thesmokingpenguin wrote: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)
Looking forward to seeing you there, I will be onsite sporadically but everyone will be available on site to help out.