The Serve Up Blog
The Serve Up Blog
The Brisket Stall: What It Is and How to Push Through It
It’s hour six. Your brisket has been sitting at 158°F for the last ninety minutes and hasn’t moved a single degree. You check the smoker temp. Fine. You check the probe. Still 158°F. You move the probe to a different spot, because surely the probe is broken. It is not broken. Congratulations: you’ve met the stall. Every person who has ever cooked a brisket has had this exact moment, and most of them made the same mistake you’re about to consider: cranking the heat way up, pulling it off early, or deciding barbecue is a scam. Don’t do any of that. Here’s what’s actually happening, and what to do about it. What is the brisket stall? The stall is the point in a long cook where the internal temperature of your meat stops rising, sometimes for hours, even though your smoker is holding steady. It usually hits somewhere between 150°F and 170°F, and it can last anywhere from two to six hours depending on the size of your cut, your cooker, and how much air is moving across the meat. What actually causes the stall (it’s not what you’ve been told) The stall is due to evaporative cooling. (Or, put less scientifically: the meat actually sweats). Moisture on the surface of the meat evaporates, and evaporation takes heat with it; the same reason sweating cools you down on a hot day. At a certain point, the meat loses heat to evaporation at exactly the same rate the smoker adds heat. The two cancel out, and the temperature flatlines until the surface finally dries out enough for the climb to resume. (AmazingRibs has the full breakdown if you want the science.) Butcher paper vs. foil: which should you wrap your brisket in? Foil pushes through the stall fastest but softens your bark. Butcher paper preserves bark much better while still cutting the stall short. Not wrapping gives you the best bark of all, but the longest cook and the driest flat. Foil Butcher paper No wrap Speed through the stall Fastest — stops it cold Shortens it, doesn’t end it Slowest — you wait it out What it does to bark Softens it significantly Mostly preserves it Best bark you can get Moisture Retains the most Retains most of it Most loss, especially the flat Smoke Sealed — absorption stops Breathes — keeps taking smoke Full exposure Best for When you’re against the clock The balance most pitmasters want Bark above all else Watch out for Pot-roast texture, soggy bark Needs unwaxed, food-grade paper A dry flat and a very long day Why foil is so fast: it seals completely. No evaporation means no evaporative cooling, which means no stall. You’re also effectively braising the brisket at that point, which is why the bark goes soft, and the texture drifts toward pot roast if you leave it in too long. Why paper is the middle path: it’s porous. Some moisture still escapes, so the stall is shortened rather than eliminated, but your bark survives and the meat keeps taking on smoke. This is the Aaron Franklin approach, and it’s what most competition and restaurant cooks use. If you’re going the paper route, it has to be unwaxed, uncoated, food-grade butcher paper. Waxed or coated paper doesn’t belong anywhere near a smoker. Our Wrap EZ™ Heavyweight Butcher Paper is FDA-approved, unbleached, and thicker than standard. The foil boat: a third option worth knowing A hybrid approach has been gaining ground, and it’s the one our ambassador @406_bbq uses in his brisket method. A foil boat folds foil up around the sides and bottom of the brisket but leaves the top completely exposed. The bottom is protected from drying out, while the top keeps firming up into bark the whole time. You get much of the moisture benefit of wrapping without giving up the crust you spent hours building. It won’t blow through the stall the way a full foil wrap does, but it’s a good middle ground. When should you wrap a brisket? The common answer is “when it hits the stall,” somewhere around 150–170°F internal. That’s a fine starting point. The better thing to look for, however, is color, not on the thermometer. You want the bark set before you wrap it: deep, dark, and dry enough that you can’t smudge it with your thumb. Other ways to beat the stall Wrapping is the common fix, but it isn’t the only one. Turn the heat up. The stall is a balance between heat going in and heat leaving through evaporation. Tip that balance by running hotter — 275°F or above — and you can shorten or skip the stall entirely. “Hot and fast” brisket is a legitimate method, not a shortcut. Wait it out. The purist option, and the one that produces the best bark. It costs you hours, and the fix is to start earlier rather than cook faster. A brisket that finishes too early can rest for four hours in a Rest EZ® BBQ Blanket and be better for it. A brisket that finishes two hours late ruins dinner. Stop spritzing. Every time you spray the surface, you’re adding moisture that has to evaporate, which is the exact mechanism causing the stall. Spritzing has its uses, but it extends the stall rather than shortening it. Cut the airflow. Moving air accelerates evaporation. A convection-heavy cooker will stall harder and longer than a still one. And remember: the stall isn’t a problem to be solved so much as a tradeoff to be managed. Every method that gets you through it faster costs you something; usually bark. Decide what you’re optimizing for before you decide how to handle it. What happens after the wrap Once you’re wrapped, the cook speeds up considerably, and the temperature climbs steadily toward the finish. From there, it’s the same as always: don’t pull at a number; pull when the probe slides in like warm butter. We wrote a whole guide on exactly that. Then rest it. A packer needs one to two hours minimum, and the paper you wrapped in does double duty as your resting wrap. Brisket stall FAQ What causes the brisket stall? Evaporative cooling. Moisture evaporating from the surface of the meat pulls heat away at the same rate the smoker adds it, so the internal temperature flatlines. It is not caused by collagen converting to gelatin, which is the older and more common explanation. At what temperature does the brisket stall happen? Usually between 150°F and 170°F internal, most commonly right around 160°F. How long does the brisket stall last? Anywhere from two to six hours if you don’t intervene, depending on the size of the brisket, your cooker, and airflow. What is the Texas crutch? Wrapping meat tightly in aluminum foil partway through the cook to stop evaporation and push through the stall. It roughly halves the remaining cook time, at the cost of softening the bark. Butcher paper or foil for brisket? Butcher paper for better bark and continued smoke absorption; foil for speed and maximum moisture. Paper is the more common choice among competition and restaurant cooks; foil is the better call when you’re running out of time. Do I have to wrap a brisket at all? No. An unwrapped brisket produces the best bark of any method. It just takes longer and risks drying out the flat, so plan for extra hours and a long rest rather than rushing the cook. Can I wrap too early? Yes. If you wrap before the bark has set, you’ll finish with a brisket that never develops a proper crust. Judge by color and feel, not by the clock. In summary: how to beat the brisket stall The stall is your brisket's internal temperature flatlining somewhere between 150°F and 170°F, and it can hold there for two to six hours. Your smoker isn't failing; it's evaporative cooling: moisture leaving the meat's surface takes heat with it, and for a while that cancels out everything your smoker is putting in. You've got three ways to handle it. Foil gets you through fastest and holds the most moisture, but it softens the bark you spent hours building. Butcher paper shortens the stall without ending it and keeps most of your bark intact, which is why most competition and restaurant cooks reach for it. Skipping the wrap altogether gives you the best bark of any method, at the cost of a longer cook and a drier flat. The stall is physics. It's normal, and now you know what to do about it.
