Guy at a comp told me to stop basting every 30 minutes

Back in May at a local cookoff in Greenville, this older fella with a beat-up WSM walked past my station while I was spritzing my brisket for the fourth time that morning. He just stopped, shook his head, and said 'you're washing the bark off, son, close the lid and go have a coffee.' I laughed it off, but then I peeked at his flat around noon and it had this deep, dark crust mine never got. I tried his way on my next backyard cook, only opened the smoker twice in 10 hours, and the bark came out way better than anything I'd babied. Has anyone else gotten stubborn advice from a random stranger that actually worked out, or do you stick to your own routine no matter what?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

val_wilson15d ago

That old timer knew what he was talking about. Less fussing means the smoke and heat do the work without you interrupting things every half hour. Every time you open that lid you let out all your heat and stall the cooking process, plus you drop the humidity inside the chamber. Basting and spritzing mostly just washes away the rub and keeps the surface wet so the bark never gets that chance to set up proper. Its like making a crust on a good steak, you gotta leave it alone if you want that dark, crispy outside. Now I still might spritz once or twice if the meat looks dry real late in the cook, but mostly I trust the pit and keep my hands off. Some lessons are hard to learn until a stranger calls you out on it.

3