What Makes a Pitmaster and Why is Time so Important?

For the past four years, time has ruled a majority of the decisions I’ve made. Do I have enough time to go see friends, or should I stay in and do homework, etc. What time is class? What time is work?

During that time frame, I’ve also become more independent on my food intake. More specifically, when I started living off campus at the start of my junior year. I was also working two jobs and going to school full time. This lead to my cooking habits being accelerated. I cook with the oven or stove on high, or I do not cook. If I pull a type of meat out of the freezer, its journey to my mouth starts in the microwave on defrost mode. Ultimately, I wouldn’t make a very good pitmaster.

The question I want to explore is what makes a pitmaster, and why is time so important?

The word pitmaster comes from the world of barbeque. There are several different meanings to that word. Some consider it to be someone who has their own barbecue pit, and are very good with it. Others say a pitmaster is someone who has mastered the art of creating great BBQ. If I had to choose my own definition, I would lean towards the second definition. Being very good with your own barbecue is not good enough to be a pitmaster, but creating great barbecue can make you a master of the pit.

Pitmasters relay on a lot of different elements to earn the monocure they own. First, their station, pit or grill is usually in pristine condition. The type of wood, and the temperature created is important. Food preparation is key, as well as the types of rubs and sauces used. Lastely, and maybe the most important ingredient for all pitmasters is time and patience.

In a podcast named, The Art of Manliness, show hosts Brett McKay and Matt Moore discuss all things southern barbecue. Moore wrote a book called, The South’s Best Butts: Pitmaster Secrets for Southern Barbecue Perfection. Originally from Nashville, Moore talks about why pork is the staple for Southern Barbecue. In search for the perfect pork butt, he used it as the medium to find the best barbecue across the barbecue belt.

The pork butt is not really the pigs butt. It’s actually the shoulder. At an earlier time, they used to salt cure the shoulder cut and pack them in barrels. Those barrels were sold, and we referred to as butts. So, Barrell = butt. The shoulder is a really tough cut, leading to long periods of cooking. In St. Louis, a pork butt takes 20 hours to cook.

According to Moore, the pork butt is the staple of southern barbecue. It’ is cheap, it is large enough to feed a crowd and it is versitiale in the ways it can be cooked. In the video series Cooked, by Michael Pollan, pig farmers are exposed for their brutal practices to produce their cheap product, quickly, which in itself holds a bit of irony. An item that is ultimately cooked at an incredibly slow pace, is produced at rapid rates.

It starts with how the pigs are produced. Moma pigs live their lives constantly pregnant. I asked a person who has been pregnant if living a life of constancy pregnancy would be a fun life.

They said no.

It was my mom.

I asked my mom about being pregnant in order to relate it to a pig.

I’m sorry.

Kinda.

Constant pregnancy leads to constant litters. The litter will always search for something to eat early in their life. Piglets eat by drinking milk from their mother. This constant urge for nourishment forces the piglets to suck on anything in hopes of finding food. Sometimes, they miss. They are young. We all make mistakes when we are young. This mistake leads them to get a mouthful of some other pigs tail. It is obviously not very healthy, and leads to disease in the pigs. To combat this farmers cut the tail from all of their pigs. One of the most famous parts of the animal are clipped. Not kind.

Because of the number of pigs living on a farm at a time, they are forced to live in tight corridors. These tight spaces keep the pigs from moving freely about. Basically, these pigs are forced to live in a jail type setting. All the while, they are feed items that will increase their size before being slaughtered for profit.

If you can remove your mind from the awful environment pigs are forced to live in, we’ll return back to The Art of Manliness. Moore talks about how barbecue has served as a bridge for cultural gaps in the south. During the slave era of the south, everyone looked forward to an event called pig pickens. This was held by slave owners, as they would invite their slaves to eat with them. It was a celebration in lue of harvest. It was a celebration and is still used today, just not in the same political settings.

Moore talks about the diversity in the southern region of the United States, and how barbecue is prepared in different areas. According to Moore, the Carolinas cook a whole hog, and chop the meat together. They use a hickory wood, and don’t use any sauces or rubs. As you move south, you start to cross a more mustard base sauce. Through Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, you start to find more of white sauce, based out of mayonnaise. Memphis, St. Louis and Kansas City are where you first start to find tomato and sweet sauces. All of these are examples of the versatility of how the pig can be cooked.

The Art of Manliness was an appropriate place to find audio content about barbecue. In Cooked, by Michael Pollan, he mentions that men are usually the ones who are pitmasters and barbecuers. In the movie, Pollan uses the term Grill Dad, and defines it as “a powerful person distributing what is good to the group.” Traditionally, men have wanted that role of provider. There is no better place to feel that role, then in front of the grill.

Seeing a dad near the grill is an image that is beaten into our heads. So much so, that a group people in their mid 20’s put out an ad on craigslist requesting a generic father figure to serve as their grill dad. Kind of genius, really.

As time wears on, traditions are being shucked. Anyone can serve as that provider in front of the grill, watching and waiting for their meat to have the perfect grill lines. Gander aside, it is an honor to be the person who is revered as the pitmaster at any party.

Currently, I’m not prepared to be a pitmaster. I barely had time to write this blog post, let alone prepare a pig for a day before cooking it the next. At this point in my life, I fill the role of pig farmer. Not in the gorey, reality of what they do, but in a metaphorical sense. I have to accomplish tasks, so the next one can be finished. I am looking forward to the grill dad phase of life. I’ll sit in my lawn chair, Blue Moon in hand, watching a piece of meat that has been sitting on the lower level of my grill for two hours.

Is it ready to be served?

Probably.

But do I want another person to venture over and congratulate me on how the food looks?

You bet your uhhh.... pork butt, I do.

That time will come.

For now, I’ll throw some chicken in the microwave and hope I cooked it long enough. I got

to get to work.

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