Small turkey

[jdbower]

Small turkey, about 14lbs. Brined in kosher salt and sugar for quite some time (I was going to cook it last night) with Dizzy Pig's Tsunami Spin and my wife's stuffing (she's still experimenting, mostly sourdough bread, celery, onions, and spices). It looks awfully chilly in the cold MA air:

Now it looks toasty! Very moist and tender and I imagined a deep smoke ring (in fact, I was worried it wasn't done because the first slice was pink!). I cooked for just under 4 hours at 325-350 or so indirect with the drip pan and the deflector dish, again with pitifully little for me to do during that timeframe (please make the next generation a little less user friendly so I can turn some knobs every so often!):

I overcooked a bit (the Maverick's range doesn't quite reach the house - have to get the Stoker up and running!) to 185 but it still turned out well. The skin was very crispy and yet everything else was very moist. The drip pan had enough in the collection plate for some nice gravy to go with it.

Lessons learned:

The KK is well insulated, it was still 100F when I put this on about 16 hours after my last cook.

I need to start pulling my meat off before it gets to the target temperature.

The GrillFloss works like a charm.

A spare KK grill makes a good emergency wire rack for cooling some unexpectedly large french bread loaves (made in the regular oven, I'm afraid).

The FoodSaver, even on Gentle, should NOT be used on french bread

[Firemonkey]

You can use the foodsaver on your french bread, but only to seal - not vac

Answer me some questions about that fancy new grill...

Are the expansion cuts filled in with something?

What did you use for fuel on these two cooks, the KKEC or regular lump? 100 degrees after 16 hours in sub freezing temps makes me wonder if the KKEC wasnt clinging to life after shutdown?

So whats the next cook gonna be? You need to get some smoke and grease in there to christen it properly

[jdbower]

I did save the bread before it totally deflated and just sealed the bag

Dennis stopped putting on the veneer because it tended to flake of as the expansion joints, well, expanded. I've got visible joints in the base (6 if I remember correctly but I'd have to count) and lid (three) and nothing flaking off. Technically they're filled in with air, nature abhors a vacuum as much as I do but that's why I have a Roomba.

I was using the KK extruded charcoal for both cooks. There were a few dying embers in the morning, probably sucking every last bit of O2 it could through the polder port that I forgot to plug. I didn't notice much less coal than I saw when I shut down the night before so if it was hanging on through the night it was doing so very slowly.

I'm not sure about the next cook, I've got enough leftovers to last me a while - through the week at least. Maybe I'll use it to toast my bagel in the morning I do need to pick up some regular lump to compare and contrast, and hardwood chips. And getting the Stoker running would be nice but that would mean pulling another Ethernet cable and getting power there... So many projects, so little time!

[Firemonkey]

I can see the uncoated interior, but how about a pic of those joints? They sure look like they have been filled in with something in the last turkey shot!

I learned my lesson about the KKEC surviving through the night on Thanksgiving. The next day, I went out to take out the remaining KKEC so I could grill steaks over regular lump. About the time i reached my plastic-gloved hand down in the pile to pull them out I could tell they were still hot The melted plastic shrinking around my fingers was a pretty big clue!

[jdbower]

Ah, I had underfilled for my first cook so I just lit a few more and added them. I didn't stir the pot to see if the old stuff was still active.

I'll nab a closeup shot of the joints tomorrow, in the mean time they're much more clearly visible here.

[Conodo12]

Hey Jeff - how is it possible that your lid looks darker in the first shot with the raw turkey and lighter AFTER the cook?! You playin' with light levels post pic?

Good lookin' bird!

[jdbower]

Hey Jeff - how is it possible that your lid looks darker in the first shot with the raw turkey and lighter AFTER the cook?! You playin' with light levels post pic?

What, you guys don't wash down the insides of your KKs after a cook to keep them looking new?

It's really because I'm a lazy photographer when it's cold. OK, I'm lazy most of the time but it's even worse in the cold. I was using auto-everything so the metering system focused on the light colored chicken. Metering systems try to make white things into light grey so they tend to under expose with light colored scenes (lacking any other input, this is why it can be hard to shoot snow scenes unless your camera detects them). IIRC it was sunny in the first picture as well, creating more shadow and a brighter bird, this led to an underexposure issue that enhanced the smoke coloring in the cooker. The second picture had a darker bird and was a bit more overcast. This meant that the exposure for the bird was better and the lack of shadow removed some of the depth of color for the cooker interior making it look clean. If I had bothered to examine the picture or used a more deterministic spot metering technique they'd be much more similar. Sadly, the second picture is closer to reality when it comes to the inside coloring - but it's only my second cook!

[Conodo12]

Mine's still pretty clean in there too Jeff - Don't sweat it, we'll get there!

Wayne