Please suggest a course of action

[OldBull]

2 whole bone in Butterball breast, 5.5 lbs each, one with home made Worcestershire injection the other Tony chacheres butter inj.
On low smoke at 8:30am, at 9:00am 265, at 10:00am back to 250 (they were cooking a little quick at 265).
"A" was done at 11:50 (167 degrees) and "B" pulled at 12:15 (162 degrees).
9am home made smoke tube added, 2"x 8" worked better than expected.
REC TEC RT-340

They turned out very good but "B" a little over cooked/dry at the top. During the cook probe B was behind anywhere from 4 to 9 degrees. When probe A reached 167 and was pulled B was 9 degrees behind. At times the temps on either side might jump 2 degrees in one second, but I attributed that to steam or juices moving around. At B's final moments, it was behind and not climbing, In fact it backed up a few degrees even though I had upped the temp to 300, I sat and watched this. I put the A probe in B's other side and it would not climb above 142, I actually don not know if these probes can be hot swapped (can be plugged in and unplugged with power on). The first bird was being carved when I decided to pull the second at 162 and let it rest. It just wasn't climbing well, some say turkeys don't stall but I think they do, but this should have been past stall temp. Bird A was on the left near the hopper, B on the right. rested for 20 minutes and bird B was a little dry at the top, I did not mop or spritz, lesson learned, I will spritz next time. The outside temp was 74 the air was dry and I did not have a pan of liquid inside. No pink or pink juices anywhere.

Overall turkey was very good, Since the second bird was late I walked around serving B and asking which was better, Homemade or Tony's, 6 out of 7 chose Tony's. Sorry I did not keep track of which injection was on left or right but Tony's was the dry one and it was B. Served after everyone had partially eaten and a little dry and still preferred. Neither turkey had a heavy turkey flavor.

Sorry for the long winded dissertation, I know I need to test the probes, once tested can I place the meat probes in the open cook chamber (not touching of course) and test the air temp?
The meat probes can probably be changed in the settings menu, can the cook chamber probe be changed?
What do you think caused the temp B to back up, my opening the cooker to remove the first bird?
Why reinserted probe from A was so low in B ?

This morning checked both probes cold A= 66 and B= 70
swapped probes and they stayed the same A=66 and B=70

Thanks for reading this book and offering any ideas.

Donny

 

[bfletcher]

Sorry for the long winded dissertation, I know I need to test the probes, once tested can I place the meat probes in the open cook chamber (not touching of course) and test the air temp?
The meat probes can probably be changed in the settings menu, can the cook chamber probe be changed?

Hi Donnie. Once your A and/or B port food probes are known to be calibrated they could be utilized to measure your pit temp. I'm assuming you intend to use an ice water and boiling water method for verification... and are you going to use another thermometer that has been verified for accuracy? Some folks pierce their probes through a potato to elevate them above grate level.

It's the OFS Adjustable Parameter 2 outlined in your manual that serves the purpose of making adjustments to the reported pit temp; keep in mind this setting makes adjustments as a percentage whereas the Probe Calibration 3 and 4's value is in degrees.

I'd be grasping at straws regarding your other questions, which will be of little value.

Good luck!

 

[ifican]

Upon reading through it felt like classic over cooked scenario. Then i thought your probes probably need calibration (same basic thing happened to me that caused me to calibrate). However what strikes me as odd is when you said you swapped probes and got the same temps. I can see if they both read say 45 and you swapped and they both read 45 or if having the probe temp follow the probe that also makes sense, i.e. 70 in port A then swap and now 70 in port B. But to have probe port A and B read the exact same temp with a different probe and those temps are spread like they are is funky. If your probes are calibrated and the ports are reading that way i would say there is something wrong with the controller. And if that is infact the case that could explain how bird B got overcooked.

 

[Buckeye smoker]

I agree, calibrate your probes...I'm not sure that it matters but, some people like to calibrate to boiling water as it's a constant "hot" temp not a cold ice water test that your cooker isn't going to perform*..
I also switch my probes around in the meat when it gets close to "finish" to see how close the opposite probe reads. (Even when calibrated)
Somewhere it says where to test the chamber temp and how. There's always going to be slightly "hotter and colder" spots in your smoker so just do the best you can, and then have a good 3rd or 4th hand held tester to verify accuracy.
And don't forget in settings when you adjust your probes it's in °degrees, but the chamber temp is in %percentage !!
Goodluck!

 

[OldBull]

Thanks for the help everyone. So the percentage adjustment , If I adjust the percentage +10, it would be linear, at 100 it would display 110, 150 would display 165, 200 - 220, etc etc. So If I find the temp displayed at 250 but the actual was 275 I would turn it +10 percent to move the displayed temp to 275 ??

So I will find a known good value, thermometer, correct the probes at a reasonable cooking temperature (in degrees), Then use the probes to correct the chamber (in percentage) . Then I will just have to continue the learning process. I guess once I have a few things sorted out the others may be easier to see.

