You smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving?


 

You smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving?

  • Yes

    Votes: 20 83.3%

  • No

    Votes: 4 16.7%
  • Total voters
    24
I’m really not quite an empty nester yet, but will be just the wife and I for Thanksgiving this year. Kids are off with their boy/girl/friends, in-laws snow birding already, and my parents are gone. I’ve never been one to eat something just because of tradition, so pulled a small prime rib out of the freezer. I don’t mind turkey, but a hunk of aged beef is usually better 😉
 
I have a Butterball "turkey roll". I thought it was a turkey breast. Now upon examination it appears to be a hodge podge of white/dark meat wrapped in turkey skin. Not sure WTH it is but it's being served as I have no desire to have a whole bird. I also have some free range thighs to throw on since the majority of turkey eaters in my family like dark meat. And not one to want to bother with legs (too stringy), thighs get the nod. I have 6 thighs and the "roll", plus for those of us who want a "real meal" :D I have a 5.5# Prime NY Strip Roast. Depending on weather, everything will be on Big Z or I will press Member's Mark into action. Just in case I cleaned both, and even replaced the RTD Probe on the Member's Mark since it was over a year old. And I understand them to be a "consumable" item. So I had a brand new one. Did all that yesterday. I cleaned (deep cleaned) Big Z, last weekend and have not used it. Only using the MM. Yesterday the MM got the deep clean and the new probe. (though I did cook on it yesterday a half slab of St Louis ribs). Though sadly I was trying to rush them (we had the girls), and while they tasted good, I tried to push the envelope with a quick smoke then push temps high, no wrap. So, I got some stringy ribs. Oh well.
 
Pretty new to this forum and I really appreciate all the experience and sharing. Thanks! For the last 10 years, I’ve done the Weber cranberry/orange brined turkey, but on a rotisserie over gas with a smoker box full of hickory on my Genesis 330. Always a hit. But this year I’m going to try smoking on the new EX4. I did a test run turkey breast for my son and his friends last night. I spatched it, dry rub x 24 hours with Weber BBQ mix under the skin, salt and more rub on the skin. On the grill I draped it with bacon and started with Smokeboost x 1 hour at 165, upped it to 225 for another hour, removed the bacon and finished at 300 until 165 inside by probe, about another hour or so. I used the Weber Masterblend pellets.

What will I do for Thanksgiving? It’s a 15 lb whole bird, which I’m currently wet brining using the Weber Apple Brined recipe. I’ll take it out tomorrow morning, dry the skin and let it sit uncovered in the fridge to dry more. I’ll spatch it, rub with butter and some kind of seasoning as inspiration strikes, and smoke/grill it with Masterblend again over a drip pan with some water and a few carrots to add to gravy. I’m going to try adding a smoke tube, because the test run breast still didn’t have enough smoke flavor for my taste, even with Smokeboost. No bacon this time, as it kept the skin from getting crispy and wasn’t dark enough for me. I’ll try Smokeboost again for an hour, push the grill up to 325 until 150 inside, and crank the grill to 450 to crisp/darken the skin more until inside reaches 165. Hope that all works, as 10 hungry people will be waiting…
 

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Off my game today. Also had some "issues" with Big Z but not sure why. Had my strip roast and small turkey roll roast on it. Did "smoke" for about 75-90 minutes, had the thighs on the Member's Mark. When it was time to get skin crisped up. I cranked the MM up to 350 (I should mention it had Smokehouse pellets in it). It responded perfectly. Not so lucky on the Big Z. Unsure why. Conditions were pretty good breeze, temps about 45 deg. But, when I set it to go up to 350 it was having troubles getting over 275-285. One other condition is I had 2 water pans on the bottom shelf and food on top. I thought maybe it was evaporation causing the issue. Should also note using the Kirkland pellets.
Have seen folks report the Kirkland are too long and too hard so don't get temps in colder weather
Not sure if anyone has ever seen or heard anything to that effect. I may do a pellet dump on it and go with SmokeHouse
 
