Low and Slow Roasting

[e_monster]

Sorry I haven't had any insights to offer here. I'm still pondering, however, and perhaps if I bump this back up someone else will have an idea.

I don't understand the difference between your roaster oven and a standard oven. How much smaller is it? Is it more tightly sealed? More heavily insulated?

I have to say that this is a real mystery to me. The roaster is a Hamilton Beach tabletop roaster similar to this one. The oven is not better insulated or more tightly sealed.

I have done another chicken since I last posted and the temperature in the oven needed to be raised to 160F (this is as measured by a reasonably good oven thermometer and the temperature probe of my PID (which has proven to be accurate within 1 degree Fahrenheit). Again, the temperature in the chicken seemed to stall out (i.e. changing less than 1 degree in 30 minutes) at about 125 Fahrenheit after about 4 hours.

Has anyone actually succeeded in getting a whole chicken to 140F in less than 7 hours with an oven set to 140F (and verified to be at 140F).

[e_monster]

The mystery of why the chicken cooked at 140F never got to 140F has been solved. Due to evaporative cooling on the surface of the chicken, the maximum temperature that the outside of the chicken reaches is lower than the oven temperature if the relative humidity in the oven is low. The temperature reached will depend on the the moisture content of the surface, airflow and humidity. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as wet-bulb and dry-bulb temperature. So, to get this to work, either the humidity needs to be higher in the oven or one needs to use a higher oven temperature. If you leave it at 140 long enough, the surface will completely dry out and the temperature will start rising again until it hits 140F but at these low temperatures that stall time can be quite long. (This is the same reason that -- contrary to conventional wisdom -- that briskets have a long temperature stall when being smoke at low temperature). There is an interesting discussion of briskets and wet-bulb/dry-bulb temperatures in the sous-vide techniques discussion.