Are you a pitmaster?

[Enkidu]

Originally Posted by Arlin_MacRae

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?

[Fire_Mgmt]

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

[Arlin_MacRae]

Originally Posted by Enkidu

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

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

[tbutts]

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.

[BABYGOTBUTT]

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".

[Midnight Smoke]

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!

[que_dawg]

Originally Posted by bigabyte

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.

[landarc]

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.

[MilitantSquatter]

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.

[deepsouth]

i'd say i'm not a pitmaster.

[landarc]

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.

[farklf]

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

[BobM]

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

[MilitantSquatter]

Originally Posted by landarc

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.

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.

[Bluesman]

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