cooking on middle grate?


 
P

Paul Pearson

TVWBB Super Fan
I've ran across a few threads about vertically cooking a turkey on the middle grate for more even cooking but does that apply to horizontally cooked turkeys as well?
Last year I did 3 turkeys and did them all on the top grate (didn't have the middle grate installed yet) but I'm considering trying them on the middle to get more heat on the dark meat and get the breasts down out of the dome a bit. When i cook.chicken pieces i do all the dark meat on the bottom rack so its done the same time the white meat is. Thoughts?
 
I've always cooked them on the top grate of the WSM if I'm not using the Performer. What temp are you cooking at? Sometimes if I want more even cooking I'll lower the temp just a little, and sometimes foil for a short period in the mid-late portion of the cook.
 
Last year i was running it as hot as i could get it, didn't have a thermometer yet but the dome gauge said 325 to 350 most of the cook.

I was just thinking that having the dark meat closer to the fire would get it cooked closer to when the white meat was done
 
I (probably like everyone else) like my skin crispy. To get that, it seems you have to "slow cook" at 275 minimum. If you've found that the lower rack gets a more consistent yet hotter heat than the top rack, then it would be a good move to do so. In theory, there's no difference between racks, but I've never subscribed to that theory
 
In my experience, the top grate of a WSM cooks hotter than the mid grate. It seems counter intuitive, I know, but I have measured both levels with my GURU probe and found it to be true. Slow cooking a bird, I have found, can make the skin come out rubbery and tough when a crisp skin is desired. My last turkey was at Thanksgiving last year and I cooked it as close to 325 as I could maintain for 3 to 4 hours and the skin was nice and crisp with beautiful color. I suggest following Meathead's cooking method (amazingribs.com) even if you don't follow his recipe.
 
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