The Pitmaster Oath.
500 briskets, that's the number I figured when I was a kid. 500 briskets and you could consider yourself a legitimate pitmaster. You need them for experience. To develop leather skin. So I got started. Of course along the way you stop thinking about being tough and all that. It stops being the point. You get past the silliness of it all. But then, after, you realize that's what you are.
