The Biscuit Test

One of the main components of producing great BBQ is consistency in cooking temperature.It is said that every smoker will have it’s own way of “breathing.”   Somewhat like learning the nuances of a new car, you’ll find that once you learn your smoker you’ll be producing high quality meals every time.

Gauges, of course, are a great way to monitor your cooking temperature.  But a temperature gauge only tells part of the story.  Thermometers and gauges only read temperature at certain locations so it’s difficult to know how the intensity of the fire is being distributed across the cooking surface.

Turns out there is an easy, quick, way to find out how the heat is distributed across the surface.  This method has been passed down by BBQ enthusiasts for years. As you might have guessed, it’s called the biscuit test.

Scott Tomaier of Wicked BBQ came across a blog about the biscuit test. He remembered reading that a pit master would run a batch of biscuits to check how even the heat is across a given pit before using one.  So Scott decided to give it a try himself on his Yoder Smokers YS640 and recorded the process. 

You can see the results in the video below. View here