Finally nailed my grill setup after a chat with a pitmaster at a BBQ joint in Austin

I was at this place called Terry Black's in Austin last month eating brisket and the guy next to me turned out to be a retired competition pitmaster. We got talking about my home setup and he asked what temp I run my offset smoker at. I told him 225 and he just laughed and said bump it to 275 and don't stress about perfect thin blue smoke all the time. I tried it on my next cook with a pork shoulder and it came out way better with less babysitting. The bark set in faster and the meat stayed juicy without drying out. Now I'm curious if anyone else here runs their smokers hotter than the standard advice and gets better results.

2 comments

2 Comments

stellac9715d ago

Is 275 the new 225 cause I switched to 300 on brisket and never looked back.

oliverbailey15d ago

My buddy tried 225 for years, then one day his smoker temp spiked to 300 and he just went with it... said it was the best brisket he'd ever made and he hasn't looked back since.