Threw a whole pork shoulder on my offset at 11pm and woke up to perfect bark at 6am

I normally babysit my smoker all night for long cooks, but I was dead tired from work. So I just loaded up the firebox with a big split of oak, set my probe alarm, and crashed. Woke up to the alarm going off, meat was at 203 internal, bark was this deep mahogany color with a nice bite through. I think the long undisturbed smoke bath did something different than when I'm constantly opening the lid to adjust. Has anyone else had better results from just letting the smoker do its thing overnight?

2 comments

2 Comments

hall.charles24d ago

Read a pitmaster say a closed smoker almost always gives better results than a fidgety one.

gonzalez.rowan23d ago

Went full fidgety on my first brisket once. Must've opened that smoker every 20 minutes to poke at it, check the bark, adjust the vents, probably gave it a pep talk too. Came out dry as a bone and tasting more like charcoal than smoke. Now I pretty much just close the lid and leave it alone until I'm ready to wrap or probe. My ribs got way better too after I stopped opening the door every time I walked past the patio.