Well I finally had a cook not go so well. I got a 18lb fresh butterball turkey yesterday. Spatchcocked rubbed with EVOO then seasoned. I wasn't too worried about brining since butterballs are usually really juicy.
I setup my 26er with baskets on both sides then two drip pans with some foil over the middle so any drippings would go into the pans and not between them and into my grill. I lit a full chimney and dumped it into the baskets that had 5-8 extra unlit coals already in them as well as some apple chunks. I also put some coals on the open spaces between the drip pans and the kettle. Kettle ran between 350-365.
My turkey seemed to be cooking very uneven which is what spatchcocking is supposed to prevent. Once my white meat hit 165 the dark was only around 120. I did foil the breast around 155, but it didn't slow it down much.
At this point I started doubting my probes so a was swapping then around and getting all kinds of confusing results. I have already ordered new probes on Amazon this morning and they will be here this evening! (Love same day shipping with Amazon!!!)
The end result was perfectly cooked breasts and good wings then legs that were ok but thighs that were undercooked.
It was a fun game with the probe issue and uneven cooking and I did end up with what I was mainly setting out for besides a test run, which was breast meat for sandwiches next week when my GF's brother in law will have a lot of family in town.
So overall it was an okay cook. Next time I will make a few changes that I think will resolve the uneven cooking issues. I will put the coals on one side of the grill as opposed to all the way around. I think the thighs being close to the hot side and he breast being as far from it would have made a big difference. I think I will also put some ice bags over the breasts before cooking to slow them down.
Any suggestions are welcome.
Flames are due to top being off longer than anticipated and the wood chunks flared up. Went right out as soon as the lid was put on.
Here is what I felt comfortable keeping to eat. The picture is a little decieving. I would say each breast is about 3-3.5 lbs, so I ended up with 7-8lbs of usable meat.
Bonuses material:
Did a small pork loin earlier in the day yesterday just to figure how to run a snake in the 26er. 3x2 snake worked great and temp was very easy to keep within 10 degrees of where I wanted it. Here is a time lapse taken over 2 hours of my thermometer.
https://vimeo.com/146018360Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk