Tried my first turkey last night. 13.88 lb. bird. It was my first overnight cook ever. Add to that I knew it was going to rain, so I got a wet weather operational trial.
Once again a smashing success. Used Smokin's brine recipe for 24 hours. Put the turkey in at 10pm at 225 with 2 hunks of hickory. By the time I got up (8 am --10 hrs.) the turkey was perfect. My wife wanted to hold it at 140 for three hours. So we had a great turkey pickin' lunch. Meat falling from the bone. Could have had it for breakfast.
The only problems I had were 1) bad probe placement (my remote probe was beeping like crazy at 1:30 in the morning and registering 200). I opened the door to check in t-shirt, shorts, bare feet in the 37 degree rain.
Everything looked good and I realized that 3.5 hours was way too soon. I just turned the monitor off and went back to bed.
2) After I hit the bed, I realized that I never put a hole in the foil on the bottom to drain the grease. So I run downstairs in my barefeet and skivvies to poke a hole in the foil, in the cold, driving rain. I grab a metal table knife, open the door and start mucking with the foil. Then I realized that operating coil+metal knife+bare feet in the rain=stupid. So I closed the door and went to bed again.
3) I covered the thermostat area with a metal pan prior to the rain. I left the vent clear. The only issue was some gray water drip marks on the bird from the vent.
Once again, it's best just to leave it alone and let it do its thing! So far, I am nothing but impressed with the CS 008!
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