Rant: I think Malcolm Reed is overrated compared to local competition guys

Honestly, I've been watching BBQ Pitmasters for about 3 years now, and everyone acts like Malcolm Reed is the only pitmaster who matters. I went to a comp last month in Tulsa where a guy named Big Jim from a trailer park won grand champion with a brisket that had this perfect bark I've never seen on TV. Ngl, I tried one of Reed's recipes from his channel and it turned out dry, while a random local pitmaster at a fair showed me how to wrap in butcher paper with tallow. Last week I saw a video where he said to pull brisket at 203 degrees every time, but my uncle down in Austin pulled his at 198 and it was way better. Has anyone else had better luck just ignoring the big names and learning from small-time smokers?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin9286d ago

You're putting way too much thought into this, man. It's just barbecue, not a college course on who's the best. If a random guy in a trailer park cooks better than Malcolm Reed, then go eat his food and stop worrying about it.

lee_barnes706d ago

Three years ago I drove an hour to try a guy's ribs out of his backyard pit in rural Alabama because some random reddit post said they were better than Big Bob Gibson's. The guy was using a rusty smoker he got from a junkyard. Turned out they were genuinely the best ribs I've ever had. So yeah @gavin928, you're not wrong. The gatekeeping around who gets to be called a pitmaster is exhausting. Just eat the good food wherever you find it and move on with your life.