Yesterday was the cutoff date for submissions of videos for BBQ Pitmasters Season 3 !

The competition is really heating up for a spot on the hit show. Lots of great audition tapes posted to Youtube and Vimeo. Some are new faces and some are people you may have just seen before. Good Smoking Luck to all who applied!!

BBQ Pitmasters 2012 from chris hart on Vimeo.

Pitmaster’s Audition from Bourbon Barrel BBQ on Vimeo.

Rod Gray Pitmasters Audition from Scott Jolley on Vimeo.

Here are a few forms I use for each and every competition

Diva Q Cook Log 2012

Diva Q Competition Checklist 2012

Here are some helpful tips to get you started as a competition team. Remember Having fun is a big part of it but planning it can make it a whole lot better.

Practical tips & advice for new competition BBQ teams

• Practice

Keep practicing until you get completely comfortable within competition timelines. Practice until you are sick of eating bbq. When you practice at home follow the same timelines as a real competition. Set up like you would a real competition (no running back into the house).

• Analyze

Ask your friends to critique your food. Ask them to rate it just like at a competition. Give them score cards. After a competition analyze your scores. Find out what the judges didn’t like. It’s not personal. It’s just competition. Learn from it.

• Good Notes are worth their weight in gold

At every contest and for every test cook keep notes and take lots of pictures. In addition your expenses should be tracked as well. How much you spend on all of the items you need and what it cost to get there. Be practical. You can’t do every contest (unless you are a millionaire) so pick and choose carefully based on your income and comfort level in spending money on a hobby.

Things to take note of:

Temperature outside, and inside your grill

Humidity levels

Placement on the grill

Holding times

Rubs

Sauces

Finishing glazes

Presentation

Cooking times

Wind direction

• Change one thing at a time.

When making changes to your flavor profiles, cooking temperature or any other competition change – only change one thing at a time. Measure the results and adjust accordingly. If you change too much you don’t know what you are measuring.

• Clean as you go.

When you finish a turn in clean up and set up again for the next category. Don’t leave this till the last minute. A clean and de-cluttered competition table makes for an easier environment to work in.

For easier cleanup I like to use Smoky Mountain Smokers Disposable Cutting Boards- they make cleanup  lot easier and there is much less chance for cross contamination.

• Consistency  Consistency  Consistency

Set up the same at every contest. Set your grills up, your tables up even the drink coolers in the same location. Do things on schedule at the same time. You should plan what you are doing every hour of the contest. Saves valuable time when it comes to turn in crunch time.

• Have a back-up plan

If you use electrical based grills- have a generator and make sure you have gas.  Same for electrical appliances – be prepared. If the contest runs out of power how do you recover? Make a plan.

• Be Considerate, have fun and play nice.

Introduce yourself and your team to other teams. Don’t play your music too loud. Don’t encroach on your neighbours’ competition site. Ask before entering anyone’s site or wait to be invited. Share electricity and water fairly. Mind your own kids- don’t let them run all over other people’s sites. Offer to help someone if you can. Ask general questions but don’t ask specifics i.e. – what’s in a competitor’s sauce or rub. Everyone remembers the idiots.

• It’s a lot cheaper to party at home.

Drinking to excess at a contest really doesn’t make that much sense. It is a pretty darn expensive party. Save the liquid libations for after the last turn in time and when the packing and cleaning is done. It’s not a pretty sight to have to clean up BBQ gunk and grease when you are hung over.  Plus if you play make sure you stay the night or have a designated driver.

• Taste trumps everything.

Taste is the #1 most important factor in scoring for KCBS. Keep that always in mind that you should be spending more time on taste than appearance- always.

• Be Prepared

Find out what the weather is going to be like well in advance. Search the contest location on Google maps. Take note of where the water and electricity is. Find out who you should contact in case of an emergency.

Have an inventory list of all the items you use in competition. For sauces and rubs make sure you have enough for each contest.  Order regularly to ensure freshness.

• Share with your competition neighbors.

Wherever possible try other competitor’s entries. Write down what you taste.  Make notes on their turn ins. Ask for honest feedback from them. Its good – doesn’t tell you much. Ask them to be specific.

