BBQ Pitmasters on TLC: Episode 08

Johnny Trigg's Shootout

The final episode was filmed in Mineral Wells, Texas just west of Fort Worth where Johnny Trigg invites all the teams to a rib competition. All the teams will be able to watch the judging, and hear the comments as they happen.

Johnny starts the episode in one of his favorite meat markets where he picks up 153 pounds of baby back and spare ribs for the competition. The teams then share a dinner the night before where Johnny explains the judging. Rather than judging in particular categories, each rib will be given a score from 1 to 10. Myron then asks about the cash at stake, and since Johnny had no plans for a cash prize, they all agree to put $500 apiece into the pot for a total of $3500 to the winners. Jaime then adds a side bet of $100 that Paul finishes in the top 2. Johnny then adds another bet that Myron won't win, and Tuffy put up yet another $100 that one of the two Virginia teams will win it all.

The teams start cooking in the morning and we witness Le-Ann covering her ribs with Parkay (really?) and honey and they made a big deal about Myron covering his charcoal with lighter fluid to get the fire going.

As the judges get the baby back ribs, the contestants take a seat at a television that's showing the judge's comments. Jaime is the first one on the hot seat, and he had his tail between his legs when the judges said it was sweet and bland. Le-Ann's comments weren't much better, but Johnny's ribs got some great comments about his flavor and smokiness. Comments on Tuffy's ribs included dry and tasteless. Of course Myron couldn't stop complaining about the judges when they said his ribs were too spicy. Harry ribs were well received, so Paul was the only one left. The comments for him included dynamic and "Johnny Trigg Jr.", so Paul was pleased.

The contestants head back outside to finish up the spare ribs, and few decide to take the baby back comments to heart, and add some of the flavor profiles that pleased the judges. Jaime adds quite a bit of spice with cayenne and Tuffy adds more seasoning.

The second round of judging wasn't any easier for the pitmasters to watch. Myron's ribs were overcooked and had little flavor beyond the sauce, and Harry's were about the same. Tuffy got great comments, so his changes seemed to do the trick. The judges enjoyed the flavor of Paul's spare ribs, but they thought they were undercooked. Jaime was pleased when his spiciness fired up the mouths of the judges. Johnny didn't fare as well in the second round with undercooked ribs, and Le-Ann's ribs tasted like orange juice and were too sweet.

Scores were announced from last to first. Le-Ann was last in baby backs while Harry took the top spot. Jaime finished last in spare ribs after all that cayenne. Tuffy took home the top spot in spare ribs after his adjustments. Overall, Harry was the big winner followed by Johnny Trigg, Myron, Paul, Tuffy and Le-Ann taking last.

This may have been the most fun episode since someone had to get last place. They were also all cooking next to one another, so the trash talking was at full bore. Hopefully the show gets picked up for another season, and if so I'll be here providing recaps of Season 2.

- BBQ Snob

BBQ Pitmasters on TLC: Episode 07

Big Pig Jig

The seventh episode was filmed in Vienna, Georgia (pronounced Vi-Anna) for the Big Pig Jig. 128 teams will compete for a huge pot of over $12,000. This is a Memphis Barbecue Network event, so whole hog is one of the main categories, and there will not be blind judging. Neither brisket or Harry Soo make an appearance on this episode.

Tuffy seeks some assistance for the whole hog category from a friend who's a hog expert. He suggests not to wrap the meat, which is popular for competition hog. There's plenty of gratuitous raw pig shots, so the butchers will like this.

Myron's in his own backyard, so he's feeling good about his chances (go figure). He also gets invited to the hog kissing the night before the competition where he gets a mouthful of hog manure.

Jamie Geer, the founder of Jambo Pits gets plenty of time to plug his product, and many of the contestants peak the praises as well. Tuffy on the other hand, bought a new hog cooker from Jack's Old South, so he's cooking with the competitor's equipment. Once he finally gets his pig in the smoker, I noticed that he had wrapped it in foil against the advice of his hog specialist friend.

Paul arrived to the contest late an unprepared with a fire extinguisher that's too small. He's also showing off his new fancy pit that Jamie Geer let him borrow.

