INSANE SWINE BBQ

The First Time Nothing Sucked

2011-08-18T11:55:00.003-04:00

The Mainely Grillin’ & Chillin’ competition in Eliot, ME is one of my favorite contests. I get a little sentimental when I think about our first ever barbecue call that happened at the inaugural MG&C. The call was 1^st in pork, and walking up to get our award for the very first time was as great as everyone said it would be…multiplied by 100.

While we’ve been doing pretty well lately with our grilling competitions, we haven’t hit our stride when it comes to barbecue. We have been in the top 10 quite a bit, but the top awards are eluding us. While it’s a great accomplishment to win any competition, I feel that more recognition and respect is given to those teams who win barbecue contests. Not to mention more money. Now that we have a Grand in grilling, it’s time to really focus on barbecue and earn top honors with that as well.

Fast forward to this past weekend. We got to Eliot quite a bit earlier than we usually do, arriving at around 2:30pm on Friday. Eric and Cindi of Yabba Dabba Que fame graciously let us borrow their 6X12 enclosed trailer, and it allowed us to pack everything much more quickly for this contest. Usually, I need to rearrange things several times to make everything fit in our Explorer and Civic. Then, Suzanne and I need to drive several hours in separate vehicles, usually arriving very late Friday evening. A big thanks to the Mitchells for making our lives much easier this time! And if anyone hears of a used trailer for sale in the New England area, please let us know (no larger than 6X12).

We got everything set up Friday afternoon, then we settled in and waited in anticipation for Fryday. For those of you who don’t know what Fryday is, you are missing out! Eric “Fry Daddy” Mitchell fires up his Cajun fryer and fries up all sorts of delectable golden goodness at a few competitions each year. On the menu that night: bell peppers, zucchini, onion rings, pop tarts, McDoubles, fresh clams (Patrick), and armadillo eggs (Bill). All battered and thrown into the fryer! We also contributed to the clogged-artery-cause by offering up some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some chocolate covered strawberries. My favorites were the McDoubles and pop tarts. And if that wasn’t enough, Leslie Lovely broke out her cheesecake for “dessert.” We ate way too much, as multiple trips to the porta potty on Saturday morning would attest.

On Saturday, there were two contests: the Wild Side Challenge and People’s Choice. We typically don’t do the People’s Choice contest, simply because we are usually busy doing other things…like the grilling competition. But since there was no grilling competition at this contest, we decide to do it. We were given two Smithfield boneless pork butts on Friday night, and were asked to turn them in at noon on Saturday. I got the butts rubbed and ready to go Friday afternoon. Then I made a last minute decision to cook them “hot and fast” on Saturday morning rather than doing the typical overnight cook. The product ended up fine, but I’ll stick to “low and slow.” We ended up in 5^th place out of 29 teams.

The Wild Side Challenge works like an Iron Chef competition where a secret ingredient is revealed and then teams have approximately 6 hours to turn in their dish. The secret ingredient was potatoes, which was no big surprise being in Maine. We decided to modify a recipe we had done several times before, making potatoes the main ingredient. The entry tasted amazing, but the appearance wasn’t as great as it could have been. Given a little more time, we could have done a better job with it but that’s part of the challenge! Still, we got 4^th place out of 27 teams. Congrats to Charlie and the Mighty Swine Dining team for winning top honors, and kudos to everyone who did such an amazing job with their entries. I saw some fantastic looking things on the way to the turn-in table.

The barbecue cooking on Saturday night and Sunday morning went pretty much according to plan. We had a few presentation issues, but nothing to be that concerned about. I won’t go into too much detail, but here is a quick rundown…

Overall – 6/40: Very good, considering the tough field.

Chicken – 15/40: We did a complete overhaul of the flavor profile, and like the way it turned out.

Ribs – 11/40: Scored a bit higher than expected.

Pork – 10/40: Scored a bit lower than expected.

Brisket – 5/40: Right on target.

We usually have at least one “problem” category that simply tanks (typically chicken or brisket). Not so this time around. Our chicken and brisket scores were our highest of the year and the ribs and pork were respectable. I’m going to do the same program next month and see if we get consistent scores. Congrats to our friends Mike and Kris from Lakeside Smokers on the GC and Wendy and Tim from Feeding Friendz on the RGC. It was a close one, with both teams receiving the exact same points total of 666.8566!

Not adjusting much for the barbecue competition will give us time to practice for the grilling competition next month. Even though we earned Reserve Grand Champion last year, I don’t like that the categories are exactly the same this year. One thing that makes grilling interesting is that the categories can vary wildly from competition to competition. But that’s how it is, and we will try to fix the things that didn’t work well last year.

See you in Harvard next month!

Western Maine BBQ Festival

2011-07-25T19:21:00.009-04:00

We arrived in Fryeburg, Maine later than we wanted to on Friday. I was rushing to get everything packed and we left the house around 2:30 rather than between 12:00 and 1:00 as we had planned. Of course, we hit much more traffic going north than we would have if we left earlier. Such is life in Massachusetts.

We finally arrived safe and sound and settled into our site right across from our good friends Eric and Cindi of Yabba Dabba Que. After a lobster dinner which was provided to teams by the organizers, we got our meat inspected for the grilling contest and finished settling in. We were both exhausted from all the running around and driving in traffic, so we called it an early evening and got a few hours of sleep. The heat was unbearable on Friday and Saturday, but that's something you have to deal with as a competition barbecue team.

The organizers couldn't have been better, and the facilities at the competition were excellent. It's always nice to have real bathrooms rather than porta potties and an added bonus was private, clean showers with hot water. Nothing feels better than a nice shower after sweating your nuggets off in 100 degree weather! The fairgrounds were great, and there were lots of interesting vendors to visit. This place also has a ton of room for growth. It could hold a hundred teams or more. For a first-year contest, the organizers did a fantastic job and I can't say enough good things about them. I don't know how they can improve upon things next year, but if there is a way to do it I'm sure they will!

