You can leave the fat on by Ben

I was in a strange situation of making BBQ for next weekend since I didn't have time to do it closer the actual serving time. I have made BBQ a few times previously using the injection method listed here and decided to do this again. But after a conversation with good men at the Pig on Folly, decided to leave the fat cap on. Now, they went and got two gorgeous butts from the back, 7 lbs each and trimmed the fat cap slightly. Here is what that looked like:



Since I was doing this for later, I was able to schedule things so that I got the maximum amount of sleep (no 2 AM start and checking again at 6 AM). I rubbed the meat down the night before, wrapped in saran wrap and put in the fridge.



Woke up at 7 and got the grill going using a modified coffee can method (I used a small flower pot to keep a hole in the middle of the coals) with only a few wood chunks, though I added more later. Here is the meat post-injection, warming up waiting to hop on the grill:





After that, I put them on the top shelf and followed a somewhat random scheme to grill for 16 hours, as seen here:

Started moving at 7 and got grill going
inject rub and let sit
add hot water when add starter coals
8:20 AM temp @ 250, add meat top shelf cap up; adjust vents to 25%
9:00 AM temp @ 240
10:00 AM temp @ 255, close 2 vents to 15%-ish
1:00 PM temp @ 230, add hot water and baste
2:00 PM, baste and add coals and wood chunks
3:00 PM, open 2 vents 100%
4:00 PM temp @ 240, vents all open
5:00 PM temp @ 245, baste and add water
nap
8:45 PM temp @ 230, add water, baste, meat temp of both @ 190 so decrease vents to 25% to last coals few more hours
10:00 PM temp @ 200-ish with vents practically closed, baste
11 and 12 PM temp @ 170
12:00 PM (or is it AM) wrap put in cooler

At 12 that night, I wrapped them in foil and put them in a cooler. When I got up at 7, I removed the fat, and pulled the meat.





Initial thoughts: the meat is definitely good, and probably the best quality I have cooked with yet. Using the fat cap and no trimming definitely made the meat juicy, but with the injection method I have used (and did use this time), moistness isn't really an issue. The cons of this method are that the wonderful crusty outside is lost where the cap was since this is removed for pulling. Also, the meat seems to be a bit more greasy. All in all, I think if I didn't do the injection, and didn't have the time to watch the meat and baste accordingly, this would be a fine method, but as things have been turning out, I am not sure if I will do it again.