Unpopular opinion: I quit mopping my brisket at hour 6 and my bark got better | BBQ Pitmasters - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Unpopular opinion: I quit mopping my brisket at hour 6 and my bark got better
For my first two years cooking on a Oklahoma Joe offset in my Tulsa backyard, I spritzed and mopped every 45 minutes like clockwork because that's what every YouTube pitmaster swore by. Last spring I got lazy during a 14 pound packer and didn't open the lid once between hour 3 and hour 9, and the bark came out darker and tackier than anything I'd made before. Turns out all that opening and closing was just dropping my chamber temp 25 to 30 degrees every time and stretching cooks past 16 hours. I ran the same test three more times on the same smoker with the same rub and got the same result, so now I wrap in butcher paper at 165 and leave the mop in the drawer. A guy at the Route 66 BBQ fest in Vinita laughed and said his granddad never owned a spray bottle, which felt like a sign. Has anyone else ditched the spritz routine, or am I just fooling myself?