The cooking for Saturday's grilling contest went well. Any time there is a chicken wing category I'm not happy. We also haven't cooked beef ribs very much, so we didn't know exactly what to expect. Here is a quick recap of the grilling results...

Overall: Grand Champion - This was our first ever Grand Champion call. We came close last year at Harvard's grilling competition, but just missed it. There is a great sense of accomplishment when you see all of the hard work and practicing pay off. What a thrill!

Chicken Wings: 1/20 - It's a little too soon to tell, but I think I'm finally figuring out this category. We will do them at the next contest and see if our good showing was a fluke in Maine.

Sausage: 16/20 - The judges didn't like anything about our sausage.

Beef Ribs: 1/20 - Thanks to Ted Lorson of Q Haven for the helpful cooking advice. I did the opposite of what you told me and things turned out great. Just kidding, buddy.

Dessert: 5/20 - Suzanne did a great job once again with the dessert. There was a lot of tough competition and high scores, as is usual for this category.

The cook for Sunday's barbecue contest went pretty much as planned. There were a lot more teams competing in the barbecue portion of the weekend, and I knew it was going to be difficult to repeat our previous day's success. Here is a quick recap of the barbecue results...

Overall: 7/38 - Much higher than I expected. After turn-ins, I felt the chicken was some of our best, the ribs and pork were both overdone, and the brisket was average. Shows you what I know...

Chicken: 22/38 - Totally revamping the chicken for our next competition in Eliot, ME. I don't have long to practice, but I'll make it happen. Something needs to be done before it costs us a Grand. I really thought the chicken was good this time.

Pork Ribs: 7/38 - I'll take it. I expected to be middle of the pack.

Pork: 5/38 - I'm glad the judges liked pork that was a bit overcooked. Luckily, it was still very moist. I always trust my butcher.

Brisket: 6/38 - I was pleasantly surprised to get 6th, and it's a major victory if you consider our last three brisket finishes were 29/35, 27/44, and 33/43. I'll go with this formula again and see how it does.

Thanks again to the great folks who worked so hard to make the Western Maine BBQ Festival a success. We will be back next year!

Let's Try This Again...

2011-07-14T16:58:00.002-04:00

Time to make a decision. Either post more and keep this blog going or shut it down. Posting only a few times a year isn’t going to hold anybody’s interest. It may be therapeutic if this was a private diary, but as a public blog it stinks.

Let’s give this another shot. I’m not going to promise to write X number of time per week, month, or year, but I’ll promise to post more often. And if I break my promise, I’ll shut it down.

We are in the midst of preparing for the grilling and barbecue competitions in Fryeburg, ME. It was a late decision to travel the 3+ hours up that way to compete. For the record, we have nothing bad to say about Harpoon. I wish everyone competing there the best of luck. I know everyone will have fun, as always! For us, the decision was between either judging at Harpoon or competing in Fryeburg. I convinced Suzanne that we should give Fryeburg a shot and see what happens. I know she would rather be judging at Harpoon, and I’ll definitely miss it too. But I’m excited to try something new, and I’m having fun practicing for the grilling categories.

The grilling categories are chicken wings, sausage, beef ribs, and dessert. Suzanne is handling the dessert category solo, as she did when we won first place in Harvard last year. She is coming up with some super ideas this time as well, and I’m having fun being more of a “consultant” than a cook. Suzanne is also helping with the sausage category, and I’ll tell you we are both entirely sick of eating sausage and chicken wings.

The chicken wing practicing is done. I’m trying something completely new with them, and I have no idea how the judges will score them. Time will tell. One thing I learned about chicken wings is to be very patient when grilling them.

Beef ribs are something I’ve cooked a grand total of one time in my life. Well, two times as of last week. Last week’s run was barely edible, so I’m trying something different with them tomorrow after work. We hope to be able to actually chew them this time. They felt like butter with the Thermapen. Dagnabit.

The barbecue portion is all set. I practiced the ever elusive chicken one more time, and I’m confident with the formula. Chicken has definitely improved for us, but it’s still the only barbecue category for which we haven’t gotten a call. In fact, we’ve gotten 1^st place calls in every other barbecue category. Hopefully that will change up north. I’m also hoping to get our brisket mojo back. I’m switching to a different product, and I’m confident we will do better. We can’t do much worse!

Besides the competitions, I had the pleasure of helping Jed Labonte and many others with the NEBS cooking class in May. It was a lot of fun, and I taught my group of students as if we were doing an actual competition. I didn’t hide anything…I did everything as I would normally do. It was very rewarding to see two of my students competing in their first KCBS competition at Peter’s Pond. Not only did they NOT finish DAL (Dead Ass Last, for you non-competitors), but they got a couple of calls and finished 15^th out of 35 overall on their first time out. Great job Deb and Gary. I’m proud of you guys!

For those who are interested in how the competitions have been going for us so far this year, here is a quick summary…

Snowshoe (Grilling)

7^th out of 24 overall

Strip Steak – 3^rd

Pork Tenderloin – 18^th

Sausage Fatty – 11^th

Chef’s Choice – 6^th

Rose City (Grilling)

3^rd out of 18 overall

Chef’s Choice – 2^nd

Chicken – 3^rd

Sausage – 3^rd

Pork – 10^th

Cape Cod (BBQ)

7^th out of 35 overall

Chicken – 12^th

Ribs – 1^st (first 1^st in ribs for us!)

Pork – 3^rd

Brisket – 29^th (ouch, but expected…it was awful)

More after Fryeburg!

Looking Forward to the 2011 Season

2011-02-15T09:56:00.004-05:00

With the Snowshoe coming up in less than a month, I think it's safe to say the competition season is right around the corner. It can't get here soon enough...the winter has been brutal here in New England.

It looks like all the popular kids are starting to post their 2011 grilling/barbecuing competition schedules, so here is the Insane schedule (subject to change):

March 12: Snowshoe Grilling Challenge in Abington, MA (grilling)

May 7: Norwich Rotary Rose BBQ Festival in Norwich, CT (grilling)

June 10-12: Cape Code BBQ Championship in Sandwich, MA (barbecue)

July 23-24: Western Maine BBQ Festival in Fryeburg, ME (grilling and barbecue)

August 12-14: Mainely Grillin' & Chllin' Country BBQ in Eliot, ME (barbecue)

September 17-18: Harvard Fall Festival in Harvard, MA (grilling and barbecue)

So it's looking like eight contests, if you break out grilling and barbecue. I'd love to do Lexington, Troy, and a slew of others. If I had unlimited time and money, I'd be signing up for every contest in New England and beyond. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen, so we have to pick the handful of venues that work best for us in terms of time and money.

The Snowshoe practicing is coming along. Steak and fatty are all set and we are in the final stages of pork tenderloin testing. Chef's choice is a bit of a question mark at this point. We have a few ideas, so we need to get busy in the outdoor test kitchen and try some things out.

2010 Barbecue Retrospective

2010-12-22T11:14:00.004-05:00

Some moments to remember from this year in barbecue...

Snowshoe: First Place Fatty - My first solo competition...not something I want to make a habit of. Damn it was a lot of work. But getting first place in fatty was a big thrill after getting fifth the previous year. I think I've got this fatty thing figured out.

Peter's Pond: First Place Brisket - My first ever call in brisket. I'm really hoping to get a few more beautiful briskets at the meat market like the one I had at Peter's Pond. What a thrill.

Harvard Fall Festival: RGC in Grilling - It was as close to a GC as we've ever been at any competition. It was one of the few competitions where I was really happy with everything we put in the boxes. In fact, it may have been the only competition.

Frydays with the Mitchells - Eric and Cindi hosted "Frydays" at various contests this year. Eric fried up all sorts of great things in his Cajun fryer. Bacon, garlic, peppers, candy bars, and even hamburgers. They fried it all and satisfied the masses. Suzanne and I have really enjoyed these frydays. The one in Maine was particularly memorable.

Whole Hog for Charity with Uncle Jed - Assisting Jed with a whole hog at a WAAF charity event was a lot of fun, and it raised a ton of money for the Greg Hill Foundation.

NEBS Board of Directors - As an organization, I feel we are doing a lot of great things and moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, as with most volunteer organizations, there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done as quickly as we'd all like. Serving on the Board has been a lot of fun, but there is still a lot to be done. I'm looking forward to a productive, exciting year for NEBS in 2011.

There were also a few moments to forget. Chicken wings at grilling contests. Not getting my chicken turned in on time at Harvard. Actually, chicken in general. I'm seeing a theme here. So guess what I'm working on this winter? I was really disappointed that I missed the turn in at Harvard, because I had spent a lot of time practicing chicken and it was finally looking great. It was beautiful and tasty chicken in the end. Anyway, the issue will be fixed by Peter's Pond next year. You can count on it. We will place in chicken at Peter's Pond.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! See you all next year.

Harvard Fall Festival 2010 Recap

2010-09-20T11:53:00.002-04:00

Here is my Harvard Fall Festival recap…

NEBS Grilling

Chicken Wings

Rank: 7/19

Suzanne and I split up the categories for the first time. I took the wings and sausage and she took the seafood and dessert. Everyone knows how much I hate cooking chicken wings, but I figured since organizers continuously torture us by including wings in grilling contest, I’d better learn how to cook them well. Getting 7^th out of 19 teams doesn’t sound all that great, but I still consider it a victory. I thought the wings were pretty good, and I took a bit of a risk by making them spicier than usual. I can’t say that I’ll use this exact recipe again, but it’s a solid base for future wing categories. I doubt wings will ever go away.

Sausage (in casing only…no fatties)

Rank: 3/19

Another one of my categories. We don’t eat a lot of sausage, so we had to practice this one at home a few times with different types to see what we liked best. One type of sausage was our overwhelming favorite, so we went with that one. All organizers should include some type of sausage in their contests. That would make me very happy. Sausage is relatively cheap, easy to cook, and we seem to do well with it.

Seafood (Shrimp or Crayfish only)

Rank: 9/19

Suzanne took over creative duties for the shrimp category (because who in their right mind would do crayfish in New England?). She came up with a great idea, and we were pretty happy with our tests at home. The day of the contest, the entry didn’t really cook as well as we had hoped. So although we both still think it was a great concept, the execution was a bit lacking. Finishing in the top half was fine with us.

Dessert

Rank: 1/19

Suzanne came up with the concept for this one as well, and it was a great idea. I did a little recipe research and testing, but Suzanne was the one that decided on the final product. After practicing it a few times at home, we were happy with the outcome. The cooking process at the contest went according to plan, and it was the most “relaxed” turn-in of the day.

Judges, please don’t walk around after the contest and ask me “what did you make?” I find it very awkward. If you want to stop by and tell me what you liked after judging, that’s fine. In the past, I’ve been pretty open but from now on I’m not going to tell you what I made. Our “average” dessert took first place…so what did any of us really learn? Other than knowing that you almost cost us a perfect 180 score in this category.