Johnny Trigg opts not to compete in the whole hog category, but he makes up for with 15 slabs of ribs. He just wants to make sure he gets the best ribs in the most competitive category.

Come judging time, the contestants have to talk up their food, and Tuffy tries his best with a long-winded approach. Johnny improves his presentation method from the last MBN competition in Murphyboro, and it gets him into the finals for ribs, but he's going head to head with his buddy Jaime Geer. Johnny shows a nervous streak when he drops a rack of ribs on the ground in front of the finals judges, but he recovers quickly since he has so many extra racks.

In the end, Myron doesn't make it to the finals in his favorite category, whole hog, and Paul doesn't get last place in any category. Ribs come down to Johnny and Jaime, and Jaime takes first in his second MBN competition with Myron's recipe. Myron is the only other one with a call, and it's for sixth place in ribs.

The final episode will take us to Texas for Johnny Trigg's shootout.

- BBQ Snob

BBQ Pitmasters on TLC: Episode 06

Diamond State BBQ Championship

The sixth episode was filmed in Dover, Delaware at the Diamond State BBQ Championship. It starts out with Tuffy giving an unprepared Myron one of his extra briskets for the competition since Myron delivery fell through. They spent so much time discussing how Tuffy hoped the decision wouldn't bite him in the ass, you almost knew it would by the end of the episode. Johnny Trigg and Paul Peterson weren't featured in this competition, although Johnny makes an appearance at the awards in the end.

No surprise here, the volatile relationship between LeAnn and her boyfriend Billy is over, and she now will have to do all the cooking (gasp!) instead of kicking Billy around. In the middle of the night, she had to call over some other guy to help her get the equipment going, and her dad came to the rescue on turn-in day to help get things done.

One of the former members of Harry Soo's team, Gary, decided to compete on his own, starting up a potential rivalry. He's putting much of his money on the pork, paying extra for Kurobuta pork (that's a fancy Japanese name for Berkshire pork).

The game inside the game for this episode was the weather. It was cold and rainy, so the fires were burning much quicker, and some of the competitors let their fire go out. Everyone took the chance to complain about the rain, but the most fun was the friendly verbal sparring in the rain between Tuffy and Myron who were parked next to one another.

Both Tuffy and Myron made their wives run for it to turn in the briskets, but they both made it on time.

The judges, one of which was guest judge Herschel Walker (he didn't make it on camera), braved the weather under a tent for the tasting. Once the votes were tallied, none of the show's competitors made the top five, but Myron finished the highest at sixth place, with a first place showing in brisket (no surprise from all the foreshadowing). LeAnn was eighth, Tuffy was twefth, and Gary beat his mentor Harry by 3 places at twenty-sixth.

We'll see you next week at the Big Pig Jig in Vienna, Georgia, so Myron will be on his home turf.

- BBQ Snob

BBQ Pitmasters on TLC: Episode 05

American Royal Day 2

The fifth episode was filmed at Day 2 of the American Royal for the Open Competition. This day is for teams that are vying for the Grand Champion title that will allow them to joint the Invitational next year.

The competitors on this episode are LeAnn, Harry Soo, Paul Peterson, and newcomer Jaime Geer, none of which were eligible for the Open competition the previous day. Between car trouble and a fender bender, LeAnn had trouble getting ready for the competition. Harry had issues being placed right next to the stage where the big party would be going down the night before the Royal, and Paul was feeling confident after his one-on-one cooking classes with Johnny Trigg.

With Myron cooking in the Invitational, it's unclear why we have to deal with his idiotic dialect in this episode, but I guess the producers see him as the star of the show. He spent most of his time complaining about the quality of the BBQ judges, whihc I must admit, I have to agree with his point that it's tough to get a fair shot at a competition where so many of the judges are not certified.

LeAnn had some real issues with Billy's prep and cooking performance, but she seems to rely on his help in the cooking process more than any of the other cookers. Harry is thrown off throughout the day by oversleeping by an hour, and his ribs have to be cooked at a higher temp, and his chicken getting overcooked in the process.

