Local BBQ comp: Reflections and take aways

[jjdbike]

Hello fellow pit masters,

My friend and I were excited to visit a local BQ comp. It was a local amateur, fund raiser, so the stakes weren't very high. We paid $10 online for all you could sample from 10 - 2. I was surprised to see no off sets, a lot of Treagar Timberlines and several Rectecs. There were a couple Webers and barrels. The food, most was mediocre average back yard cookout quality. Noting special, some was bad, dry, overcooked, over or under seasoned. Two were standouts. Not surprisingly, these were professional operations that ran mobile catering and pop-ups. Their meat was perfectly done, highly seasoned, each with unique specialty profiles. One was Georgia style that used peach bourbon glass for the chicken and vinegar mustard for their ribs. The other was a Tex-Mex that had an amazing brisket chili and street elote w/ a BBQ seasoning profile. Everything both served were outstanding. The thing that struck me was unlike everyone else, they were not using pellet cookers. They were using combinations of barrel smokers and Weber kettles. The Text-Mex operation was slow soaking his ribs in the barrel and finishing them on the grill and getting beautiful color and a nice slight grill char, Then wrapped and into the Cambro.

The pellet cookers were big, beautiful, fancy w/ digital electronic temp control and probes etc.. Made my little Traegar Costco special look like an EZ-bake oven.
In reflection I have three big takeaways:

1st, One big challenge was they were serving everything for 4 hours. Much different from a "turn in time". More like a restaurant, or food truck. I don't even do that in by home BBQ,s. One service, one last chance at seconds, then everything gets wrapped up and put away to maintain quality and safety for leftovers.

2nd, Leaning towards highly seasoned, w/ unique flair, and if anything slightly undercooked made their food flavorful, moist and juicy, as opposed to mediocre, dry and overcooked.

3rd, Thing I noticed, both of the stand outs did not use pellet cookers. I asked the Tex-Mex guy about it, He said he usually brings his big offset but he knew that space would be limited. Is this a coincidence that the best food was from a live fire/ real wood and charcoal vs electronic controlled pellets?

4th More of a question than a notice.... Do those big fancy Cadillac versions of pellet cookers make food any better than my little Costco Traeger? I try to use my stick burner KBQ or a kettle, previously a plain Jane Weber, just upgraded to the SnS Master Kettle w/ the upgrades when ever I have the time and energy. On the other hand, the pellet cooker is so plug and play easy peasy convenient that sometimes es it's either that or cook inside in the oven, range, or slow cooker.

One final after-thought... the two stand outs are real personalities. They made it clear that they loved people and loved cooking. They made you fell like you were hanging out w/ friends in their back yard having a party. Everyone was smiling laughing and actively enjoying their food. Compared to most of the mediocre operations that were like flat, what do you want, here's your food. Great BBQ seems to be about love and passion for food and people.

Your thoughts?

JD

[Jerod Broussard]

Sounds like you had two actual cook teams and the rest were AI.

[Mosca]

More of a question than a notice.... Do those big fancy Cadillac versions of pellet cookers make food any better than my little Costco Traeger?

I’ve thought a lot about this, actually. I’m not saying I have a scientific answer, but I do have some seat of the pants reasoning that makes me think, no. They cook more food, but they don’t cook it differently, so they don’t cook it better.

My thinking is that you have a small box that is trapping smoke and vapors from a fuel source that is the same in each instance. The fuel is the same, the temperatures are the same. The volume is different, but by how much? Double? Ok, let’s say double. But then the amount of fuel used has to increase, to compensate for keeping a constant heat on twice the volume. Which is going to keep the smoke concentration the same. So the food is going to taste the same.

Flip the question. Do you think the professional pitmasters could take your Costco Traeger and make the exact same food? My guess is, of course! Ergo, the cookers work the same way, using the same principles, and are not responsible for any difference in taste.

Obviously this is not a definitive, scientific answer, but rather a hypothesis developed from thinking it through. Rather than run the experiment myself, I’ll just go back to my basic question: How does it taste? If it tastes good, then it is good, and there’s no need to run the experiment.

[bbqLuv]

It's the cook not the cooker.
Why do I say that? Because in can ruin anything with my Traeger.

[Oak Smoke]

I’ve observed that most competitive events start out about skills. As the competition matures there are several people at the top with great skill levels. That’s when it becomes an equipment competition. Who has the best stuff, which usually is the most expensive. I’ve seen it in three different shooting sports, bass fishing, and bbq competitions.

[jjdbike]

I’ve thought a lot about this, actually. I’m not saying I have a scientific answer, but I do have some seat of the pants reasoning that makes me think, no. They cook more food, but they don’t cook it differently, so they don’t cook it better.