Overall

Rank: 2/19 – Reserve Grand Champions

This was our first RGC call, and I have to admit it was great. The only thing better would have been to win Grand, but I Smell Smoke flexed their muscle once again and took that honor. It was a real team effort for us, and although these grilling competitions are fast-paced and stressful at times, we still had a lot of fun. We are already talking about our next grilling competition. Now if we could just get this barbecue thing figured out…

KCBS Barbecue

Chicken

Rank: 43/44

We didn’t get our chicken turned in on time. It was a learning experience and it won’t happen again. It isn’t against the rules to turn in raw meat, but I don’t feel it’s the right thing to do (especially with chicken). I didn’t feel it was safe, and as a judge I would be appalled to get raw meat. This has happened to me before, and it isn’t good. Not to mention it could affect the remaining teams' chicken entry scores for those at that judging table. As a judge, if you eat a piece of raw chicken how would you feel having to potentially take another bite of 5 other entries? I’d be worried that the others could be undercooked as well. Some other competitors would have turned in the entry in an effort to get all the points they possibly could, but we stick by our decision.

Ribs

Rank: 7/44

The ribs were done ahead of time (go figure), so we had to hold them for quite a while before turn-in. That didn’t seem to be an issue. They came out pretty good, and we got our best call of the contest with ribs. The ribs seem to be getting better and better, so I’m happy with that. We should continue to do well with them

Pork

Rank: 22/44

I’m a little surprised our pork didn’t do better. We both thought it was good. I thought it was just as good, or maybe even a little better, than our 5^th place finish at the same venue a year ago. To finish in the middle of the pack was a bit disappointing. Such is life. I’ll tweak a few things with the pork over the winter and see if that solves the pork mystery.

Brisket

Rank: 27/44

When you cut into a brisket, you pretty much know if it is going to be a winner or not. This was no winner. Unlike the pork, I knew brisket wouldn’t get us a call on this day. It wasn’t bad…it just wasn’t great. We finished about where I thought we would.

Overall

Obviously not turning in a category means we tanked overall in the barbecue contest. I’m going to revise our cook schedule to help improve the timing…not only of the chicken but for all categories in general.

Thanks to Ken and Kathie Dakai for once again being excellent contest representatives. Thanks also to Chris Ryan for again organizing this contest. We had a few minor issues with the contest this year, but nothing major which would prevent us from returning next year.

Congratulations to I Smell Smoke for winning the grilling contest and to Mighty Swine Dining for winning the barbecue contest by getting first place in 3 of the 4 categories. Absolutely amazing. Great job guys!

My Final Competition

2010-08-25T19:00:00.003-04:00

It's been great folks, but Harvard next month will be Insane Swine's final competition.

That is, until next year. :)

The Harvard Fall Festival was our first ever four-category competition, so that makes it a bit special to me. That was also the year it rained overnight Saturday and into Sunday, making our lives miserable while we waded around in the muck. Although my wife may disagree, it was still fun and I met a lot of great people at that contest. I was hooked.

But for most of us, it also marks the end of the barbecue competition year here in New England which is a little sad. It will be nearly 6 months before the next competition, usually the Snowshoe late in the winter. Those months seem to drag on forever.

So we need to make the most of Harvard. I can't believe it is only a few weeks away. We are pretty much all set in terms of practicing for the barbecue contest. I need to practice one thing with the chicken (big surprise), but everything else is good to go. There is also a four-category grilling contest on Saturday, and we have some practicing to do for that. I will take the chicken and sausage categories and Suzanne will be in charge of the seafood and dessert categories. This is the first time Suzanne will be taking two of the categories, and I'm really looking forward to it. She wants to be more involved in the actual cooking, and a grilling contest is a great way to start!

The Harvard Fall Festival is a really nice contest. Chris Ryan does a good job organizing it, Hazel's Farm is a great venue. There is usually a potluck for the teams on Saturday night which is a good time as well. I highly recommend it for those of you who are on the fence about competing there. Hope to see you all in Harvard!

Mainely Grillin' & Chillin' 2010

2010-08-10T09:00:00.003-04:00

The Maine competition was fun, but exhausting. Every time I leave a two-day competition, I say to myself "never again." That lasts about an hour. Then I start thinking about what we should do differently at the next competition. Harvard will be here before we know it, and this will be the last competition of the year for us.

The organizers of the Maine competition once again did an excellent job, as did the reps Kathie and Leslie. The farm where the event is held is a really nice place to have a competition and, win or lose, I think everyone had a good time. And by the looks of some faces on Saturday, maybe too much of a good time! There are too many people to list here, but it was great to see a bunch of friends and to meet a few new ones.

Without further ado, here is how team Insane Swine BBQ did. Here are the results from the "fun" contests on Saturday...

Chicken Wings People's Choice

For some reason, I forgot how much 10 lbs of chicken wings really is. I totally misjudged how long it would take to cook all of those wings on my kettle grill, and I only got about half of them turned in on time. Plus, some of the wing pieces in my bag were absolutely huge...almost like a chicken leg rather than a wing. Needless to say, I won't be participating in the chicken wing contest next year if they have it again. I struggled with it two years in a row and I'm not going to subject myself to it again. Congratulations to Yabba Dabba Que for cooking the best wings that day.

Iron Chef - Rank: 14/29

This is a contest where they unveiled the secret ingredient a few hours before we had to turn in our entry. We knew it was going to be shellfish of some type since it was sponsored by JPs Shellfish. Last year it was oysters, which totally threw me. I was expecting anything but oysters this year, and thank goodness when it was unveiled it was...LOBSTER. We had a solid lobster recipe, so I was happy with the ingredient. In the end, the dish was a bit undercooked and it showed in our score. I think if we would have had another 10-15 minutes, it would have been perfect and we would have been in the top 5.

Blueberry Dessert - Rank: 8/31

The blueberry dessert came out exactly how we planned it. I couldn't have asked for anything better. It was great to see that 2 of the 6 judges gave our dessert perfect scores. Unfortunately, 2 other judges gave it average and slightly below average scores and that's what affected our overall score and knocked us out of the award contention. As a competitor, you'll go nuts looking at the individual judges' scores. 668899 for taste and 578899 for tenderness? And this isn't like ribs, where you can get ribs from different racks that are completely different. Ok, I'm done. Moving along...

