I'll tell you what I tell my wife: The first time you follow a recipe, follow it exactly. Don't swap out any ingredients, don't adjust the cook temp or time, just do what the recipe tells you to do. (at this point, I duck while she throws something - often a cooking vessel - at my head)
But seriously, with very few exceptions, most recipes are complete processes meant to allow someone to replicate a specific result. Ingredients, cooking temp and time are all dependent variables; changing one of them is going to have some impact on the others. You accounted for this somewhat by anticipating a longer cook time since you were cooking at a lower temperature, but such conversions are not necessarily linear or direct. Due to a variety of factors (type of meat, structure, size, etc.), how foods react to temp & time can vary greatly.
Also, accurate reading of the temp requires correct placement of your thermometer probe. Based on your later post where the temps were fluctuating, I suspect the tip of the probe may have been close to bone or cartilage, which can give you inaccurate readings. In other types of meat (pork butt is a good example), you often see temp drops like that as the fat starts to break down and convert to gelatin. That doesn't really happen in turkey (not nearly as much internal fat), but there are other possible causes.
During the last hour, I moved the meat probe around a lot. No matter where I placed it (most of the time in the breast area), it still showed that same fluctuation between 156 - 162 degrees.
In any event, if you don't have one, get a decent instant-read thermometer (see
http://virtualweberbullet.com/shopping.html#thermometers for recommendations) to double-check the probe's reading as well as check other parts of the meat (this is crucial with things like whole turkeys or chickens where different parts have different "done" temperatures).
I do have an instant read thermometer. Using it would have been a good idea, to double-check. Thanks for the suggestion.
You didn't post final results, but hopefully it all turned out OK. The few pics you posted sure looked promising. If this was your first attempt at smoking, turkey was an ambitious choice as it can be a bit of a challenge. I ruined 2 or 3 birds before I got Thanksgiving-worthy results. I'd suggest trying a pork butt or beef ribs. Pork butt is extremely forgiving and usually cheap, so it's a great thing to cook to help you learn how to control your cooker. Beef ribs are a bit pricier, but similarly beginner-friendly.
I just don't like eating pork or beef as much, I eat them only a few times a year (and still pork more than beef). I enjoy poultry more. I have to be in the right mood for pork, or seafood.
Hence I wanted to do something I have more excitement towards.
You didn't post final results, but hopefully it all turned out OK. The few pics you posted sure looked promising. If this was your first attempt at smoking, turkey was an ambitious choice as it can be a bit of a challenge.
Sorry for the delay. Wanted to finish eating all leftovers before posting thoughts, then was busy with other things.
Pics:
http://imgur.com/a/kkr4C/layout/horizontal#0
* I posted the last 3 pics, 2 of them at night, to show what the WSM looks like AFTER I've cleaned it. Does it look ok, or do I need to do a better job cleaning the inside of the middle cooking section? If I need to do a better job, any suggestions on how else to get rid of the char marks inside?
* I took a pic of the burnt charcoal and wood at the end, to show what it looked like. It looks like the big hickory split did burn.
But I agree that I need to find smaller hickory pieces, and will use those next time.
Does blue smoke actually look blue?
It's hard to tell without actually being there, but the smoke in your photo does look OK.
Regarding the vents, don't shut them all the way. You still need some airflow to keep it burning. Even if the temp is a little higher than what you would like to see, you don't want to choke the fire. That will extinguish it, and will give you some not so great smoke.
The good news about your big chunks is that you can cut them into smaller pieces. At least you won't have wasted the money.
* The 6th pic (the one which shows the whole WSM with smoke coming out) is what the smoke looked like. Is that the right color? Doesn't look blue to me.
Maybe I can open the bottom vents more toward the latter stage after it's reached 225.
* I bought too much beer. I had aimed for an average of at least 3 beers per drinking person. But people switched to sodas midway through, and less than 2 beers per drinking person were consumed. Partly because they had to drive or bike back.
Lesson learned not to buy so much. Also, because someone had brought an additional 6 pack, I had 22 beers leftover after the night. Too much leftover beer for one person, especially considering that some will get bad after a few weeks.
* The texture and moistness of the turkey were great. I liked how the skin turned out, it was crispy and good to me. Similar to how an oven roasted chicken comes out. And I'm glad I used the seasoning too, because I liked the flavor it gave to some parts.
* When the smoke flavor was there, it was good. It wasn't consistent throughout though, only on a few portions. I want to find a way to get that smoke flavor more consistent throughout.
Probably using the right size hickory would have helped. Any other suggestions?
Based on how the texture and moistness came out, I don't think I'd change the cooking time too much, unless it took longer to get 160+ on that specific cook. It seemed to be the right amount.
I'm happy that the texture, moistness, seasoning, and skin came out great. I still want to find tweaks to get more smoke flavor.
I'd do the same brine that I did, because of how satisfied I was with the moistness.
* Even though I'd watched videos, I didn't realize how physical it was to carve a turkey. A chicken seemed easier. For the turkey, I had to really pull apart some portions.
Thanks for your post and time.
