Chris W.
TVWBB Pro
Next Saturday, I'm hosting a whiskey tasting party for 8 friends (10 people total including myself and my wife) and a smoked turkey will be the main meat. I'm planning on everyone showing up around 2:00 and doing the actual tasting between 3:00 and 4:00 or 4:30 (however long it takes to do it justice) with dinner around 4:30 or 5:00.
This past Friday, I got a steal of a deal on a turkey. I was planning on roughly a 14-16 pound bird, but Target had a sale or turkeys for $0.49/pound. The only problem is that the only bird left was 23.5 pounds, way bigger than I intended. I went ahead and purchased the bigger bird because it was cheaper than the smaller ones they had (the deal was on one specific brand of turkey, of which they only had one left).
I'm using my 18.5" WSM for the smoke, but I'm not sure how long it will take. I'm ok with it being done a bit early; I'd rather it get done at 4:00 than 6:00, but not before 4:00. However, my WSM runs cold; with that much cold meat in the smoker, 260-265 will likely be the max temp I can achieve with a full chimney of lit charcoal (dome temp; I just recently started tracking grate temp and still go off dome temp because a decade plus of habit is hard to break). I'm planning on keeping it as close to 250 as I can for the cook. I cooked a smaller turkey for Christmas and 250 was about the max temp. I achieved there. I live in MO, so the ambient outdoor temp around Christmas was obviously about 70 degrees cooler than now, but that shouldn't affect things too much.
I've looked online, and most sites give indications for how many hours to cook per pound at 350. Obviously, that does me no good, so I wanted to ask the experts here: Roughly how long of a cook am I looking at? Obviously I can start it on the WSM and finish at a higher temp in the oven if absolutely necessary, but I'd prefer to just do it all on the WSM. If it makes any difference, I'm using Kingsford Professional charcoal (I think; I got them at Costco, so it's whatever brand of Kingsford Costco sells, and I'm not willing to experiment with lump for this cook since it's for a large group; I've had bad experiences trying new things on the smoker for large groups) and run with a foiled clay saucer in place of a water pan.
Thanks in advance for any help!
This past Friday, I got a steal of a deal on a turkey. I was planning on roughly a 14-16 pound bird, but Target had a sale or turkeys for $0.49/pound. The only problem is that the only bird left was 23.5 pounds, way bigger than I intended. I went ahead and purchased the bigger bird because it was cheaper than the smaller ones they had (the deal was on one specific brand of turkey, of which they only had one left).
I'm using my 18.5" WSM for the smoke, but I'm not sure how long it will take. I'm ok with it being done a bit early; I'd rather it get done at 4:00 than 6:00, but not before 4:00. However, my WSM runs cold; with that much cold meat in the smoker, 260-265 will likely be the max temp I can achieve with a full chimney of lit charcoal (dome temp; I just recently started tracking grate temp and still go off dome temp because a decade plus of habit is hard to break). I'm planning on keeping it as close to 250 as I can for the cook. I cooked a smaller turkey for Christmas and 250 was about the max temp. I achieved there. I live in MO, so the ambient outdoor temp around Christmas was obviously about 70 degrees cooler than now, but that shouldn't affect things too much.
I've looked online, and most sites give indications for how many hours to cook per pound at 350. Obviously, that does me no good, so I wanted to ask the experts here: Roughly how long of a cook am I looking at? Obviously I can start it on the WSM and finish at a higher temp in the oven if absolutely necessary, but I'd prefer to just do it all on the WSM. If it makes any difference, I'm using Kingsford Professional charcoal (I think; I got them at Costco, so it's whatever brand of Kingsford Costco sells, and I'm not willing to experiment with lump for this cook since it's for a large group; I've had bad experiences trying new things on the smoker for large groups) and run with a foiled clay saucer in place of a water pan.
Thanks in advance for any help!