My thinking is that you have a small box that is trapping smoke and vapors from a fuel source that is the same in each instance. The fuel is the same, the temperatures are the same. The volume is different, but by how much? Double? Ok, let’s say double. But then the amount of fuel used has to increase, to compensate for keeping a constant heat on twice the volume. Which is going to keep the smoke concentration the same. So the food is going to taste the same.

Flip the question. Do you think the professional pitmasters could take your Costco Traeger and make the exact same food? My guess is, of course! Ergo, the cookers work the same way, using the same principles, and are not responsible for any difference in taste.

Obviously this is not a definitive, scientific answer, but rather a hypothesis developed from thinking it through. Rather than run the experiment myself, I’ll just go back to my basic question: How does it taste? If it tastes good, then it is good, and there’s no need to run the experiment.

Thanks Mosca

Sounds like great reasoning to me. You helped talk me down from wanting to spend money I shouldn't on another cooker I don't need.

One argument, or rather explanation based on experemantation with moistness of meat and humidity inside a cooker. They addressed that a smoker full of meat is way more humid than any water pan or manipulating air flow can. Therefore, a commercial operation or larger output situation is able to produce a more moist product.

They implied that this may contribute to the quality presented by BBQ joints vs home Q.

JD

[Mosca]

Hmmm. But you are using a smaller cooking chamber for a smaller amount of meat, right? So things should scale.

And anyhow, I’m not sure their reasoning is correct. They are probably getting a more humid environment, and that is what is making the product better, but they might not know why or how; just that what they’re doing works. Humidity is humidity, it doesn’t know where it is coming from. I’d need my mind changed on that one.

[Mosca]

Thanks Mosca

Sounds like great reasoning to me. You helped talk me down from wanting to spend money I shouldn't on another cooker I don't need.JD

Oh, wow! I actually started writing about THAT, too, and erased a couple paragraphs before posting what I did!

I believe that the goal is to get the very best tasting food out of the tools that you have, and unless you’ve already reached the limit and are still not satisfied you shouldn’t buy another tool. Every one of us has everything we already need. Q was originally a hole in the ground lined with bricks.

Bob Hall, the father of the Miata, had a famous saying: “If you can’t go fast with 90 horsepower, then 900 won’t help you.” It’s cars, not Q, but I believe that the analogy is accurate. He meant that you need to learn the basics: brake later, learn your lines, carry momentum through corners, transfer weight, keep the engine in its power band. Look ahead, don’t get jammed by slower traffic. You might find that 90 horsepower is plenty. (My friend Iva embarrasses Corvettes in her stock ‘99 Miata. That woman knows how to RACE.)

Same with Q. Use the tool you have until it gives you what you want. It’s in there, you just need to unlock it. After all, a hell of a lot of truly execrable bbq is produced daily in professional restaurants with $10,000 smokers. I know, I’ve eaten it. If you can’t go fast with 90 horsepower….

You cannot believe the number of times I’ve looked at and priced Komodo Kamados, and before I hit order thought to myself, “You’re buying the appearance, and the cachet. The food will taste exactly the same as it does from the BGE.” That’ll back you off spending $5000 awfully fast.

[Richard Chrz]

Originally stated by jjdbike “One final after-thought... the two stand outs are real personalities. They made it clear that they loved people and loved cooking. They made you fell like you were hanging out w/ friends in their back yard having a party. Everyone was smiling laughing and actively enjoying their food. Compared to most of the mediocre operations that were like flat, what do you want, here's your food. Great BBQ seems to be about love and passion for food and people.”

——————————-

This is the key! If you’re not having fun, and enjoying this, why are you there? It’s the only advice i ever give someone on comps, plan to go have the most fun, and excute that plan, dance, chat, talk, act like you actually enjoy this.

[tstalafuse]

I do KCBS and small fund raiser type events in CO. The fund raiser with extended feed time means hot plates or chaffing dishes for safe food handling required by the local heath inspector, which can mean over cooked/dry food. It doesn’t surprise me the food truck participants have it down to not putting out a bad product since they do it every day.

A lot of the teams at KCBS are using pellet smokers and winning, but they aren’t the couple hundred dollar Pit Boss or Traegars, so I would say the high end ones do put out a better product/result for whatever reason.

The number of traditional offsets seems to be fewer and fewer as the years have gone by. The ones I do see are not mass produced , but more semi-custom to full custom builds. I would include in this category the high end charcoal gravity style.

The vast majority are using some type of barrel cookers (most are PBC).

KCBS doesn’t allow open fire/flame type cookers, and I have never seen a KBQ being used. My limited understanding is they are classified as open flame/fire that aren’t allowed, but maybe someone who is a KCBS Rep can verify that or not. I just have never seen one in comp despite how much they are loved, so I am assuming that to be true.