Yoder Smokers Community Forum

Hello,

I received my Yoder YS640 yesterday and after I did the burn in then I tried to cook a 5 lbs. chicken using a brine recipe on YouTube. It didn't come out well so I had a few questions. The first mistake I made was cooking the chicken in a pan. The bird didn't cook evenly. I used a Maverick thermometer and an instant read which said the breast was and leg was 175 degrees. After cutting it it was still uncooked down near the bones in the thigh. Cooker set initially at 300 then bumped to 325 half way through after advice from Yoder. Awesome company!

1. Which temperature should I use? The set temp on the Yoder or the grill temp from the Maverick?
2. I am planning on using the recipe again for two turkeys for Thanksgiving. What temp should I set the cooker?
3. I am planning on using the brine on both but one I wasn't going to inject, should I adjust the brine any?
4. I also had a wild variance in temps, Set 300 degrees, left dial thermometer said 275 degrees, right dial thermometer said 350 degrees. The Maverick clipped to grill next to pan varied from 350 to 450 throughout. I had damper pushed in about 6" as recommended.

Hopefully, I can get passed the learning curve BEFORE Thanksgiving!

--Chris

dawktah2 wrote:Hello,

1. Which temperature should I use? The set temp on the Yoder or the grill temp from the Maverick?
2. I am planning on using the recipe again for two turkeys for Thanksgiving. What temp should I set the cooker?
3. I am planning on using the brine on both but one I wasn't going to inject, should I adjust the brine any?
4. I also had a wild variance in temps, Set 300 degrees, left dial thermometer said 275 degrees, right dial thermometer said 350 degrees. The Maverick clipped to grill next to pan varied from 350 to 450 throughout. I had damper pushed in about 6" as recommended.

Hopefully, I can get passed the learning curve BEFORE Thanksgiving!

--Chris

1. The cooker uses grate surface temperature, not suspended air temperature (probe in a probe holder), for prober readings, the probe MUST not be within 6" of anything in the cooker, and lastly, cooking in a pan completely throws off temperatures. If you want to cook in a pan, you should raise the set temperature on the controller by 15 to 25 degrees to compensate for the pan.
2. The grate surface temperature will be what you set the controller for, suspended air temperature (above the grate). You need to decide which you are going to cook with, so you can set the controller accordingly. I normally do poultry at 325 to 350.
3. If the poultry is "enhanced" in any way, brining is of little or no use. If you want extra flavor in the meat, injecting would be the best bet.
4. Again, a temp probe MUST be a minimum of 6" from anything in the cooker, and MUST be lying directly on the grate surface. I assume you mean the dial door thermometers...these are not used at all in the functioning of the cooker, and are not a good source of accurate information. The stems on the dial thermometers do not protrude far enough into the cooker to give you accurate readings at the grate surface level (which is what the controller is displaying), and they are taking readings within 1 inch of the top surface of the cooker, which will not give you accurate suspended air temperature, but rather just an indication of the air temperature from the location that they are reading from.

Thanks Herb,

I'm confused though, I received my cooker yesterday and I noticed my probe is in a different location than pictures I've seen online. The picture I saw the probe was at the level of the grill grates not the shelf.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ajzc9f1v921mi ... e.jpg?dl=0

Your picture is not showing, so I assume that it is private.

Take a look at this: viewtopic.php?p=2979#p2979

Let me try this again:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ajzc9f1v921mi ... e.jpg?dl=0

I have to upgrade to get it to display

Yes, did you read the post I linked to? You have the newest.

Yoder_Herb wrote:Yes, did you read the post I linked to? You have the newest.

Thanks again Herb,

I'll try another chicken with no pan but set to 325 degrees. I'll also only use the food probe and don't use the barbecue temp probe at all and trust the cooker to do its thing.

--Chris