Just for some additional info, today I was driving down a county highway and I saw the fellow who operates a road side stand there with barbecue being the attraction.
Stopped and talked for awhile, nice fellow, running a ginormus MeadowBrook Brand smoker on wheels and a smaller version. We struck up a conversation, been smoking professionally for twenty years.
He showed me his cooker and what he had going, two big pork butts for pulled meat. I noticed he had the fat cap, including the hard skin like stuff still on and on top. He said he would not cook them any other way. He said low and slow, showed me his gauge at 225 to 250 on the top of the dome, the grate on these machines is six inches above burning lump charcoal.
I said to him, you know that temp is probably 30 to 50 degrees or more less than where your meat is cooking and he seemed dumbfounded. He had no temp sensor in the meat, went by sight.
So I left it alone, cause I know his spritzer bottle he is spraying on it with apple juice and apple cider vinegar is not touching his meat, just the fat he cuts off after the cook, and I know cause the grate is so close to that lump that he is actually cooking closer to 350 or more and he finishes a 10 lb pork but in 4-5 hours, starting in the morning when he gets in and finished for the lunch crowd.
So I ordered his lunch special, a pulled pork sandwich with his sauce and four of his special ribs, smeared with his special sauce. No bark on anything. Very peppery vinegar sauce.
Everything was dry and tough. The sauce just covered it up a little. You guys would put him out of business in a week.
But the main point is that, that fat cap up did nothing for his meat tenderness wise.
I am sure that if he took that tough skin like layer off and trimmed it down quite a bit he would have been much better off and the fat would possibly render in some.