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How to Brine a Turkey: Wet Brine vs. Dry Brine
Every year, there are Thanksgiving tables all over the country where the unspeakable is spoken out loud, and entire families become hostile towards each other the rest of the day: “The turkey’s a little dry.” But here’s the good news: this is a fixable problem. Brining is the highest-return thing you can do to a turkey to keep it from getting too dry. It takes about fifteen minutes of work, and whether to dry or wet brine comes down to what you care about more, which we’ll sort out in a minute. What is brining a turkey? Brining is when you salt your meat ahead of time so it holds onto its moisture during cooking. Because salt partially unwinds the muscle proteins, they hold water more effectively and contract less when they hit heat, so less juice is squeezed out. Salt also diffuses through the meat over time, which seasons it all the way to the center instead of just coating the outside. So brining isn’t about adding water. It’s about getting the bird to keep the moisture it already has. Wet brine vs. dry brine: what’s the difference? A wet brine is when you dissolve salt in water and submerge the meat, so some liquid moves in alongside the salt. A dry brine rubs salt directly on the surface by pulling the meat's own moisture out, and then that concentrated liquid is reabsorbed over the next day or two. Both work. They just work differently: Wet brine Dry brine What you do Submerge in salt water Rub salt on, refrigerate Salt ratio ~1 cup kosher salt per gallon of water ~½ tsp kosher salt per pound of turkey How long 12–24 hours 24–72 hours Flavor Milder, more diluted Deeper, more concentrated turkey flavor Skin Harder to crisp (wet skin) Crispier (salt pulls moisture off the surface) The short version: go for a wet brine if you want maximum insurance against a dry bird. Dry brine if you want crispier skin and a turkey that tastes more like that classic Thanksgiving turkey. How to wet brine a turkey Spatchcock the bird (optional, but we like it). Take kitchen shears and remove the backbone; press down on the breastbone until it cracks and the bird lies flat. It brines more evenly, it cooks faster, and it actually fits in a container. You can do this directly in your XL Prep Tub. Make the brine. About 1 cup of kosher salt per gallon of water. Bring a portion of the water to a boil with your salt, sugar, and aromatics to dissolve everything, then add the rest cold. Cool it completely. This is non-negotiable. Warm brine on raw poultry puts your turkey straight into the danger zone. Set up your container. A heavy-duty brining bag inside an XL Prep Tub is the setup we use. The bag holds the liquid, the tub contains the bag, and the locking lid means you can move the whole thing to the fridge without rearranging your kitchen. (Not sure which size you need? We broke that down here.) Brine 12 to 24 hours, refrigerated, below 40°F the whole time. Pull it out and pat it dry. Paper towels, inside and out. Don’t rinse it in the sink — that splashes raw poultry bacteria around your kitchen and doesn’t accomplish anything the paper towels won’t. How to dry brine a turkey Spatchcock it in your prep tub (same reasons as above). Measure your salt. About ½ teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of turkey. A 14-pound bird needs roughly 7 teaspoons, or a little over 2 tablespoons. Season everything. Salt the whole surface, including under the skin where you can get to it, and inside the cavity. Add sugar, pepper, or herbs if you want. Refrigerate uncovered for 24 to 72 hours. Uncovered is the point. The air dries the skin out, and dry skin is crispy skin. Don’t rinse it. The salt has already been absorbed. Anything still on the surface is seasoning. Pro tip: Whichever method you use, let the bird sit uncovered in the fridge for the last 12 to 24 hours. That air-drying step is what separates crispy skin from leathery skin, and almost nobody does it. Brining mistakes that ruin a turkey Please note: Check your label before you brine anything. If the turkey is labeled kosher, self-basting, enhanced, or “contains up to X% solution,” it has already been brined at the plant. Brine it again and it will be inedibly salty. Salt type matters more than you think. A cup of table salt and a cup of kosher salt are not the same amount of salt — table salt is much denser, so the same volume is significantly saltier. Every ratio in this post assumes kosher salt. If you’re using table salt, cut the volume by roughly half. Never reuse brine. It’s had raw poultry in it. Dump it. Keep it cold the entire time. Below 40°F, same rule as everything else. We go deeper on the danger zone in our guide to resting meat. Don’t over-brine. More time is not better. A turkey left in a wet brine for two days comes out spongy and too salty to fix. After the brine: season, smoke, rest Once the bird is dry, spray it lightly with avocado oil as a binder and hit it with a simple rub. Something salt-forward is risky here since you’ve already salted the bird, so a lighter hand than usual is the move. For smoking: start around 225°F to get smoke into the meat, then bump the heat to 325–350°F to crisp the skin. Pull it when the thickest part of the breast reads 165°F. Two thermometers is better than one — breast and thigh cook at different rates. Then rest it for 30 to 45 minutes, which feels like forever and is worth every second. A Rest EZ® BBQ Blanket holds it at temperature while you finish the sides, and the cutting board built into your prep tub means you can carve right there and keep all the juice in the tub instead of on the counter. Want a showstopper recipe? Steven Raichlen’s truffle-stuffed smoked turkey is worth a look. Turkey brining FAQ Should I wet brine or dry brine a turkey? Dry brine if you want crispier skin, deeper turkey flavor, and less mess. Wet brine if your main worry is a dry bird and you have the fridge space. Both produce a juicier turkey than no brine at all. How long should I brine a turkey? 12 to 24 hours for a wet brine, 24 to 72 hours for a dry brine. Don’t exceed those windows — over-brining makes the meat spongy and overly salty. How much salt do I need to brine a turkey? About 1 cup of kosher salt per gallon of water for a wet brine, or about ½ teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of turkey for a dry brine. Use kosher salt; table salt is denser and will oversalt the bird at the same volume. Do I rinse the turkey after brining? No. Pat it dry with paper towels. Rinsing raw poultry in the sink spreads bacteria around your kitchen and doesn’t remove meaningful salt. Can you brine a frozen turkey? No. Thaw it completely first. Brine can’t penetrate frozen meat, and a partially frozen bird will cook unevenly. Do I still need to brine if my turkey is already brined? No, and you shouldn’t. Kosher, self-basting, and “enhanced” turkeys were brined at the plant. Brining again makes them too salty to serve. In summary: How to brine a turkey What brining does: salt loosens the muscle fibers so the turkey holds onto its moisture, and seasons the meat all the way through instead of just the surface. Wet brine: about 1 cup kosher salt per gallon of water, 12 to 24 hours. Maximum insurance against dryness, harder to crisp the skin, takes up your whole fridge. Dry brine: about ½ teaspoon kosher salt per pound, 24 to 72 hours. Crispier skin, deeper flavor, barely any mess. The rules that apply to both: kosher salt, not table salt. Keep it under 40°F. Never brine a turkey that’s already been brined. Pat dry, don’t rinse. And let it air-dry uncovered in the fridge for the last 12 to 24 hours if you want skin worth photographing. After the brine: smoke at 225°F, finish at 325–350°F, pull at 165°F, rest for 30 to 45 minutes. Do that and nobody at your table is going to say the turkey’s a little dry.