Here is how we did in the "real" KCBS competition on Sunday...

Chicken - Rank 9/43

I'm thrilled with a 9th place finish in chicken! I tried a new technique this time, and it seems to work. This was our best ever chicken score. We'll try it again at Harvard next month and see how that turns out. If we place in the top 10 again, we may just have this chicken thing figured out.

Ribs - Rank 33/43

I'm a tad perplexed here. The ribs were slightly undercooked and didn't have quite as much give to them as I would have liked, but I didn't think they were that bad. I'm not going to change anything for the next competition other than to make sure the timing is right so they are cooked perfectly. The taste was the same as my 3rd place finish in Merrimack last month.

Pork - Rank 6/43

I'm perplexed here too, but in a good way. I thought for sure the pork was overcooked and dry. It's no repeat of our 1st place finish from last year, but I'm really happy with a 6th place finish in pork this year.

Brisket - Rank 33/43

In general, I just really messed up the brisket this time. I know what I did wrong...there were several missteps. It started with selecting a brisket that I knew wasn't the best, but I didn't have the time to go hunting around for a better one. For the next competition, I believe I'll take Thursday and Friday off rather than just Friday. This will give me some more time to prepare and be more selective when it comes to the meats I buy.

Overall - Rank 24/43

Obviously, I'm not happy with our overall ranking. We've been extremely inconsistent this year, so that's something we need to fix going forward. I still consider us a relatively new team since we just started competing in 2008. And this is the first year we have competed in more than 3 competitions. In contrast, many teams compete in a ton of contests each year and have been doing so for 5, 10, or even 20 years. I'm not trying to make excuses, but I think timing and consistency are things that are developed over time. I think our food generally tastes good, and even our appearance scores have gone up this year. Timing has been the issue and that affects the tenderness scores as well. More practice and more competitions will help solve the issues we are having...in time.

So that's it in a nutshell. Again, this was a wonderful event. The organizers and reps really know how to treat the competitors right, and that makes for a great time in Maine!

Harpoon 2010

2010-07-26T20:59:00.002-04:00

Here are some (very amateur) videos of the Harpoon awards ceremonies this past weekend...

BBQ Part 1 - Bagpipes and Chicken

BBQ Part 2 - Ribs, Pork, Brisket, and Overall

Grilling Part 1 - Chicken Wings and Sausage

Grilling Part 2 - Shrimp, Chef's Choice, and Overall

Team of the Year

More later...

Merrimack Rock 'N Ribfest 2010

2010-06-18T11:11:00.003-04:00

Here is my Merrimack Rock ‘N Ribfest recap…

NEBS Grilling

Pizza

Rank: 5/27

Who says you can’t bake a pizza in a Weber Smokey Mountain? I was really confident in our pizza after having practiced it at home several times to get the right formula. Suzanne and I split the duties on this one…it was really a team effort. I’d do two small things differently next time, which I think may garner an even higher score. I’m sure pizza will come up at future grilling competitions, and we will be ready. Congratulations to my friends on the team Boneyard Smokers, who got an amazing 170+ score for their first place pizza!

Flank Steak

Rank: 20/27

I’m scratching my head a bit with the flank steak. I thought it came out pretty good. Maybe cooked a tad more than I wanted, but still very tasty and juicy. Judging by the score sheet, I’m sure there were some good flank steak entries turned in. My hat is off to all of the great steak cookers out there!

Chicken Wings

Rank: 20/27

Nothing surprising here. This is my typical, bad score for chicken wings. After talking to some judges and seeing some pictures of winning chicken wings, I’ve got some great new ideas and can’t wait to practice.

Pork Chops

Rank: 12/27

Once we were able to fit all of the pork chops in the turn in box, I was pretty happy with our entry. I would have liked to have seen us in the top 10 in this category, but we just missed it. Still, not bad for someone who can count on one hand the number of times he’s cooked pork chops.

Overall

Rank: 14/27

I’d say we deserved to be in the middle of the pack, so I really can’t complain much. While I had higher hopes for the flank steak, I was still happy to get a call in one of the categories. It continued our streak of getting at least one call in every competition with the exception of our first competition a couple years ago.

KCBS Barbecue

Chicken

Rank: 35/37

I used the exact same process that I used for 8^th place at Peter’s Pond the previous week. We basically got dead ass last, because the only teams I beat were disqualified. I’ve been talking to some people, and I have some new ideas for chicken. My goal is to get a call in chicken at one of our last two contests of the year. It’s the only category where we remain call-less.

Ribs

Rank: 3/37

This was our first ever call in ribs. I cooked them a bit differently than normal, and it seemed to pay off. I was really happy with the way they came out. Two of the four racks were especially nice and meaty. The other two weren’t as meaty and were overcooked. So the six ribs I turned in were from the two good racks…three ribs from each. The tenderness was perfect this time, which is usually not the case with my ribs.

Pork

Rank: 26/37

Ugh. After doing so well in pork last year, I’ve been stinking up the place lately. We need to do some analyzing and see what needs to be done to fix the issue.

Brisket

Rank: 8/37

I used the same process as my first place finish at Peter’s Pond, but the brisket wasn’t quite a nice at the one I had at PP. It was still good, but not great. I have no complaints with 8^th place brisket at this contest. Brisket is the new pork for me. I probably just cursed myself.

Overall

Rank: 21/37

I’m definitely not happy with finishing in the bottom half of the pack. I’m not saying that I deserve better, but I know I can do better. More chicken and pork practice is in my immediate future. And the “at least one call per contest” streak remains intact.

