Your definition of a Pitmaster

it aint rocket science!!

sliding_billy said:

Not sure if you are trying to be funny... I own a pellet pooper, and it is a tool in the arsenal along with the rest of the stuff I listed. Managing a fire is a matter of debate all by itself. Different sizes and types of smoker along with quality of cooker all require different amounts of fire management skill. I'll just stick to not liking the term pitmaster. I'm OK with being a cook, one that can do that on just about anything that makes heat.

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Trying to be but not succeeding. I don't have a problem with pellet cookers, hell my brisket method requires use of the oven. I do feel the only difference between a pitmaster and a cook is the fire management kinda, the pellet jab was just low hanging fruit. :boink:

Ron_L said:

You guys did pretty good. It took until the bottom of page 1 before someone decided to bash how others cook...

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Hey I have a reputation to maintain here, I'll wait until page 2 next time.

smoke ninja said:

Yea, but cooks control their heat with a knob. Pitmasters have to manage a fire. So if you own a pellet pooper I guess your just a cook.

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I tend to agree with this. And...before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I have a pellet pooper myself and love it. When I cook on my Treager, it is very much like cooking in an oven. Set it and forget it. I can put a butt in it in the morning and go to work. When I get home it's done. It is super easy and almost idiot proof. This is a huge plus, because I don't always have time to babysit a stick burner. When I think of a pitmaster, I think of the guy tending the fire throughout the cook.

That's just my two cents...Although it's not worth that much.:crazy:

In the old days there was a guy cooking meat over a fire in a pit in the ground or a guy shoveling hot coals from a secondary fire and placing and distributing them under the cooking surface, precisely where they needed to be to maintain the heat that he needed to cook the type of meat that he was cooking. He knew exactly what he needed to do to cook chicken, ribs, brisket, sausage and anything else that was on his menu and 99% of the time he also did it without a thermometer to tell him anything. He could tell by sight and by feel wether the fire was hot enough or the meat was cooked to the right doneness because it was second nature to him and it didn't require a lot of thought. That is a pit "MASTER" and they hardly exist today.:wink:
I think that we have a tendency to be a little too free with the term "Pit Master". I mean I feel like I know my way around an offset or a Weber Kettle pretty well but I know that I have a little ways to go before I can say that I'm a "Pit MASTER". I've seen cooks on the TV show with the words pit master in it's title who hyper ventilated because their Guru stopped working or they had to use a pit that didn't allow them to go to sleep for 8-9 hours without needing attention. Hardly anybody here on this forum or in any kitchen anywhere can say that they don't rely on something else to do part of the job for them when it comes to cooking BBQ. We talk all the time about the science behind building fires, the perfect way to mix wood and charcoal, what IT to cook something to and what pit temps are right for cooking certain things but that old timer that I described above never thought about any of that stuff, if it looked and felt right... it was right and if it didn't look or feel right to him... it wasn't.
While we're running around, getting the latest temp controller, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth pit and meat thermometers the real PIT MASTER has no idea what the pit temp is or what the IT of the meat is and the only "Guru" he's ever known about was the name of old timer who taught him, he just has a pit, a hot fire and some meat which he cooks to perfection and does so with the same ease that he takes to tie his shoes in the morning.
Maybe when we stop over thinking things or trying to reinvent the wheel and just learn to trust our own instincts we can one day fit in the category of Pit Master but until then we're just a bunch of okay BBQ cooks who happen to know how far away the Maverick gets a signal and what reverse flow is,... not that any of that is necessarily bad but IMO it does disqualify us from calling ourselves TRUE Pit Masters.:-D
I've posted this video a lot in the past and this probably won't be the last time either because I like it so much but watch what Ms Tootsie does at Snow's BBQ in Lexington Texas, this IMO is a Pit Master.:wink:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lryHCMyNwE"]Snow's BBQ (Texas Country Reporter) - YouTube[/ame]

A Pitmaster is a person who when given a meat can make that meat into a delicacy in a myriad of different BBq Styles by mastering any given apparatus (pit) in order to achieve desired results.

This means one one be a master of the Kansas City Brisket and Texas Styles Briskets with a Webber or Jambro...or... Oyler or UDS or even brick pit using coal or sticks.

I'm gonna Drive down to Snows and try some of that Tootsie meat here soon.

Old Bill, you just talked me into a road trip to Lexington Tx., good video.

A Pit Master is an individual who has mastered their particular source of contained flame for outdoor cooking. Most of us are striving for this title. There in lies the beauty of barbeque. It's about the journey and striving to constantly be better. A pitmaster can literally cook anything on a particular pit and get consistently great results every time. Hell before I get too close to mastering a pit I usually wind up getting another on for the challenge and fun.

As to gadgets I'll just say this. If you don't know what you are doing all the gadgets in the world won't make you a a better BBQer. Gadgets make things you already know how to do easier.

Good luck to all of us on this journey.

it is a complement. call someone a pitmaster and you are telling them you like their work. just like calling someone an artist. i'm sure even the great pitmasters feel a bit uneasy about adressing themselves as such.

BrotherInArms said:

It may not be rocket science, but it is a science in its own. If you dont use gadgets then you need to know how to manage your fire to produce good que. If you do you use gadgets then you must know still know how to manage your fire when the power goes out.

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Amen to that.

The first time I used my PartyQ, my temps were rock steady until they fell off a cliff. Turns out a blower will stoke the very very last of your coals until they burn out.

I don't reckon ,it carve in stone ,what your temp suppose to o be! Most people, read to many books and watch too many of those lame arse bbq show.

Do PIt Masters shave their pits ?

ME:becky:

Topic comes up frequently.
Kinda funny how folks get worked up over a word 8)

From my personal experience, cooking on a stick burner does not require any special skill or knowledge. My 10 y/o nephew ran my Bandera on sticks in 2006 overnight and we took 5th in Pork thanks to his efforts. Took me 15 minutes or so to teach him.

Heck, I am no rocket scientist and I learned stick burning in a heartbeat. No big deal! 8)

By the same token, I have had to re-learn pit management on the WSM and my 4 different pellet cookers to get stellar results. Each of them were different and required knowledge of how to cook BBQ to adapt.
Once again, no big deal.

If you know how to cook BBQ, the pit does not matter one little bit.

Being a "so called Pitmaster" is simply learning to cook on what equipment you have to produce outstanding BBQ.

I feel sorry for those with a narrower field of experience or an attitude that limits their knowledge.

TIM

Like oldbill and others have said. A true Pit Master is one who has complete knowledge of his fire burning pit. One that knows what changes to make in any condition whether it be wind, cold, hot, humid, day or night, to consistently make the best darn Q out there! However, it sure is nice to have certain technologies to make it easier. I sure don't have any problem making my food or pit look like a science experiment as long as quality Q comes from it!

in the skilled trade you start as an apprentice were you don't know **** from apple butter then one day you become competent and they call you a journeyman years later when journeyman look up to you they call you a master. apply to Q

I dislike the word. People call me "Chef" or "Pitmaster" and I always correct them and tell them I am just a cook. To me "Chef" denotes some formal training either via schooling or apprenticeship. "Pitmaster" is similar - I think of someone who Q's for a living (Franklin, APL, etc.) or someone who promotes themselves as an expert (Mixon, Flay, etc.). I'm just a guy who likes to cook. I can tend a fire. I like to experiment with seasonings and techniques. I enjoy watching people enjoy my food.

We have a restaurant here in New Orleans called Mr. Johnny's Poor-boys. Their slogan is "Even our failures are edible". That about sums up my cooking as well.

David
The Swine Spectator

Ole Tootsie in that video is a True PitMaster.

See my signature. :thumb: