Shoutout to the old pitmaster who schooled me on wrapping brisket at a random gas station in Texas

I was fueling up outside Austin last summer when this older guy with a smoker strapped to his truck saw my barbecue shirt and started talking. He told me I was ruining my bark by wrapping in foil too early, then showed me photos of his competition brisket on his phone. Has anyone else gotten game-changing advice from a random stranger like that, or am I just lucky?

3 comments

3 Comments

robin6281mo agoTop Commenter

Love that you ran into a random pitmaster legend. That's just how you learn the real stuff in Texas, man. Sounds like you got lucky with the timing that day.

wood.eric1mo ago

Changed my mind totally after a trip like that, @robin628.

parkerbrown1mo ago

Man, I walked in there thinking I knew brisket from a YouTube video and left realizing I didn't know a THING. He spent 10 minutes explaining why my rub was too sweet and I just stood there nodding like a fool. Pretty sure I learned more in that hour than all my trial and error combined.