Thanks again everyone, Happy New Year !!!!

 

[Buckeye smoker]

Yes..10% would give you the 25° just also remember that the chamber readout is some kind of wonder algorithm creates by RecTec that is reading several areas/conditions not just the center of the grill for example. But do the best you can and always have a backup meat temp probe imho*

 

[Roaniecowpony]

Pulling them at 167F core temp from a 300F oven/pit is gonna be way overcooked, in my experience. The outer surface of the meat is very hot when cooking at these higher temps, and will continue to cook toward the center once removed and allowed to rest.

When I cook meats that are NOT slow cooked to rendering times/temps , I remove them at a lower than target core temperature. How much lower depends on at least two major factors. How hot I'm cooking and how big the meat is. The higher the cooking temperatures and the larger the meat, the more it will continue to cook after being removed from the heat. Covering with foil and towels increases the cooking during the "rest" even more.

Just guesing, from the conditions you described, I would have pulled them off of the grill at 150F in the core, and immediately covered with foil and several towels, then let them rest (and cook in the core) in a quiet place (unused oven or on the counter) for about 1/2 hr or more before slicing/serving.

 

[OldBull]

It really wasn't at 300 very long, I was just running out of time and tried in the last few minutes to get the temp up but gave up and pulled it.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

Understood. Still, the surface temp and cooking temp are always higher than the desired finish target temp in the core. The main thing is you learn to manage the cooking that continues after you remove the meat from the heat source. For example: when I do Costco NY 1 1/2" thick steaks on a direct charcoal fire, I know the heat source and surface of the meat will be quite high and they will continue to cook during any resting period. I like medium rare, the wife likes rare. So, I pull her steak around 95-100F, cover with foil and a few layers of kitchen towels. I pull my steak around 115F and do the same. I let them rest for at least 20 mins. They finish cooking in the covered plate while resting, to about 120 for hers and 135 for mine.

 

[ifican]

Also note that temp is a fickle thing. Its never going to be 100% exact when it comes to this type of unit. Outside temps, opening the lid, elevation, humidity will all play a role to a certain extent. The goal here is to get to a place where you and the grill can symbiotically exist in a mutual understanding of expectation and outcome. As long as those two are consistent, it really doesnt matter what the display shows as a particular value.

 

[OldBull]

Thanks all for the help and suggestions. Yes temp is a fickle thing, but it can be made maddening with fickle gear !! Still do not understand why probe A removed at 167 and then reinserted after a few minutes into breast B's opposite side would only read 142 when B was near 160. Maybe it is time to think about igrill.

 

[ifican]

Probe will cool when it is pulled out, but yes without seeing exactly what transpired or checking probes myself hard to say. Also i dont care much for igrill. If you going to spend the money thermoworks or fireboard and top picks, then maverick and a few others but at the prices they are wanting i would stick with maverick as the minimum. If fireboard was out when i got all my stuff i would have taken that over thermoworks. But i love and completely support thermoworks, have several including their instant read which is what started my journey in their ecosystem.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

I never rely on a single inserted probe to tell me when it's done. For me, these probes are just an indicator to tell me to start checking with my thermapens. I do this because it's difficult to find the coolest spot in the meat and takes multiple probings, let alone inserting it to that spot before it even cooks. Probes will give irractic readings when they touch bone or are in juices that are moving around from the heat.

 

[Greg Jones]

I never rely on a single inserted probe to tell me when it's done. For me, these probes are just an indicator to tell me to start checking with my thermapens...

Best advice one will get with the use of probes on a cooker. I put #10 of pork belly on my Bull this morning, set two probes to 10* below my desired final temp. When the first alarm goes off, I’ll start checking with a Thermapen.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

The truth is, I haven't used a meat probe in years. I know by time and temp when I need to start checking on my komados and offset. I may have to start using the probes again with the pellet grill.

 

[OldBull]

Can heat travel down the metal shaft (conduction) of a probe and heat the meat surrounding the probe tip ?

 

[Greg Jones]

I started using probes in my BGE, mostly to monitor the pit temps. Now that I am using the Rec Tec as my primary smoker, I depend on the meat probes to make sure I don’t forget about what I’m doing. The set it and forget it feature of a pellet grill takes all the worry out of maintaining pit temps.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

Can heat travel down the metal shaft (conduction) of a probe and heat the meat surrounding the probe tip ?

The tip of the probe is usually the location of the thermocouple or thermistor. The conductivity of the stainless steel in probes is about 1/3 to 1/2 of what typical carbon steel is. So, if the probe was inserted only an inch or two and the cooking temperature of the pit was very high, that situation might cause an error. But if the probe was inserted say 4-5 inches and the pit temps are moderate, like 250-350F, the probe would be very accurate.