I just found out how much wood a competition team goes through in a weekend

I was watching a behind the scenes video from the Memphis in May contest last year. One team captain said they burn through about 1,500 pounds of wood for a single brisket cook. That's over three quarters of a ton, just for one category. It made me think about how much we focus on rubs and sauces at home, but the sheer volume of fuel is a huge part of the pro game. It explains why so many teams use those massive offset trailers. Has anyone here cooked at that scale and have tips on managing that much fire?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancy81717d ago

Honestly that's just wasteful, most backyard setups could do the same job with a fraction of the wood.

josepha3217d ago

That's a whole tree for one brisket.

the_grace17d ago

Read an interview where a pitmaster said they split all that wood into three piles by size. Honestly, the key was keeping the tiny splits for getting the fire going, medium pieces for holding temp, and big logs for the overnight burn when you can't babysit it as much. Tbh just having it sorted like that saved them a ton of stress.