Spring 2008

Get ready!

It’s hard to believe that it is already early March. Time sure flies when your having fun. Winter around here was not too bad so far. A little snow, a little ice, some cold days, overall I would consider it fairly mild. Although, you would not know it looking at the checkbook when paying the heating bill.

We are planning to compete in seven contests this coming season. I have checked with the team members and we have agreed on a schedule. Most of the entry forms have been submitted and the excitement is building.

I have been busy writing this winter. Of course, I have been writing in the blog. I am not too sure that anyone is reading, however, I will continue to write for both of my loyal readers out there! I hope to keep updates coming when the season begins. I may even attempt to submit some contest recaps to KCBS for possible submission in the Bull Sheet. We will see and I will keep you posted.

Practice cooking has been on my list for this off season. I have been cooking alot of BBQ. My wife thinks I should be committed. I have been spending a lot of quality time with chicken thighs. The neighbors don’t care, as long as I keep feeding them Que. As for the kids, they are about filled up on BBQ and I can’t say as I blame them. Its to the point now when I light up the smoker on Sunday morning, the kids ask if we can order a pizza.

This past weekend I worked on chicken and ribs again. I was hoping I would be finished with chicken after this weekend, but it looks like I will be at it again next week, I am close, but still have some work to do. I have been doing some experimentation with some interesting results. I have also been working hard on my pork and brisket. Did I call this work?;) Needless to say, it will be a while before I crave chicken thighs again.

I have been squirreling away supplies all winter so I do not have to buy then all at once and have just about everything we need. The trailer soon will be moved from its winter parking spot. I plan to pull everything out and reorganize, removing any items that we haven’t used and trying to make more efficient use of the space that we have.

Our first contest for the year will be April 18-19 in Salisbury MD. Last year I cooked with Steve at this one and had a lot of fun. This year he is cooking with his regular team, “I Smell Smoke”. This is a great spot for a contest and the folks that run it do a great job. The event website shows 52 teams already registered and it is only early March. Every time I speak to one of the guys on the team, the conversation quickly turns to BBQ. Everyone is anxious for the season to begin.

At Salisbury, they have two additional categories on Friday night. My wife, Jo, is going to cook the Anything But event. She has been working hard with her planning and possible presentation. There is also a Perdue chicken contest. I think we will also enter this one as well.

On the many forums that I visit, folks are also looking forward to the new season. Contests are becoming a little more frequent down south and I am sure they will be moving north with the approach of springtime and warmer temperatures. Threads on the forums have discussed everything associated with contest cooking from garnish to judges and gas prices. Folks all around are looking forward to the 2008 competition season. Cabin fever would be a good term here.

This winter I became a member of the Mid Atlantic BBQ Association. The organization has been around for a while and sponsors, among other things, a BBQ Expo in April. Recently, as a result of the hard work of some of the members, they have improved their website. The web site now contains past event photos and a newly added MABBQA discussion forum. It is a very good place to exchange ideas and thoughts on BBQ competition and cooking in general.

A few hardy souls competed this past weekend in two winter contests up north. I am not sure we are ready with our, “cots under the easy-up” set up to tackle a mid winter event yet, but kudos to those that did. Some mighty brave souls.

For many here in the mid Atlantic area, Salisbury is the season opener. I am sure I speak for many of the teams in this region; April 18th can’t come soon enough!

2007 KCBS Team of the Year Awards

During the annual KCBS banquet held January 18-20th, in Kansas City, the Team of the Year (TOY) Awards were announced. The 2007 winner is Tuffy Stone and Cool Smoke out of Richmond Virginia. Congrats to Tuffy and the gang who have been competing on the circuit since 2004 and have already racked up 10 State Championships. Who are those guys? received mention on 3 lists. 50th overall, 36th in chicken, and 23rd in brisket. Not bad considering there are over 4000 teams around the Country. We understand this will be the last year the list is prepared in this format, as the criteria for making the list will change due to new KCBS regulations. In the future, to be considered for a TOY award, a team must cook in at least 10 contests. With 7 contests on our schedule for 2008, it looks like we are out of the running before the first fire is lit. Oh well, we will enjoy the 2007 list for as long as we can.

http://www.kcbs.us/news.php

Part 13- The off-season, Winter 2007-08

Competitive cooking, is it a sport?

When I look back over our first year of competition, I am still amazed. I read and reread the results from the contests. I look at my notes, and then I reread this blog, it still causes me to shake my head. The guys on the team came together and worked as a unit. Way to go fellows, thanks for your efforts. We cooked in four contests, in which, we walked nine times to the stage, wow, I still can’t believe it.

A great big thank you goes out to my friend and BBQ mentor Steve Farin. You may have read earlier in this blog, when I chronicled how I met Steve and he shared with me his interest and passion for competitive BBQ cooking. Without his friendship, guidance and instruction, our results for this season would not have been possible. Now, having cooked in contests on my own, and experienced the pressure and stress involved, makes me really appreciate the time and patience that Steve showed during those times that I assisted him. I am sure that I asked more than my share of dumb and untimely questions. For that, I say thank you Steve, thanks for everything.

As a sign of our gratitude for Steve, our team has vowed to always have a bottle of his favorite elixir, agave nectar, on hand in our trailer for when he stops by. If you are at a contest, and see our set up, please stop in for a shot. Introduce yourself and trade some stories, we would love to meet you.

I finally found a competitive sport that I like. I tried my hand at golf, never had much interest. Besides, takes too long to play a round these days, what with all of the slow playing woman on the course. (just kidding girls) My vertical leap is not quite good enough for the NBA, close, not off by much, and I got that age thing working against me. Bull riding is out, what with my tender crotchel area and all. (see part 11) World Series of Poker, cost too much just to buy in and I have trouble seeing the cards with sunglasses on, besides, my head is so large, its hard to find a pair of shades that fit. Nope, BBQ looks like a winner. Good friends, cold beer, beef, chicken, pork, ( all the major food groups covered), and sauce, now there is a sport you can really get into. Any sport that one of the first steps is to rub your meat is OK in my book. Vegetarians need not apply.

I know, I know, there are some that will say, competitive cooking, that’s not a sport. I used to get into these arguments with guys at work all the time. These same guys would say NASCAR, that’s just driving in a circle, no sport there. Then they would go home and watch golf, poker, billiards or competitive hot dog eating on ESPN. Correct me if I am wrong, but if competitive eating is shown on the Nations premier sports channel, then it must be a sport. And if the eating is a sport, why can’t the cooking of those hot dogs, or in this case BBQ be a sport. My dog-eared copy of Merriam-Webster’s says, sport- noun- /’sport/ a source of diversion: recreation, physical activity engaged in for pleasure. Nuff said, I think we have those requirements covered here.

It’s probably a good thing too, that BBQ is my sport. You have heard how “they” say he has the frame of a halfback, or, he has the hands of a quarterback, or, he has a body built for wrestling. I never quite heard anything of this sort when I was coming up. I will spare the gory details of the comments that were, and continue to be, hurled my way. One thing for certain, I have a body built for BBQ, there is not much dispute to this statement. A hot greasy smoker, surrounded by friends and family, some good tunes, a couple of stains on my shirt, cold beer in my hand, all shrouded in a sweet smelling blue smoke, that’s what I am talking about! That’s what I call livin. It really don’t get no better than this.

As we fill our days during the off season with family, working, blogging, test cooks and plans for next season we can’t help but stop every once and a while and look back at the season past. We had a lot of fun and met many new and interesting folks that we now call friends. Most of all we experienced first hand how many good and caring people are involved in this sport. From the competitors, contest organizers, judges and reps, almost everyone displays the same, “what can I do to help you?” attitude. Even though they compete against each other on a regular basis, they are always quick to help one another anytime the need arises. When you are at a contest, it’s like a huge family cookout. The only difference is, there is more than the usual amount of drunken Uncles attending. To me, it doesn’t matter if you win or loose, I am just glad to be there, and proud to be a part of the BBQ community.

Part 12 –Diamond State BBQ Championship, Dover DL Oct 19-20, 2007

Dover Blows and they aren’t kidding!

I could not believe it was October already. It seemed like just yesterday we were doing the test cook in my driveway. The summer had flown by, I guess because I was so busy. Oh well, it was time to get ready for what would be our last contest of the season. Bobby was out of town on vacation and would not make the trip to Dover, we would miss him.

The contest would be held in the infield at Dover Downs Racetrack. This is a track that hosts the NASCAR teams twice a year for a race. The BBQ teams set up on the pads where the NASCAR drivers park their campers when they are in town. Each site has its own hookup for water, electric and sewage. A very nice setup.

We had everything in the trailer that we needed and those items pretty much stayed put. I did like to look things over and make sure we had everything before we took off. We kept a list in the trailer during contests, when we found we needed something, we would note it on the list. I would check the list and get the needed items, if possible, before the next event. One exception was after Bel Air, Bobby noted that we needed an RV, I think we will hold off on that purchase for a little while.

Responsibilities at my new job would prevent me from taking the entire day off on Friday. Erich and Mike came by around 9:00 AM and hooked up the trailer to head for Dover Downs. They would meet up with Al out on Route 95 and make the trip together. I would take off as soon as I could. We did not have time to trim the meat beforehand, so the trimming would have to be done on site.

I worked in the office until around 11:30 before I was able to sneak away for the weekend. Around 2:30, when I arrived, the boys had the site set up and everything was in great shape. Mike and I began to prep the meat, we had decided on one extra butt and brisket along with two additional slabs of spares in addition to the amount we had been cooking. The prep work would take a little longer than usual, but we had time.

Mistakenly, I had packed only one boning knife in the case that I carry to each contest. I do not think I will make that mistake again. I had other knifes in the case, but it’s hard to make time trimming with a slicing knife, lest you would like to add a little fillet-O-finga into the mix. Believe me, I have a hard enough time working with the proper sharp knife without requiring a transfusion, as the nicks and scars on my ageing digits will bear witness to. So needless to say, having only one boning knife, and now with additional meat, we were a little behind on our prep work.

Chris, from IQUE, was flying solo this weekend and was next door to us. Believe me when I tell you, doing a contest is a lot of work when you have four others helping, I can’t imagine doing one alone. I had corresponded with Chris several times on various BBQ forums but had never met him in person. After introducing myself, I asked him to join us for dinner.

Steve was also cooking this contest. He was working with Jack McDavid of Jacks Down Home and was set up not far away. I told him to be sure and stop by for some chili and a shot of agave juice, which, in the tradition of my mentor, we now kept on hand in the trailer for just such occasions.

Erich and Al attended the cooks meeting and collected the boxes. We finished with the trim work by early evening and then enjoyed a fine dinner of chili, cornbread and sweet corn on the cob, the last of the summer, prepared by Al. A nice dinner, a couple of beers, a fine cigar, a few laughs, it was starting out to be a very enjoyable night.

The weather around these parts can be very unsettled in the month of October. It can be cool, you might even see a heavy frost in the later days or a possible snow flurry. You may have to switch the air conditioning back on, as some October days can be down right hot. Of course, the transitional days between these differing weather systems can always be a little exciting.

