level playing field

[keith157]

So who's cheating, Mr blue?

anyone who uses un-natural chemicals to alter the texture of meat for the sake of winning, after all this is the place of GENUINE BBQ - what's next, mechanically reclaimed, shaped and formed boneless chicken thighs with ready made crispy skin ?? ..................But this is only our opinion of course!

If the American judges allow this as an entry then in order to compete at that competition then one would have to abide by those rules.
Luckily there is no competition for Turkey Twizzlers and the like......................unless you know better of course.
Having eaten John's chicken in Brighton, whatever the dude did was okay by me, the bestesterist chicken I have ever eaten (where is the darn drooling smilie )

[Steve]

So who's use's un-natural chemicals to alter the texrure of meat for the sake of winning ? Mr Blue.

Who knows............maybe MIM will expose them!

Anyone who uses FAB, Butcher's, Kosmo's and I would imagine that's quite a number who've done any level of research on the US BBQ scene. I'd eat my hat if Ray's class the other week didn't recommend one of these products also, because they are so prevalent.

I won't be using any of the above products at MiM. My injection marinade is already made and it's beef stock based.

I do however have a flavourless compound blend that I have developed myself which can be added to any injection to replicate the effects of these products, and you know what, it's pretty darned effective.

Do I like using it? No, I prefer to eat my BBQ without the added chemicals. Will I use it at competition this year? Well that will depend on a number of factors but I'm not ruling it out.

[Eddie]

So who's use's un-natural chemicals to alter the texrure of meat for the sake of winning ? Mr Blue.

Who knows............maybe MIM will expose them!

Just seems strange that people can throw an accusation in and not have any evidence to back it up? Think that happened to anougher competitor last year in July. They were wrong as well.

[Steve]

What might you be referring to there Eddie?

[MrBlue]

Just seems strange that people can throw an accusation in and not have any evidence to back it up? Think that happened to anougher competitor last year in July. They were wrong as well.

and I'm NOT accusing anyone of doing such things - just saying it shouldnt happen and we dont agree with it
Nuff said.

Who are you referring to from last year Eddie??

[Eddie]

I've pm someone and answered that question.

[Steve]

We've got a bit off topic here lads.

I think Mr. Blue was expressing his opinion about phosphate based injections and had no intention to accuse anyone of cheating.

Let's be straight, love them or loathe them, phosphate/nitrate injections are legal and commonplace in competition BBQ. Many people would prefer if they weren't but equally many people prefer the end product when these are used.

There's no question of cheating here, using a compound injection neither breaks rules nor the spirit of the competitions. Categorising them alongside performance enhancing drugs doesn't fly IMHO. The power of flavour we use in rubs and sauces makes massive changes to flavour profile so that could equally be considered performance enhancing.

Whether you consider phosphates to be in the spirit of great BBQ is another question and everyone's entitled to their own opinion. We all love a bit of banter, let's just not go round getting the arse with each other over such things like prima donnas, we're not footballers

[Toby]

[thesmokingpenguin]

Not having competed (yet - bring on MiM!), but doing loads of cooking of other types, the whole idea of adding nitrates / chemicals etc really doesn't sit well with me - it seems kinda sad that the competitiveness at the big US competitions seems to have overtaken the principle of good cooking (using natural ingredients, great quality meat and good technique) - personally, team smoking penguin will be using rubs and injections we've been working on for a few month that perhaps aren't typical, but we like em! I guess as newbies we're resigned not to be up there competing with the the big boys, but we're in it for the fun and making tasty, quality food!

(our general view for chemical-like ingredients is: would you feed it to your kids? eg Agar-Agar yes, Nitrates no)

[keith157]

We'll be at MiM on the Sunday and would be delighted to sample some smoked penquin



Sorry smoked penquin's results