That time I stopped using a propane torch and went back to a chimney starter for my brisket

I was at a competition in Kansas City last summer and my neighbor pitmaster suggested I ditch the torch for lighting coals. He showed me his method over 3 briskets and the bark came out way more even than mine ever did. Has anyone else switched back to an old-school method and seen a big difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

richard_young802d ago

Man that's exactly what happened to me a few years back. An old timer told me to ditch the electric starter and go back to a charcoal chimney, and I'll be darned if my bark isn't way more consistent now. Not sure if it's the slower even heat or what, but I'm never going back.

noahgreen2d ago

Yeah the "not sure if it's the slower even heat or what" part is something I've noticed about a lot of things, @richard_young80. It's like once you stop trying to force shortcuts or speed up a process, everything just works better on its own. Same thing happens with bread, woodworking, even fixing up a car. People jump straight to the power tool or the electric gadget but sometimes the old manual way builds in a patience that you can't get any other way. That's probably why your bark turned out better.

thomasgonzalez1d ago

And totally agree with @noahgreen here. Patience is basically a cheat code for anything worth doing right. Why do we always forget that?