Watching BBQ Pitmasters and got a question

GMDGeek said:

Thus for in my experience I used a Charcoal/wood chunk burner, a pellet cooker, and now a pretty solid off-set wood burner I love the BBQ from my stick burner. But I also find very little difference using my pellet cook as long as I set it for an hour of "SMOKE" before moving the temp up.

It is more about the Pitmaster and less so the pit but a high quality pit of which ever preference will make an impact for sure.

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^ what he said. What the hell did he say????:thumb:

From a guy who proudly owns, cooks on, and competes using his VERY old Lang 84 RF offset:

While on the one hand I like the idea of an old-school-only back-to-basics as-level-a-playing-field-as-possible competition as possible, I reject the notion that GURU's and Stokers and set-it-and-forget-it smokers do anything other than give the cook some time to sleep. That time, IMHO, comes at a price, and that price is actually the quality of the BBQ. IMHO it's actually harder for the guys with the easier-to-operate equipment the superior quality BBQ that can be and is produced using an offset. The set-it-and-forget-it fans do get more sleep, but even that can come at a cost. I've seen a few of these go up in flames during the middle of the night; one darned near killed everyone sleeping... I've seen others lose all power and sit there cooling all night vs. cooking. I would suggest that it all comes at a price.

Me; it's all about the quality of the end product, and the ability to produce that end product consistently, and for me that's a well tuned, properly operated, RF offset. I dont envy the other guys at all. It's like the very first competition I RGC'd and only by 0.016 of a point to GC, and I did it using 2 Weber Silver 22's and a Brinkmann offset. Yeah, most of those guys had more sleep than I did, but they weren't smilin' nearly as big as I was at the end... Frankly, not for one moment did I feel as if I was at a disadvantage. If anything, they underestimated their competition.

That's a long winded B.S. laiden write-up to say: It's not the smoker; it's the cook.

Lake Dogs said:

It's not the smoker; it's the cook.

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^^^^This^^^^

There was one episode of Pitmaster's where the guy cooked on cinderblocks. IMHO he only lost because he had never competed before and had no idea how t make a box. His Q looked good to me.

I love my Klose, but I truly enjoy busting out the cinder blocks for our whole hog cooks. There's just something about tending a fire with a shovel...

eep:

Swine Spectator said:

^^^^This^^^^

There was one episode of Pitmaster's where the guy cooked on cinderblocks. IMHO he only lost because he had never competed before and had no idea how t make a box. His Q looked good to me.

I love my Klose, but I truly enjoy busting out the cinder blocks for our whole hog cooks. There's just something about tending a fire with a shovel...

eep:

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I agree, he lost on presentation. That was a good episode.

oldbill said:

Points well taken! You however, with the experience that you've gained now have the ability to cook under adverse circumstances and if the power goes out you and your Lang 60 will still be chugging along while the others grind to a halt! It's a little off topic but I often wonder what would happen if we ended up in a "Revolution" (the TV show) scenario? When the electric ranges in the houses won't work, refrigeration is out and the Gurus wont blow, guys like us with the stick burners will suddenly be the most popular and most in demand guys around! People would have to go back to cooking with fire and smoke curing meats to preserve them and you my friend would be the new "rock star" in your neighborhood. You would not only be cooking and curing meats for your friends and neighbors but you would also be the one that would teach them how to do it for themselves! Sadly enough, many of those people would be the guys that used to compete with multi thousand dollar rigs that run on electric power, who would suddenly find themselves stuck with large, expensive paper weights! ....This is all just stuff that I think about after having too many beers and too much time on my hands!:shocked::grin:

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Lol, yeah but if that scenario plays out, there are other things I am much more worried about than how to control fire temps to took a brisket for 12 hours. :grin:

Sean "Puffy" Coals said:

You mean boil to perfection, right?

Seriously tho, when someone asks me about the difference between real slow smoked bbq and a crockpot full of overcooked, disintegrated meat that's been soaking in cheap sauce all day, i compare it to pizza. I tell them to think of the best pizza they've ever had, compare it to a mass produced microwavable saucer of garbage and see which one they'd d choose.