So far this year had been fairly mild, we really had not seen any sign of fall and or winter as of yet. On Friday we were wearing short pants and tee shirts, the nights were cool, but the daytime temps were very enjoyable. On Friday afternoon, the weatherman was calling for a front to move through the Delaware area, with a possibility of severe storms accompanied by strong and gusty winds. We took the normal precautions when setting our site and anchored our canopies down with five gallon buckets filled with water. During the afternoon and evening, I tried to keep things in the storage boxes in case we had to move into the trailer due to rain.

Folks that cooked this contest the year before talked about the wind and how strong it blew on Friday that year. I had seen pictures of some of the damage, it did not look like fun. One competitor even coined the expression, Dover Blows, in reference to the winds, of course. Around 10:00, I spoke to Jo on the phone. She was watching the Weather Channel and said that it looked like we were about to be clobbered. I will never tell her, but I wish for once I had listened to her, please, keep this between us, and do not tell her. I looked up at the sky, no lightning, no thunder, a few stars, just a slight breeze out of the south, nah, we would be all right, lets go visiting.

We were about 200 yards from our site at the first stop on our meet and greet tour. We found the Pequea boys visiting at another site and we stopped in hopes of scoring a few cherries. While we stood talking, a slight breeze came and lifted the canopy we were next to and dropped it on the road. We all grabbed a post and tried to remove the nylon to prevent the thing from sailing off again, the breeze was still increasing. We had more or less stabilized this canopy, when we noticed the wind was still getting stronger.

Hadn’t we better get back to check on our site? As soon as we started walking in that direction, the wind really started to blow. I looked across the infield and could see multiple canopies taking flight, along with dirt, dust, cooler lids, coolers, paper towels, and anything else that was not anchored down, along with a few things that were. I am not sure, but I think I saw Mrs. Gulch and Dorothy sail by, Auntie Em, Auntie Em! We all began to run in hopes of preventing damage to our site. I was a little concerned that someone was going to be hit by the flying debris. For a while, it was down right scary. The wind was ripping through the aluminum bleachers making a tremendous rumbling sound. It sounded like the benches were about to break off and join the aerial bombardment. I hoped they stayed put.

We arrived at our site just in time and were able to remove the nylon coverings from our two larger canopies before they lifted off. The smaller canopy over our cookers was not as lucky and already went for a ride, laying in a twisted pile against the chain link fence to the rear of our site. Other than a brief shower, it never really rained at all. Almost a quick as it had started, the wind began to subside, the damage already done.

I made a quick assessment of our situation, which really was not that bad. Power restored to the Guru, the cooker was working. We set off to see if we could lend a hand to the others around us that did not fair as well. Property damage seemed to be abundant, the EZ-UP folks would be happy, as numerous canopies were headed for the dumpster. Thank God no one was hurt.

I had heard that a few teams packed up after the storm and left, but I do not know for sure. What I do know is the people that were not hit hard went around and helped those that were. Even people that had minimal damage were out helping those with more extensive damage. “What do you need?” was a question that I most heard that evening, as teams helped each other, lending equipment, supplies, cookers, what ever it took. I, for one, was very impressed by the way that folks came together after the storm, it made me very proud to be a part of this community called BBQ.

The wind subsided, the stars came out and by 2:00 AM, it was an enjoyable night. The rest of the team bunked down for the night while I sat up and had a few more beers. From my spot, with the huge lights over the infield, I could see the smoke from all of the cookers wafting by, what a sight. Life is good.

Morning arrived, unfortunately, a free breakfast was not on the schedule. I understood the contest organizers had put out a nice spread for the cooks meeting that I did not attend. Al and Erich must have forgotten to tell us about that, they surely did not return with any carryout bags. We enjoyed a continental breakfast of coffee and Danish, in house, it was not too bad.

Erich, the fill-in runner, timed the walk to the turn in area to be about two minutes. We would have to be careful with the time. The turn ins went very smoothly as the guys worked very well as a team, many times anticipating the next step and moving forward to get things ready. When we would finish with an item for the day, it was washed and put away. A well oiled machine might be a bit over the top to describe our team at this point, but we were definitely getting with the program, the guys had really come together to move as one. I was sad that this would be the last contest of the season.

After the site was pretty much broken down, I thought I would walk over and see how Steve and Jack were doing. While on the way to their site, I found them behind the RV that belonged to Tuffy Stone from Cool Smoke. Tuffy was last years Grand Champion in this event and has scored numerous wins during his time on the BBQ circuit. Steve waved me over and I found myself in a conversation with three BBQ greats. The talk was about how the turn-ins went and about past contests, I didn’t have much to offer to the conversation when I noticed another fellow headed our way. “Who’s buying the ice cream?” asked Johnny Trigg, a legend in the BBQ world, as he joined the group for a little pre awards banter.

Let me set the scene for you, four guys with who knows how many contests and Grand Championships between them and one fat guy with his jaw hanging open, a large cranium, and BBQ sauce on his shirt, standing in a circle discussing their turn-ins. The fat guy, by the way, has not won a single Championship, is cooking in his forth contest and can barely win an argument with his wife. What was I doing here? At least I was not slobbering that I knew of, babbling yes, but I do not think I slobbered. I had nothing to offer that made any sense, when I could get my mouth to work, nothing would come out, an extreme rarity for me, as anyone that knows me would tell you. Steve tried to involve me in the discussion, but to no avail, it was not his fault, I was mortified. I couldn’t string two words together to make a sentence, I even had trouble trying to produce a coherent thought. The only thought in my mind was, how do I get myself out of here? Finally, the pause I had been waiting for, I spun on my heel and hobbled away, tail between my legs, a broken man. I did not hear it, but I am sure someone had to say as I walked away, “what’s up with that guy?” At least that’s what I would have said. For once in a very long time, I didn’t have anything to say, a rarity, that’s for sure. Somebody notify the press and call me a doctor.

