawed unstuffed bird to get to proper temp.
 
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