Why Burnt Finger Adopted FireBoard Drive

Our friends Jason and Megan Day at Burnt Finger BBQ have led an impressive career as professionals in the open-fire cooking realm. From their line of award-winning sauces, seasonings, and rubs, countless trophies, and awards for tasty smoked meat standards and creative side dishes (they won the Side Dish Grand Championship at this year’s American Royal World Series of Barbecue). In the media, you may have seen Megan has made multiple appearances on NBC’s Today Show and Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay,” “Chopped” (she won Grill Master Champion), and “BBQ Brawl,” to name a few. Most recently, the Days were featured on Michael Symon’s “BBQ USA,” a best-of-the-best showcase of BBQ superstars. Check out their full list of credits and achievements.

About a year ago, Jason started experimenting with using our Drive technology.  This involves attaching our Blower Drive 20CFM fan to Drive-ready FireBoards like the FireBoard 2 Drive or Pro.  This is essentially a PID system where you can pick a pit temperature, and the FireBoard will run our 20CFM fan to selectively stoke the coals of the fire to achieve your set temperature.  A bonus of the system is that the FireBoard App provides additional features allowing you to program your cook to your heart’s content, including smart settings like having your pit temperature drop to a holding temperature once the internal temperature of your meat has reached your desired doneness temperature.

Burnt Finger uses FireBoard Spark to ensure their entries are read to be judged.

Jason Day preheats his smoker the night before a competition day. This ensures that his pit is working properly and will be ready for him when he puts meat on in the wee hours of the morning. He wrote a FireBoard Drive program with the pit temperature below 200ºF so his water pan doesn’t boil dry during this warm-up period. This program increased the pit to his cooking temp closer to when he put his meat on. 

Jason Day assembling his turn-in box for the chicken category at this year’s American Royal.

Further, he’s found Predictive Analysis to be a valuable tool in competition to monitor the multiple entries he has to prepare simultaneously. Analyze on the FireBoard app will predict your cook’s finish time based on your smoker’s temperature and the internal temperature of your meat. Jason used this on more than one occasion where he had to “turn up the heat to make turn-in.”

Burnt Finger’s pit chart shows Jason’s start time at 8:37 pm. He held the temp at 200ºF so the water in his smoker’s water pan would not vaporize before he could put his meat on nearly eight hours later. The green represents the speed of the FireBoard Drive Blower.

Both Drive Programming and Analyze features have proven useful in the competition realm. However, Day cites these as bonus features to his initial interest in the extra data he has been able to collect for his production notes. With the additions of the Drive Blower, Day explained that the increased control of the fire allowed him to see the pit’s reaction to the set point changes. 

Burnt Finger has really taken to exploring and implementing the features we created for the FireBoard Drive.  While tools like Analyze and Drive programs are great on the competition circuit, they are equally helpful in creating that perfect cook at your house.

For FireBoard users interested in getting the most out of their products, use the FireBoard Knowledge Base for in-depth answers and detailed information for all things FireBoard.

A selection of Burnt Finger’s entries at the 2023 American Royal.

Team Burnt Finger brought home the prized Side Dish Grand Champion trophy and ribbons for Vegetable and Open Side dishes.