A Beginner's Guide to Cuts of Beef and Pork
If you don’t know your meat cuts, standing at the butcher counter can feel a little like walking into a gym full of equipment you don’t know how to use. Sure, there are the obvious cuts, like ribeye or bacon. But there's also a whole case of things called flat iron and tri-tip and Boston butt and picnic shoulder, all at wildly different prices – and, if you’re not familiar with them, you’re probably not cooking them. Which means your barbecuing game is missing entire categories of goodness. But can we share a secret? You don’t have to memorize forty different cuts; you just have to understand one main concept! The main meat-cut concept: Where it comes from tells you how to cook it It doesn’t matter if it’s beef, pork, lamb… whatever. Muscles that worked hard, like the shoulder, leg, and chest, are full of connective tissue. They're tough, usually cheaper, and need low heat and a lot of time so the connective tissue can break down into gelatin. Muscles that didn't do much — the ones tucked along the back, up against the spine — are tender. They're more expensive, and they need high heat and not much time. That's the basic logic of a butcher counter. A brisket sits on the chest holding up a thousand-pound animal all day, which is hard work… so you smoke it for twelve hours (also hard work). A tenderloin sits along the spine doing very little, so you have to do very little to cook it: sear for a few minutes and it’s done. Once you know where a cut sits, you can make a very good guess about how to cook it. So here's where everything sits. Beef A cow gets broken down into eight big sections called primals. Chuck (the shoulder) Cuts: Chuck roast, chuck eye steak, flat iron, Denver steak, shoulder tender, short ribs. The shoulder works constantly, which makes chuck tough, cheap, and loaded with fat and connective tissue that turn into flavor with time. Cook beef shoulder cuts low and slow. Chuck roast is pot roast; chuck short ribs are a braise. The exception is worth knowing: a flat iron comes from the top blade, which does almost no work, and it's the second-most tender cut on the animal. It grills like a steak for half the price. Ask your butcher for one! Rib Cuts: Ribeye, bone-in rib steak, tomahawk, prime rib roast, back ribs. This is the marbling section, which is why a ribeye tastes like a ribeye. Cook steaks hot and fast, or roast prime rib whole. Don't over-season it and don't take it past medium. You're paying for fat, and you want it rendered, not cooked out! Please note: Back ribs are the bones left behind after the ribeye comes off. Those go low and slow. Short loin Cuts: New York strip, T-bone, porterhouse, tenderloin (filet mignon). The most tender section of the cow, priced accordingly. A T-bone and a porterhouse are the same idea — strip on one side of the bone, tenderloin on the other — with the porterhouse carrying a bigger piece of tenderloin. Grill short loin cuts hot and fast. There's no connective tissue to break down here, so there's nothing to gain from time and everything to lose. Sirloin Cuts: Top sirloin, tri-tip, coulotte (picanha), flap meat, ball tip. Where value and flavor meet. It sits just behind the short loin, so it did slightly more work: a little less tender, a lot less expensive, and arguably beefier. Grill it. Tri-tip especially. It’s big enough to feed a crowd, cheap enough to experiment with, and best at medium-rare over two-zone heat, and sliced against the grain. Round (the rear leg) Cuts: Top round, bottom round, eye of round, rump roast, knuckle. The back leg walks all day, but it's also very lean, so you get toughness without much fat to balance it out. This is the trickiest cut. Roast it low and slice it thin, or braise it. Eye of round makes excellent roast beef cooked gently and sliced paper-thin. It won't survive being treated like a steak over high heat. Brisket (the chest) Cuts: The whole packer (two muscles — the flat and the point), or the flat on its own. The chest supports enormous weight, which makes brisket one of the toughest cuts on the animal and, cooked right, one of the best things you'll ever eat. Low and slow, then rested longer than you think. This one has a learning curve, and it's the cut most worth jumping over hoops for. (We wrote a whole guide on when to pull a brisket, because the number on the thermometer isn't the answer.) Short plate (the belly) Cuts: Skirt steak, short ribs. These cuts come with two opposite approaches, which is why this section confuses people. Skirt steak is thin and loose-grained: sear it screaming hot for two minutes per side, then slice against the grain. It's the fajita cut, and it does not want to be cooked slowly. Plate short ribs are the reverse — thick, fatty, heavily connective. Smoke or braise them for hours. Flank Cuts: Flank steak, hanger steak. Flank is the abdominal wall: lean, muscular, strongly grained. Marinate, sear hot, pull at medium-rare, slice thin against the grain. That last part isn't optional — flank's muscle fibers are long and obvious, and cutting the wrong way turns a good steak into a chewy one. Hanger steak is the sleeper. There's one per animal, it's enormously flavorful, and it used to go home with the butcher, hence its other name: the butcher's steak. Pork Pork is simpler. Four primals instead of eight, fewer names to learn, and a more forgiving animal all around. Shoulder Cuts: Boston butt (also just "pork butt"), picnic shoulder, coppa, neck bones. First, the thing everyone gets wrong: the pork butt is not the butt. It's the upper shoulder. The name comes from the barrels, called butts, which colonial New England packed shoulder meat into. The actual rear end is the ham. Pork shoulder is fatty, marbled, and cheap, which makes it the best value on the whole animal. Low and slow, every time. This is where pulled pork comes from, and it's the most forgiving cut in barbecue: hard to dry out, hard to ruin, endlessly rewarding. The picnic shoulder is the lower half. It’s the same idea, but a little leaner, and usually still cheaper. Loin Cuts: Pork chops, rib chops, tenderloin, baby back ribs, center-cut loin roast, crown roast. The loin runs along the back from the shoulder to the hip. It's the lean, tender section — pork's equivalent of the beef short loin — and it's the easiest part of the pig to overcook. Cook these hot and fast, and pull them early. Chops and tenderloin require a quick sear and nothing more. Tenderloin in particular cooks in minutes and turns to sawdust if you forget about it. Baby back ribs also come from here, up against the backbone, which is why they're leaner and smaller than spare ribs. That matters more than people realize! That's why the standard 3-2-1 method overcooks them. Side (the belly) Cuts: Bacon, pork belly, spare ribs, St. Louis–cut ribs. The fattiest section, and therefore the most flavorful. Slow-roast, smoke, or cure it. Pork belly is bacon before it's bacon. Spare ribs come from the lower rib cage, below the baby backs — bigger, meatier, fattier, with more connective tissue. Trim the sternum and cartilage off a rack of spares and you get the tidier St. Louis cut, which is what most competition ribs are. Leg (the ham) Cuts: Fresh ham, cured ham, spiral ham, country ham, ham steak, hock. Nearly all the ham you've eaten was cured, smoked, or both — which is why people forget it's a cut at all. A fresh ham is just an uncured rear leg, and it roasts beautifully with the fat cap scored. Roast ham low and slow. Country ham is dry-cured and intensely salty; prosciutto is the same primal, handled differently. Prime, Choice, and Select aren't cuts This trips up almost everyone. Prime, Choice, and Select are USDA grades, not cuts. They're assigned to the whole beef carcass based on marbling — the flecks of fat inside the muscle — and the maturity of the animal. A Select ribeye and a Prime ribeye are the same cut from the same spot. One just has more fat running through it. Prime has the most marbling. Only a small share of beef grades out this way, and most of it goes to restaurants and high-end butchers. Choice is the grocery default, and it's good beef. This is what most of us are cooking. Select is leaner and less forgiving. Fine for braising or marinating, less fun as a steak. Two things worth adding. Prime rib has nothing to do with the Prime grade — it refers to the primal rib roast, and most prime rib on most menus is Choice. The names just collided, and nobody has fixed it (but, really, someone