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A pitmaster in Lockhart asked me one question about my fire that I still think about
Was down in Lockhart two years ago hitting the old spots on a Saturday. Sitting on a picnic table next to this older guy named Ray who had been cooking on the same offset for something like 22 years. I was complaining about a brisket that came out dry the weekend before, blaming my rub, my wrap, my thermometer, all of it.
He did not even look at me. He just pointed at my fire and asked, what does your coal bed look like at hour four when nobody is watching? I did not have an answer because I was always out back drinking a beer by then, letting the fire do whatever it wanted.
Turns out that was the whole deal. He walked me over to his pit and showed me a bed of coals that was flat and even, no hot spots, nothing flaming up. He said he rakes it every 45 minutes whether it needs it or not, and has for two decades. Every bad cook I had for the next year traced back to that one thing.
Any of you all have a moment like that, where somebody way older and quieter than you just cut through all your excuses with one question?
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sandra_moore3011h ago
Hold on, that coal bed advice is solid but the 45 minute rake thing isn't quite the whole story. In my experience it depends a lot on your cooker and what wood you're burning. On my old offset with oak splits I was raking closer to every hour, but my buddy's reverse flow needs it more often because ash piles up different in there. Raking on a clock no matter what can actually mess you up if your fire is running clean and you knock apart good coals for no reason. The real lesson Ray was teaching is paying attention, not the exact number. Your mileage may vary but I'd say learn what your pit wants instead of copying somebody else's timer.
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keith16411h ago
My coal bed probably looked like a crime scene for the first few years I owned a stick burner. I was that guy poking around with a rake every 20 minutes because I read somewhere that was the move, and all I did was bust up good coals and make the temp swing like a bad mood. Sandra's point about learning what your pit wants is spot on, because my old cheap offset ran totally different than the one I have now. What finally clicked for me was watching the ash instead of the clock, if it's building up gray and soft on one side, that's my cue. Ray's real gift was making me look at the fire instead of my excuses.
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