I stumbled back to our site only to find everyone had left to go to the awards, good, that would give me a chance to gather my thoughts and make up a story about where I had been. Surely I could not be honest and tell the whole story about how the cat had gotten my tongue, could I? Speechless, that’s not me.

I located the gang at the awards and it was not long before the fun began. Eighty-three teams were present and they would be calling from tenth place up. Chicken, ribs, and pork came without a mention of our name. I knew it would happen, it was bound to, I just wished that it wouldn’t. A contest without a call, no big deal, look around at who was here, some pretty stiff competition.

Brisket category, tenth through second, no call. First place goes to…….a pause…..”who are those guys?”…. Wow, a first place in brisket, can you believe that one, I know I couldn’t. I had barely settled back into my seat when they started on the overall winners. Seventh place would be ours. I tried to get the others up, but they wouldn’t budge, I was happy to walk again and had completely forgotten about my earlier brush with awkwardness at the BBQ roundtable.

We had worked to improve our pork and must have done something right, as we took 11th place pork, just one position from getting a call. Chicken was 48th and ribs finished 31st, a solid showing overall in a large, deep and talented field.

Dover was our forth and final contest of the season, we would all agree, we had a heck of a run during our rookie year. We learned a lot and met many very nice people, all the while having a good time ourselves. We still have a lot to learn and many mistakes yet to make, some I am sure we will make over and over again. However, as long as you have good friends, cold beer, a little grub, and a warm fire, who could ask for anything more?

Part 10- August 10-11 2007

The Bel Air BBQ Bash
Or
Cooking a contest and having 125 people in for dinner the night before

The Bel Air Bash is where it all began back in 2004 when we cooked the tailgater challenge. We had never competed on the professional side and looked forward to doing so this year. As I said before, this was our hometown contest, so that made it a little more special. I have a habit of running off at the mouth on occasions, as many who know me will attest to, and this time it was no different. It seemed everywhere I went, when the topic of the Bel Air cook off came up, I would say, be sure to stop in and see us Friday night. The only problem this created was that many folks were looking forward to stopping in. Oh well, what is the big deal, having a few friends drop by on Friday for a beer or a bite to eat, how much trouble could it be? I could not help thinking about the immortal words of George Costanza, “not that there’s anything wrong with that”.

While contemplating what we were going to prepare for Friday evening I started to try and get a rough count of how many folks MIGHT be stopping by. This task became too intimidating and I just gave up, it looked to be a lot. I had better be sure and trim up all of the contest meat at home on Thursday, as Friday night could get a little hectic. You are allowed to trim your meat ahead of time, you just can not apply any seasonings or sauces until after the meat is inspected. I decided to do a couple of pork butts ahead of time and then pull them for BBQ sandwiches on Friday. Sweet corn was running good and we could do a few dozen ears. Along with a couple of store bought sides and we were in business. We could always lay in a couple more cases of beer. No big deal.

When Mike stopped over on Thursday evening to help with the trimming he was asking how many people would be at our site. I thought at this time it was best to dummy up and do another pork butt just in case. I think by the time that he left, he had a good idea that there might more than a few stopping by to visit on Friday evening, but he didn’t get that from me!

Friday morning around 9:00 Mike and I loaded up and took off for the 15 minute drive to the town of Bel Air. I figured we would be arriving early and would have no trouble getting into our spot. When we arrived at the contest site, the place was just about full. Most everyone was already in place and it seemed we were almost late. It was a good thing that Mike was there to back in the trailer. It was a very tight fit and would have taken me two weeks to get it into position. How about that, we lived the closest and were the last to arrive, go figure. My son Sam and his girlfriend Megan helped us set up the site. After everything was set, Mike and I returned home to get a shower as it was very humid which is typical for August in Maryland.

On my way back to Bel Air I stopped for some more beer and last minute items including the garnish we would need for the turn-in boxes. As the afternoon wore on the guys on the team dribbled in one by one. Al stopped on the way and picked up the banner which we unveiled as soon as he arrived, we all thought that it looked great. As the afternoon progressed, we prepped the meat for cooking and retuned it to the cooler while also readying things for our visitors.

It was not long before people started to stop by. I have to say, the evening went very smoothly with the help of the team members. Everyone chipped in which made it easy for everyone as no one person was over worked. At some point late in the afternoon, I heard a strange voice while I was trimming the beef ribs, “hey you bum!” I looked up to see my friend Steve Farin. Earlier in the week, I had spoken to Steve, as he did not enter the contest this year and he said he did not think he would make it down from his home near Boston. He decided at the last minute to come and cook with his friend Jack McDavid of Jacks Down Home BBQ. It was great seeing Steve and he said he would stop by later for a nightcap.

Later in the night, after the big meats went on, we finally had a minute to sit around and relax. We tried to estimate the number of people that had stopped in and the number just keep growing, let us just say that it was “a lot”. We sat at the table, had some laughs, then walked around to the sites visiting with the other teams. We stopped in and saw the Dizzy Pig gang. Chris let us have a seat in his Dads rocking chair to take in some good vibes, we will take all the good vibes that we can get.

