Smoking Meat - Fat Side Up vs Fat Side Down

We get this question all the time, should the meat I'm smoking go on the smoker fat-side up, or fat-side down? Hopefully, this will help you answer that question.

What we found is that the shoulder that was smoked fat-side up was more moist. It's not that the fat rendered into the shoulder, but that the fat was constantly melting and dripping over the shoulder during the cook, similar to what you would do with a mop sauce.

But there were some advantages to smoking the shoulder fat-side down. When placing the meat over more direct heat, the fat acted like a heat shield and kept the underside from cooking too fast.

So I guess the answer is "it depends". If we were smoking on a vertical smoker, we would likely smoke it fat-side down. The heat is more direct, and we would want to shield the bottom of the meat a little bit. If we were using an offset smoker, like we are in this video, we found that fat-side up will likely give you better results.

Is this what you found when you do your cooks? Let us know in the comments if you agree or disagree.

Видео Smoking Meat - Fat Side Up vs Fat Side Down канала Smoking Meat