should). And pork isn't graded this way at all. There's no Prime pork. Pork is evaluated differently and doesn't carry a consumer-facing grade, so when you're buying pork you're going on color, marbling, and your butcher's judgment instead of a stamp. Terms you'll hear at the counter Primal: One of the big sections above. Eight in beef, four in pork. Subprimal: The smaller pieces a primal gets broken into. Marbling: Fat inside the muscle, as opposed to the fat cap on the outside. More marbling means more flavor and more forgiveness. The grain: The direction the muscle fibers run. Slicing against it cuts those fibers short, which is the single easiest way to make a tough cut more tender. Packer: A whole untrimmed brisket with both the flat and the point attached. St. Louis cut: Spare ribs with the sternum and cartilage trimmed off, leaving a clean rectangle. Center-cut: From the middle of a primal, away from the ends. Usually more uniform and more expensive. In summary: the best cuts of beef and pork for every cooking method There's no single "best" cut of beef or pork. There's only the right method for the cut in front of you, and where that cut sat on the animal is what tells you which method to use. Hardworking muscles go low and slow. Lazy ones go hot and fast. Cooking method Best beef cuts Best pork cuts Low and slow (smoked, 225–275°F, for hours) Brisket, plate short ribs, back ribs Boston butt, picnic shoulder, spare ribs, St. Louis ribs, baby backs Hot and fast (grilled or seared, minutes) Ribeye, New York strip, tenderloin, T-bone, porterhouse, tri-tip, top sirloin, flat iron, flank, skirt, hanger Pork chops, rib chops, pork tenderloin Roasted or braised (low oven, 2–4 hours) Chuck roast, top round, bottom round, eye of round, rump roast Fresh ham, center-cut loin roast Cured or smoked whole — Bacon, pork belly, ham, country ham And remember: Prime, Choice, and Select are grades, not cuts. Marbling is the fat inside the muscle, not the cap on the outside. Whatever you bring home, give yourself room to work with it. Trimming a pork shoulder on a cutting board the size of a coaster is how seasoning ends up on the floor, so a proper board and a prep tub keep the whole operation on the counter where it belongs. Now go (confidently) ask your butcher for a hanger steak. Shop Prep & Carving Gear →
Grills vs. Smokers: How to Choose (And Why You Might Not Have To)
Have you been looking at a grill or smoker for weeks but still haven’t pulled the trigger? It’s a confusing and daunting choice. Everything costs somewhere between four hundred and four thousand dollars, every review contradicts the last one, and somewhere in there a guy with a YouTube channel told you that if you're not running an offset you're not really cooking barbecue. Take a breath. This is not actually a gear question. It's a cooking question, and it's the same one from our guide to cuts of meat: where a cut comes from tells you how to cook it. And how you want to cook tells you what you need to cook it on. So before you spend any money, figure out what you actually want to be making next Saturday. The difference between smoking and grilling The main difference between smoking and grilling is the technique: do you need to use direct or indirect heat? In grilling, food goes over the fire, hot and fast, and it's done in minutes. You cook with radiant heat and brown the surface. Smoking is indirect heat. Food sits beside the fire, not over it, at a low temperature for hours, in a chamber full of smoke. You're not browning anything quickly; you're giving connective tissue enough time at enough heat to break down into gelatin. Those are two different cooking methods, and they happen to have two different appliances named after them, which is where the confusion starts, because plenty of machines can do both. Temperature Time What it's for Grilling 400–600°F, direct Minutes Tender cuts: steaks, chops, burgers, chicken pieces Hot & fast BBQ 300–325°F, indirect 1–5 hours Ribs, chicken, smaller pork cuts Smoking 225–275°F, indirect 4–14 hours Tough cuts: brisket, pork shoulder, short ribs High heat is about the surface. It browns, it crusts, it sears, and it does all of that in the first few minutes. That's great for a ribeye, which has nothing tough in it that needs fixing. Low heat is about time. Collagen needs hours in the 160 to 205°F range to convert to gelatin, and you simply cannot rush that with a bigger fire. Turn the heat up on a brisket, and you get a dry brisket faster. What each one is useful for A grill is for weeknights. Steaks, chops, burgers, sausages, chicken thighs, shrimp, vegetables, pizza if you're feeling ambitious. Usually, grilling takes twenty to forty minutes from lighting it to eating. A smoker is for weekends. Brisket, pork shoulder, ribs, whole chickens, chuck roast, beef short ribs. Think four to fourteen hours of smoke time, most of which you can spend doing something else. If you're not sure which camp you're in, ask yourself: do you want to cook dinner, or do you want a hobby? The pros and cons of each type “Grill” covers at least three very different machines, so this is broken out by type rather than as one big column. Type Best at Watch out for Gas grill Speed and convenience. On in 10 minutes, precise control, easy cleanup. Almost no smoke flavor. Struggles to hold true low-and-slow temps. Charcoal kettle Versatility and value. Real fire flavor, and it can smoke with a two-zone setup. You manage the fire yourself. There's a learning curve. Pellet grill Set-and-forget smoking. Dial a temp, walk away, genuinely good results. Most can't sear well. Electronic parts that can fail. Offset / stick burner Flavor. Nothing beats a live wood fire. Constant tending, every 30 to 45 minutes, all day. It's a commitment. Kamado Doing both genuinely well. Holds temperature beautifully. Expensive, heavy, and not going anywhere once you set it down. Electric or propane vertical Cheap, easy entry to smoking. Very forgiving. Lighter smoke flavor. Cannot grill at all. One honest note on pellet grills, since they're the most common first smoker: the drip bucket on the back is not self-cleaning, and it is the chore everybody puts off. A liner turns it into a ten-second job. Can one machine do both? Yes, mostly, with tradeoffs. In our opinion, a charcoal kettle is the most underrated smoker on the market. Bank your coals to one side, put the meat on the other, and you have an indirect cooker. Use the snake method — a curved line of unlit briquettes with a few lit ones at one end, burning slowly around the ring — and a kettle will hold 250°F for five or six hours without much help. People smoke competition-quality ribs on hundred-dollar kettles. A kamado is also a great option. Its ceramic holds temperature so well that it'll sit at 225°F all day and then climb to 700°F for a sear. It's the closest thing to one machine that does everything. A pellet grill plus a cast iron pan can also be a great two-in-one solution. You won't get a true high-heat sear from the pellet grill itself, but you can finish a reverse-seared steak in a screaming hot pan on the grate. No single machine is the best at both, but several are good enough that you'd never notice the difference at your own table. So which should you buy - griller or smoker? Find yourself on this list. You cook on weeknights and want dinner in thirty minutes. Get a gas grill. Don't overthink it, don't let anyone shame you about it. You want to learn, you have a small budget, and you'd like to try a brisket someday. Get a charcoal kettle. It's the best value in outdoor cooking, and it'll teach you fire management, which is the skill that transfers to everything else. You want to smoke, but you don't want to babysit a fire. Go ahead, get a pellet grill. (That's why they sell so well, after all)! You already have a grill you like, and you want to add barbecue. Buy a cheap vertical smoker instead of replacing the grill. Two machines that each do one thing well will beat one machine that does both adequately, and you'll spend less. You want one machine forever, and the budget isn't the constraint. Kamado all the way! Whatever you buy, these don't change Here's the part nobody selling you a grill will tell you: the machine matters less than the technique. Two-zone heat, an instant-read thermometer, and an actual rest will improve your cooking more than a thousand-dollar upgrade will. We wrote about the seven mistakes that cost beginners the most, and not one of them is solved by buying something. Same goes for what happens before and after the cook. Trimming and seasoning in a prep tub works the same on a gas grill as it does on an offset, and a Rest EZ® BBQ Blanket doesn't care what you cooked on either. Buy the machine that fits your Saturdays. Then go use it. 🔥 Shop BBQ Essentials →
