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Update: Just read that Tuffy Stone used to be a Marine before he got into competition barbecue
I was flipping through an old issue of Smoke Signals magazine from 2018 and saw a profile on him. It said he served for over twenty years and only started his team, Cool Smoke, after he got out. I always figured he was just a lifelong cook. Makes you wonder if that discipline is what makes his brisket so tight, or if his success is just from pure cooking talent. Which side do you think matters more for a pitmaster, background skills or just time on the smoker?
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kimr916mo ago
Ever notice how the best pitmasters have a background in something that forces patience? Stone's military time probably taught him more about managing a long cook than any recipe could. That structure lets raw talent actually work instead of just guessing. You can't teach someone to care about consistent temps, but you can learn it the hard way.
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kellyallen6mo ago
Wait Stone was in the military? I've been following his channel for years and never caught that. It makes total sense now, the way he sets up his station is like a mission plan. He even calls his temp checks "recon". That's a wild detail to miss.
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paulnguyen4mo ago
That "structure lets raw talent actually work" part is dead on. A lot of people think smoking is just about tossing meat on a pit and waiting, but it really is just a long operation that needs a system. Having that kind of discipline from the military probably keeps him from getting bored and messing with the fire too much.
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shanes666mo ago
Honestly my buddy Dave was a mechanic in the army and he runs his whole life like that now. He did a brisket for us once and had like three clipboards with times and temps, it was a whole operation. He even had a "phase line" for when to wrap the thing. Tasted amazing though.
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