An old timer named Earl changed how I set up my smoker

At a comp in Kansas City back in 2018, this retired pitmaster named Earl watched me struggle with my firebox for a solid 20 minutes. He finally walked over, pointed at my damper, and said "you're choking it before it even breathes, son." He showed me his trick of keeping the intake wide open for the first 45 minutes and letting the wood catch naturally instead of babying it. I still think about that every time I light a brisket, and my smoke flavor is way cleaner now. Anyone else had a stranger on the circuit drop one piece of advice that stuck?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

skyler432mo ago

Damn, "choking it before it even breathes" hit me hard. Had almost the same thing happen at a little backyard comp outside Austin. Guy saw me fussing with my vents every five minutes and just said "quit dating the fire and let it do its thing." I still catch myself hovering sometimes, but that advice about giving it space changed my whole cook. The clean smoke thing is real too, once I stopped overreacting to every little dip in temp. Funny how a stranger with one line can stick with you more than years of trial and error.

7