Store bought or not store bought.

Honestly......


Deep down......


Pulling hard on my heart strings.......


I feel farkin awsome winning with some one elses sauce!!!:clap:

I would think that most people that enter a profession barbecue competition are in it to win. I know I am, and will use the best products available to me to achieve that. I have won with a homemade sauce, a store bought sauce, and a combination of the two. It just really depends on what specific flavor profile I am looking for on any given week. The only difference to me is if I ever decide to market my sauce, I can claim it is "award winning." The prize money spends the same regardless of what sauce I've used.

Using the same sauce does not mean two turn ins are going to be at all the same.

How long did you cook it? On what gear? What rub are you using? Are you using more than one? When did you apply them? What did you inject it with? What temp did you cook it at? Did you wrap it, and when? Did you glaze? Did you rest it? How did you present it? What other flavors did you use?

Give two teams Blues Hog to use, and tell them to cook their standard programs. The results will not be the same.

We use a fair amount of commercial stuff, but most of the time it's blended with other products or combined with our own ingredients. It's still unique. Commerical rubs and sauces are just another ingredient. Currently, we only have 1 step on one meat that uses something right out of the bottle. Everything else is blended.

Many are cooking for "the money" as you state, but when part of your business/livelihood is mixed into the equation why not use tried and true products? To answer your question I'm cooking to do as good as I can and whatever can help me to do that I'm all for. Deep down inside it bothers me none. Am I working on my own sauces and rubs, yes. But in the mean time getting a better edge starting out can really help as opposed to waiting for a sauce/rub I make to finally hit the taste it needs to win.

These might not be the best analogies, but I tried to think of some things that may be somewhat similar to the point I think you are trying to make. Is a professional fisherman who does not use gear he made less skilled or less accomplished when he wins. Are great local restaurants who man buy bread locally from a great bakery, don't grown their own veggies or gets their chicken from a local farm they like to do business with not as good as someone who makes everything in house? Even if it greatly pleases their customers?

You asked. "Yes I know some of them make a ton of money and you can't argue with that but are you. Probably not." I don't think you can accurately make any assumption here without telling us what you define as "a ton of money". For some simply breaking even over the year could be considered being successful and from many teams I've talked with can be hard.

So all things being relative in the competition bbq world if you win what you spent during that year, that could be considered a ton of money. Especially for people looking for advertising/publicity they look at competing as part of their business whether it be a large restaurant or local catering company. If they spend $20-$30K (and probably way more for some) and make that back they would break even, which of course isn't a good business model, but if looked at as a marketing expense then they got all that exposure for "free". I put free in quotes because certainly a persons time needs to be factored in here and I can't calculate that for everyone.

A non loaded question......What is your goal with competition bbq? Just to compete for fun as a hobby/passion, or do you have a business tied into it as well?

Butt Rubb'n BBQ said:

Are you cooking for the money or the bragging rights?

Click to expand...

My wife would prefer that I give up BBQ contests and go back to gambling. She says it's a cheaper hobby.

Why reinvent the wheel? Some companies have spent a long time perfecting their commercial sauces, so why start from scratch? It doesn't mean that you are any less of a pitmaster.

Deep down inside I still feel good when I win using Sauce "A".. Deep down inside I still feel bad, and still blame myself when I get beat using Sauce "A"..

BBQ classes would last 30 seconds if people just sat there during that time, just to hear someone say "Sweet Baby Rays, now pay me $500"..

You will not grow as an accomplished, winning BBQ cook unless you realize it ain't a sauce contest.

we tried the homemade sauce route...the judges hated it. commercial sauce can be "doctored up" to make it your own.