Have you ever had a brisket’s flat curl up on you during the cook or had the point end of it char up on you before the bark had really set? If so, you aren’t alone. That is not unusual but it is driven by one important element of the cook and that, my friends, is the heat. And that is what we are going to be talking about today. How to keep the heat consistent both in barbecue cooking and in our lives as men. 

BARBECUE HEAT

Ok, picture this and think back to when this has happened to you: you get your fire going and then you head back in to join a Zoom meeting and the meeting runs too long and by the time you can get back to the smoker, your fire has died out. OR, you’ve gotten your fire going and you go in to start cleaning up and then you come back out to find your cooking temp has jumped to 400 degrees. Sound familiar?

Well, it should because we are cooking with one of the most basic needs for cooking barbecue? The heat. And it has to be consistent heat! Whether you are cooking with pellets, charcoal, electric w/ chips, logs, direct or indirect, old school cinder block pits, converted propane tanks or even Santa Maria style…you are using and controlling heat to get the amazing product you want.

Well why do I need consistent heat? I mean, what difference does it make? Heat is heat right?

Not exactly.

First of all, it allows the meat to cook properly and evenly, which is what we are all going for. How do we get that? We get that by having consistent heat that allows the molecules to move at a consistent rate that 1) allow for the proper speed for evaporation of moisture 2) breakdown of fat throughout the meat without burning the outside and 3) allows the smoke ring and flavor profiles to set in.

Next, it allows for the seasonings, sauces, mops or glazes to set properly allowing the salts, sugars, pepper and other magical fairy dusts to dissolve and melt without burning or drying out the meat and forming the right bark and colors we love about barbecue. 

Sure, there are other points I can make here but I say the last important point I will make regarding consistent heat goes along with last week’s blog post where I talked about Lesson #9 which is “Planning and Prepping”. If you can cook at a consistent heat, this will allow you to properly plan your cook times. Why would you want to plan your cook times? Because if you are having people over at 5pm to eat at 5pm, then you don’t want your meat coming off of the smoker at 8pm. Noone will like you at that point! For instance, I have learned that if I cook pork butts at a consistent 275 degrees with me leaving the door closed and only spritzing at certain times, I know I can cook an 8-10 pound pork butt in 8 - 10 hours. So, I plan for that and I will start with plenty of time to hit that mark. And yes, I always give myself more time than that because I am always telling my wife that “barbecue takes as long as barbecue takes.” And that is a true, very true, statement. 

So if those are some of the things that happen when we have consistent heat, then what happens when we have inconsistent heat?

The first thing that comes to my mind with inconsistent heat is that it creates uneven internal temps in the meat. For example, I have a friend that has a smoker that has a 50 degree difference between the top of the smoker and the grate level of the smoker. He was smoking his first Thanksgiving turkey for his family on his new smoker and was so proud of the outcome until…the breast of the turkey was at temp and done but the bottom of the turkey was still raw and not ready to be served. It grossed everyone out and he was devastated.

Another issue that arises due to inconsistent heat is the length of time the meat is on the cooker. By having inconsistent heat, the meat stays on the cooker too long and dries out because it keeps going up and down in internal temperature. I’ve seen this a lot with chicken breasts. They go from 160 degrees back to 130 degrees because the fire drops and then they sit longer on the smoker because you have to bring them back up. And trust me, bringing chicken breasts back up when they’ve dropped that far and have dried out is annoying!

Earlier, I asked if you’ve ever had briskets curl up on you. With briskets, sometimes the point starts to curl up creating a “valley” or a “bowl” where moisture pools and doesn’t allow the bark to form in that bowl. This curl was created because the fire was inconsistent. It means the fire was probably pushed creating large spikes in the heat causing the briskets to get too hot too quickly. You don’t want that. There are some example pictures below that show you the effects of consistent and inconsistent heat.

PERSONAL HEAT

So how does this relate to our lives as men? I’m a person of faith, so this lesson is coming from this angle. However, some of you are not men of faith and that is fine because the principle still remains the same and is still just as important and vital to you as it is to me. So, just keep hanging with me here for a few minutes. The idea of consistent heat shows me how much we need a consistent relationship with God. We need consistent time with Him. I need consistent time with Him. We need consistent time reading His word. We need consistent conversation with him through prayer and listening. We need consistent reminding of who we are and how easy it is to forget and step back into our own ways.

What happens when we have consistent heat: learning, time and guidance from God?