In the end, there were 488 teams competing. Of those on the show, the highest spot went to Johnny Trigg at 46th, Myron came in at 49th, LeAnn was 139th overall and 3rd in brisket, Paul Peterson was 177th overall (in the top third) and 62nd in ribs which he correctly assumed was his best entry. Harry Soo was the lowest at 266th overall.

We'll see you next episode at Diamond State BBQ in Dover, Delaware.

- BBQ Snob

BBQ Pitmasters on TLC: Episode 04

American Royal

The fourth episode was filmed at the American Royal in Kansas City, Missouri. I feel a bit of a connection to this episode because I was judging at the Royal while filming was underway, but that was for the Open Competition. The folks on the show are competing in the Invitational, which requires that you've been a Grand Champion in the past.

This episode begins with Tuffy picking up his retooled pit which he sent to a friend for repair before the big competition.

To stop the bleeding, Paul finally reaches out for some help. He heads down to Alvarado, Texas from his home in McKinney to meet Johnny Trigg and hope for some cooking tips. When the meeting was over, he'd received an unprecedented invitation from Johnny to be a member of the Smokin' Triggers team at the Royal, so he could watch and learn.

In addition to the normal competitors, this episode features Chris Lilly from Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur, Alabama. He's a big rival of Myron Mixon, so I'm guessing most folks watching were rooting for Chris to knock off the wind-bag. Lee-Ann and Harry Soo don't make an appearance on this episode.

Paul then gets a detailed look at Johnny's secrets for meat preparation, and they plan to meet at 2:45 to start up the pits. Of course Johnny's waiting in the dark without a Paul sighting at 2:45, but he runs in at 2:47 after jumping the fence, and they get the fire started at 3:00. The pit warms for 45 minutes before the meat goes in, and they're off and cooking the brisket. Johnny then gives a lesson in trimming St. Louis ribs from a rack of spare ribs.

Just before pork turn in, Tuffy realizes he sent off his box without saucing it, but it was too late to do anything about it except fret. Despite that, in the end Tuffy and his Cool Smoke team took home third place overall, which was the only one in the top 5. The best outcome of the day was Myron all the way down at 73rd place, last of the pitmasters on the show.

This episode may be the best so far at actually focusing on the cooking rather than just manufactured drama. They also did a great job getting across what it's like to be a judge in the blind tasting.

We'll see you next episode at Day 2 of the American Royal for the Open Competition.

- BBQ Snob

BBQ Pitmasters on TLC: Episode 03

Decatur Jaycees Riverfest

The third episode was filmed at the Riverfest in Decatur, Alabama. This episode features the return of Paul Peterson and the Pablo Diablo team from McKinney, Texas. This team has finished badly in the first episode, and were absent from the second, but Paul went back to square one trying new recipes and holding a tasting to determine the recipes that would go to competition. One recipe that changed dramatically was his chicken which had been the competitively abnormal chicken halves to the more prominent chicken thighs.

In his thigh preparation, Paul used muffin tins to form the meat, and of course Myron got all saucy because Paul had "stolen" the idea from Myron. Myron had the last laugh in the end when Pablo Diablo missed the chicken turn in time by 16 seconds.

The producers tried to stir up some drama when Lee Ann was informed that the electricity would be cut by the competition organizer for 1/2 hour to make repairs. Her rotisserie needs the juice to keep moving, so she got huffy when her briskets had to sit above direct heat. All that anger disappeared when she tried her brisket and it was better than expected, and it got her a sixth place in the category.

Tuffy pulled a competition no-no by trying a new recipe for the first time in the competition without relying on a trusted back-up recipe. He swore all through the competition that this brisket was going to win him the prize much to the perturbance of Myron.

At turn-in time, Johnny Trigg was convinced that his pork woes were over after tasting what he thought was his best pork ever, but come crowning time his pork got him just 19th place.

None of the cookers on the show placed in the top five of the competition, with Myron being the highest at 6th place. Some high points were Johnny Trigg taking first in ribs and Tuffy taking first with his experimental brisket recipe. Paul Peterson's heading back to the drawing board again after finishing dead last again. His highest finish was 31st in pork, and he's now having second thoughts about competing at all.

