Watched a pitmaster from 1990 on YouTube and couldn't believe the difference

I saw an old VHS clip of a guy in North Carolina using just wood coals and a shovel to cook a whole hog, no thermometer or gauges anywhere. Now every competition video I watch has people with $500 wifi controllers and data logs on their phones. Do you think the old school way actually tasted better or are we just romanticizing it?

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williamt441mo ago

Nah I used to think the old timers were just stubborn and the new tech made better BBQ, but then I saw a video of this guy from the 80s just feeling the heat off the coals with his hand and adjusting the vents by ear. No batteries, no wifi, just pure instinct from doing it thousands of times. I tried doing a pork butt that way last month with just a cheap charcoal grill and a instant read thermometer I checked twice, and honestly the bark and flavor was way better than my normal routine with the fan controller. There's something to that whole "the meat tells you when it's done" approach that you just can't get from staring at a phone graph.