1. We look at the world through His eyes, giving us more compassion for others.

2. We have a different understanding of love, and what it means to love others.

3. We have a better understanding and guidance for our role as husbands and fathers and how we are to be leading, loving and serving our families.

4. We have a different approach to life: a sense of joy, a calm and contentment because as Philippians 4:7 states “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Our responses, actions and intentionality in our relationships and communities will change and will be built on stronger foundations.

What happens when we don’t have this consistent heat?

1. We dry up, we lose our saltiness and we live in the desert (Psalm 1: 2-3)

2. We lose a sense of who we are and what our purpose is - we become a shell of ourselves

3. We become angry and selfish because we don’t live in the peace I just mentioned above.

4. We live with a scarcity mindset. There isn’t enough to go around so I gotta just get and get and keep and keep and not share because the pie isn’t big enough for everyone. Jesus says to look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields and know that if God provides for them, surely he will provide for us that love him. You guys, if He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, then I think I can trust him to provide enough for me AND for you.

5. And we forget our place in the home as husbands and fathers and we stop leading them. And this goes on beyond just our homes. We forget our place as leaders in the workplace. We forget how to be good employees, good friends and good neighbors.

Now, as I stated, you may not be a man of faith and you may not want to view this from a religious standpoint. And to you, I still say you need daily heat in the form of personal time and personal growth time through meditation, quiet time, journaling, reading positive content through articles, books and men’s websites. Whether it is from a place of faith or not, you have to refresh yourself daily in order to refresh and lead others properly. We will not experience the true, intentional transformation that we are after if we do not experience regular, consistent heat. I mean, even airlines get it right. What do they always say? Put your oxygen mask on first and then help others put their oxygen masks on.

One last thought here fellas; I know that having consistent heat does NOT rid us of the tough parts of life or that we won’t make mistakes or have hard times or face challenges. What I am saying is that by having a consistent heat: the way that you view your day, the way you view your families, the way you view your jobs, the way you view your passions, the way you view your struggles and the way you view your mistakes will be different than those around you. You will have a different approach to them. By letting consistent heat transform you, you will have an intentionality that will make all the difference with the connections and people you interact with.

TIP OF THE WEEK

This week’s tip of the week: I want to first ask you “what keeps you from having a regular, consistent heat or personal growth time?” For the majority of us, we will probably put “not enough time” in the day as our number one reason. And that probably stems from a lack of simplicity. And that, my friends, is this week’s tip. Keep it simple. How do you control the heat when cooking barbecue? It is generally by something simple like opening the fire box door or flipping a log over. The same is true in your personal growth. Start with something small and set a trigger for it. I’ve got all kinds of ideas you can do, but the easiest I can think of is something you already do but now you will focus on it. Set a timer on your phone for 1 minute and sit in silence while focusing on your breathing. Focus on the inhale and the exhale and clear your mind…for 1 minute. You can do this anywhere. And again, it is 1 minute. Do this once in the morning and once at night. You are lying if you tell me you do not have 2 minutes a day. If you really don’t, dang man, you gotta relax and loosen up your schedule! We should have a coaching call sometime to remedy that!

CALL TO ACTION

And as always, I want to make sure I end each episode with a call to action so that you can be thinking and taking action over the course of the next week. This week, I would like for you to do a couple of things for me:

1. Go out to your calendar right now and add a calendar event for Mon, Wed and Fri of this week for 2 one-minute focused breathing times. Michael Hyatt says “what gets scheduled gets done”. So schedule it and do it. If you are a beast and want to do more, add 15 minute thinking times or 15 minute reading or prayer times to the calendar. THE BIGGEST DEAL HERE IS TO DO IT!!! 

2. Please encourage your friends to listen and subscribe to this podcast show, and then give them these two links and encourage them to check them out: my 10 lessons infographic at https://www.lifearoundthepit.com/lessons_wins and then my new Barbecue Planning and Preparation Pack at https://www.lifearoundthepit.com/planandpreppack 

Remember: BBQ is known for being low and slow cooking that produces a fantastic reward. Life as a pitmaster is the same. You have to put in the low and slow efforts to produce the fantastic reward: a legacy of impact! Until next time: season some meat, start a fire, and make an impact!

IF YOU HAVE NOT LISTENED TO THIS WEEK'S PODCAST EPISODE, YOU CAN LISTEN TO AT PIT007

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