I had a couple of issues with this contest that would make me pause before entering it again:

1) The turn-in boxes were 7X7 at the bottom and 8X8 at the top, which is significantly smaller than the normal turn-in boxes. They were also quite a bit shorter in height that typical turn-in boxes. I’ve seen pictures of people having to tuck one rib under the others to make them all fit. Yikes. I’ve heard every excuse ranging from the organizer not being able to find the right size boxes to the organizer wanting to save a few bucks by purchasing the smaller size. Neither of which are acceptable excuses, as far as I’m concerned.

2) Communication by the contest organizer left something to be desired. There were two versions of the cook’s packet. I followed the original packet, which was the one the organizer originally emailed to everyone and it was also the one posted on the Ribfest web site up until 3 days prior to the contest. When I started complaining about the rules the organizer sent via email less than a week before the contest, namely no pets allowed at the event, the packet posted on the web site magically changed...with the no pets ruled bolded and with typos to boot. The organizer continues to deny the existence of two cook’s packets, but I have a hard copy of the original cook’s packet and the revised one. I respect that Bud doesn’t want pets on their grounds. I have absolutely no problem with that. But I don’t respect the fact that the organizer did such a poor job of communicating this fact. If I had known that, I would have made other plans rather than having my parents, who traveled over 1,000 miles to be at the contest with me, sitting 30 minutes away at an RV park with their dog while I was competing.

Onward and upward. It’s looking like Mainely Grillin’ and Chillin’ in August is the next competition for us and then we will round out the season with the Harvard Fall Festival in September. I wish we had the time and funds to do more contests, but I think I’m already pushing it with the handful we have planned this year. Suzanne and I will both be judging at Harpoon, which is always a fun contest. It will be Suzanne’s first time judging, so that will be particularly interesting!

Return of Peter's Pond

2010-06-14T14:45:00.006-04:00

Here is my Peter's Pond recap.

Ted did an outstanding job organizing this contest and bringing it back from the dead. Everybody seemed to have a great time, and I will definitely be back next year.

Rankings...

Anything Butt

Rank: 6/24

This was not part of the KCBS contest, but rather just a fun one-category competition where we were allowed to turn in anything except the four KCBS meats: chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder/butt, or beef brisket. I kept it simple and did a sausage fatty for my turn in. I really didn't have time to practice something elaborate. I knew the fatty was good, but didn't know how it would stack up against fancy seafood and beef entries. I'm really happy with 6th place, especially since I put basically zero effort into it. The best part was when I asked one of the judges after judging was complete if she had any good entries. She said that she had a great fatty that she wouldn't have changed a thing about. She described it, so I know it was mine. It makes me happy when people enjoy my food.

Chicken

Rank: 8/33

Due to my pork and brisket taking longer than expected on the smoker, I totally ditched my original chicken plan and cooked it in a way I've never done before. The result was my best chicken score ever. Go figure. I was absolutely thrilled with 8th place in chicken. I planned on doing it that way again in Merrimack the following week. More on that to come.

Ribs

Rank: 19/33

I always say that there are a ton of great rib cookers out there, so I'm happy to finish near the middle of the pack. My ribs were a tad overcooked, and that shows in my score.

Pork

Rank: 22/33

I lost my pork mojo, baby. After getting 1st in Maine and 5th in Harvard last year, I get a pretty horrible 22nd at Peter's Pond. The worst part is that, other than being very slightly overcooked, I thought the pork was pretty good. Such is life on the barbecue circuit.

Brisket

Rank: 1/33

I wish I could give my first place trophy to the cow that was kind enough to provide me the beautiful brisket I cooked at Peter's Pond. It wasn't Wagyu or even Prime. It was just a really nice, thick brisket. I knew it was special when I saw it in the store. I cut it and finished it a little bit differently than I have in the past, but what made it great was how juicy it was. Even the tip of the flat, which was thinner and more well done than the middle, was extremely moist. It goes to show you that selecting the right product is very important.

Overall

Rank: 9/33

Very respectable, given the stiff competition. Any time I finish in the top 10 with 30+ teams, I'm happy. It was a great weekend. See everyone there next year!

Barbecue Season...Here It Comes!

2010-05-03T09:41:00.006-04:00

For us, the barbecue season is kicking off with the Cape Cod BBQ Championship at Peter's Pond. As of this moment, there are 23 teams signed up for that contest, and I'd be surprised if it doesn't reach at least 30 teams. If you haven't signed up yet, you should do it now!

The weekend after the CCBC is the Rockin' Ribfest in Merrimack, NH. This will be the first time we've competed in barbecue contests on back-to-back weekends. Should be interesting, especially since the Merrimack contest includes both grilling and barbecue competitions. I'm exhausted, yet very excited, at the prospect.

What does all of this mean? It means I have a lot of practicing to do this month to keep up with the big boys. This past weekend was beautiful, but I had a catering job on Saturday and helped out with the barbecue judging class on Sunday. Both were very fun experiences, but also very unproductive in terms of the things I need to practice. Here is what I need to practice to be ready for prime time...

1) Chicken. As I mention in my last blog entry, I'm finally happy with the way my chicken thighs are coming out but I need to do them one more time to get my timing down. And I need to tackle the dreaded chicken wings for the grilling competition. Hopefully I can use a similar method to do those as the new and improved way I'm doing the thighs.

2) Ribs. I'm finishing in the upper half of the pack in ribs at most contests, but I want to test one new method to see if they can be improved. There are a lot of great teams out there when it comes to ribs, and I'd like to be one of them.

3) Flank steak. I've cooked a lot of flank steak in the past, so I just need to figure out what I'm doing in terms of seasonings and presentation for this. Shouldn't be too painful.

4) Pork chops. Ugh. I never cook pork chops. Not a fan. I did some research and have some things to test, but I suspect this will take up a good deal of my practice time in the coming weeks. I'll have to go buy a few gallons of applesauce to drown out the bad taste, and dryness, of the initial runs.

