Hot take: Malcolm Reed is overrated compared to the old school guys like Tuffy Stone

I know everyone loves Malcolm Reed for the How to BBQ Right channel and his contests, but I spent a week last summer at a competition in Kansas City where Tuffy Stone was running a clinic on pork shoulder. Malcolm makes great videos for home cooks, sure, but Tuffy broke down why he trims fat caps to exactly a quarter inch and showed us how he manages his fire with just wood splits no charcoal. I tried Tuffy's method on a brisket last weekend and got a better smoke ring than anything I ever got from following Malcolm's recipes. What's the deal with people acting like Malcolm is the only pitmaster worth watching anymore?

2 comments

2 Comments

mason_jackson6d ago

And honestly the thing about Tuffy is he's been doing it since BEFORE YouTube was even a thing, he learned from guys who learned from guys who were cooking whole hogs in pits dug in the ground. Malcolm is great for getting people STARTED but when you want to really understand WHY you do something in competition cooking Tuffy will straight up tell you the science behind it. I watched a video where Tuffy spent ten minutes just talking about how different woods change the bark texture and it blew my mind compared to Malcolm's "here's my rub recipe" format. The crowd following Malcolm is HUGE because he's got that TV personality thing down but the people who actually JUDGE competitions are still looking at Tuffy's results.

sam_anderson5d ago

Read a pitmaster interview where Tuffy broke down how water pan placement changes steam flow, and yeah @mason_jackson nailed it.