The Ultimate Tailgate Checklist (Plus Easy Tailgate Food Ideas)
Some of us treat game days like a holiday. Others believe tailgating is the game. Like Nick Keith, who fell in love with barbecuing years ago while tailgating at Raiders games with his friends. His buddy would bring a little Weber grill, and he’d make ribs, chicken, hot wings. Soon after, Nick started cooking for other people. “When I see their reaction to what I make, it’s a dopamine hit. It makes you just want to get better and better at your craft.” Since it’s peak tailgating season, we thought we’d offer some unsolicited advice for those of you who (rightly) believe food is the main ingredient to a successful game day. Besides our team winning, but hey… we can only control the controllables. Below you’ll find the full checklist, what to cook, how much of it to make, and the one thing most tailgate guides skip entirely. The tailgating essentials checklist Here’s the thing about on-the-go grilling: the fastest way to ruin a tailgate is to pack like you’re moving house. Nobody wants to spend the first hour unloading. So we’ve split this into what you actually need and what’s nice to have. The 9 things you actually need for a successful tailgate A portable grill. We like the Weber Q series — a Q1200 handles a small crew, and a Q2800 covers a bigger group. (Wirecutter also has a good roundup if you want to compare.) Fuel. Full propane tank, or charcoal plus a chimney starter. Check the tank before you leave. A few prep tubs. Pack your meat, your sides, your rubs, all of it, in one sealed container that rides in the trunk without leaking. This 3-pc set means one tub for the main, one for sides, one for whatever’s left. (These can double as serving tubs or cutting boards, too!) Grilling tools. Tongs, spatula, mitts. The Pro Tools Bundle covers it. An instant-read thermometer. Keeps you from serving undercooked chicken to twelve people in a parking lot. Here’s a good option, if you don’t already have one. A way to keep food hot. More on this below! A cooler with ice. For drinks, and for anything raw that hasn’t hit the grate yet. Plates, forks, napkins, trash bags. Easy-to-forget essentials. Just keep a to-go bin ready for these things. Paper towels and a jug of water. Because there’s no sink at the parking lot. How much food do you actually need? There’s nothing worse than running out of food, and this is the question that gets everybody second-guessing whether they bought enough food at about 6 a.m. on game day. The general rule for barbecue is about ½ pound of raw meat per person when the meat is the main event. From there: What you’re making How much per person Burgers or brats 1–2 each Wings, as the main 4–6 pieces Wings, alongside other food 2–3 pieces Pulled pork ~12 oz raw (yields about 6 oz cooked) Ribs A rack of baby backs feeds 2; a rack of spares feeds 3–4 And remember: people don’t eat a single meal at a tailgate. They graze for four hours. So plan slightly more than what you’d make for a sit-down dinner with the same number of people, and bring something to pack the leftovers in. Tailgate recipe ideas, sorted by how much work you want to do Easy dishes You can’t go wrong with brats and hot dogs, and to make it feel special, go absolutely overboard on toppings. Nobody has ever complained about a well-stocked topping bar. Burgers are the other can’t-go-wrong crowd-pleasers. Try these cheesy onion smash burgers — smash burgers cook fast, which matters when you’re working on a small grate. If you want a crowd-pleaser Wings! These are Nick’s favorite protein to make for tailgates, and for good reason: they’re versatile, they feed a lot of people, and you can take them in any direction you want. His sriracha sunset wings are worth the extra effort, and these elote-style wings might be worth a shot if you want something familiar, but a little different. Oh, and this candied sriracha bacon recipe is our pick for keeping people happy while the main course finishes. It disappears in about ninety seconds, though. If you want to show off Prep the pork (or your protein of choice) ahead of time at home and serve tacos or taquitos at the lot. Same with our surf and turf Cajun fajitas — do the prep in a tub the night before, and all you’re doing in the parking lot is grilling and serving. If you REALLY want to show off, these Texas Twinkies (cream cheese and brisket stuffed in jalapenos and wrapped in bacon) are the most impressive thing you can hand someone. And remember: the best tailgate food is mostly made at home. The parking lot is where you cross the finish line, not where you start. The part most tailgate checklists skip You cooked at 9 a.m. Kickoff is at 1. So here’s a question: where is that food sitting for four hours? The USDA danger zone is 40°F to 140°F — the range where bacteria multiply fast. Cooked food shouldn’t sit in that window for more than two hours total, and only one hour if it’s above 90°F outside. This is where the cooler-and-towels routine falls apart. A cooler full of damp towels loses heat faster than people think, and you can’t tell from the outside when it’s dropped below the line. Two things can help fix this: The Rest EZ® BBQ Blanket is an insulated bag with a heat-reflective interior, built for exactly this. Cook at home, wrap it, zip it, and it holds heat on the drive and through the pregame. It’s also doing double duty as your resting setup, which is a step worth not skipping anyway — we wrote a whole guide on resting if you want the full story. The Rest EZ® ‘Que Crib is a great upgrade for bigger crowds. Insulated, latching, and roomy enough to nest two XL prep tubs inside, so your whole operation travels as one unit. Call it a meat fridge. We won’t stop you. Please note: Insulation slows heat loss; it doesn’t stop it. If you’re holding food for more than a couple of hours, put a probe in it and actually watch the number. When it approaches 140°F, it’s time to serve. Tailgate FAQ What should I bring to a tailgate? At minimum: a portable grill, fuel, grilling tools, mitts, a thermometer, a prep tub for transport, a cooler with ice, plates and utensils, trash bags, paper towels, and water. Everything else is a nice-to-have. What’s the easiest food to make at a tailgate? Brats, hot dogs, and smash burgers. They cook fast on a small grate, they’re hard to mess up, and they scale easily to however many people show up. How do I keep food warm at a tailgate? Use an insulated resting blanket or an insulated resting station rather than a cooler full of towels, and keep the internal temperature above 140°F. Check it with a thermometer rather than guessing. How much food should I make per person? Roughly ½ pound of raw meat per person when meat is the main dish, or 4–6 wings per person if wings are the main. Plan slightly over for a tailgate, since people graze rather than eat one meal. Can you tailgate without a grill? Yes. Cook everything at home, hold it in an insulated blanket or resting station, and serve it out of a prep tub. Pulled pork, wings, and anything taco-shaped all travel beautifully. In summary: Your tailgate checklist at a glance Here's the whole thing in one place. The best tailgate food is simple, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do any prep work. Prepping (cutting veggies, smoking meat, etc.) should mostly be done at home. The parking lot is where you cross the finish line, not where you start. The five things you can't skip: a portable grill with fuel you've actually checked, a prep tub to haul everything in one sealed container, grilling tools and mitts, an instant-read thermometer, and an insulated way to keep food hot. How much to make: about ½ pound of raw meat per person, or 4–6 wings each if wings are the main. Plan a little over, because people graze at a tailgate instead of eating one meal. What to cook: brats and burgers if you want easy, wings if you want a crowd-pleaser, anything taco-shaped if you prepped the night before. The number that matters most: 140°F. Keep your food above it the whole time it's sitting in the lot, and check with a thermometer instead of guessing. Do those five things and the rest is just picking a playlist!
