That one time a old pitmaster gave me a 2 minute lesson on brisket

I was at a competition in Lockhart, Texas last fall and this guy named Roy (must have been 70 years old) walked by my setup. He pointed at my firebox and said "son, you're choking her out" and just walked off. I adjusted my airflow and the temp steadied right at 250 for the next 6 hours straight. Anyone else had a random stranger fix a problem in like 10 seconds?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas.piper20d ago

Man, that's the thing about the old school pitmasters. They'll give you a piece of advice that sounds like nonsense but it's pure gold. I remember reading somewhere that Roy from Lockhart actually won like 4 state championships back in the 80s with a beat-up offset smoker. Probably saw your fire coming out the stack wrong and knew exactly what to fix. That's the kind of wisdom you can't get from a YouTube video, lol.

lindaw1220d ago

Wait, so you're telling me a little air flow fix from Roy was all it took, and here I've been buying fancy digital controllers and wifi thermometers like a sucker? @thomas.piper is right though, that old man probably saw your smoke stack telling a story and just had to let you know you were writing it wrong. I guess some things you just have to learn from a guy who's been doing it since before your dad was born, not from a sponsored YouTuber hawking rubs.