Practice Turkey: Advice needed

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I cooked my practice turkey this past Sunday using the honey brine and waterless method described on the website (vertical roast). My 11 # bird took around 2 hours to reach 160 in the breast with a cooker temp of 325-350.

The only complaint was that the leg, thigh meat came out tough. When I took the bird off, I measured the thigh temp to be 190+ degrees.

Will foil help here? Any other advice? Thanks in advance...hope someone can help before Thursday!

John B
 
I was big on that vertical roasting rack for a while, but I've started cooking turkey on the top grate, back down, just like in the oven. I think that will solve your problem.

Regards,
Chris
 
Thanks for the quick reply , Chris. Help me out with your theory here, if you don't mind-

Is it that on the top grate, the breast will be closer to the warmest part of the cooker, thus reaching temp faster, that is before the thigh overcooks?

Thanks.
 
I think the radiant heat coming off the empty pan cooks the legs faster than the rest of the turkey. My guess is that if you put a turkey on its back over the empty pan, the back side would overcook. Moving to the top grate eliminates this.

Regards,
Chris
 
Thanks, Chris. Some timely info there. Saved me $20. I was intent on using a vertical roaster for this week's turkey. Having no luck finding one in town, I emailed Spanek for assistance in directing me to a retailer or distributor in my area. That was more than 24 hours ago-- no reply yet. /infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif
 
Doug, Chris is right, especially where he talks about the radiant heat from the water pan.

For another reason, I gave up on the vertical rack last year based on Jim Minion's recommendation. For low 'n slow cooking with a water pan, the dome would be hotter than the rack temp and a turkey on a stand would position the breast meat closer to the hotter temps of the dome, which would cause the breast meat to cook faster than the legs.

I'm sure other members will chime in here with their thoughts on this.

Rita
 
As it turns out, this bird was probably the best I've ever done, and I didn't even do a practice turkey run. Thanks.
 
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