One thing I enjoyed about this episode was the lack of manufactured drama, less of Myron's mouth, and more focus on the meat preparation and cooking. We'll see you after the holidays at the American Royal in Kansas City. Next week (Christmas Eve) is a rerun of Episode 2, in case you missed it.

- BBQ Snob

BBQ Pitmasters on TLC: Episode 02

Murphysboro Barbecue Cook-off

The second episode was filmed at a unique event in Murphysboro, Illinois sanctioned by both the KCBS and the Memphis Barbecue Network (MBN). While KCBS focuses solely on the meat through blind judging, the MBN judges cookers at their rig. Judges take into account the cleanliness of the rig, the knowledge of the cooker, and the overall eating experience as well as the meat.

Myron starts things out with his jackass attitude describing the enormous rig he uses for this whole hog competition. He and Lee Ann both use gallons of injection in their whole hogs, but Lee Ann's night crew let her fire cool down, so the hog was in jeopardy.

The evening before the competition a drunk competitor challenged Johnny Trigg to a side bet for the brisket category. During the challenge, the challenger pointed his finger into Trigg's chest, and things nearly came to blows.

Competition day came around, and it was going to be a long one. Between the combined KCBS and the MBN categories, there were nearly six hours of judging. On this day we get to experience more of Myron less than masterful swearing. It's like someone's paying him for every word because he squeezes them in at every chance. On the other hand, Johnny Trigg could barely get any words out while the judge was at his table for ribs, other than telling her that she wasn't going to like his baby backs. She didn't.

At the end of the day, when the results were revealed, Myron was the only team on the show to make the finals in the MBN side of the competition, and he took home the top prize. On the KCBS side, Wood Chicks got 5th place, which was the highest score for those on the show. Johnny Trigg did win that brisket bet, while hapless Paul Peterson and good guy Tuffy were not in attendance.

The next episode will take us to the Decatur Jaycees Riverfest. We'll meet you there.

- BBQ Snob

BBQ Pitmasters on TLC: Episode 01

Smokin' in Mesquite

Each episode follows six teams through the process of a barbecue competition. This episode was filmed in Mesquite, Nevada at the inaugural "Smokin' in Mesquite" competition from September 4th to the 6th. S.I.M. is a KCBS sanctioned competition, and my guess is that all of the episodes will also be KCBS events.

In this first episode we meet six pit masters. Of the Texans reatured, there's the naive and brash newcomer Paul Peterson (Pablo Diablo) from McKinney and the soft-spoken old-timer, Johnny Trigg (Smokin' Triggers) from Alvarado. Burleson's own Jamie Greer is featured on the website, but did not make an appearance on the show. Others featured are the loud-mouthed Myron Mixon (Jack's Old South), the nice guy Tuffy Stone (Cool Smoke), the Californian Harry Soo (Slap Yo Daddy), and the blonde Lee Ann Whippen (Wood Chick's BBQ).

In the end, Paul Peterson lets his fire go out overnight, and ends up finishing 47th out of 47 teams while Johnny Trigg finished third and Myron Mixon took home the top prize in the form of a giant check with his name spelled incorrectly). What is oddly left out of the show is that Jack's Old South had to forfeit that prize after being disqualified for having entered another competition in South Carolina on the same day which is frowned upon by the KCBS.

If you remember a few years back in 2006, the Versus Network aired the Barbecue Championship Series which pitted amateurs pit masters against seasoned veterans. Myron Mixon and Johnny Trigg were in the veteran's group, and Lee Ann Whippen was in the amateur group. Hopefully, this series last a bit longer than the short-lived BCS. Be sure to check out the next episode from Murphysboro, Illinois on December 10th.

- BBQ Snob

BBQ Pitmasters on TLC

A new show entitled BBQ Pitmasters will air eight episodes on TLC beginning on December 3rd. As reported by DFW.com, "Three of the cooks featured in the series are from North Texas, including one from Fort Worth. Jamie Geer, owner of Jambo Pits, a Fort Worth company that sells custom smokers, is in the show, as are Paul Petersen, the executive chef at Rick’s Chop House in McKinney, and Johnny Trigg, considered the 'godfather of barbecue' from Alvarado." You know I'll be tuning in.

- BBQ Snob