Our neighbors Jim and Mark of Pequea Pullers offered us some of their legendary soaked cherries, they could be considered habit forming, (the cherries that is). We had just met these two that morning and found them to be super friendly. Having just met them at 9:30 AM, by evening, it was as if we had known them for years, a very frequent occurrence on the BBQ trail we would discover. One thing about these two guys, every time I looked over at them, they were either sitting in their chairs watching the world go by, or the chairs were empty and they would be out visiting, with there ever-present jar of cherries. They really have this game figured out. Compared to them, we appear to be rushed and always behind, with not much time to sit and watch, but we were getting better.

We also stopped and spoke with Bill from Just Smoken Around. They had been at the Landover contest and won the Grand Championship, but we never got to meet them in person. We stopped in, introduced ourselves and spent some time talking Que with Bill and the boys. Another real nice bunch.

It was not long before the ole eyes were getting heavy and it was time to bed down for the night. Al and Erich set up their cots and Bobby opted to attempt to sleep on a lounge chair. We had a weak cool front come through just around sundown and the air was cool for August, Bobby did not bring along any blankets and I do not think he will make that mistake again. I had an extra in the Hotel Tahoe that I let him use, but I think he was a little chilly all night long. I had set up my cot in the trailer near the cooker and tried to get some sleep. A great mystery still exists to this day as to where Mike bunked down for the night. He will swear that he slept in his truck over in the event parking lot, but rumor has it that he slid home and racked out in his bed. Who could blame him, it was not necessary for everyone to have a lousy nights sleep, was it? Mikes story is he slept in his truck and hes sticking to it.

One thing I noticed at this contest was the proliferation of the BBQ Guru. There were a lot more teams (50) at this event than at the first one we did at Landover (16). It seemed like everyone has a Guru. While lying in the trailer attempting to get some sleep, I must have gotten up five times during the night because I heard a Guru alarm going off. When I looked at our cooker, I would find that it was always someone else’s alarm and not ours. Our Tall Boy was just chugging along.

I jokingly complained to Shotgun Fred, the maker of the Guru, the next day, too many teams were using his product and all of the alarm noise was confusing. I made a suggestion; you know all of the annoying ring tones that they have included on cell phones, why not include different ring tones on the Gurus. That way, each team would select a different tone to be able to tell them apart. Somehow, I do not think he is moving on it. I can see it now, just what we need, our alarm singing “Strangers in the Night” or better yet “Smoke gets in your Eyes” in the middle of an all night cook, hmmmmm maybe in a couple of years he will get back to me about my suggestion, but then again, maybe not. I do not think I will be holding my breath even though I think it is a good idea.

Around daybeak, I got up to get the ribs on. Bobby was also up and made a note to his self to purchase a cot and sleeping bag before the next event. The lounge chair and borrowed blanket did not make the grade as far as he was concerned. The rest of the morning was uneventful until Mike drifted in and the inquisition began. We had many laughs and even involved Mike’s wife Linda when she arrived later in the morning.

We were cooking the add on category of beef ribs at this contest. A local supplier, Deer Creek Beef, donated the racks to the teams that wanted to enter this category. They would be an additional item and not count towards the regular KCBS contest. I had planned to cook the beef ribs and weeks before had bought several racks to cook at home in an attempt to make something eatable out of them. I find beef ribs to be a little too fatty and not very meaty for my liking. Nevertheless, I had a plan for how to prepare them and that was what we would do.

Chicken was first, as usual, and things ran along smoothly until it came time for the ribs to be cut. Wouldn’t you know it, I cut the first rack wrong AGAIN. You would think I would learn, but noooooo, at least this time I caught it before I screwed up the whole bunch. After ribs, the pork again was a little over cooked for me, but we did the best with what we had. The brisket seemed OK and the beef ribs also came out good, a little better than I had thought they would. The hardest thing was getting six of those dinosaur bones into a turn-in box. It took a little creativity, but we got them in and they didn’t look too bad.

We broke down the site with the help of our guests and wondered down to the stage for the awards. Bobby had to hit the road early due to a previous commitment and asked that we call him if we had any good news. There were 50 teams here and the organizers decided to call from eighth place up. They called the beef ribs category first and we heard our name called for third place. I walked up to receive the trophy from the Harford County Executive David Craig. Unfortunately, for us, it was the last time that I would shake hands with Mr. Craig on that August afternoon, as we did not get any more calls to the stage. We were very happy with our beef ribs call as the field here included many top-flight teams from around the country.

The day got a little brighter after we received the complete scoring breakdown. We had finished 20th place overall out of 50 teams, 25th place chicken, 35th place ribs, 18th place pork, and best of all 10th place brisket. Our overall score was a very solid showing considering the size and depth of the field that was present. We had also received some good news five days before the Bel Air Bash, a team had dropped out of New Holland and we would get the spot. The contest was in two weeks. I guess that was good news; there would be 72 teams at New Holland, which included many of the big names that were here at Bel Air and then some. Oh well, go big or go home, isn’t that what “they” say……. Do me a favor, if you ever find out who “they” are, let me know, I have a few things I would like to go over with them.

Part 9- Summer 2007

The Banner
or
Where in the hell is Street Maryland?

For the geographically challenged, Street Maryland is about 10 miles north of Bel Air, about five miles from the Pennsylvania line. A check with Wikipedia tells us:

Street, Maryland, 21154 is a rural unincorporated area in Northern Harford County, Maryland. The latitude of Street is 39.668N. The longitude is -76.379W. It is in the Eastern Standard time zone. Elevation is 525 feet. Street was first settled by Dutch immigrants in the early 1700s. The community was named for Thomas Street, a landowner. One of the central villages in Street is Highland. The village had a station stop on the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad which served the farms within the area until it ceased passenger service in 1954 and ceased freight service in 1958. The post office for Street, Maryland is located in the village of Highland. The village was once home to Highland High School which later became Highland Elementary School. Highland Elementary School was shut down when the North Harford Elementary School was opened. The large building has other community purposes now, including the alternative Highlands School, Mason-Dixon Community Service, Highland Senior Center and the Street post office.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street,_Maryland.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Street,+MD,+United+States+of+America&ie=UTF8&ll=39.67707,-76.381073&spn=0.242044,0.462799&z=11&iwloc=addr&om=1

So now, you know.

