myth, to be honest, I'm going to have to do a side by side comparison next weekend now! (oh darn!! lol) When I had the slight panic moment after the two stalled on me, I had already wrapped and brought in the 1 Comp brine bird to rest. Between running back and forth to the smoker checking the 2 stalled birds and trying to pull the butt, sitting everything up, and finally brining in one of the Slaughterhouse birds, when I finally got to preparing the 2 birds for plating, I ask the wife to bring me the first bird I brought in, after much thought, I can't say (and she isn't sure) with certainty that she handed me the right bird.
Whichever one it was, there was a distinct difference in taste (not that either tasted bad), they were both exceptionally good. However, the one had very distinct and pronounced flavor. And another flaw in my inadvertent comparison is that the SH birds did get an extra 2 hours in the brine. So I'm already planning a comparison next weekend. I didn't set out to really do a side by side this weekend, but when I found I couldn't get all 3 birds in the same container I was forced to make another batch of brine and thought (at 1 a.m.) I'd do up the Comp brine since I liked it the week before and see which I liked more.
One thing that has me wondering, now that the smoke has cleared, the clean up is over and I've finally gotten cleaned up and a chance to relax, is the 2 birds that stalled or took longer were the SH birds. I'm definitely not sure what would have caused this, the conditions from purchase through smoking were the same with the exception of the additional soak time, although the 2 SH birds were on a lower rack until I was convinced they were not moving past 158* and 160*, and then moved them up to a now empty rack. One did punch up to 167*, but the other I just left on the rack well after all the inside prep work was done and folks started eating. Then I went out and did as you suggested, wrapped it and let it rest. Sorry for getting long winded!
Whichever one it was, there was a distinct difference in taste (not that either tasted bad), they were both exceptionally good. However, the one had very distinct and pronounced flavor. And another flaw in my inadvertent comparison is that the SH birds did get an extra 2 hours in the brine. So I'm already planning a comparison next weekend. I didn't set out to really do a side by side this weekend, but when I found I couldn't get all 3 birds in the same container I was forced to make another batch of brine and thought (at 1 a.m.) I'd do up the Comp brine since I liked it the week before and see which I liked more.
One thing that has me wondering, now that the smoke has cleared, the clean up is over and I've finally gotten cleaned up and a chance to relax, is the 2 birds that stalled or took longer were the SH birds. I'm definitely not sure what would have caused this, the conditions from purchase through smoking were the same with the exception of the additional soak time, although the 2 SH birds were on a lower rack until I was convinced they were not moving past 158* and 160*, and then moved them up to a now empty rack. One did punch up to 167*, but the other I just left on the rack well after all the inside prep work was done and folks started eating. Then I went out and did as you suggested, wrapped it and let it rest. Sorry for getting long winded!
