Sorry for the tease but by now you should realize I enjoy the challenge of posting while cooking the food.
8lb pork shoulder butt, slathered with yellow mustard so that my friend's rub would stick to it:
Not much to look at here but I'll describe it. Fat cap side up, there's a quasi-3 layer snake of Coshell coconut briquets (on close-out at Lowe's ...) nearly all the way around because I didn't know how long it would need to go, it's basically winter and there's a breeze, and it's only my second pork butt.
Two smaller drip pans in a "T" configuration to cover the area not covered by coals. No water used. I lit a small chimney and placed the coals on the left part (going clockwise I now realize I might have screwed this up since it's pork)
Meat's been on 5 hours and is at 136, grill is at 225. Oh dear Lord how do I love this freaking kettle ... it began a bit hotter, was climbing upwards of 250-270 before I put the brakes on below and above. When it sank to about 215 I opened it back up and there it sits at 225. Almost like the Maverick is frozen and needs a reboot LOL.
I have a few pieces of something (hickory? oak? it was given to me, don't care, I forget) spaced throughout.
Something tells me that in another 2 or 3 hours I'm going to get bored and open it up wide or do something else stupid. Who am I kidding, I think it is open wide pretty much right now.
Wait, wait, 223 now, temp is falling? Stocked the coals and pushed them up more against the snake. Snake hasn't budged much, maybe these Coshells really are that efficient.
In the last 15 mins grate temp ramped up to 243 and meat 143+ but did I go outside? No I did not.