What Temperature Should You Pull a Brisket At?
We can picture it now: You pulled your brisket from the smoker at what you thought was the perfect temperature. You let it rest for hours. Now, after all that time, you’re seconds away from getting to try it. And then you make the first cut, and it cracks open like a dry piece of wood before a bonfire. Or, worse, it resists the knife like rubber. Some people say there are a lot of ways to get to Rome. We say there are a lot of ways to smoke a brisket. Foil boat or full wrap, 180°F or 225°F, post oak or hickory or whatever's stacked by the garage, good pitmasters disagree about the details. (Ahem, see Exhibit A and Exhibit B). But one thing is close to universal: the way a brisket should feel when it's ready to come off the smoker so you can avoid the horror stories and cook a buttery-smooth brisket that pleases everyone around the table. So what temperature should you pull it at? Most briskets finish cooking somewhere between 200 and 205°F. If you came here for a number, that's the number. You'll notice that's well above the 145°F the USDA sets for whole cuts of beef. A brisket passes safe hours before it’s good to go, so the temperature you're chasing has nothing to do with whether it's cooked and everything to do with whether it's tender. Which is why making brisket is both an art, and a science. A brisket isn't finished when it reaches a number on the thermometer. It's finished when its collagen has broken down into gelatin, and that takes both heat and time. That's why the same number gives you different results on different cooks. A thicker flat, a leaner grade, a hotter smoker, a longer stall: all of it changes how much breakdown happened within the meat. So use 200°F as your cue to start paying attention, then put the thermometer down and use your hands. The probe test Grab a probe. An instant-read thermometer, a skewer, whatever's clean and thin. Slide it into the thickest part of the flat. If it's done, it should go in like warm butter. No resistance, no push, and the probe just disappears into the meat. If it's not, you'll feel a tightness, a slight grab, and you'll have to press even a little to get through. That "even a little" might mean the brisket needs another forty-five minutes. Give it more time. Three other ways a brisket tells you it's ready The probe is the test, but once you've cooked a few of these, you start picking up on the rest. It jiggles. Pick up a finished packer and the whole thing moves like it's barely holding itself together. A stiff brisket is a tough brisket. The bark is set. Deep, dark, dry to the touch. If you can smudge it with your thumb, it needs more time. It's well past the stall. If your brisket has been parked around 165°F for three hours without moving, you're in the stall and nowhere near done. Once it climbs out and the temp starts running again, you're in the last stretch. If you miss, miss late Pull too early and you get a brisket that's tough and chewy no matter how long you rest it. Pull too late and you get the dry, crumbling flat, where slices fall apart on the board instead of holding together. (Which isn’t ideal, but chopped brisket sandwiches are a legitimate joy and nobody at your table is going to file a complaint). So if you have to guess wrong, guess long. Then get it resting Pulling at the right moment only counts if you rest it properly afterward. Give a packer 1 to 2 hours minimum, and build in a four-hour cushion if your timeline allows. Wrap it with our Wrap EZ heavyweight butcher paper, get it into a Rest EZ® BBQ Blanket, and let the fibers relax and the juices settle back through the meat before a carving knife goes anywhere near it. (We wrote a whole guide on how to rest your meat after smoking, because it's the step that arguably matters as much as the cooking). You already waited this long. Another few hours won't kill you. Ready to Cook a Better Brisket? From the trim to the rest, Drip EZ gear takes the mess and the guesswork out of the longest cook in barbecue. Shop the Brisket Setup →
The 3-2-1 Method for Ribs, Explained
Ask the internet how to smoke ribs and you'll get the same three numbers back. Three hours of smoke, two hours wrapped, one hour sauced. It's the most-recommended rib method in barbecue, it's probably how you learned, and it's definitely how a lot of us learned. It also has a reputation problem, and you've likely heard that too. Somebody in a forum will tell you 3-2-1 makes mushy ribs that fall apart in the pan before they ever reach the plate. Somebody else will tell you it's the only method that's never failed them. They're both right, and the difference between them usually comes down to which ribs were on the grate. So here's what 3-2-1 actually does, who it's for, and how to know when you've outgrown it. So what is the 3-2-1 method? Kind of like us adults (you know… reaching our prime, hitting midlife, getting old), your ribs are going to go through three phases. Phase 1: Three hours, unwrapped. This is the smoke phase. The ribs sit naked on the grate taking on smoke and building bark, and your only job is to hold your temp and leave the lid alone. (If things look dry around hour two, a spritz of apple juice won't hurt anything.) Phase 2: Two hours, wrapped. Off the grate, into foil, with liquid. Apple juice, butter, brown sugar, honey, whatever your recipe calls for. This phase isn't smoking anymore, it's braising, and that trapped steam is what blows through the stall and makes your ribs tender. Phase 3: One hour, sauced and unwrapped. This last hour tightens the bark back up and sets the sauce into a sticky glaze instead of letting it slide off into the fire. It was built for spare ribs, not baby backs 3-2-1 was designed for spare ribs and St. Louis-cut racks, which are bigger, meatier, and fattier, with a lot more connective tissue to break down. Six hours is about right for them. Baby backs are leaner, smaller, and cook faster. If you put them on the full 3, 2, 1 schedule you'll get a rack that comes apart in the pan. So for baby backs, cut the foil phase in half. A full three hours of smoke, one hour in foil, one hour sauced keeps the bark you're building while getting the ribs out of the braise before they go soft. You'll also see 2-2-1 recommended, which takes the hour off the front instead. So is 3-2-1 the best way to cook ribs? It depends on the pitboss! This method, when done right, will help you land squarely in fall-off-the-bone territory. Most guests at a backyard cookout will tell you fall-off-the-bone ribs are the best ribs they've ever had. But competition judges don't favor fall-off-the-bone ribs and want more bite. What 3-2-1 gives you is consistency. So cook a few this way, then start adjusting. Other things to try Swap foil for butcher paper. Paper breathes where foil seals, so you keep far more of your bark. Our Wrap EZ heavyweight butcher paper is a good swap for this. Or just shorten the wrap. Ninety minutes instead of two hours, then an hour. You'll find your number faster than you'd think. Or skip the wrap entirely, if your ribs can take it. Our ambassador Erik Svendson's Iberico Baby Back Party Ribs never see foil, and that's a function of the pork, not a contradiction. Iberico is marbled enough that the fat bastes from the inside and does the wrap's job for it. Any one of those means you've stopped cooking to a clock, which means you need another way to know when they're done. How to tell when ribs are actually done Ribs are one of the few cuts where a thermometer won't help you much, which