Drh7003
Full Fledged Farker
This was the first Thanksgiving I decided to smoke a Turkey. We did one in the oven also, but, I figured I would try doing one in my UDS.
I brined my turkey with Wampus's method and got the UDS up to temp. The turkey was a small one 9.5lbs or so. I used a lot of herb compound butter under the skin and on top. I put the turkey on the top shelf and I put a roater under neath of it to catch the drippings.
I tried to keep my temps around 230 or so, but it kept dropping. I ended up opening all the lower air intakes the last 45 minutes or so. The temps soared to around 350 and...it worked out. My skin was nice and crisp and the turkey was juicy.
The gravy I made with the drippings was AWESOME! As a matter of fact, there is very little smoked turkey left, but a lot of the regular turkey left. (They were both very moist).
Back to the UDS temp issues. Does anyone else have issues like this? This is the second time this has happened to me, with temps not stabilizing and maintaining 230-250.
Construction:
I made my UDS using the plans on this site. It is a standard 55 gal drum, 3- 3/4" air intakes 2" from bottom two plugged, one with a ball valve, & 2" raised expanded steel charcoal basket.
Charcoal:
I used Kingsford Blue with a couple of cherry logs on top.
I used the minion method.It stayed at temp for the first 45 minutes after I put the bird in, after that it was all over the place.
Thermometers:
I have a craptastic weekend warrior thermometer a Taylor probe thermometer and I hooked up my Fluke multimeter thermometer, they were all within 6 degrees of each other.
I brined my turkey with Wampus's method and got the UDS up to temp. The turkey was a small one 9.5lbs or so. I used a lot of herb compound butter under the skin and on top. I put the turkey on the top shelf and I put a roater under neath of it to catch the drippings.
I tried to keep my temps around 230 or so, but it kept dropping. I ended up opening all the lower air intakes the last 45 minutes or so. The temps soared to around 350 and...it worked out. My skin was nice and crisp and the turkey was juicy.
The gravy I made with the drippings was AWESOME! As a matter of fact, there is very little smoked turkey left, but a lot of the regular turkey left. (They were both very moist).
Back to the UDS temp issues. Does anyone else have issues like this? This is the second time this has happened to me, with temps not stabilizing and maintaining 230-250.
Construction:
I made my UDS using the plans on this site. It is a standard 55 gal drum, 3- 3/4" air intakes 2" from bottom two plugged, one with a ball valve, & 2" raised expanded steel charcoal basket.
Charcoal:
I used Kingsford Blue with a couple of cherry logs on top.
I used the minion method.It stayed at temp for the first 45 minutes after I put the bird in, after that it was all over the place.
Thermometers:
I have a craptastic weekend warrior thermometer a Taylor probe thermometer and I hooked up my Fluke multimeter thermometer, they were all within 6 degrees of each other.
