Another step towards
WSM heaven, Al!
Great things come to those who wait...I know exactly how you felt waiting it out until you had to deal with mother nature's wishes, on top of the already difficult and long battle with your biological clock. In the past couple of years I've had enough 18-22+ hour smokes, and even though the weight of the meat shouldn't take that long, sometimes it'll test your patience. Putting the extra time into a no-foiled smoke really does make a huge difference in the finished product, IMO. You rocked that baby all the way home, brother! It's got a
big dog's bark...WOOF-WOOF!!!
Hey, if you haven't smoked no-foil spares or BB's, that would be another one I think you should try...some don't like the tug and prefer a tender chew, but I like 'em. That's how I learned to smoke ribs once upon a time, and after finding SMF did alot of foiling with almost everything. I'm going back to basics more and more lately and like I it better that way.
I think I'll have to try your method for the minion in my brinky gourmet...gets to be a PITA adding to the fire in that thing every 2-3 hours, pulling the barrel off so you don't cover the meat with ashes...it should hold at least eight lbs, which should run at 8-10 hours even on a bad day. Anyway, next longer smoke I throw into it, I'll give it a whirl. Oooooh, I just rememebred, I have limited clearance between the water pan and top of the charcoal basket...could be an issue with the pyramid. Maybe another mod to lower the basket will be in order. I'll work it out.
Sounds like you're a convert to the no-foiled PP...I'm leaning very hard in that direction myself. Leaning hard enough to roll all the way over, after having two butts in one smoke that were really good, and my last one was just unreal...no turning back now, Al, for either one of us!
Glad it all worked out for some fantastic pulled pork...that stuff looked just BEAUTIFUL!!! And the color of the interior meat, well, I can't get that from any of the gassers I've run, but charcoal hits the bulls-eye everytime.
Eric