The pit master, Adam Perry Lang, does his smoking and roasting in a building down the block.

A true pit master never tells.

To reinforce the beer flavor, many pit masters will actually soak their wood chips in beer.

At Snow's, the pit master, Tootsie Tomanetz, prepares her meat hours before the place opens.

Brisket is the meat: pit masters stake their reputations on it.

The 63-year-old owner and pit master, Bobby Mueller, like his father before him, burns only native post oak in a pair of pits.

"That pit master is heroic," Jane said.

This shows that it has been cooked very slowly for a very long time - about eight hours, according to Parker Turner, one of the pit masters.

Mr. Callaghan, who has been the pit master at Blue Smoke since it opened in 2001, offered a test: "How about this," he said.

"This is the real fall classic," said Robert Richter, the team's pit master.