is why our resting guide lists them as "not temp-based." You're going by feel, same as you do with a brisket. (Speaking of which: here's how to know when to pull one of those.) The bend test. Pick the rack up with tongs about a third of the way down and let it hang. Done ribs bend to roughly a 45-degree angle and the surface cracks along the top. A rack that stays stiff needs more time. A rack that threatens to break in half has gone past bite and into fall-apart. The toothpick test. Slide a toothpick or a thin probe into the meat between two bones. Same feeling you're after with a brisket: it should go in like soft butter, with no grab. The pullback. Finished ribs have meat that's receded a quarter inch or so from the ends of the bones. Then let them rest (briefly) Ribs don't need the long rest a brisket does. Fifteen to thirty minutes is plenty, and a Rest EZ® BBQ Blanket will hold them right there while you get the sides finished and everybody to the table. Then pile them up, and hand somebody a napkin. Ready to Cook a Better Rack? Trim, season, and carry your ribs without redecorating the counter. Shop the Prep Tub →
How to Let Meat Rest After Smoking (And Why It's Worth the Wait)
Time has never crept by slower than when you’re waiting for your meat to finish resting after smoking. After all that work, you’re ready to dig into that first bite and declare that first “mmmm.” And if you’re cooking for a crowd, there’s no doubt your hungry guests are eager to do the same. But, from our family to yours, we beg you: don’t cut into your meat too early. The difference between resting and not resting your meat is enough to make the wait worth it. (Don’t believe us? Check out this video where one of our ambassadors, pitmaster Nick “Heatstroke” Keith, shows us the difference). So here’s how to rest your meat properly after smoking. What's happening while your meat rests? When you cook a large cut low and slow, you're doing two things at once: breaking down collagen into gelatin and driving moisture toward the center as the muscle fibers tighten. But when you cut into it right off the smoker, all of that moisture you’ve built up has nowhere to go but onto your cutting board. That’s why a big puddle spreading out from the first slice actually isn’t a good thing. It’s a sign that the moisture is leaving the meat. Give it time instead, and the fibers relax, the gelatin thickens as it cools, and the juice that got pushed to the center redistributes back through the whole cut, leaving you with tender, juicy perfection How to rest your meat after smoking (step by step) Step 1: Wrap it. Use butcher paper or foil (paper breathes a little and protects your bark, while foil holds more moisture and softens the bark). Neither is wrong; it's a texture preference. Step 2: Into the Resting Vessel. This is where some people mess up: they do the classic towel-and-cooler method. We get it: there are some die-hard pitmasters who swear by the classic towel-and-cooler resting method. But the problem with it is (aside from it stinking up both your laundry and cooler) that the temperature tends to drop too quickly this way. We’ve tested it, and so have expert barbecuers like Erik Svendson. That’s why, for the best results, the best pitmasters we know swear by the Rest EZ BBQ blanket. It slows heat loss instead of stopping it, which is exactly what you want: a slow, controlled temperature descent rather than meat that either goes too cold on the counter or keeps cooking in a hot cooler. “We built the blanket because I was tired of tying up a cooler and a stack of towels every single cook,” Drip EZ CEO and founder David Barton said. “There had to be a better way to do the one step everybody skips.” Step 3: Set it in a Prep Tub. Technically, this step is optional, but we do it every time. A prep tub makes it easier to move your meat-baby, now wrapped in its blanket, from the deck to the kitchen counter, and when it's sitting in something with sides, the walls help provide further insulation while the meat rests. Step 4: Set your timer. The bigger the cut, the bigger the resting window. For example, two hours should be the minimum for a packer brisket or a whole pork butt, but we recommend building in a four-hour cushion if you can afford it. Pro tip: Pull your meat off the heat source 3 to 5°F below your target temperature to prevent overcooking while it rests. Cut Rest Time Internal Temperature Burgers 2-3 minutes 160°F Steaks and Chops 5-10 minutes 130°F medium-rare / 140°F medium / 160°F well-done Chicken 10-15 minutes 165°F breast / 175°F thigh Pork Loin or Roast 15-20 minutes 140–145°F Ribs 15-30 minutes Not temp-based Tri-tip 20-30 minutes 130°F Whole Turkey or Large Poultry 30-45 minutes 160-165°F breast / 170-175°F thigh Brisket 1-2 hours minimum 200–205°F Pork Butt/Shoulder 2-5 hours 190-205°F pulled / 180-185°F sliced Please note: If you're holding for three or four hours, or resting two cuts at once, the Rest EZ 'Que Crib Meat Resting Station is a great upgrade to consider. It's a dedicated insulated resting station with locking latches and a heat-trapping interior, so it’s roomy enough for two XL Prep Tubs. One thing to watch: keep it above 140°F Remember: the USDA danger zone is 40°F to 140°F, which is the range where bacteria multiply quickly. Cooked meat shouldn't sit in that window for more than two hours total. A long rest is safe as long as your meat stays above 140°F the whole time. So if you're resting a brisket for four hours to feed a crowd, put a probe in it and actually watch the number. When the internal temp gets near 140°F, it's time to slice and serve. Then, finally, slice it Ahh, now the good part: time to slice and serve. Remember to cut against the grain. (If you need a good carving knife, check out this one). If you did the rest right, the cutting board should stay mostly clean, and the juice should stay in the meat. Enjoy! Ready to Rest Like a Pitmaster? The Rest EZ BBQ Blanket takes the guesswork out of the most overlooked step in barbecue. Insulated, heat-reflective, wide-mouth, and easy to wash. 🛒 Shop the Rest EZ BBQ Blanket →
7 Grilling Mistakes Beginners Make (And How to Stop Making Them)
Everyone who's good at grilling now was, at some point, standing over a grate full of chicken that was black outside and pink inside, wondering where it all went wrong. We've been there. Our founder has been there. The pitmaster you follow on Instagram has absolutely been there… they're just not posting about it. So here are the seven mistakes we see beginners (and, let’s face it, even experienced grillers) make most often. Fixing them will make you noticeably better by your next cookout. 1. You're not preheating long enough Throwing food on a lukewarm grate is the number one reason it sticks. Cold protein hits metal that hasn't come up to temperature and bonds to it, which is why half your burger stays on the grill when you flip it. The fix: Give a gas grill about 10 minutes before you cook. If you're on charcoal, let the coals go in a chimney starter for 15 to 20 minutes. Lid closed, the whole time. It feels like a long time to stand around doing nothing. Do it anyway. 2. You're cooking on last weekend's grate Old grease and burnt-on bits aren't seasoning, no matter what your uncle told you. They make food stick, they cause flare-ups, and they give everything a faint taste of whatever you cooked two weeks ago. The fix: Scrape the grate while it's warm, every single time. It takes thirty seconds. And if you're running a pellet grill, this is also your reminder that the drip bucket is not self-cleaning; a liner turns that particular chore into a ten-second job instead of the thing you keep not doing. 