MEATER and Kamado Joe saved Christmas

[Angelo 10]

For those in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas is a time of scorching temperatures. However we are still exposed to the familiar tunes and culinary desires of a Northern, cold Christmas.

 

With temperatures at 40 degrees C (104 Fahrenheit) turning on the oven was not a favourable choice and so placing big bird in the Kamado was the sound choice.

 

Only had a KJ for a couple of month now, and the first time I had ever cooked a turkey (regardless of cooking appliance). It was a success!! Some say I’ve now graduated to an adult now that the bird has been conquered, albeit 15 years later than planned.

 

With my wife being pregnant I took the road less travelled for my family by not stuffing the bird with the risk of listeria etc and instead I lightly filled the cavity with the aromatics (onion, garlic, lemon, sage, oregano, rosemary) from the brine mixture.

 

The quality of the KJ resulting in a more consitent temperature throughout the cook and the fact the bird wasn’t stuffed resulted in a much quicker cook than expected. Meater sounded the alarm to this news which allowed me to save Christmas.

 

Meater has caused controversy in this forum, but so far I can’t fault it.

 

Happy Cooking!

 

 

[ckreef 19,779]

Nice bird, great pictures. 

 

As much as I hate Meater the company, I agree, it's a decent  device. 

[BobE 189]

Nice job on the turkey and the pictures.  Your holiday table looks terrific!  Thanks for sharing.

[TKOBBQ 5,726]

Looks like a great Christmas spread, I've got the meter on my radar for a future purchase. 

[ckreef 19,779]

8 hours ago, TKOBBQ said:

Looks like a great Christmas spread, I've got the meter on my radar for a future purchase. 

 

I will say generally it works good. Get either the wifi or the Meater + versions. You can setup your own Meater + with a regular Meater and an old smartphone or tablet as the Meater + is just a Bluetooth repeater. 

 

With that said it has its limits. When I used it for my PR rotisserie cook where the probe was sticking out the end of the PR it worked flawlessly. Ambient temp caught up and time to completion was spot on. A couple of weeks ago I used it for a butt cook. I had to have it sticking straight up out the top. The ambient temp could never register properly. I attribute that to moisture expelling from the butt going up past the probe and the butt itself blocking the heat from below. Because the ambient temperature never properly caught up it could never give me a time to completion. Ambient saying 195* when it was more like 250* by my Thermoworks Smoke dome thermometer. It was confused with an ambient of 195* and my final target being 203*. I guess in it's brain it was never going to finish. 

 

No worries for me as I bought it to mainly use it for rotisserie cooks. 

 

Sorry for the quick high jack @Angelo

 

 

[KismetKamado 4,725]

That is an absolutely beautiful down under Christmas cook!  Totally nailed it. Nice job.