Our next contest was scheduled for the first part of August in Bel Air, very close to home. It would be almost 2 ½ months, that seems like a long time off, but it looked to be a very busy time. I do a little backyard catering for friends and family members. I had four weekends already committed in addition to a scheduled graduation party at my house for my youngest son Sam in late June. It would not be a very relaxing time.

The newly collected hardware from the Landover contest became a permanent fixture in the BBQ trailer. Several members of the team help me out with the catering gigs and we were always sure to display the two new trophies when we set up our cooking site. We had a lot of fun telling the story about our first contest to anyone that would listen. We would put out a good spread that might include anything from pit meats to pulled pork and anything in between. The folks really seemed to enjoy our food and listening to our tales of BBQ conquests, or should I say BBQ conquest (singular). Even though we were brand new team, we still had a lot of fun with it.

When you schedule four catering events, a graduation party and a week long family vacation, a 2 ½-month layoff goes by in a hurry. I was working on getting a team banner made. A friend of ours, Roger Parrish is a good artist and had expressed a willingness to help us with the creation of the banner. He said that he would do the preliminary drawing based on what I wanted. Roger and I met for lunch and I went over the different ideas that I had. He made some suggestions and said he would get right on it.

It was not long before Roger called and said he would drop off two sketches that he had done for the team banner. I looked them over and liked them both. (thanks Roger!) After some consultation with the family, I decided on one and dropped it off at the sign shop. I had given the sign folks a few additions to the sketch and of course, they also had had a few ideas, it was a real group effort. I just hoped that it would be ready for Bel Air.

The one thing I wanted on the banner was a reference to my home area of Street Maryland. Since I moved here in 1991, I think I had heard just about every reaction to the name of our zip code imaginable. The most often heard was, “where is Street Maryland?” I had even heard it from other people that lived in Harford County. I will agree that it is an unusual name, coupled with the fact that there is no real town named Street. It is the name of an area, and a large area at that. With no city or town that can be referenced, it almost begs to question, “where IS Street?”

In honor of the relatively unknown name of our post office up here in Northern Harford county, I asked the sign shop to have the running chicken asking the obvious question that a lot of folks might have, “where in the hell is Street Maryland?” The banner is a real hit when we travel to contests. I have seen many folks taking pictures and pointing at the characters displayed. It also serves as a real ice breaker as many people will come forward and say “I know where Street Maryland is” or they might ask the inevitable question, “where IS Street Maryland?” Either way, it is a great conversation starter and a great way to meet people!

Part 8- Landover Maryland 5/18-5/19

Our first contest, the quest for a plastic pig begins.

Other team members did not take to the new name as I had hoped they would. “That’s our name?” and “you’ve got to be kidding” were some of the nicer responses that I heard. Even after I explained the Butch Cassidy connection, I was still getting funny looks. I guess it was to be expected, the name being a little different and all, but I felt confident that it would grow on them as it had me. Just give it a little time I thought, we still had time to make a change if we had to.

The date for our first contest was fast approaching and before I knew it, there it was. Mike ordered the meat, I had been over the trailer a dozen times checking, and rechecking to make sure we would have everything we would need. Al was in charge of the Friday night feed, he whipped up a pot of potato soup, and brought along some bratwurst, one thing was for sure, we would eat well.

Al is the senior member of our team and a very fine home cook. I had asked if he would mind taking charge of the Friday night feed and he enthusiastically agreed. This is a great help as there are many things to do prior to a cook-off and any time some of the responsibility is shifted elsewhere, it is a good thing. Al had recently bought himself a new Harley Davidson, which displays the vanity tag “olefool” as his license plate. There seems to be some debate as to where the handle came from originally. Rumor has it that it was a name coined by his wife Pete, when Al rolled home on his new wheels, “look what that ole fool went and bought!” she was heard to say.

The only thing we were missing was some tunes. I took along some CD’s and decided to stop on my way down the road and buy a CD player. Most of the guys worked a half a day on Friday and somewhere around noon we were all headed south for the one hour or so drive to Landover.

This was the first year for this contest and I was not sure how many other teams would be attending. I knew of at least two other contests, one in Pennsylvania and the other in Virginia scheduled for the same weekend. This would surely split up the teams that would be available to cook this weekend.

When we arrived, John the contest rep met us. I told him this was our first contest and he said if there was anything we needed, just let him know. He made us feel very welcome, explained the meat inspection and stopped by several times to make sure things were OK. As it turned out, there were sixteen teams present for this contest. Not a large turnout, but certainly a respectable number for a first time contest. We did not know any of the other teams that were present with the exception of Brett Brown from Free Range BBQ who was one of our neighbors.

Once we had our meat inspected, we started the prep work. I had made some notes of how we wanted to season our different meats and with a good team effort, got our meat trimmed, rubbed and into the cooler ready to go into the smoker. We had one packer brisket, one brisket flat, 2 pork butts, 25 pieces of chicken and 4 racks of spare ribs. This is a lot of meat, when you consider you are only handing in enough for six judges to get a taste. Extra meat is cooked in the event that some of the product is not as good as you want it to be.

