Smoked Sausage and Potatoes

I wanted to make something that was faster than a brisket, but still had the smoky, wood fired flavor. So after some brainstorming with Amy through the day, we settled on Brats and baked potatoes.

This was my first foray into the wonderful world of reverse searing, and I swiftly came to realize... I have a lot to learn.

The first thing I did was change my grill's smoking process. I usually use a flanged heat deflector that sits directly on my Saffire's fire ring. This time I flipped my cooking grid elevator upside down, and set my pizza stone on it. Then I put my cooking grid on top of all that. Take a look.

Yeah, I could have spent more time burning the crust off the grid.

Next I washed, buttered and salted 5 medium sized potatoes and put them in my cast iron skillet. I'm not really sure why I did this. Sometimes I just like using cast iron.

I let the potatoes smoke at about 400 for 10 minutes and then I used my secondary cooking grid for the sausages.

I let the sausages smoke for about 20 minutes, toasted some hot dog buns in the oven, and took them off. I left the potatoes on for another 10 minutes and took them off when I could hear them whistling.

Take a look at those sausages, perfectly smoky and still juicy after sitting for 10 minutes or so.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd have put the potatoes on earlier, running the temperature to 500 for 20 minutes, and then bring it down to 300, put the sausages, take the potatoes off, and prepare them half baked style, then put them back on for 15 minutes with the sausages.

Then I'd pull everything off, take off the grid, and pizza stone, replace the grid, and sear the sausages over the open flame for a few minutes a side maybe less. Thoughts?