• Shorten the learning curve.

Before the contest read the Competition forums on the net. Watch you tube videos. There is lots of great information out there on box presentations, rubs, how to videos and sauces. Take a class from an experienced competitor. Take a judging class. Judge a contest. See what is being turned in. All of these will help shorten the learning curve.

• Shut up Pay attention and listen.

Pay attention to your competitors and what they are doing. Listen to experienced bbq’ers on the competition circuit. Ask the contest reps for advice. You have two ears and one mouth. Use them in that proportion. Often the best advice received is not the advice that was solicited.

• Edit delete and remove.

After a contest take a look at what you packed and what you actually used. Always go back and edit your notes, delete anything unnecessary and remove anything you didn’t use. Packing too many just in case items just adds up to a much longer competition clean-up. For example I love these heavy duty bus pans. They serve multiples of purposes. i use them to pack items in them. Then when I arrive at a contest I line them with bags to prep- then finally as a dish pan. Three purposes one item to pack.

• Show me the money!

Remember that you don’t write the check. You don’t give out the scores. What you like to eat and the flavor profile you enjoy- doesn’t matter. The only people that matter are the judges. It’s their opinions and taste buds that put you on the podium.  You should taste test everything with a clean palette (no smoking or drinking anything but water) but remember just because you love 5 spice powder with a heavy hot sauce doesn’t mean the judges will.

One little tweet. Thats all it took for the BBQ community to get all in a kerfuffle about a new Season of BBQ Pitmasters

BBQPitmasters
To all our great diehard BBQ Pitmasters fans, good news in the works. Check bbqforum.com for an announcement. Things are moving quickly!
26 Jan Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

2 days later a post on the BBQ Forum provided a link to the information:

BBQ Pitmasters is back!
Season 3 begins shooting in March!!

Good Luck to everyone sending in their audition tapes!!  I had a blast doing the show in Season 2.

Of course the debate about BBQ on tv continues on. Well documented by one of my favorite BBQ blogs

The BBQ Brethren

 
Lots of discussions are going on here.

It should come as no surprise that  Myron Mixon has an upcoming book deal. He is a walking talking BBQ business machine and he is all about gettin’ paid!

It is being reported by GalleyCat that the book deal with Ballantine Trade Paperbacks will have Myron sharing tales from his travels, smoking good recipes and anecdotes and will be titled Smokin’ with Myron Mixon THe book will be on the shelves May 2011.

About Myron Mixon:

I am Myron Mixon, Chief cook of Jack’s Old South Competition Bar-B-Que Team. I started Jacks Old South in 1996 as a way to promote our family Bar-B-Que sauce, which was made by my mother and father, Gaye and Jack Mixon.

We competed in our first competition in Augusta, Ga. where we took 1st place in Whole Hog, 1st place in Pork Ribs and 3rd in Pork Shoulder. Since the beginning, we have won over 180 grand championships resulting in over 1700 total trophies, 30 state championships including wins in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Illinois, South Carolina, and Tennessee, Team of the Year 8 times, and 11 national championships.

We have also taken three first place whole hogs at the Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational Barbeque Competition. Additionally, we have been the Grand Champion at the World Championship in Memphis three times, in 2001, 2004 and 2007. We have also taken first place in the Whole Hog category at the World Championship in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2007.

Jack’s Old South has been the Memphis in May Team of the Year with the highest number of points for 8 years, from 1999 through 2004, and also 2007 and 2009. We are also the only team to win Grand Championships in Memphis in May, Kansas City BBQ Society and Florida BBQ Association in the same year.

As a result of all of our success on the various BBQ circuits, we have been featured on several television networks, including the Food Network, Discovery Channel, the History Channel,the Travel Channel and the BBQ All Stars on the Versus Network.

Mastering the art of Bar-B-Que’ing has lead to the development of our own line of Jack’s Old South Grills and Smokers, as well as being the instructor for the Bar-B-Que Cooking School.

Myron Mixon can be followed on twitter @Lord_of_Q and on facebook.

However the best part of it all was not our own results but getting to see our good friend Moe Cason from Ponderosa BBQ Des Moines Iowa, and a few other events.  Moe is a big teddy bear of a guy and a real gentleman of BBQ.

