Are you a pitmaster?
 

I considers myself a novice. I only know anything about que because of the Brethren. I love to que but I have only begun to scratch the surface. So do you consider yourself a pitmaster? When was it that you became one and how. was it winning a competition or at some other point?

yes....

Absolutely. And I have the apron to prove it. :laugh: :heh:

Yes...

We all started (at one time) with an ignorant view what the definition of BBQ was...

Its a combined resultant of a few trains of thought;
1. Mastery of one's pit without electronic assistance.
2. Its the cook, not the cooker.

Boils down to one's skillset... and have learned, burned, and earned the foundation right here within this forum.

Good question.

I have become one with the pit.

So have I mastered the pit, or has the pit mastered me?

I guess I'm either a pitmaster or a pitbitch.

I guess it depends on your definition of pitmaster. If it's somebody that has mastered their pit(s) and can put out pretty good Q on a consistent basis.. then yes. :becky:

Am I a pitmaster? Couldn't say. I just know its my passion, obsession, and something I have to do!!!:-P

Yep, like others said...time and effort (I don't ever "practice") result in you putting out quality que and hence a "pitmaster". Will I be the next Aaron Franklin, Myron Mixon, or Dr. BBQ, nope...but I've learned a lot of the trade practices and put them to good use. Oh, and competing against those guys helps, too! :mrgreen:

Several things stand out when I meet real, honest to gosh, pitmasters:
1. They are usually humble - about all BUT their BBQ. :mrgreen:
2. They can cook quality que on a $79 Lowes ECB or a mega-thousand dollar, gold plated, eye-candy, powder coated rig: electric, gas, charcoal, pellet, chunks, chips, or sticks...if it involves heat and meat - they are "game on".
3. They won't usually tell you how bad your que is! :twisted: (got back to #1)
4. They are talented and the best are not "one trick ponies". Any meat, any time, any cooker, any day...
Those are my pitmaster heroes.

Couldn't have said it better myself.....

I wouldn't say I am, I just love to cook for myself and family over hot coals.

It's not a question I'm comfortable answering in the affirmative.

Plenty of guys on here could tell ya whether they think I am or not.

Harbormaster is indeed a pitmaster. Someday I wish to be more like him!:thumb:

Actually, I've never tried his food. I just wanted to be humble. He did send me a cool ass hat though!:cool: So that counts for something!

I consider myself more of a pitacolyte.

After 30 + years I consider my self a well seasoned apprentice, I learn something new with every cook.

To me a pitmaster is someone who can handle any piece of meat and any unexpected circumstance thrown at him or her and end up with great Q.

Does keeping Domino's Pizza on speed dial and ordering their BBQ Chicken pizza count?

I'm more of a pyro than anything else. 'cue is just icing on the cake!

Oops, did he say "phonemaster"? My bad! :laugh:

I don't think I would ever consider myself a pit master. I just have a passion for this great hobby we all love and want to keep learning and experimenting. I think I can produce some pretty good que but I strive to keep getting better and there is no better place to help make that happen than here with you brethren.

Master - Having or showing very great skill or proficiency

Pit - pit where wood or charcoal is burned to make a bed of hot coals suitable for barbecuing meat.

The problem with the above is, "great skill" is very subjective. I would say, competitions aside, if you are cooking que and it is truly being enjoyed by those whom you cook for than you are a "pitmaster".

I would have to say yes, thinking more so now since watching BBQ Pitmasters. I look like a Pro compared to a few of those cooks!

:doh::doh::doh::doh::doh::doh:

Yep, I am a pitmaster.

I feel comfortable with cooking, I have cooked on many different cookers, under many different circumstances, and have produced good food many different times. I have cooked over live fire for over 35 years now, I figure I know enough to call that title.

Am I done learning, nope. But, I think a true master of anything, understands that there is far more to learn, than there is already known.

I agree with a few others above... no matter how good you are, you never master it.

I sometimes correlate the art of pizza and BBQ.

pizza legend Chris Bianco said it best in an interview once:

"Chris Bianco: You never master it, I don't care how many lifetimes, and that's the beauty of it. You see, that's the slippery slope, where people say 'master this' - there's no master; you're in a relationship with something. That's what's really beautiful about it, it's always bigger than you. It needs you, you need it. There's no difference in any relationship. There's no mastering of it - you engage. You engage with it on a daily level. Take pizza, we have our objective, our intention, our medium. Our cooking medium, what we're able to work with: flour, water, condition, time, audience and what their expectations are, and what's our intention - and really being clear with that intention - and serving that intention and staying focused on it. It's very similar to music or sports in that way, where you stay focused on your mission and know that you might get better at something, but the minute you believe you've mastered it, it'll show you who's boss. I've had a beautiful relationship with flour, water, yeast, salt and the human experience.

i'd say i'm not a pitmaster.

