I tell you what Dallas. Let's leave that Geer and FE100 home and make everyone really equal. Let's cook on a hole in the ground with some metal thrown over it.
Come on Man:roll:
I'll cook on anything you can throw at me. That's why I have one of each. I enjoy learning how to cook on every conceivable type of cooker. I started out years ago with one of those little grills I saw advertised on a TV infomercial that used newspaper as fuel. Now for full disclosure we also have a Weber Summit grill at home. I don't use it much, wife loves it. It even has one of those little smoker boxes where you can add wood chips or pellets to get some smoke flavor but I wouldn't call anything that comes off of it BBQ.
One of the duties that I all feel we should do as BBQ Ambassadors is to help preserve the heritage of BBQ, which is cooking tough cuts of meat at low and slow temperatures over a wood fire. To allow gassers in a BBQ competition is a perversion of that. People already don't know the distinction between BBQ and grilling and if you throw gas into the mixture it will only perpetuate that myth. Judging solely by the final product when the final product is not authentic should not be rewarded. I'm sick and tired of PC all inclusive, kumbaya giberish! It's a BBQ copetition for God's sake and the use of gas in such is not a line I'm willing to cross. For those of you that want to include them, start your own BBQ society and allow them. I don't think you'll see any increase in attendance at competitions and you'll lose a lot of the mystique.
As far as the use of FEC's and other electronic devices as long as the are cooking with wood I don't have a problem with them and they are legal in the circuit that I cook in (KCBS). I've used them and have done well with them but in then end get more satisfaction out of using an offset. I cook all categories by myself and yes it is harder to do but I enjoy it. Are FEC's easier, in my opinion yes, without a doubt but I do get some satisfaction at tending a fire so I do it the hard way. Should I get degree of difficulty points for doing so, absolutely not. Judge the final product and give the cooks choice as to what sort of equipment to use as long as they are cooking over a wood source for heat.
Now if I were BBQ commissioner whose task was to preserve the heritage of BBQ, I'd make a few changes. I'd like to see cooks use tough cooks of meat (no Kobe or Wagu), I'd like to see cooks cook low and slow rather than use power cooking methodology. But I am not the BBQ commissioner so I'll play with the rules as they are and take my chances, but I will not compromise on the basic notion that BBQ requires cooking with wood or a wood product as the heat source. You've got to draw the line somewhere.
:twisted:
