Just hit 50 briskets cooked in one weekend and my nerves are shot

I was helping out at a friend's competition team last Saturday and we ended up doing 50 briskets overnight for a charity event. I had never done more than 8 at a time before, so the sheer volume of trimming, seasoning, and fire management nearly broke me. Has anyone else suddenly hit a big number like this and realized you were way over your head?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly33811d ago

Burned through 14 briskets my first competition and thought I was gonna pass out from the heat and stress. 50 is absolutely insane, I would have probably just laid down in the middle of the pit and given up by 30. My buddy tried to have me help with 25 once and I ended up crying in the parking lot for 20 minutes. You got through it alive so thats a win, but honestly Id be drinking heavily for the next week just to recover.

noah_rivera5711d ago

Yeah man that 50 brisket nightmare sounds rough. I did a similar thing a few years back with about 60 pork shoulders for a big fundraiser and I learned the hard way that you gotta prep way smarter. @kelly338 what worked for me was having a clear timeline and sticking to it no matter what. I wrote down every hour on a whiteboard and who was doing what so nobody was standing around not knowing their job. Also had a big fan blowing on me the whole time and took breaks to step away for a minute even if it felt like I was failing. Still felt like I was dying but it kept me from hitting that wall completely. Afterward I did drink pretty heavy that weekend but the next time I ran a similar cook I cut down to 35 and didn't hate life as much.