With all the meat ready to go into the smoker, it was time to kick back and relax a bit. We dined on Al’s potato soup and bratwurst, it really hit the spot as the night air was chilling down and the soup was very warm. We had Muddy Waters and Charlie Brown on the CD player and all was well in the world, at least it was pretty good in our little corner of Landover Maryland that night. After dinner, Bobby passed around a couple of fine cigars and with a few beers, we capped off a very relaxing evening.

It was not long and it was time to fire up the Tall Boy and get it up to temperature. We loaded the firebox with charcoal and lit it off. Before I knew it, we were up to 225 and ready for meat. The big meats, (pork and brisket) go on first, and then you have a couple of hours to get a little shuteye before the ribs go in.

Mike had brought along a lazy boy recliner that he had set up at the site. We moved it into the trailer for the night and that was were Mike slept. The name “lazy boy” was born. Bobby and Al slept in their trucks and I checked into the hotel Tahoe. Erich erected a cot under the canopy and racked out there, that guy can sleep anywhere. Bobby insisted that he could not sleep in a vehicle, however, we had to send in a wake up service the next day to roust him up for breakfast. So much for not sleeping well in a vehicle.

Personally, I do not sleep well at a contest, as I was up several times during the night checking on the cooker. The alarm on the Guru sounded a few times and I was bunked closest to the cooker. At some point before sunrise, one of our butts was done. Needless to say, it was a little early. It was wrapped and dropped into the cooler to be held until needed. The other meats were cooking along nicely. The ribs were inserted at the proper time. As other meats finished, they were transferred to the cooler to be held until turn in.

While sitting around having our morning coffee I thought this would be a good time to have a team meeting. I went over the duties and tasks that were ahead and outlined how I thought that they should be handled. Bobby volunteered to run the boxes to the judges table and was henceforth known as “the runner”. I also went over our team expectations. We all wanted to do well and I knew that as a group we would do the best that we could. I just wanted everyone to know no matter how we did, that we should not be disappointed if we did not get a call to the stage, this was our first contest after all. We would give it our best and see what happens. Everyone agreed for once, as we anxiously awaited the first turn in which was chicken.

Erich had prepped the boxes and with our eyes on the clock we loaded the chicken into its box for turn in with time to spare. Ribs were next, our ribs looked good but a mistake cutting two racks into individual ribs by yours truly added a little excitement into what had so far been a very smooth morning. I finished cutting the remaining ribs correctly and we laid them all out on the cutting boards and tried to decide which we would turn in. The correctly cut ribs did not look half as good as the ones that I had botched. After we tasted and bickered, we decided to go ahead with one of the racks that I had “miss-cut”. Of course, I would like to blame the cutting malfunction on anyone else but me, unfortunately, I had to take the heat, as I was the one holding the knife.

The ribs made it to the judges with a few minutes to spare but I could tell by everyone’s reaction that we had cut it close. Pork was next, I was not happy at all with our pork butt. I felt that it was all over cooked and mushy. Mike and I did what we could, pulling what we thought to be the better stuff from both butts and assembling some selected bark sections to begin to build our box. The box was completed and Bobby took it to the table. It seemed for a minute or two that we were back on schedule.

We then broke out the brisket. We took a center slice from the ones we had cooked and debated on which was the better product. After lengthy discussion, it was decided and we began to build our brisket box. I do not know what happened to the time, but before I knew it, we were into our last 5 minutes. I finished just in time and took off across the grounds towards the judges. They could see me running and yelled to me to slow down as I had plenty of time. I dropped the box at the table with a good 45-50 seconds to spare, a little too close to being disqualified for me.

Nevertheless, we had gotten all of our meats in on time and with the exception of just a few glitches, things went off very well. We talked about our turn ins as we broke down the site, packed up the trailer and awaited the awards set for 4:00.

With only sixteen teams in the contest, the organizers decided to call the top five in each category. As we walked to the awards area, I again told the guys that they had done a great job and not to be discouraged if we did not hear our team name called. The awards are in the same order as turn-ins starting with chicken. The award for second place chicken goes to “who are those guys?” You could have knocked me over with a feather, unbelievable, I was floored, I think we all were. A call for chicken in our first contest, we were on cloud nine. I walked up to receive the trophy and floated back to the team as they stood clapping and beaming with smiles all around. Can you believe this? We were amazed.

We stood, clapped and congratulated the others on their calls and looked at each other in shock. Pork and ribs came and went without hearing our name again but it did not matter, we had a trophy for 2nd place chicken and that is all we needed. Brisket, the final category, and second place goes to “who are those guys?” Did he say us again? Flabbergasted was the only word that comes to mind. Two calls in our first contest, you would have thought we had just won a world championship.

As we walked back to the vehicles for the ride home, I think we were all in shock. We had finished 6th place in a 16 team field.When we split up, I thanked everyone for their efforts and promised to send the scoring breakdown that is given out after each contest by the judges. I would make copies and mail everyone their own.

While on the ride home I called Jo to tell her how we did, she too was amazed as was just about everyone else. I was thinking back over the events of the past 28 hours or so and realized that we had done very well for our first outing. Not a huge field of teams, but two second place calls and sixth place overall was a decent showing.

Our pork was the anchor this time and in rethinking the final stages of the prep for the pork, I made the realization that I had not sauced our entry. While some teams submit an un-sauced box, the plan for us was to sauce our pork and I had forgotten to do that part. Our pork finished 13th place out of 16. Three teams did not submit a pork box. I think that our pork box could be considered for the not so coveted DAL award for the pork category in the contest. In case you are wondering what the DAL award is, I will enlighten you, DAL equals dead-ass last. My mistake, enough said. Rest assured that I have not, to this day, heard the end of this, nor should I. Our miss-cut ribs had finished a respectable sixth, nothing wrong with that.

