The worst brisket day I ever had at a comp in Kansas City last June

I showed up at the American Royal with a brand new offset smoker I had tuned all spring. The wind shifted hard around 4 AM and my firebox temps dropped 40 degrees before I caught it. That brisket came out dry and tough as leather, and I placed 47th out of 60 teams. Has anyone else had one of those days where everything just fights you?

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price.ben1mo ago

Oh man, that's rough. I've been there with temp swings on an offset, and it's brutal. The best thing I've learned is to keep a couple of foil pans of hot water in the cook chamber to help buffer that temp drop when the wind hits. Also, if you catch it early enough, you can wrap that brisket in foil with some tallow and let it finish in a 250 degree oven, it won't win you a trophy but it'll save it from being shoe leather. The American Royal wind is no joke, I've seen guys lose their whole firebox in a gust.

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emmam891mo ago

Lose their whole firebox in a gust"... is that really a thing, @price.ben? I mean, I get wind being annoying but sounds like you had some serious hardware problems there.

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