Vinny, I love that statement, I have seen it before and it makes sense. But, in the sense that there is a master, an apprentice, a novice, the sentence lacks definition. It is not, for instance, like a relationship with a person, where there is true give and take.

Cooking allows for control of the elements that enter into each cook. While I cannot control everything, I can control my response to each situation, which allows me to create good food. This is Mastery, in the same sense that any craftsman is a master. Doesn't mean you are all knowing or all seeing, it just means you can get the job done more often than not. You can run the show.

I have some good days and some bad days. Still learning!

I'll be a pitmaster when other recognized pitmasters, who know a lot more than me and cook BBQ a lot better than me, start calling me one.

Until then I'm just a guy who loves to hang out, BBQ, eat and drink beer.

Bob

you nailed it here.. controlling the response to a situation as best possible and get it done more often than not (but not necessarily always) and I think that is in part was the quote was saying, just in his style.

I AM a PITMASTER........no one scratches em like me...........that's the topic right:oops:

I am the master of my pit. I think that I make good Q, and can usually handle any situation that arises. Do I have all of the answers? No, but I don't think anyone knows everything. I believe that if you are cooking good food for friends and family, you are the master of your pit.

Oh wait... but let's not forget about the legendary Pitmaster T.

he is the real deal.... just a freak of nature... I heard a rumor about him once that he just slapped a pork butt with his pimp hand and it got so hot, the bone pulled out and it was done....

:heh:

^^I heard that too Vinny.....and I believe it, Brother! The Funk is a strong force.

Am I a postmaster.... Not by a long shot! But love to cook anything on a grill or smoker for friends and family! Not a better feeling in the world than to watch people pig out on something I have cooked!

I'm workin' on it...:cool: I can cook on WSM's, BGE's, MAK's (Pellet Pooper), Gassers, Kettles, and UDS's...have yet to cook on a stick burner...:oops:

I cant say, I would like to leave that up to the people who enjoy my cooking.

Until I start being confident rather than nervous about the outcome when I start the fire, l'll never consider myself a pitmaster. Thanks in large part to the Brethren, I am becoming more proficient with my stickburner, WSMs, gasser, and charcoal grills. I think pitmaster is one of those revered titles that must be bestowed by others. (My sig pretty much sums it up.)

Part of me says no, I still have lots to learn. Part of me remembers that I know how many split logs it takes to get the SKD up to 225-250*, and when to move them around to crank the temps up to almost 300 for smoked chicken.

Im not even master of my own domain.

Like someone already stated, im a pyro, with a love for cooking, i love toys, tools, and smoked meat. Q combines all of this, keeps me busy, and pleases my small crowd.

It is my addiction, well, that and budweiser. See, life is good.

That wasn't his hand!

I'd have a hard time claiming the title because I'm always still learning, but I do feel that the term Pitmaster means that one not only know their specific pit, but that they understand the CONCEPT of cooking with fire and smoke and can adapt quickly to any circumstances.

In the relatively short time that I've had the BBQ addiction, I've personally cooked on an ECB, several UDS's, multiple Weber kettles, an upright stickburner, a Jambo, a CTO, kamado style cookers, WSMs, an Orion Cooker and a couple of other diffferent styles of stick burners. I've not done it all, but I truly believe that you could throw me a bag of coal or stack of wood, any smoker and a piece of meat and I could make it happen. Not to say I couldn't screw it up, but I just don't get too intimidated. I've cooked in all kinds of weather and have adapted.

So if the skill of adaptation and knowledge of the BBQ process is what it takes to be a pitmaster, then perhaps I am.



What I DO know is that my ribs beat out both Harbormaster and Chambers on a smoker that was NOT mine and both of THEM owned.

:becky::boxing::laugh:

I consider myself a pit-wrangler.

Lets face it, the fire does all the hard work. It has to sit there all day at 250-350* and not complain. It has to smoke for a couple hours straight, while we sit back and sip our Beam and Cokes and occasionally adjust the damper that controls how much the hot fella is allowed to breathe. Then when the Q is ready, we take it in, claim we made it :crazy:, eat it, then turn around and dump the ash that was once the mighty fire into the compost pile or the yard waste can. It takes a lot of wranglin' to get that fire to do all of that!! :thumb:

I don't know who you are. But I do know what the people want. If you are looking for credentials on paper, I can tell you I don't have many awards. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over many years of tending fires. Skills that make me a pitmaster to people like you. If you learn fire management, that'll be the jest of it all. I will not seek out recognition, I will not say I’am. But if you don't believe in your capabilities on a pit, I will say a pitmaster you are not, I will find a location, set up shop and the people will see the pitmaster I am. :heh:

Nope, because i can make pretty good brisket most of the time (but not everytime).

