My brisket almost ruined a family reunion in Austin last summer

I was cooking for 30 people at my cousin's place in Austin. I put a 15 pound brisket on at 6 AM and thought I had the temp dialed in on my offset smoker. By noon the fire had dropped way down and the internal temp was only at 140. I panicked and cranked the heat way up to speed things up, which dried out the flat something fierce. Ended up separating the point and chopping it into burnt ends to salvage the meal. Have you ever had a cook go sideways like that and had to change your whole game plan on the fly?

2 comments

2 Comments

wright.leo1d ago

Dude I gotta disagree a little. Cranking the heat was definitely a panic move but honestly if the flat dried out that fast you probably had other issues going on with your fire management from the start.

keith2741d ago

Used to be on your side of this argument actually. I was the guy blaming the heat crank every time my flat tops came out like crackers. Then a buddy took a video of my whole process and showed me I was spreading my starter way too thin and letting it dry out before the pan was even hot enough. Once I fixed that part of my routine, the whole "cranking heat" thing became way less of an issue. Made me realize the panic move was just a symptom of a bigger problem I was ignoring. So yeah, I feel you on this now.