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True, but pizza is like oral sex, if its good pizza its great, if its bad pizza, its still edible.

oldbill said:

There are going to be some stick burners that are more efficient than others due to design and the quality of the steel they're built from and there's nothing wrong with blowing air on a fire when it needs it but I think that there's a line being crossed when there is an electronic device that is literally controlling the pit for you. When one team is feeding a stick burner all night long while the neighboring team sets up their Guru to maintain their pit while they go to kick back at the Motel 6 it seems a little unfair to me! One thing to make clear is that no one here is saying that Gurus and insulated cookers are evil or should be banned, heck I wouldn't mind having a nice Pitmaker Vault or something one day with a Guru on it for myself! Who doesn't want that kind of efficiency and temp. control? The question is should those things be used in direct competition with the old fashioned stick burners that require constant attention and fire management? There should probably just be two different comps, one for the old fashioned ways and one for the new high tech ways.

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But is a 12,000 jambo REALLY the same thing as a regular "old school" cheap stick burner? At what point do you stop differentiating the easier to use equipment?

TailGateJoecom said:

But is a 12,000 jambo REALLY the same thing as a regular "old school" cheap stick burner? At what point do you stop differentiating the easier to use equipment?

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Well the Jambo does have an insulated firebox and is far more efficient than most or maybe all of the stick burners out there but at the end of the day it's still a stick burner. It won't consume as much fuel but you had better keep an eye on that fuel and feed it once in a while or that Jambo will stop cooking just like any other stick burner. An insulated cabinet smoker with a Guru on the other hand will go non stop for 12 hours or more, (as long as the electricity stays on) and do so with little or no help from the cook. Again, that is not a bad thing but is it right to compete against high maintenance stick burners with that stuff? Really though we're talking about a much bigger picture than just insulated cookers and Gurus. People are using commercially made injections that literally change the structure of the meat, making it into something that it's not and also something that can make people sick if too much is ingested. Wagyu beef is not only very expensive but also needs little help from a cook to be tender. My sister burns water when she cooks but she could probably prepare some melt in your mouth Wagyu! LOL! We could probably compile a list of concerns but really I think that we just need to step back and remind ourselves of what competition Q is all about! You take a tough, fatty piece of meat and make it into something amazing with YOUR cooking abilities and you are judged and compared with the other competitors who have done the same. The trend today however, is to take the emphasis away from the skills of the cook and to put it instead on who has the most effective chemicals, toys and bank account! The big competitive sports like basketball and football are very strict about fairness and equality. Every court or field is the same dimensions the baskets or uprights are at the same height and the balls are the same size everywhere you go to play. Competition Q is obviously not on the same level with football or basketball but the sport is on the rise and it will eventually be regulated more strictly and my guess is that many things that are allowed now will eventually become things of the past.

TailGateJoecom said:

Lol, yeah but if that scenario plays out, there are other things I am much more worried about than how to control fire temps to took a brisket for 12 hours. :grin:

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In a world without power, you'd better be able to preserve your food and the most basic way of doing that is with salt and smoke!:wink:

Ron_L said:

The use of electronic controls on smokers is about as contentious as the use of foil, fat cap up or down or using galvanized metals :-D

As I read through this thread I noticed a couple of things that always come up and always bug me. Yes, I use a pellet smoker, and I have a fan controller for my Backwoods. BUT... a lot of folks seem to assume that just because folks use these devices or types of smokers that means that they don't know how to cook without it. That's a generalization, and most generalizations are generally wrong. Most guys who have chosen to use a pellet smoker or add a fan controller to their existing smoker have cooked on other smokers in the past and are comfortable with those methods. I've cooked on just about every kind of smoker out there and have done the 2AM shift feeding sticks into an offset. I chose to use a pellet smoker because I like the result and I need my beauty sleep :-D. That doesn't make me any less of a pitmaster.

...

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Beauty sleep? You're gonna have to go all Rip Van Winkle! :bolt:

Seriously though - People should cook on whatever they wanna cook on. It's about the result you get. I prefer burning sticks, but don't always have time to do it, which is why I have a UDS and an insulated cabinet as well. I tend to shy away from using devices because I don't want to become dependent on them, but I don't see anything wrong with using them to save time and effort.

I often catch myself thinking doing stuff the hard way is the "better" way, but that's not always the case. My goal is to be able to cook anything anywhere under any circumstances, and any way you get to a delicious meal is OK by me.

Now - when it comes to taking shortcuts and sacrificing quality - even a little bit - I do have a problem with that - big time.