The weekend was so much fun. We were blessed to be with many of our friends from all over. It was an excellent way to reconnect enjoy a few “pops” and to make some good BBQ. The weather however was brutally cold and horribly windy. We didn’t get the opportunity to put up our banners but we would like to thank Hovey’s Gourmet Meats, Traeger Canada and Basques Charcoal for all their support.

Here is a video we took of the weekend. There was a lot of wind.

The highlight for our weekend came at the awards ceremony.

There is a team called Can’t stop Grillin‘. Led by pitmaster and professional Shigger (please note I say that in jest) Tim Brown. Tim and I constantly go back and forth comparing notes, teasing each other mercilessly and competing against each other a few times a year.  He and the team of Mike and Mark work their butts off practicing and doing everything they can to improve. Not only that they raise a LOT of money for cancer research and just recently did a charity cook for almost 900 people to raise money for a local project.

I had tears in my eyes watching them get their first ever US Grand Championship. So happy for them. Canadian teams winning US Grand Championships have only been achieved 5 times in the history of competition BBQ. The first time was the Butt Shredders (BC) with pitmaster Ron Shewchuk , Dizzy Pig Canada with Pitmaster Mike Kerslake in 2006 the next two times were from Diva Q, and now finally Can’t Stop Grillin’ . It was just a matter of time they won!!

They are terrific people and I am absolutely sure this is just the first of many US Grand Championships they will win. It was truly awesome to see them win. I am so proud of them. They rock.

Can’ stop Grillin’ hardware for the weekend!!

1st Sidedish 2nd Chicken 2nd Ribs 3rd Pork 10th Dessert=

Grand Champions 2010 Oinktoberfest!!

Tim Calling his wife to give her the good news!!

The reserve for the weekend went to IQue BBQ. They also came away with the coveted Empire State Championship..  They have also just recently come back from doing a James Beard dinner. Chris Hart (Jack Daniels 2009 GC Winner) is a good guy who has helped me more times than he needed to. I am grateful for his advice his sarcastic humor and his friendship. I wish them the very best defending their title at the Jack this year.

You know as much as I like to win .. there are weekends when watching friends win is just a good if not better. It was an excellent weekend of great people good bbq and making awesome memories. We are now off to the American Royal BBQ in less than 24 hours. Its a bit insane at my house right now unpacking from one trip doing laundry packing spices rubs meats and stuff and hitting the road tomorrow night. Travelling with our 3 children for an 18 hour drive will be a challenge in itself. We will drive all night long for the longest leg and to keep from hearing are we there yet so many times????????

We will be updating our facebook page and twitter accounts with our adventures on the road.

Well tonight is the night. The winner of Season 2 BBQ Pitmasters will air at 10pm EST 9 C. Its been a fun ride watching all of the teams get to this point. Tonight its all about whole hog & BBQ Chicken!!

Here are the teams that made it to the finale:

Moe Cason from Ponderosa BBQ

Shad Kirton Co-Owner Smokey D’s BBQ and Pitmaster A Boy & His BBQ

Johnny Trigg from Smokin Triggers

Craig Kimmel from Firehouse BBQ

Melissa Cookston Yazoos Delta Q

Best of luck to all those in tonights episode. I am happy to see so much BBQ getting TV time!! Lots of fun to watch.

There is nothing like deciding to go on a bit of a road trip for a contest. We decided to make a bit of a hike to Pennsylvania this past weekend with our children to attend the Inaugural competition put on by our friend Brian Nevel from Huntingdon County Custom and his partner Ed Stoddard.

They did a good job informing teams coming in of what to expect and the location was top notch. We had a great time competing in both the grilling and the KCBS contest.

You know its always so wonderful to get the opportunity to travel and see the small towns on the way to a comp. There are so many beautiful communities with interesting quirks I would love to stop at. There just never seems to be enough time. The fall foliage was breathtaking as we approached our destination. Just beautiful. My blackberry pictures don’t do it justice.

Lucky for us we had our good friends from Swamp Pit BBQ right next to us. Our kids love hanging out together and so do we!!