3. You've only got one heat zone This is the mistake that separates people who can grill burgers from people who can grill anything. If every burner is on high, or your coals are spread flat across the whole bottom, you have exactly one setting: full blast. That's fine for a thin burger, but it’s a disaster for a bone-in chicken thigh, which will char on the outside while staying raw at the bone. The fix: Bank your coals on one side, or run one side of a gas grill high and leave the other off. You end up with a sear zone and a finish zone, and you move food between them as it cooks. Two minutes of setup, and suddenly you can cook things that aren't flat burger patties. 4. You keep flipping meat and opening the lid Every time you lift that lid to check on things, you dump your heat and reset your cook. It's the grilling equivalent of opening the oven every four minutes to look at a cake. The lid isn't a lid, it's part of the cooking system. Closed, and your grill is an oven with a convection current. Open, and it's a campfire. The fix: Pick a number of times you're allowed to look and stick to it. And resist the urge to flip constantly while you're at it — barbecue legend Mike Mills says the two most common mistakes he sees are fires that run too hot and meat that gets turned too many times, because all that turning dries things out. Let it sit. Let it sear. It'll release from the grate on its own when it's ready. 5. You're saucing way too early You know that black, bitter, ashy crust that shows up on grilled chicken? That's not char. That's sugar that's been burning for twenty minutes. Sugar starts burning around 265°F, so if you sauce your chicken at the start of a 30-minute cook, the sauce caramelizes, then chars, then turns into a bitter mess long before the meat is actually done. The fix: Sauce only in the last 5 to 10 minutes. Long enough to get tacky and glossy, not long enough to burn. For the rest of the cook, get your flavor from a dry rub instead. DB's Original won't burn on you. 6. You're guessing instead of measuring Poking the meat and nodding is a party trick, not a doneness test. Color lies. Firmness lies. The little chart printed on the tongs lies. The fix: Buy an instant-read thermometer. They're cheap, they take two seconds, and they're the single fastest way to stop serving food that's either raw or ruined. (We keep a full temperature chart in our resting guide if you want the numbers in one place.) While you're at it: use tongs or a spatula, not a fork. Every time you stab a piece of meat, you're letting juice out. 7. You're not resting it You did everything right, and then you cut into it thirty seconds after it came off the grate, and now there's a puddle on your cutting board and a dry piece of meat on your plate. Resting isn't the cooldown; it’s the last step of the cook. The muscle fibers relax, and all that moisture that got driven toward the center redistributes back through the whole cut. The fix: If you're currently resting meat under a pile of pool towels in a beer cooler, the Rest EZ® BBQ Blanket was built specifically to retire that system. We wrote a whole guide on resting, because it's the step most people skip and the one that changes the most. If you do anything, do this Preheat all the way, scrape the grate, set more than one heat zone, leave the lid alone, sauce late, use a thermometer, and let it rest. Get those seven grilling mistakes right, and most of the other problems will sort themselves out. Now go make something good! Shop BBQ Essentials →
How to Smoke a Brisket: Tips and Tricks from a Pitmaster
Drip EZ ambassador @406_bbq breaks down his proven brisket tips and tricks — from the trim and low smoke to the foil boat method, probe test, and the rest that most people get wrong. Master your brisket cook with this step-by-step guide.
Red Wine Marinated Steak: How to Get Tender Steak Every Time
Let’s be honest—steak night hits different… until you see the price per pound. But here’s the move: stop chasing the most expensive cut and start cooking smarter. Because with the right technique (and a little red wine), you can turn a tougher, budget-friendly steak into something that eats like it came straight out of a steakhouse. This is how you level up steak night without blowing your grocery budget, thanks to @kandbcooking. The Problem: Tough Cuts, Tight Budgets We’ve all been there—standing in the meat aisle, debating if that ribeye is really worth it. Meanwhile, cheaper cuts like flank, sirloin, or chuck are sitting right there… but you already know the risk: Chewy texture Less flavor Easy to overcook So most people skip them. That’s the mistake. The Fix: A Red Wine Marinade That Does the Heavy Lifting A good marinade doesn’t just add flavor—it changes the structure of the meat. Red wine is doing three important things here: Tenderizing tougher muscle fibers Infusing deep, rich flavor Setting you up for a next-level pan sauce This isn’t just a soak. It’s strategy. Simple Red Wine Marinade 1 cup red wine 2–3 cloves garlic, crushed 2 tbsp olive oil Fresh herbs (rosemary or thyme) Salt + pepper Drop your steak in, coat it fully, and let it sit for at least 2–4 hours (overnight if you’ve got the time). Keep It Clean: One Tub, No Chaos Marinating, seasoning, transporting—it usually turns into a full kitchen mess. This is where the Drip EZ Jr Prep Tub earns its keep. Instead of juggling bowls, bags, and cutting boards, you’ve got everything happening in one place: Marinate directly in the tub Season without spillover Carry it straight to the grill No leaks. No cross-contamination. No extra dishes waiting for you after dinner. The Cook: High Heat, Hard Sear Pull your steak from the marinade and pat it dry (this matters—moisture kills a good sear). Then: Preheat your grill to high heat Sear 3–5 minutes per side (depending on thickness) Let the crust develop—don’t touch it too soon You’re building texture here. That crust is where the magic lives. Don’t Toss the Marinade (Seriously) Most people dump it. That’s wasted potential. Instead: Pour the leftover marinade into a saucepan Add beef broth Bring to a boil (this step is key for safety) Reduce it down Finish with a knob of butter What you get is a rich, velvety sauce that tastes like it came out of a restaurant kitchen—not your Tuesday night routine. The Most Underrated Step: Resting If you cut into your steak right off the grill, you’re throwing away juiciness. Resting lets the juices redistribute so they stay in the meat—not on your cutting board. Wrap your steak in the Drip EZ BBQ Blanket and let it sit for 5–10 minutes. It stays warm. It stays juicy. It eats better. Simple as that. The Takeaway: Smarter > More Expensive You don’t need a premium cut to get a premium result. You need: A marinade that works A process that’s dialed Tools that make it easier (and cleaner) That’s how you turn an everyday steak into something worth talking about.
Tips for Juicy Chicken Every Time (BBQ & Beyond)
If you’ve ever pulled chicken off the grill only to find it dry, chewy, or disappointing, you’re not alone. Getting perfectly juicy BBQ chicken comes down to a few simple techniques—and once you know them, you’ll never go back. Created by @kandbcooking, these tips will help you lock in moisture, boost flavor, and consistently nail tender, flavorful grilled chicken whether you’re cooking for a weeknight dinner or leveling up your backyard BBQ ideas.
