Roger P
Well-known member
High Tech UDS Ugly Drum Smoker's Rotisserie Does Its First 20lb Turkey
If you haven't followed the high tech UDS, here is the link: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=195690
A 20lb turkey in an electric smoker might be a challenge. First, it has to fit. Second, a rotisserie motor might not handle the weight, and third, to prevent bacteria growth the internal temp of the bird needs to hit around 140 deg at the four hour mark. But some smokers can't get a high enough temp to make it in time. But I'll give it a shot with the high tech UDS. It has hit 350 deg without a water pan and no meat so it's worth a try.
I didn't bother pre-heating the smoker or initially adding a lot of water to the water pan -- just a couple cups so the initial drips would not burn. A little trial and error and the bird got *sorta* balanced on the rotisserie shaft and on it went. No rub or other prep. The clearance between the bird and the top was about one inch -- lucky. The wings and legs were tied loosely so they wouldn't flop around and hit the drip pan below.
The controller box's front panel switches were set to bypass the temp controller output and the two heating elements were set on full blast to get the smoker as hot as possible as quick as possible. After about 35 minutes the smoker started to level out at about 265 deg, and at 45 minutes stabilized at 280 deg. I then added two quarts of hot water to the pan. It seemed that the smoker liked 275 and would control around that temp less four degrees or so. I could get better temp control by re-tuning the controller but was too lazy. It seems that 280 is the limit to how hot the smoker would go with the big bird, lots of water, and a little windy 84 deg air temp. After about an hour I added three handfuls of soaked apple wood chips to the chip pan and after about 20 minutes we had smoke.
At the 3-1/2 hour mark I checked the turkey's internal temp -- already around 150 so it was well above the "safe" 140 deg.
Seems the 275 deg plus the rotisserie action was cooking things MUCH faster than expected. Chances are that 250 deg might be a better choice next time. The rotisserie motor was doing just fine, only warm to the touch, but was a bit more noisy with the load.
I cut back the controller temp to 225, then noticed that the LED indicating that the aux heating element that heats the wood chips was out. After a little testing the problem was traced to yet another bad Chinese toggle switch, this is the third out of five purchased. Luckily the aux heating element was not needed to finish the smoke.
At the 4 hour mark the internal temp was around 155 deg. Checking a few minutes later I noticed that the smoker temp had not recovered from opening the top - it was slowly declining. I checked and found the OTHER toggle switch on the main heating element had also failed -- for a total of four Chinese switches out of five.
So with another hour or two of slow and low cooking to finish things up, control over the heating elements was lost. I was tempted to stop the cook in the smoker and finish up in the kitchen oven. But instead I pulled the plugs for the main and aux heating elements out of the receptacles in the back of the control box and plugged them into an outlet strip. Then I manually turned the power switch on and off to keep things going between 225 and 250 -- a 15 to 20 minute cycle.
At about five hours the temp hit 165 so I called it done and turned the heat off and waited for the smoker temp to run down to 140 then plugged in the aux heating element cord to keep the smoker temp around 140 or so until we were ready to eat, about two more hours.
Results: with only three handfuls of wood chips the smoke flavor was very mild, almost zero with the dark meat. My wife is not crazy about heavy smoke so this was fine. The bones twisted out of the sockets with no resistance and the meat pulled cleanly away from the bones so it was perfectly done. The breast meat was perfect -- so moist it almost dripped and you could easily cut it with a fork.
The skin was, of course not crispy. Ordinarily I use the propane torch to dry it out a bit after cooking but lately I've been avoiding the fat below the skin altogether. No big deal. The drip pan produced about 1-1/2 quarts of drippings so next up is some gravy for the leftovers.
Next time, around Thanksgiving, I'll try 250 deg for four hours, then back it down to 225 until done -- maybe 6-7 hours.
Tasty to the Max.
If you haven't followed the high tech UDS, here is the link: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=195690
A 20lb turkey in an electric smoker might be a challenge. First, it has to fit. Second, a rotisserie motor might not handle the weight, and third, to prevent bacteria growth the internal temp of the bird needs to hit around 140 deg at the four hour mark. But some smokers can't get a high enough temp to make it in time. But I'll give it a shot with the high tech UDS. It has hit 350 deg without a water pan and no meat so it's worth a try.
I didn't bother pre-heating the smoker or initially adding a lot of water to the water pan -- just a couple cups so the initial drips would not burn. A little trial and error and the bird got *sorta* balanced on the rotisserie shaft and on it went. No rub or other prep. The clearance between the bird and the top was about one inch -- lucky. The wings and legs were tied loosely so they wouldn't flop around and hit the drip pan below.
The controller box's front panel switches were set to bypass the temp controller output and the two heating elements were set on full blast to get the smoker as hot as possible as quick as possible. After about 35 minutes the smoker started to level out at about 265 deg, and at 45 minutes stabilized at 280 deg. I then added two quarts of hot water to the pan. It seemed that the smoker liked 275 and would control around that temp less four degrees or so. I could get better temp control by re-tuning the controller but was too lazy. It seems that 280 is the limit to how hot the smoker would go with the big bird, lots of water, and a little windy 84 deg air temp. After about an hour I added three handfuls of soaked apple wood chips to the chip pan and after about 20 minutes we had smoke.
At the 3-1/2 hour mark I checked the turkey's internal temp -- already around 150 so it was well above the "safe" 140 deg.
Seems the 275 deg plus the rotisserie action was cooking things MUCH faster than expected. Chances are that 250 deg might be a better choice next time. The rotisserie motor was doing just fine, only warm to the touch, but was a bit more noisy with the load.
I cut back the controller temp to 225, then noticed that the LED indicating that the aux heating element that heats the wood chips was out. After a little testing the problem was traced to yet another bad Chinese toggle switch, this is the third out of five purchased. Luckily the aux heating element was not needed to finish the smoke.
At the 4 hour mark the internal temp was around 155 deg. Checking a few minutes later I noticed that the smoker temp had not recovered from opening the top - it was slowly declining. I checked and found the OTHER toggle switch on the main heating element had also failed -- for a total of four Chinese switches out of five.
So with another hour or two of slow and low cooking to finish things up, control over the heating elements was lost. I was tempted to stop the cook in the smoker and finish up in the kitchen oven. But instead I pulled the plugs for the main and aux heating elements out of the receptacles in the back of the control box and plugged them into an outlet strip. Then I manually turned the power switch on and off to keep things going between 225 and 250 -- a 15 to 20 minute cycle.
At about five hours the temp hit 165 so I called it done and turned the heat off and waited for the smoker temp to run down to 140 then plugged in the aux heating element cord to keep the smoker temp around 140 or so until we were ready to eat, about two more hours.
Results: with only three handfuls of wood chips the smoke flavor was very mild, almost zero with the dark meat. My wife is not crazy about heavy smoke so this was fine. The bones twisted out of the sockets with no resistance and the meat pulled cleanly away from the bones so it was perfectly done. The breast meat was perfect -- so moist it almost dripped and you could easily cut it with a fork.
The skin was, of course not crispy. Ordinarily I use the propane torch to dry it out a bit after cooking but lately I've been avoiding the fat below the skin altogether. No big deal. The drip pan produced about 1-1/2 quarts of drippings so next up is some gravy for the leftovers.
Next time, around Thanksgiving, I'll try 250 deg for four hours, then back it down to 225 until done -- maybe 6-7 hours.
Tasty to the Max.
