Have not had good luck with butts on my Masterbuilt XL. Was taking too long to cook and not getting enough smoke flavor. Decided one thing that was missing was the grease hitting the coals and sizzling off like when cooking with wood or charcoal. I removed the water pan I was using and put a lasagna pan right over the burner and put my wood chunks in that and let the butt drip on the pan and the wood chunks. I also ran the smoker at 250 the whole time as best I could monitoring the temp with a external digital thermo with probe and dual temp display. Cooked 8# butt for 8 hours. Took it off and double wrapped with alum foil for 2 hrs. Pull apart tender and much better smoke but still not the smoke ring or color I want but I am getting closer. Best tasting butt I ever cooked on this thing. Still not as good as on my old Brinky that I sold to my boss but darn close. The other cool thing was it smelled like the BBQ joints in Lexington, NC the whole time I was cooking it. You need that grease hitting the pan and coals and cooking off. Add flavor and aroma to the meat for sure.
