Steak Bootcamp, Mason-Dixon BBQ Supply 07/11/2026

[Mosca]

WI Bubba said “meat sweats”. Many people said meat sweats yesterday.

I can’t say enough about this one, the way it is thought out and organized. Eric and his team are prepped and ready, the logistics for putting the information and instruction are in place, and everything worked out beautifully.

The class is all day. Everyone gets the necessary tools: a knife, a stick thermometer, gloves, a tray, and a towel. The setup starts around 7:15, with team breakfast making. This was simple: some sort of tortilla egg cheese veggie thing, a French toast sandwich thing, biscuits and gravy, and fruit. I skipped the French toast and the fruit.



Eric gives the ground rules for participation while we eat: No politics, don’t get too drunk, don’t cut yourself, don’t act like an asshole, have fun, if you cut yourself tell somebody, etc. By the time he’s done, the meat guys are ready. And they take that half a cow and cut it up right there, talking about it, explaining what they’re doing and why, answering questions, and the farmer (the guy in the gray shirt, I forget his name) talks about raising the cows, how he decides what to breed and feed, explaining why, answering questions, etc. I’ll just do a photo dump.




At which point they asked if anyone wanted to come up and trim a tenderloin, and of course I volunteered.




This is going to go on for a while. It was a long class.

[Mosca]

We broke up into six groups of four people each, and the class rotated through different stations. This way, with two instructors at each station, everyone got up close and personal instruction. The stations were:

1) picanha
2) flank steak pinwheels
3) tomahawks
4) tri-tips
5) ribeyes
6) miscellaneous/rest

Station 6 was set up inside the building to provide snacks during the day. Work there was less focused on instruction, and more on prep. It was basically 20 minutes of work in a 90 minute window, so it served as a break. Like a bye week. Every team prepped a different dish.

Our team started at station 2, flank steak pinwheels. We were given an instruction sheet and a tray with all the ingredients: a flank steak, pickled onions, sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, spinach, provolone, and Genoa salami. We prepped, rolled, and then did the roll on a flat top.

We started with pounding, but then decided to butterfly and make a big and a small.



I forgot to take shots of them on the flat top. Temp was set at 400°, and we rotated them 90° every 5 minutes. These were really good, ours came out on the rare side. These teams that followed took the pinwheels and touched them up after slicing them.



We all had a sample, then split what was left. I had a cooler full of ice in the car, and after every station I bagged mine and put it on ice.

[Mosca]

Tomahawks. Oh, my goodness.

Tomahawks and tri-tips involved pre-preparation, and the way the guys handled it was really ingenious! We started our cook by prepping the meat for the next team’s cook, and they did the same, etc. so everyone did a prep, just not for their own.

Salt it like you mean it!



Then into the cooker at 300°, until it hit internal of about 105°,




Then directly over the fire until an internal of 125° (there WILL be carryover, as you will see),




Hehe.




Sybil did the honors of showing it off!




I’d say this one tasted the best, but really they all tasted incredible. This one was the most fun. You pay extra for the tomahawk, but the fun is worth it!

[Panhead John]

Damn! Great post and pics Tom!

[DTro]

That looks like so much fun!!!

[Mosca]

Sid P It’s an Old Country, but I don’t know which one.

[Mosca]

At this point, station 6 passed out the first bites of the day: beef cheek mini burritos. Freakin’ excellent.

[SheilaAnn]

Beef cheeks!!

[Mosca]

We moved on to tri-tips. We marinated the next group’s steak, and injected our own. We also made a dipping sauce, from sour cream, some horseradish mustard, and SPG rub.




I’m not real big on injecting, but here I think it’s 6 vs half a dozen. You can marinate overnight, or you can marinate an hour and inject. It’s going to come out the same.

Over the fire. I forget the temp, it will be in the email we get later and I’ll edit it in. Mark checks the temp:




We pulled this one a little later, between medium and medium rare. Because it’s a tri-tip, we paid attention to the grain as we sliced.





Chuck does the honors:





Sybil shows off the tenderness:



And there is some serious yield from a tri-tip. Don’t sell this short, a tri-tip will feed four.

[bbqLuv]

Looking GOOD, What a class!
Thanks for sharing this

[Mosca]

Second sampling from station 6: the tenderloin pinwheels! I did the prep on the roast, but didn’t do the cook so I don’t know what it was stuffed with. I’ll have to wait for the email. But the process is the same as for the flank steaks.

[Mosca]

We moved on to the ribeyes. Marvin is an SCA competitor and judge, but we didn’t do competition steaks; rather, we took some of the techniques used in competitions that would transfer well to home cooks: the cutting, trimming, shaping, and timing.

We started with a boneless rib roast, and used the knife blade to measure consistent thicknesses. We then trimmed and shaped the steaks.




We discussed the benefits of mixing seasonings vs single, then seasoned. Then onto the fire at 550°. 2 minutes, move, 2 minutes, flip, 2 minutes, move, then start checking internal. Pull at 125° to allow carryover to 130° for medium rare.





I think I’m going to say, NAILED IT.

[Mosca]

The next tray arrived from station 6: cubes of seasoned beef rib.

[Mosca]

It was our turn to rest. And, all of the nibbles for the day were done. Other groups had made dirty corn, mac & cheese, and peach cobbler; I didn’t snap any pix. But they were all excellent, especially the cobbler. But there was nothing left to make, so Mark, Sybil, Chuck, and I sat around talking and chilling out. I’ll get recipes for those in the emails.

[Mosca]

We finished up with picanha. I’ve never made this before, but I’m going to start making it! A lot of folks said it was the star of the day; not because it was the best tasting, but because it was so much better than they expected!


Sybil and I made the chimichurri while Mark and Chuck trimmed and skewered the picanha.




Over the fire at high heat, I think it was 550° but I’ll have to wait for the email.



Pulled at what we thought was about 130°. It was the end of the day, everyone was tired. When temping these, you can’t touch the skewer, and you can’t hit in the fold, and each one was a different size. We did what folks do in that situation: we shrugged our shoulders and guessed.



One of them was kinda rare! So we did what you do in that situation: we put it on for a couple more minutes.


Like the tri-tip, there’s a lot of yield on a picanha. One of these will easily feed 4.

[Mosca]

That was it. I was beat. Everyone was beat! But I was happy. Everyone was happy! There were no horror stories that I heard, no cuts, everyone’s cooks came out really well. At the end, there was a lot of meat left uncooked, cuts from the half cow that didn’t get used. I grabbed a couple strip steaks, a sirloin roast, and a sirloin tip (top round):



I’m going to take that top round and make pit beef, I think.


And my take from what we cooked. This will become different kinds of steak tacos. Of course.

[Mosca]

Thanks for following along. If you live anywhere near this place, you should do this… actually, there were folks from Texas, Missouri, and California. The word is spreading on MDBBS.

[dpearce]

Nice write up, Tom! This looks like a really good experience. Maybe something I could get over to, and learn a few techniques at the same time.

thanks for putting all this together!

[Sid P]

Thanks Tom, that looks like a really great day.