We had worked very well together as a team, had a few laughs, ate some good food, met new friends, gotten two calls and just had a good time all around. I could not help thinking back to what I had read on one of the BBQ forums that I visit, it is hard to believe how much time and money a person will spend to win a $4.99 trophy with a plastic pig on it, words of wisdom there. I do not know how others feel, but for us, that plastic chicken and cow were priceless.

Sunday morning as Jo and I were having breakfast at home with the boys, I got a surprise call from Steve. He wanted to know what the name of our team was because he had been reading the Forum and saw the results from Landover posted on line. I told him the name we had chosen and he congratulated us on our results.

The guys on the team could not wait for our next contest which was scheduled for August in Bel Air. Wait a minute, did you say August? That is two and a half months away, we would probably forget how to cook BBQ by then, I hope not.

Part 6- My Vision

One out of two ain't bad

Chris from Dizzy Pig gave me some great advice about a year before as I spoke with him in New Holland 2006 about starting my own team, “get a group of folks that share your vision and you won’t go wrong”, he said. As simple as this concept seems, it is not always achievable. In our case, however, I think it was. I knew I had a good group of guys, as all were my friends for many years, but in addition to the friendships, everyone was excited about the idea in general. Everyone was looking forward to the upcoming season to see what we could learn and to see what this competition cooking was all about. In short, I think I had found four friends that shared my vision. I considered myself very fortunate.

As a part of my vision, I wanted to do a test cook at my house simulating contest conditions complete with turn in deadlines and a full load of contest meat at some point before our first official event. In addition, I thought it would be a good idea to set up a site as if we were at an event and do all of the prep work under contest conditions. One reason was to see how things flowed, the other was to try to make sure we would have everything we needed when we were on site. I was trying to eliminate and or reduce the bugs and or gremlins that might (would) arise at our first contest appearance. I planned to erect the easy ups, tables, the whole works, from the trailer, making a list if there were items we did not have on board, after all, when we were at a contest, we could not run into the garage to get something we had forgotten. I had cooked each of the meats separately in the preceding months. However, as of yet, I had not orchestrated a cook involving of all four meats at once as we would in a contest. Keeping in mind that in a contest, each category is due ½ hour apart, starting with chicken, ribs, pork then brisket. For each turn in, there is only a 10-minute window. I felt a trial run was a “must do” before attempting under contest conditions. The others felt the same and we picked a Saturday in early May for the test.

We picked 5:00 PM as the first turn in time on Saturday and we invited a few friends to drop by to act as the judges and help eat up the proceeds. I pulled out my notes and figured backwards from 5:00 to determine when the big meats would have to go into the cooker. Friday night I prepped all the meat in the kitchen with the help of Erich and Mike. So much for the plan to do it all outside, a busy day at work cancelled out the plan to set the site as we would at a contest. Oh well, we would do the best we could, maybe we would have time to set up a site in the morning.

At the appointed time early Saturday morning, I started the cooker and loaded the pork and brisket. As the day wore on, I checked on the meats and monitored the temperatures. When needed, the meats were wrapped and the ribs were started. Things rolled along pretty much on schedule. The only thing we did not get to was setting up the site. I had set up a few tables that I was using to cook and wrap the meats, but that was it. Site building would have to wait. As the meats finished, they were removed and placed into the cooler to be held until needed.

Al and Bobby could not make the test cook due to other commitments, so it would be Mike, Erich and I on our first run. When Erich arrived, I asked if he would be interested in prepping the boxes. He said that he would, and “the lettuceman” was born. I explained to him what Dale had shown me about the green lettuce used as a garnish in the boxes and he was off. Since this day, Erich has really taken to his job and responsibility. He went on line and looked at pictures of other teams boxes and read what information was available, all in the quest of the perfect box. His wife Sandy said one night over dinner, “why Erich, do you only aspire to be the lettuceman, when you could be so much more? You should set your sights much higher”. We have had many laughs and gotten a lot of mileage out of her question since that night, but the truth of the matter is, Erich has become very good at box preparation. He works to prep the boxes and have them ready in plenty of time before they are needed, he also assists during the box building for any last minute touch ups or alteration needed with the garnish. One third of the judges’ score is on the appearance of the product in the box, it is the first score given to the box when presented to the judges. It has been said that one eats with their eyes before their mouth, so needless to say, box presentation is very important to the overall outcome of the competition. We are very fortunate to have Erich as our “lettuceman”.

Mike, Erich and I worked to get the meats finished and into the boxes for the scheduled turn in times. I explained when I could, about what I was doing and why, as Mike and Erich have never been to a full KCBS contest turn in. We built the boxes and took pictures when we remembered and had everything in on time. After everything was in, we sampled all of our food along with our guests and everyone offered their opinions. This was very helpful to have the thoughts of other people on the foods we had prepared.

Overall, we were on time, our product was pretty good, it looked halfway decent and we had some fun, a pretty successful test run. Not bad for a first time cook of the 4 KCBS contest meats on a timed schedule, but I also thought, and there wasn’t much disagreement, we still had a long way to go. This was not a walk in the park, especially if we wanted to do well, we would definitely need some tweaking. As for the construction and layout of our site, it looks like we will be winging that one when we arrive at our first contest, I just hope we do not forget anything. Oh well, one vision out of two ain’t bad, we were batting 500 and had not even been to our first contest!

Everything was coming together, the team assembled, our schedule selected, we were gathering the needed equipment, we had our cooker, and had even cooked a full contest load of meat. We were ready to go, well almost, what was our team name? Inquiring minds wanted to know. This would require some thought. A team name, how hard could that be?