Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my football friends on this forum. This community is definitely something to be thankful for. 

One of the guys I tailgate with has an electric smoker, so it was brought over to the finance's house to cook the bird. I brined the bird in the Alton Brown brine (1 lb salt and 1 lb brown sugar per 6 quarts of water) and dried it off prior to smoking. 

Does background temp affect cooking? We had a 14 lb bird in the smoke for ~4 hours, and still needed to finish it in the oven for an hour and change at 350. Firebox temp was around 200 the whole time. We also smoked a whole chicken, and that suffered the same problem as the turkey even though it was smaller and the temp was about 220.

Not sure if it was the smoke or the brine, but the turkey was FANTASTIC. However, I'm exhausted from all the good prep. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my football friends on this forum. This community is definitely something to be thankful for.

One of the guys I tailgate with has an electric smoker, so it was brought over to the finance's house to cook the bird. I brined the bird in the Alton Brown brine (1 lb salt and 1 lb brown sugar per 6 quarts of water) and dried it off prior to smoking.

Does background temp affect cooking? We had a 14 lb bird in the smoke for ~4 hours, and still needed to finish it in the oven for an hour and change at 350. Firebox temp was around 200 the whole time. We also smoked a whole chicken, and that suffered the same problem as the turkey even though it was smaller and the temp was about 220.

Not sure if it was the smoke or the brine, but the turkey was FANTASTIC. However, I'm exhausted from all the good prep.

Yes, ambient temp definitely affects the cooking temperature/time when smoking meat.  It's best to use a temperature probe set inside the cooking chamber, right next to the meat.  That way you know the true cooking temp, and I typically shoot for 285-300 for a turkey.

especially when their ex players help win a rivalry game on Thanksgiving

mine was a small bird, 11lbs, but it cooked quicker than I thought.
after the 30 minutes at 500, it was done in about 90 minutes
wasn't checking the thermometer after 60 minutes and the bird got a bit warmer than 160, but it was still moist and had outstanding flavor.  Could have been better.
Guess I need one of those fancy wireless thermometers with the alarm on my phone.  (hint for Amazon Santa)

Hopefully Amazon Santa uses the link through this website to get your probe. I have one of those and I love it.

I went down to Casa Grande for the 7th year in a row.  My friend and her family invite me down, as I'm a non-official "Uncle Dave".  I make a pie every year - something creative and from scratch.  I did a banana creme-on chocolate cheesecake thing that turned out well.  

Thermoworks Black Friday sale: https://www.thermoworks.com/DOT

I recently bought 2 of these on an open box sale they did... Really like the construction and Thermoworks is pretty much the go-to for these products IMHO. Sometimes they're a little pricey for some things, but these DOT thermometers aren't expensive.

Yeah, if you're not using some kind of temperature probe for your meat AND your cooking chamber, you're making life harder than it needs to be.
There are dozebs of options, but something like this is what I have and it works extremely well.  One probe sits in the chamber and monitors the cooking temperature, and the other one goes into the thicket part of the meat and measures the meat's internal temperature.

https://www.amazon.com/ThermoPro-Wireless-Digital-Cooking-Thermometer/dp/B01GE77QT0/ref=asc_df_B01GE77QT0/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198091107028&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1274343781458212364&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9028226&hvtargid=pla-379519116602&psc=1

For grilling you'd need wireless. The cord would melt on a flame.