On the positive side, there are things I'm very happy with. Pork, brisket, and pizza are all good to go.

And all of this in the next 5 weeks. I'd better go get busy...

Chicken Skin Problem Solved?

2010-04-02T14:30:00.006-04:00

I think the competition chicken skin issue is solved. Let me back up a little...

Harvard 2008 - 20/35
Maine 2009 - 25/29
Harvard 2009 - 31/40
Snowshoe (wings) 2010 - 15/21

That's how we placed in chicken since we started competing. The main issue was with the skin. Judges expect to be able to bite through a chicken thigh without the entire top layer of fat pulling off. As a judge, I can't tell you how many times I've taken a bite of chicken and ended up with a mouthful of rubbery fat. Neither the texture nor taste are enjoyable. I understand, and I don't want my chicken to be like that. It was at Harvard in 2008.

Early last year, I learned the technique of "skin scraping." This is a process where you remove the skin from the chicken thigh, scrape the majority of the fat off the underside, and place it back on the thigh prior to cooking it. The technique looked promising and I couldn't wait to try it at home. It worked pretty well and the skin was fairly bite through without it pulling all the way off. But the meat also ended up a bit dry no matter what I did. Nonetheless, I gave this method a try in Maine and Harvard in 2009. I scored poorly at both of those contests. Even worse, I wasted hours scraping the fat off of those damn chicken skins. I vowed to come up with a new plan so I'd never have to do it again.

After a lot of trial and error over the last couple months, I'm finally happy with the chicken skin. I could tell you how I do it, but then I'd have to kill you. I can tell you that it doesn't involve squeeze butter or muffin pans. And definitely no skin scraping.

Snowshoe Results

2010-03-07T09:56:00.006-05:00

I had a great time at the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge yesterday. At least what I can remember of it. I was doing the competition solo, so most of the day was a big blur. My apologies to those who were there but I didn't get a chance to visit. And to those I saw after the competition, I hope I made a little bit of sense.

As usual, the Tafts did a great job with the contest. Even after 17 years, they keep finding ways to improve the contest. A big thumbs up for having the judging and awards presentation in the hall rather than in the bar. This was a huge improvement compared to last year. The competition sites were great, and it was just an all around good time. The organizers can't take credit for this, but the weather was absolutely beautiful. A great kick-off to the grilling and barbecue season ahead.

Here are my personal results...

1) Rib eye steak - I was very disappointed in my rib eye steak entry. I let them go too long on the grill and overcooked them. The product was good, so they didn't suffer as much as a cheap rib eye would have, but they were still way overcooked. I also should have practiced the presentation a lot more prior to the day of the contest. All in all, the execution was really bad for this entry.
Result: 13/21

2) Chicken wings - Screw you, chicken wings! I can't blame things not going according to plan with my poor showing in chicken wings. Things went according to plan...it was just a bad plan. Investigating on the web, I see that a lot of past grilling contests in New England had chicken wings as one of the categories. I'm sure this category will keep coming up from time to time. Guess that means I should practice before it comes up again. I need to come up with a completely new plan. Chicken in general continues to be a problem.
Result: 15/21

3) Fattie - Call me Mr. Fattie. That is, if you don't already because of my portly figure. After I turned in the fattie box, I expected to get a call. I'm not saying that to be cocky, but I was confident in the entry. It came out better than I expected, and it ended up being my only call of the day.
Result: 1/21

4) Chef's choice - I was shocked to hear, out of 21 teams, that someone did the same chef's choice dish that I did. Now, that happens when you are doing something like ribs - especially beef ribs, which seem to be a very popular choice these days. But when you are doing pineapple upside down cake??? I was certainly surprised. I did mini pineapple upside down cakes in cast iron muffin pans. I don't mind saying this now, because I'm not planning on making them again. As with the rib eye, the execution was lacking and the cakes came out too moist. "Mushy" as one judge said, and I can't disagree with that! The taste was good, but the texture wasn't so great. Still, it was my second best turn-in of the day.
Result: 12/21

Overall I came in 9th out of 21 teams. While I was disappointed in my rib eye entry, I was still happy with coming in 9th considering the field of competitors. There were some really great, accomplished teams there, and this being only my second grilling contest I really can't complain! Congratulations to my friends at I Smell Smoke!, QHaven, Lakeside, and IQue, finishing 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. One team to really watch this year is Meat @ Slims. They took 5th at this contest, and I suspect they will do great things at their barbecue competitions this year.

Thanks again to everyone involved: the Abington VFW, the organizers, the reps, the judges, fellow competitors, and everyone else who was there supporting a great cause!

Snowshoe

2010-03-03T20:15:00.005-05:00

The Snowshoe Grilling Challenge is coming up this Saturday. If you've seen my status updates on Facebook lately, you've also seen that I've been practicing a lot. It was my goal to finish experimenting/practicing last weekend. I finished late Sunday night, so I was happy about that.

Here's how I feel about each category going into the contest:

1) Rib eye steak - I have a feeling that there will be lots of great steak entries, and I expect several competitors to score well with their steak. I don't think I've met a rib eye that I didn't like! I like the way we prepare it, but I'll be happy to place in the top 10 in steak with the stiff competition at this contest. Lucky judges!

2) Chicken wings - I'm sorry to say this, but I really don't like chicken wings. I don't like eating them and I don't like cooking them. And I like them even less after practice cooking them several times. Hooters establishments exist to take your mind off the fact that you are eating a freaking wing of a chicken. Just kidding, all you chicken wing lovers! I think the wings will be acceptable, but I'd be extremely shocked if we get a call in this category. It's the only category where I can say that.

3) Fatty - This was the easiest category to nail down. We took 5th place in Fatty last year, so only minor modifications were made. If we follow the schedule and things go according to plan, the entry should be strong.

