Drove 3 hours to a competition and watched a guy ruin his brisket by mopping it too early

I was at a BBQ competition in Kansas City last Saturday and this one team kept opening their smoker every 20 minutes to mop their brisket. Every time they opened the door, all that heat just whooshed out. By the time they pulled it, the bark was all mushy and the meat was dry as dirt. I tried to mention it to them but they said they were following a recipe from some YouTube guy. It's like people forget that heat management is way more important than mopping every hour. Has anyone else seen someone sabotage their own cook like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

adam_anderson621d ago

Man I feel your pain, I ruined a whole batch of ribs doing the same thing a few years back. I switched to just giving my brisket a good spritz every 90 minutes or so with a spray bottle, and that little change made a world of difference. For me, keeping the smoker temp steady around 225 did way more for the bark than all that extra moisture ever could.

hugo_cooper21d ago

Dang it, now I'm wondering if wrapping in butcher paper versus foil changes how much spritzing you actually need. Bet nobody's tested that side by side with the same temp.