Finished the turning and basting. It went remarkably well. My wife and I planned out our strategy beforehand to minimize the time with the lid off. The plan was:
I'll lift off the lid, remove the top rack and butt, put it down on the patio and insert the candy thermometer into the meat. While I'm doing that, my wife will spray baste on the bottom butt. Then I'll turn the bottom butt and my wife will spray the other side. By this time the candy thermometer should have a temp reading. I'll check it, remove thermometer, put the top rack and butt back on the WSM, wife will baste top butt, I'll flip, wife will baste other side, top goes back on, and we're out!
It went *almost* like clockwork. The only hangup was when my wife kept having trouble getting the spray bottle to spray while angling it downwards to hit the bottom rack. I finally took it away from her and did a few sprays right side up into the air to prime it, then 2 sprays down at the meat, 2 more in the air to prime, 2 down at the meat. At this point my wife pointed out in no uncertain terms that she didn't want apple juice and vegetable oil spray on the patio. I was forced to modify my procedure to run to edge of patio, 2 upright sprays over the grass, run back to smoker, 2 sprays down at meat. Repeat.
All things considered, the flip-and-baste went really smoothly. As I was standing outside telling my wife how happy I was that we were finally getting the hang of this smoking thing and the comedy of errors was finally over, I managed to accidentally stab her in the arm with the sharp tongs I was still holding. She promptly yelled at me and went inside.
The temperature was getting kind of low, even before I opened it up to flip and baste, so I decided that now would be a good time to stir the coals. I opened the side door to stir, and was horrified to see nothing but dust and a few burned out wood chunks! Gotta get more fuel in there! Gotta light it back up! Quick!
I decided to put a layer of unlit charcoal in, then light 20 or so chunks in the chimney and place them on top. Sort of a Mini-minion re-start to get me through to the end. After placing a few unlit briquettes in, it occurred to me that I should start the chimney so it can be lighting while I'm shoveling in the unlit charcoal. I put 20 briquettes in the chimney and get ready to light it. Uh oh. Where am I going to put the hot chimney? I usually start it on one of R2's grates, but those are all full of meat now. Can't put it on the concrete, can't put it on the grass. Probably shouldn't put it on my wife's patio table... I know! I can use the grate on my gas grill!
The gas grill is covered up in the corner of the patio, and has every piece of patio furniture imaginable piled up around it. My wife was nervous about R2 being unattended last night, and moved everything on the patio as far away from the smoker as possible. She stacked all of our patio furniture around my gas grill to get it out of harm's way. I can't imagine a metal table catching on fire from 7 feet away, but whatever.
Anyway, the bottom line is that I have to move all of this junk and patio furniture out of the way to get to the grill. I'm racing to do this as quickly as possible so I can get the fire lit again. I finally get everything out of the way, uncover the grill and pull it out away from the house. I turn around to grab the chimney and see smoke rolling out of the smoker. I guess there were small pieces of lit coals that fell through the grate and then lit the few new pieces of charcoal I put on earlier. I sheepishly pile on about 30 more unlit pieces on top and start putting away the grill and re-stacking the patio furniture around it.
So, we're approximately 12 hours in, top butt is at 170, bottom is a little lower. A piece of bark with a little white meat attached fell off during the flip and I couldn't help but taste it. Delicious! Hopefully it stays that way.
Here's a pic of the top butt at the 12 hour mark after the baste-and-flip:
I'll lift off the lid, remove the top rack and butt, put it down on the patio and insert the candy thermometer into the meat. While I'm doing that, my wife will spray baste on the bottom butt. Then I'll turn the bottom butt and my wife will spray the other side. By this time the candy thermometer should have a temp reading. I'll check it, remove thermometer, put the top rack and butt back on the WSM, wife will baste top butt, I'll flip, wife will baste other side, top goes back on, and we're out!
It went *almost* like clockwork. The only hangup was when my wife kept having trouble getting the spray bottle to spray while angling it downwards to hit the bottom rack. I finally took it away from her and did a few sprays right side up into the air to prime it, then 2 sprays down at the meat, 2 more in the air to prime, 2 down at the meat. At this point my wife pointed out in no uncertain terms that she didn't want apple juice and vegetable oil spray on the patio. I was forced to modify my procedure to run to edge of patio, 2 upright sprays over the grass, run back to smoker, 2 sprays down at meat. Repeat.
All things considered, the flip-and-baste went really smoothly. As I was standing outside telling my wife how happy I was that we were finally getting the hang of this smoking thing and the comedy of errors was finally over, I managed to accidentally stab her in the arm with the sharp tongs I was still holding. She promptly yelled at me and went inside.
The temperature was getting kind of low, even before I opened it up to flip and baste, so I decided that now would be a good time to stir the coals. I opened the side door to stir, and was horrified to see nothing but dust and a few burned out wood chunks! Gotta get more fuel in there! Gotta light it back up! Quick!
I decided to put a layer of unlit charcoal in, then light 20 or so chunks in the chimney and place them on top. Sort of a Mini-minion re-start to get me through to the end. After placing a few unlit briquettes in, it occurred to me that I should start the chimney so it can be lighting while I'm shoveling in the unlit charcoal. I put 20 briquettes in the chimney and get ready to light it. Uh oh. Where am I going to put the hot chimney? I usually start it on one of R2's grates, but those are all full of meat now. Can't put it on the concrete, can't put it on the grass. Probably shouldn't put it on my wife's patio table... I know! I can use the grate on my gas grill!
The gas grill is covered up in the corner of the patio, and has every piece of patio furniture imaginable piled up around it. My wife was nervous about R2 being unattended last night, and moved everything on the patio as far away from the smoker as possible. She stacked all of our patio furniture around my gas grill to get it out of harm's way. I can't imagine a metal table catching on fire from 7 feet away, but whatever.
Anyway, the bottom line is that I have to move all of this junk and patio furniture out of the way to get to the grill. I'm racing to do this as quickly as possible so I can get the fire lit again. I finally get everything out of the way, uncover the grill and pull it out away from the house. I turn around to grab the chimney and see smoke rolling out of the smoker. I guess there were small pieces of lit coals that fell through the grate and then lit the few new pieces of charcoal I put on earlier. I sheepishly pile on about 30 more unlit pieces on top and start putting away the grill and re-stacking the patio furniture around it.
So, we're approximately 12 hours in, top butt is at 170, bottom is a little lower. A piece of bark with a little white meat attached fell off during the flip and I couldn't help but taste it. Delicious! Hopefully it stays that way.
Here's a pic of the top butt at the 12 hour mark after the baste-and-flip:
