Picked up the "capped flats". Selected 4 that were appx same size.
First of all, they are ~not~ capped. While there was a good amount of fat on top, there were still areas where the meat was clearly visible. Thus, I seasoned them with trepidation (not my favorite rub).
The problem is that flats without that fat caps tend to cook too quickly. These were about 6lbs each and reached 180+ internal in between 6-7 hours, cooking at 225.
Bottom line is they were tender and juicy. However, they did not have enough smoke flavor to please me. And, there was little bark, which I love.
Thus, at an outrageous price of over $3 per lb, am going back to full packer cuts. I miss the bark and I miss the extra smoke. It's either that, or set the temp for about 190 and cook them for a jillion hours to get the internal temp up to 180. I don't have the patience for that.
On the plus side, the presentation was superb, and the CS seems to have the ability to turn chicken poop into chicken salad, because I suspect that this same experiment run on a wood burning offset would have produced dry animal flesh.
Regards, Mike
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