Passed 1,000 briskets this past weekend without even keeping count

I hit a clean 1,000 briskets cooked on my backyard offset smoker this weekend. I never bothered to track it until a buddy asked how many I thought I'd done over the last 6 years. I started jotting down numbers on a notepad and it added up way faster than I expected. That first brisket I attempted was a dry, tough mess that cost me $65 and a whole day of babysitting the fire. Now I can pretty much tell by feel when the bark is set and when to wrap. It surprised me how much small refinements added up over time, like keeping my firebox damper cracked just a hair more in winter. Has anyone else looked back at a big number like that and realized how far you've come without noticing?

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the_rowan1mo ago

That 65 dollar first brisket hit me in the feels because I started the same way with a tough, expensive failure. It’s wild how the small tweaks like adjusting your damper for winter become second nature once you’ve done a thousand of these things.