pulled pork, ribs, and turkey

[Guest]

Made a cook this last weekend. Pork butt...4lbs took 12 hours to 190(tasted fantastic); St Louis style ribs took 7 hours to 185(tasted pretty good) and turkey breast(took 4-5 hours to 190(was dry and terrible...did I overcook?). Most of the cook was at 250 by the Weber Bullet thermometer. Can someone tell me how much the temp is on the first and second grate with water in the pan when the thermometer is reading 250? Love this BBQ thing welcome any and all advice.

 

[Rich G]

DW:

190? seems a bit high for turkey, most people shoot for 160-165?. Remember if you take it off at 165? it will rise a few more degrees as it rests before serving. Try that one again!! /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Not sure what you mean by "Weber Bullet" thermometer as the WSMs don't come with a thermometer. So, that means you (or someone else) added one, right? A rough idea would be about a 10-15? difference between dome temp and top grate. I usually see another 10-15? between my top and bottom grate, but that tends to even out the longer I cook (probably because as the meat heats up, it acts as a temp stabilizer for the whole system.)

Best way to know for sure is to use another thermometer (make sure it's calibrated properly) and test the difference for yourself. A cheap oven therm will work, or a digital probe type therm like a Polder or Taylor.

Have fun!

R

 

[Guest]

"turkey breast(took 4-5 hours to 190(was dry and terrible...did I overcook?)."
Did a 3.5lb Sunday, ran temps 250-260F at dome till internal temp was 165F little under 3 1/2 hours, nice and moist.
Sliced that TB up layed it on a nice salad, it's just a pleasant memory now.

 

[Guest]

so, I overcooked the turkey breast. Thanks for the input. Personally I am a beef and pork guy, not a poultry/salad guy but my wife wanted turkey. Again, thanks for the responses.

 

[Dennis Fraley]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kc's dw:
[qb] so, I overcooked the turkey breast. Thanks for the input. Personally I am a beef and pork guy, not a poultry/salad guy but my wife wanted turkey. Again, thanks for the responses. [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Smoked turkey is AWESOME! One of my favorites by far. And whenever I cook it for company it's gone almost right away.

Try it again. If you wanna cook it to an internal temp anywhere near that high you'll have to brine it first. Plus brined birds seem to get done quicker and there much more tender and juicey.
I normaly cook my birds to around 175f to 180f. Give or take a few degrees. Turns out great!

 

[Guest]

I've been cooking more TB on the rotisserie than in the smoker. Temp is much more difficult to control there, and what we've found over the summer is that with poultry the cooking temp is critical. I cooked a TB last weekend to 175 internal temp and it was dry; I had difficulty keeping the temp in the kettle below 350-375. Cooking time was shorter than planned. I injected with honey/wine/butter and applied no rub or salt to the meat before going into the kettle.

Noticed the same with smaller birds like chicken or cornish game hen.

Perhaps the higher cooking temp evaporates the juices more? (Just guessing here?)

 

[Doug D]

Regardless of cooking temps, if you take white turkey meat up to 175* it's going to be dried out. Same will be true for chicken. I pull mine at 161, and, upon resting, it goes up to 165.

 

[Dwain Gleason]

For turkey breast, I...

- Brine the beast - makes a big difference (IMO)
- Rub liberally on and under the skin
- Smoke at a higher temp (~325-350f)
- Remove at 160, carry-over cooking will take it up to 165

Smoked turkey is always a top favorite when I cook for relatives and co-workers, everyone seems to like it. I'm probably going to try injecting sometime to get more flavor deep into the muscle.