LMichaels said:
Off my game today. Also had some "issues" with Big Z but not sure why. Had my strip roast and small turkey roll roast on it. Did "smoke" for about 75-90 minutes, had the thighs on the Member's Mark. When it was time to get skin crisped up. I cranked the MM up to 350 (I should mention it had Smokehouse pellets in it). It responded perfectly. Not so lucky on the Big Z. Unsure why. Conditions were pretty good breeze, temps about 45 deg. But, when I set it to go up to 350 it was having troubles getting over 275-285. One other condition is I had 2 water pans on the bottom shelf and food on top. I thought maybe it was evaporation causing the issue. Should also note using the Kirkland pellets.
Have seen folks report the Kirkland are too long and too hard so don't get temps in colder weather
Not sure if anyone has ever seen or heard anything to that effect. I may do a pellet dump on it and go with SmokeHouse
Click to expand...
I had sort of the reverse issue...we spun our bird on the BGE. We started off directly over the coals at 325F dome temp, then about 45 mins into the cook put in a pizza stone as a deflector and a water pan to collect drippings for gravy. We use a HeaterMeter ATC with the BGE, ez-pz set and forget, so dome temp came back up right away but the turkey stalled. I was using a Meater+ in the thigh and a Combustion Inc thermo in the breast. Increased dome temp 25F at a time and finally, at 425F, temps started moving again. The bird came out phenomenal, one of the best ever, but I think adding the additional heat load under the bird put the bird in a low temp zone...or maybe the water vapor coming off the water pan carried some of the heat away from the bird.

One other thing I noticed...the Combustion thermo is very accurate with the ambient temp and was coming very close to the water in the water pan on the swing around. It was showing about 162F ambient, down from 345-358F after I added the stone/water pan. It appears that a water pan creates a cool zone. Maybe you put enough of a load on your Z that it couldn't overcome.

EDIT: But without question, different pellets burn at different temps. That RO 100% charcoal burns noticeably hotter than my Sam's/Costco mix.
 
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What gets me about folks saying the RO burns hotter is the pellet grill uses a controller to regulate the fuel. So, while I can see one fuel burning hotter at the flame, I don't get why the controller doesn't simply reduce fuel burn to compensate.
I am in a little quandry. So, today I may dump the Kirkland pellets out, and add a load of the Smokehouse ones. Fire it up just for s^7ts and giggles and see if it can heat up. It's a little colder today and windier.
Thnking back I did use a water pan in it before with my last (best ever) brisket. Though, I did not wrap it and I did not need heat to go over 250. It was doing fine yesterday. Rock solid until I needed to get it to 325. And then it balked. Even removing the water pans it was very sluggish. So I find it a little disconcerting.
So I wonder if it could have something to do with the Kirkland pellets being so much longer and harder.
 
LMichaels said:
What gets me about folks saying the RO burns hotter is the pellet grill uses a controller to regulate the fuel. So, while I can see one fuel burning hotter at the flame, I don't get why the controller doesn't simply reduce fuel burn to compensate.
I am in a little quandry. So, today I may dump the Kirkland pellets out, and add a load of the Smokehouse ones. Fire it up just for s^7ts and giggles and see if it can heat up. It's a little colder today and windier.
Thnking back I did use a water pan in it before with my last (best ever) brisket. Though, I did not wrap it and I did not need heat to go over 250. It was doing fine yesterday. Rock solid until I needed to get it to 325. And then it balked. Even removing the water pans it was very sluggish. So I find it a little disconcerting.
So I wonder if it could have something to do with the Kirkland pellets being so much longer and harder.
Click to expand...
What you say about the controller is true, but it can take time for things to stabilize, depending upon how close the starting values for the PID calcs are to the characteristics of the system being controlled. A large overshoot at the beginning and then over-correcting while the controller adjusts the values lead to higher overall temps, at least in the beginning, in my limited experience. And controlling an auger that feeds pellets that take time to ignite and burn is a system with a lot of lag. The controller will eventually settle in near the set point, it just takes time.

The Sam's/Costco pellets do very well at low temps in my MM. I can maintain 180F for the hour or so that I need. I can't do that with the RO...it wants to be 200F or better. And the RO adds a nice smoke flavor, IMO, but taste is very much an individual thing.

I think you should try a bag, if you can find one for a reasonable price, and see how it works for you. Try it at P3, then try it at 500F. In both cases, it burns hotter in my grill. It might be different for you...the controller is part of a system, after all. I would expect it to work differently between your two grills, too, with the Z being so much larger than the MM.

My experience with the PiFire, where I was able to run the auger independently of the fan and igniter, is that only a few of those big pellets as they come out of the bag make it through the auger without breaking apart. Many of the pellets come out about 3/8" or less. Moisture content plays into this as well...too much or too little moisture and wood pellets fall apart, potentially having an impact on how well a pellet holds together and how fast a pellet burns.
 
