I'm usually too busy spritzing myself... or having the grandkids doing it... they do love the water pistols...!
Until you try it side by side, one moped, and one unmopped you cannot tell for sure. The pro's de-bone thighs, remove the skin, scape off the fat from the underside of the skin, put the skin back on. This gives chicken the impossibly crisp skin that mopping/spritzing ruins.I've pretty much got to where i only mop the smaller cuts. Ribs, chicken, etc.. A good mop is a MUST for even decent smoked chicken IMO. And its still better open pit.
Butts, brisket, chuckies, etc (thicker cuts, for sure anything i'm pulling and want a good bark on), it almost doesnt seem worthwhile.
Try spritzing at end, after it's off the smoker. The layer of flavor you crave will not be evaporated, burned off or hinder your bark, it will be concentrated :)I spritz lightly and in general like to tell myself that it's an opportunity to add a another layer of flavor. More than once I have not had the chance to do it and can't say that I saw a big difference. 98% of what I do is bb's
If you have the MES and use the water pan and keep it from going empty. you don't have to spritz or mop for moisture. At least i don't. Once i get it up to temp if i open the door i get a meat flavored facial from the steam.
If you are spraying or mopping for flavor ou can just put the mop liquid in the water pan .
It took me awhile to figure out i can get all the flavor and moisture i need w/o opening the door .
The MES is really bad about heat loss when the door is opened . Especially the older 800 watt like i have. And it takes forever to recover.
Best way to do it, form your own opinion--That's the one that matters.Ok. So i also read this article and find that there are good points to be made from it. However, as stated before, Man (and woman) has been smoking/ bbqing for ages. and they have been spritzing/ mopping for a long while now. i am sure that this study is not the first since the science of cooking meat this way has started. I am still very new to the smoking world and in fact my first time spritzing a meat is today. i am going to make my own opinion on this topic over the time and experience i accumulate. Everyone has there opinion and in my eyes... (again this is my opinion on the article) the person who wrote this article's opinion is not to spritz/smoke. I will update with my experience of spritzing.