The cooked worked out great. It was not without a harrowing moment or two but it worked out okay in the end.
I followed the Renowned Mr. Brown recipe. I put the meat on Fri night at 10pm, switch my DIY cheap-but-good ATC into auto at 10:45, pit temp 225F. Went to bed. I got a low temp at 5:30am on the ET-732. Upped the max blower speed a bit, back to sleep. Low temp alarm at 7:30am. Before I could get to the cooker the temp had spiked to 270! The blower was on full; its temp probe had slipped and fallen on the meat. Fixed, back to bed. Up at 10. At 10:30 flipped and basted (of course I had to make coffee first). At around 1pm I needed to add fuel. This is where I ran in to a bit of a problem and I can see I will have to work out a strategy for this. Whether and when to chimney the charcoal and how much, or rather just add through the door. I removed the middle, chimneyed a few, added some fresh to the ring, dumped the flaming coals in. Next time I think I'll just add unlit fuel through the door. The fire was too hot. I did the remainder of the cook manually, flipping and basting with the Sop every hour or so, top vent 100%, bottom vents tweaked to regulate. Any tips on adding fuel on the downside of a cook are welcome.
I ended up removing the meat at around 6pm. That's about 15 hours - does that seem right? Internal temps with a Thermapen around 180 to 195. The butts went into a cooler for an hour while the Tater cups cooked on the gasser. The eight guests I cooked for didn't mind the 7pm dinner bell. Okay, they were all family so maybe that doesn't count. And it was MY birthday so they were being extra nice. The pork pulled easily, moist, bark perfect. Flavor. Accolades all around. The Carolina Red was a winner. Finished with keylime cheesecake and everybody took some pulled pork home. That meal was a heckovalotta fun.
