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Watching a local guy go from backyard ribs to winning a small comp in under a year
There's this guy in my town, Mike, who used to post pictures of decent but basic ribs on our local food group. About eight months ago, he started posting about focusing on just one cut, beef short ribs, and documenting every cook. He went from a basic kettle grill to a proper offset smoker, a Lang 36, and you could see the bark and smoke ring get way better each time. He won the 'People's Choice' at the Fall Fest cook-off last weekend, and I think the change was just that total focus on one thing instead of trying to master everything at once. Has anyone else seen a pitmaster make a big jump by narrowing their focus like that?
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ross.felix1mo ago
Totally agree, that focus makes all the difference. You stop guessing and start learning the real feel of one cut. It's how you go from good to great fast.
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anthonymurray1mo ago
Yeah, that's the way to do it. I did the same thing with pork shoulder for a whole season. Once you stop switching cuts, you really dial in your temps and timing.
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walker.max20d ago
Man, that's exactly what I did with chicken thighs last summer. Just stuck with em every weekend till I had the cook down to a science, no guesswork at all.
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