Ad Lib Seasoning of 009

I'll try to keep this brief. After perusing these forums, and the recommendation in the manual, I decided to season my new 009 with a "fatty" piece of meat. The hardest part was finding a fatty piece of meat, as I know nothing about it, except I like it. I ended up getting a 3.35lb pork shoulder with bone. It looked fatty. That was the best I could do on short notice.

The drill: I rubbed it with cajun spice, crushed black pepper/crushed red pepper mix, and cayenne pepper. Set up smoker, attached Maverick thermometer, forgot to get a scale, put in 2 larger chopped up pieces of supplied wood and another smaller piece. (The bigger pieces wouldn't allow the top of the lid to close). Put in at 8:50P local time, middle rack, set temp to 210. I started low as I wanted to smoke it all night. I thought an all night smoke on 3.35lb would about vaporize it, but seasoning was the goal. Before hitting the rack, I upped the temp to 225 for a bit, but lowered it back to 210-215 at 1000P.

At 820A meat temp 161, unit temp 180. Added golf ball size piece of wood ( I figured if I over smoked it, I might as well go all the way). Upped temp to 250. Took out at 1115A - 14h20m total cook time. Meat temp 193, unit temp 230. I figured the meat wouldn't be fit for a dog. I have attached a pic of it.

Well, the meat was fit for a dog - ME. It was so moist on the inside, I couldn't believe it. It was the best pork I have had since a pig roast years ago. I also liked the blackened part, although I have no idea how over blackened it is. The learning process shall begin.

I mixed some of the included barbeque sauce, some hot sauce, and some more cayenne. Since I ate so much pulling it, I but the mixed batch in the fridge.

I learned some lessons on this, and will post them in that section. All I can say is, when people say it is hard to screw this up, they are certainly right. Thanks for all the info on these forums.