However, i might be a beermaster . . .

Got a cooking merit badge in Troop 188 Cobra Patrol back in '73, learned to stay warm without burning too much wood as a Ski bum, and cooked riverside for rafting groups on open flame and Dutch ovens in the 80's, but learned a lot in college cooking chickens, chickens and more chickens on a WGA my then girlfriend had back then.
It's more of a journey or voyage than a destination isn't it? Cooking low and slow on a UDS you built yourself? Making your own rubs and sauces?

Learning never ends...

So do you consider yourself a pitmaster? Probably to a degree, yes, but I pretty much learn something new most every day. Frankly, the more I know, the more I realize just how little I actually know.


When was it that you became one and how? Becoming one isn't like turning on a light switch; one minute it's off (your not a Pitmaster) and the next minute it's on (you are). Mastery is about bringing to bear knowledge and skill, which are learned over time, trial and with it comes ERROR, success and failure, and paying attention and learning from both those successes and failure. I started failing :-) back in the early 80's...


Was it winning a competition or at some other point? MANY a great BBQ Pitmaster has never competed. Competitions are for guys who enjoy games. Competitors who win know that it's about more than just being a BBQ Pitmaster, it's about understanding "the game" and competing in "the game", in addition to being a fan-damn-tastic BBQ cook and a Pitmaster.

This said above, I do think that the skills learned and brought forth that are needed to compete effectively and win can carry over when making BBQ for other people, whether in restaurants, catering, or in just preparing large meals for friends.

Up until March 2012, I considered myself a grillmaster. I could 'grill' burgers, dogs, steaks, chicken breasts, etc on my gas grill with the best of them.

I made several batches of pulled pork in the crock pot :icon_blush:

Since then (bought my WSM), I've learned a lot about BBQ'ing. Far from a pitmaster, but I learn lots from the pitmasters on here :idea:

If you turn out Q that is at all decent, your new best friends will all call you a pitmaster! :rolleyes:

More like a pitmaster wannabe. :wink:

I know my way around a smoker or Weber kettle and I generally get pretty good results. I don't have the courage to compete (I fear that the judges will not like what I like.) I get plenty of compliments from those I serve including some along the lines of 'best ever.' But I have to face the fact that many of these people have never had really good 'Q.

There are few restaurants that I can go to where the 'Q is better than mine, but that is more a reflection on the restaurants than my skills. I also realize that cooking for myself in my yard and cooking to serve the public in a restaurant are two entirely different things.

There are those who prepare better 'Q than mine for the trade or to win competitions and they are the true pitmasters. I have much to learn before I could even think of rubbing shoulders with them.

OK, I guess I'll actually make a serious reply for once, and not jsut joking around like normal.

I don't call myself a pitmaster, but if someone calls me that I don't correct them either. I just call myself a cooking enthusiast, with extreme outdoor cooking tendencies. Actually, I don't even call myself that, but if someone asks about any hobbies or whatever, I usually say something like "outdoor cooking enthusiast" and when they ask what that means I say "BBQ, grilling, campfire cooking, etc".

There are people out there who I looked up to when starting to cook, still look up to this day, and I still consider them to be the real pitmasters. In thatcase it's a respect thing.

There are also people out there whose cooking skills, outdoors or otherwise, that blow me away. I consider those in this vein who BBQ to be pitmasters as well, particularly comp cooks as the term fits them very well.

For me, I'm not particularly fond of the term when thinking how to describe myself. There are many reasons for that. Part of it is a separation between comp bbq, comp cooking, and non competitive cooking. I almost sort of liken the term to describe accomplished competition BBQ cooks. However, those who do not compete who can cook the absolute living bejeesus out of damn near anything at any given moment are equally deserving of the term "pitmaster" when their cooking is BBQ.

Another reason I'm not fond of the term is that since I associate the word "pitmaster" with "bbq", it clashes with the big time grey area of what I define as "bbq". I do not define BBQ as the four KCBS categories, or comp Q for any other organization. I do not consider it to be only smoked pig, beef or chicken either. For me, BBQ can be so much more, and I have strived to broaden my BBQ cooking horizons as far as I can. I do not want any limitations. Not everyone agrees with this though, and if I BBQ up some sort of SPAM Brownies or something (not something I'm proud of by the way), then I like to consider it "bbq", but not something most people would associate with a "pitmaster", nor do I think they should associate it that way.

It's even more complicated than all that, but in a nutshell, I simply don't like the concept of being confined to a definition by some word. Thus I do not call myself "pitmaster" because that automatically creates a boxed in definition in many peoples minds that I liekly do not fit into.

There aer some serious pitmasters out there though. They deserve to be called as such if they wish to be. Or at least called as such by those who wish to give them proper credit.