Questions on BBQ Pitmasters

Jeffersonian

Now that a couple of episodes have run, I'm wondering about a few things I've seen. Specifically:

1) At the Illinois competition, Myron Mixon won $1,500 for taking the MBN Grand Championship. He was skunked in the KCBS. Yet he had to have cooked several hundred pounds of meat, including a whole hog, eight pork shoulders, something like 18 slabs of babybacks and unspecified amounts of pulled pork, chicken and, presumably, wagyu brisket. Having pulled that enormous rig from south Georgia to Illinois and bought all that meat, I don't see how this could have ever been so much as a break-even proposition for him. If he's, as he says, "all about the money," what's he doing even entering a contest such as this?

2) Why would Mixon cook nearly 180 pounds of pork shoulder to have a few meager ounces of it judged? I can see doing a spare just in case, but seven spares?

3) Since there are obviously tons of extra meat are left after judging, where do those leftovers go? Is there a big banquet, with the rest donated to, say, a homeless shelter?

Hoss

I'm thinkin sponsors foot the bill.Then he makes the $$$ endorsing their products.JM2C.Think TIGER!

Slotmercenary

It cost a lot of money to fuel an ego that large. There is no reason to cook all of that product but he does. I do believe he owns and operates restaurants, and has a line of rubs and sauces under Jack's South.

Some of the competitions allow the teams to sell their extra food and some don't depending on local laws.Like any sport, it can be as simple or outlandish as you can afford. At least that is my experience so far.

Buster Dog BBQ

Was the $1,500 the total? Sometimes you can win quite a bit for a category. When I won my Grand Championship it was $1,500 but I won another $500 in category prizes.

The food does not go to anyone after the contest. Some judges take it home. Some teams have that meat sold after a contest. I knew a restaurant cook who was KCBS team of the year and he took all his food back to the restaurant.

Competing is not cheap.

Big'un

I'm thinking he is out of the restaurant at this point.

Hitch

That Jack South guy may be a good Q'er, but he is such a jack a$$. He makes GA look terrible, and I hope he is overdoing it for the camera. Couldn't imagine he has a friend in the world if he is actually that crass and stuck on himself.

I do enjoy the show, but could do without that guy.

Crimsongator

Having met him several times, I suspect they are trying to portray certain personas. Without a doubt, Myron is a character but it is a made for TV filming.

Jeffersonian

He might be personally, but his website says he does franchises of JOS.

Crimsongator

I know he was a vendor at the Jack this year. I also remember he mentioning something about catering or cooking for events. That may be where the extra meat goes.

Buster Dog BBQ

He is not that way in person and I think those who have met him at the BGE store and competed against him would say he is a fine person.

Jeffersonian

The $1500 was the grand prize for winning the MBN competition. I don't recall if there were category prizes or what they might have been. I'll go re-watch and see.

Buster Dog BBQ

Well, he finished first in each and there was like $7,000 in prize money for the MBN, so he probably got $500-1000 per category. So maybe $3000-4500 in prize money. Not a bad days work.

He came up here to Iowa for the BBQlossal and didnt get anything. That is a long way to go to come back empty handed.

Hitch

Glad to hear that Myron isn't a bad guy....in fact, he must be a pretty good actor cause he had me convinced that we never needed to meet.

I would imagine that the $$ (again in fact) doesn't mean a thing to the Jack South team. The winning sure does, but I bet he really just likes knowing that people think he is an incredible cook. We all get a lot out of that.

Hopefully, I didn't come across too harsh on the guy and tick off a friend or two.

Bobby-Q

1. The contests where Myron wins 10,000 or 15,000 makes up for the contests where he loses. He also was paid to attend that contest by the production crew.

2. There are very specific parts of the shoulder that he uses. He needs 1 or 2 to do the blind box, 3 or 4 for the on site judges, another 1 to 3 for the finals judges.

3. Most of the meat is thrown away after a contest. There are a lot of regulations about food handling, even homeless folks don't want to get sick from free food.

Jeffersonian

Yikes...this sure put my competition aspirations on ice.

Bobby-Q

That meat was for 2 contests so keep that in mind.

If the cost of meat is your concern then you should seriously re-consider competing. It's not uncommon for the cost of a contest to hit the $1,000 mark. They are a lot of work, extremely expensive, but are a lot of fun too.

Ripnem

You mean think Tiger...2 weeks ago.

Hoss

:laugh: :laugh: YOU GOT THAT RITE!!! :blink: :ohmy:

Ripnem

I seriously wonder if he will play again. :huh: :S :pinch:

Hoss

I don't care one way or the other. :ohmy: :P

Kitarkus

I dunno if it was just me....but I was soooo turned off by that BBQ Pitmasters show. I've watched the first two episodes....and it was about as exciting as watching water boil. It is no meat and all potatoes

Celtic Wolf

I can testify to what Bobby said...

They can be quite stressful, but they are fun..

Hoss

Me MUST concur!

smoky b

all i know is we beat him by 2 places in chicken last year in a contest. my claim to fame...

Hoss

Jeffersonian

I can see both the fun and stressful sides of it, though I'd try to think of some way to preserve the rest of the meat for donation, sales or consumption. It seems like such a waste to toss hundreds of pounds of delicious BBQ.

Jeffersonian

Heh, yeah. I heard a good joke:

Q: What's the difference between Tiger and Santa?

A: Santa stops at three ho's.

Ripnem

Hahahaa

It's like the old saying "Take'r easy"..."Hey, if she's easy.. take'r twice!"

Jeffersonian

I can see that. They're trying to turn it into an in-your-face reality show, with trash-talking, grudges and such. I concur that I don't like that part of it one bit. I do like to see the different approaches each team takes to getting their product before the judges.

Myron Mixon definitely knows his 'cue, but I'm starting to think his strongest asset is his project management abilities...the guy is always on-task and never rushed. He has everything planned down to the minute and is never blind-sided. You can't say that about most of the other teams.

Celtic Wolf

I usually divide what is left amongst my team. Most of us don't cook near as much as shown on the show. 18-24 thighs, 3-4 racks of ribs, two butts and two briskets

Whole hog is different and not all of us enter that category, because it's not a KCBS category. For that matter it's not really required in MBN either.

If you noticed Myron entered all three MBN categories; whereas, the others only entered one or two.

KCBS requires you to enter all four categories to win GC or RC

MBN requires you win the second round of one of the three categories.

Jeffersonian

Thanks, Pete, that seems a lot more doable than what Mixon was cooking and a lot easier to send home leftovers with team members, etc.