Well I never got out to dump my pellets today. So the quandry will be unanswered for now. Especialy since there is a 4 letter word expected in my area this weekend :( I know the water pans likely cooled the chamber a bit. But, even when removed I could not get temps to recover.
When I looked up the pellets on the Costco site, there was a lot of complaints with all different kinds of grills complaining of grills not being able to achieve temps. I imagine in summer the high ambient temps offset this and it's not a concern. I would have to think this also since, I have run Kirkland pellets in exclusively since my second hopper full. And a whole lotta Q has passed under that lid.
THis is the first time I have tried to get it over 300 in cold weather. I have noticed higher fuel consumption since weather has chilled though. But, I figured it went with the territory
 
Hey, Larry, here's some pics of what comes out of the auger.

tvwbb.com

My first flame out, error code E3. EX6.

Total surprise, I was not monitoring my cook with the app, not sure if it would have notified me anyway. Everything was going fine for about 5 hours during a rib smoke. When I went to sauce the ribs I discovered the E3 error code. Opened the lid, first thing I noticed was a pile of pellets on...
tvwbb.com tvwbb.com

1700872489620.png
 
I am currently running Kirkland pellets in my Memphis Pro and have no problems achieving and/or maintaining high or low temps. I have no humidity here in Idaho and outside temps here run from the 100°+ to lows in the teens and 20’s.
 
LMichaels said:
Well I never got out to dump my pellets today. So the quandry will be unanswered for now. Especialy since there is a 4 letter word expected in my area this weekend :( I know the water pans likely cooled the chamber a bit. But, even when removed I could not get temps to recover.
When I looked up the pellets on the Costco site, there was a lot of complaints with all different kinds of grills complaining of grills not being able to achieve temps. I imagine in summer the high ambient temps offset this and it's not a concern. I would have to think this also since, I have run Kirkland pellets in exclusively since my second hopper full. And a whole lotta Q has passed under that lid.
THis is the first time I have tried to get it over 300 in cold weather. I have noticed higher fuel consumption since weather has chilled though. But, I figured it went with the territory
Click to expand...
It's a long shot, but maybe the pellets have absorbed enough moisture in storage to make them burn slower? Or maybe you could pick up a bag of the RO to try if they aren't crazy expensive in your area?

If you have a way of doing it (an accurate scale and a heat source), you could weigh a small amount of pellets and dry them to see how much moisture they have absorbed, but I agree with you and think that the weather is the main issue.
 
Ed P said:
It's a long shot, but maybe the pellets have absorbed enough moisture in storage to make them burn slower? Or maybe you could pick up a bag of the RO to try if they aren't crazy expensive in your area?

If you have a way of doing it (an accurate scale and a heat source), you could weigh a small amount of pellets and dry them to see how much moisture they have absorbed, but I agree with you and think that the weather is the main issue.
Click to expand...
Thing is others on FB group from my Z grill report no issues hitting high temps in cold weather. So I am totally puzzled. And the indicators for the auger are so dim on the LCD panel I cannot tell if the auger is trying to run or not. If I could see if the auger is turning on but temps are low, I'd know maybe it's a lack of fuel. If it's not turning on then I would know maybe it's RTD probe. But, I see so many folks on the Costco site indicate the same issues, switch to SMokehouse or some other name brand and no issues and not just with Z Grills. But, Traeger, Pit Boss and many more. Maybe I will have to wire in an external bright LED so I know for sure when the auger is running. Although the RTD on that grill is super simple to install. Maybe I will just order one and try a new probe
 
It wouldn't hurt to replace the RTD to see if the problem goes away, but to my way of thinking, if the problem is either the input or the output, I'd be leaning more toward the output end of things because the output is switching an AC load and not just reading a resistance value. I'm wondering if the controller uses triacs in the driver section like the MM, and if this isn't similar to the ptoblem you had with the MM?
 
It has almost exactly the same setup as the MM. Even the same RTD I think. When I can I will be trying the MM spare I have. My original issue with the MM was an ERR1 IIRC. That issue was on the switching side of the controller. But then I went through multiple controller assemblies and was a very similar issue. The new controllers would hit a temp, and then no matter where you set the dial, it would not go higher. WOuld not even attempt to. I truly hope this is not the case because that issue was in the logic portion. But by finally repairing the power side and pairing that with a good logic board, it's been rock steady. Seems on all these Chinese made PCBs it's the ones that do the switching are typically the biggest headache. If the logic board works the first time my experience is they'll work forever. And better than 90% of the time the issue on the power board is cracked solder joint due to this crappy no lead solder.
 
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