I also have to point out that I finally got to meet a very special little man. He is so snuggly and cute and adorable.  Cooper belongs to Kristal and Josh Shade from Tiny’s BBQ and well I was just really excited to cuddle him a bit

For the grilling contest I have to give some props to our good friends Dan Hixon and Chris Hall from 3 Eyz BBQ. Since they were not competing in the grilling part they ended up being our taste testers for the trials we did ahead of the competition.   I was happy with our burger, pizza and chefs choice entires. I like having the ability to be creative. We ended up with a 1st in pizza and Reserve Grand Champion.

Here is a short video I took on the BB of the competition.

It was a lot of fun and it was great to see the other teams. I loved seeing the custom made firepits. I really enjoy sitting around the fire at a competition. I also seriously enjoyed a wicked good prime rib courtesy of the Grand Poobah himself Phil. It was awesome.   The morning shot was courtesy of MABA & Aporkaclypse now. The shot glasses were a really nice souvenir from the event.

We had a great time and I would recommend this event highly. The awards were terrific. Medals from the BBQ-brethren and custom awards from Brian Nevel.

Congratulations to PA Midnight Smokers who received two 180′s for the weekend. One in dessert and one in brisket.

Congrats to Chix, Swine and Bovine on their GC and 3Eyz BBQ on their Reserve GC for the KCBS competition. we came in 4th overall just missing a 180 in pork by less than 1/2 a point.

The reserve GC and the Grand Champion teams got to participate in a new tradition at Raystown Lake they both took a dip in the water and we all posed for a group picture:

It was great to be among friends for the weekend but its always nice to come home …..

Ill be making a return visit to the BBQ Central Radio show to take part in their “after dark” segment tonight at 10pm EST. The show regularly airs on Wednesdays now ( please note day of the week change) at 9pm EST and is hosted by Greg Rempe.

Tonights guests are Craig “Meathead” Goldwyn and Bob Trudnak from the BBQ Guru in hour 1 then its the after dark segment.

Tune in to hear all about our experience on BBQ Pitmasters and we will talk about all things BBQ!

Link to show

I want to take a moment to publicly thanks some really fine folks who really went out of their way to help us get all our gear to California to tape the episode of BBQ Pitmasters.

Traeger Canada

wood pellet grills we use everywhere! We used the Traegers to make some of the alligator, to bake the corn bread muffins, the alligator tacos, and also to do the ribs.

Basques Charcoal

we love this all natural sugar maple lump ! While they didn’t show it we used Basques Charcoal to grill the alligator and also to make our beans. They were awesome!!

Plowboys

for their yardbird , bovine bold plus their new JERK rub they rock and we love to use them.

Butcher BBQ

for their injections and rubs we love to use them. Trust your butcher. We do.

Smokey Mountain Smokers

for their excellent cutting boards rubs and sauces we love to use them.

and some personal thanks……

Sylvie Curry thank you so much for letting us use your WSM! We appreciate it and getting to have dinner with you was just wonderful so glad we were able to.

Neil ” Big Mista” Strawder (who I do believe has some of the best BBQ in LA! ) for hooking us up with loads of stuff so we didn’t have to take it on the plane. Thank you for making us feel welcome in California. For those of you in California make sure to check out Big Mista’s BBQ !

To my team Angie Quaale and my beloved husband Vlado I could not have had any better a team than ours. I am proud of what we did. You are both the bomb. Heres to yet another BBQ adventure!!!

Coming in second bites royally. We went in to win it however I am still happy with the food we put out.

John Markus, Jon Sechrist, Jordan Mallari, Lindsay Freed, Michael Gretza, Original Media, & TLC thank you for continuing to promote BBQ on TV and for all your help. I appreciate it.

Thanks to all the fine folks who sent us twitter messages, facebook messages and a whole whack of emails during the show. Really cool to have so much support. Thank you thank you thank you!!

Till the next time you see me on tv…………

Remember life is too short for bad BBQ!!

This is really funny to listen to. Myron Mixon on the Dennis Miller Radio show It aired today.

Click to listen to the show!!

Myron Mixon on Dennis Miller Radio Show