4) Chef's choice - I really love what we came up with here. It took a long time to figure out exactly what we were going to do, but it was worth the wait. I can't give anything away, other than to say I'm really happy with it.

On another note, I'm going to pick up a load of Wicked Good Charcoal tomorrow. I decided to purchase it and pick it up at the warehouse in Holyoke rather than buying a handful of bags at a time and have it shipped to me. It's more economical this way, and I'm really not that far from Holyoke. Wicked Good is a class act and I highly recommend their products. And they are just plain nice folks! They also informed me that they have some damaged and some dirty 22 lb. bags of lump available for $9.00/bag. You just have to pick it up at the warehouse. If you are interested, contact them at wickedgood@psouth.net to arrange a pick-up...tell them Jared sent you.

Hope to see everyone at The Snowshoe! Looking forward to seeing fellow competitors, fellow judges, and other kind visitors donating to a good cause!

Random Stuff

2010-02-12T08:23:00.002-05:00

1) NEBS BOD - Thank you once again to all the NEBS members who voted for me. I'm here to represent YOU, so please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, concerns, ideas, etc. The February NEBS BOD meeting was this week, and although it was longer than normal, I believe we are talking about some really exciting things. I think some real positive changes are coming for NEBS members.

2) Shoeshoe - Due to a recent trip, I haven't been able to practice as much as I wanted to. That will change this weekend. I plan to get 2 of the 4 categories (wings and fatty) nailed down for good this weekend, and I probably have a couple more steak cooks to do before that is set. I'm still floundering with chef's choice. I keep changing my mind about what we should cook. Any judges out there care to share some good ideas? :)

3) Peter's Pond, Rockin' Ribfest, and other KCBS contests - They will be here before you know it! We've decided to cook both Peter's Pond and Merrimack this year. We've never done back-to-back contests, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Between now and then, I need to do some more cooking. I was able to do a few things during the holidays, but I feel like we aren't ready for prime time yet. In a week, we are having friends over so I'll practice pork. That's the category I feel most comfortable with, so I think we can nail it down with one more cook. Three pork butts for four people...I hope everyone is hungry! I usually only cook two butts for competitions, but I want to try something different this time which requires cooking three. Looks like another WSM will be needed in the near future! After pork we will concentrate on our horrible chicken. I tried something different a few weeks ago. I learned a few things we can use that I'm very excited about, but the skin was still horrible. I really don't want to go back to scraping, but it looks like that's our destiny.

Rib Tips

2010-01-08T11:26:00.004-05:00

Some vacuum packed rib tips have been sitting in the freezer taking up space since Harvard, so I decided to cook them up last night. For those who don't know, rib tips are the part of the rib that's left over when you trim a rack of spare ribs into St. Louis cut. I admit that, when preparing for past competitions, I've thrown these away before. I simply don't have time to fuss with them when preparing for a competition. But since my dad was around for Harvard, he said "you aren't going to throw those away are you?" Of course not, dad. After all, we are Dutch. Anyway, they have been in the freezer ever since.

I took one of the two packages (three racks worth) out of the freezer a couple days ago to thaw. My competition ribs are always pretty meaty, so there was quite a bit of meat on the tips. I trimmed them up a bit, gave them a good dose of my own rub, and threw them on the WSM. I basically cooked them like I would ribs, and they turned out good. No pictures to share...too lazy last night.

I've been wanting to try a few different things with the taste of my ribs. This morning, I got to thinking that rather than spending a lot of money and buying new ribs I should "experiment" with the other pack of ribs tips that are in the freezer. I hope to do that over the next couple weeks.

Hope to see all NEBS members at the Annual Meeting next Tuesday. More info on the NEBS web site.

Merry Christmas Everyone

2009-12-24T08:08:00.003-05:00

Beef Ribs

2009-12-22T09:38:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the repetitive post for those who follow me on Facebook...

Cooked up some beef ribs for the first time ever on Sunday. They tasted really good, but could have used a little more cooking time. Lesson learned. I have more in the freezer, and can't wait to cook them up.

I don't earn anything from saying this, but The Slabs = best beef rub ever. I love the stuff.

The Holidays Are Here, Like It Or Not

2009-12-01T10:44:00.009-05:00

December always seems to be one of the busiest months of the year. Not necessarily busy in a bad way...just busy. The summer months are always hectic too, but I think December takes the prize. Things to do this month...

1) Holiday parties - The NEBS holiday party is coming up on December 5th. I always enjoy going to that. The potluck and yankee swap are a lot of fun. It's also great to be around people with common interests and shoot the breeze. My office holiday party is also coming up in either December or January.

2) Shopping - Cyber Monday was yesterday, and I started my Christmas shopping. Every year, there are a few more people to buy for. Given this, Suzanne and I are really going to be as conservative as we can with the spending this year to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. My personal goal this year is to spend as little time in brick and mortar stores as possible. Malls=kill me. This Internet thing...I think it's finally catching on. A big thank you to Mr. Gore! :)

3) Visiting family and friends - There are always lots of people to visit and spend time with during the holidays. Again, not that this is a bad thing, but it adds to an already hectic time. My parents are also talking about maybe visiting us the week after Christmas. They are always welcome and it will be great to see them, but there is always more work involved with overnight guests too.

4) Candy making - Every year, Suzanne and I make candy for many of our friends rather than sending them store-bought gifts. Homemade caramels, fudge, cookies, and other chocolate-covered goodies are packaged up and sent around to various parts of the country. I honestly have no idea when we are going to have time to do it this year, but we always seem to find time to do it. Usually this involves dipping treats in chocolate after we are done with work on the weekdays. Going to the post office is the worst part. Maybe I'll buy the postage online this year.

5) Barbecue - We can't forget about the barbecue. I absolutely must do a couple of practice cooks this month. If I keep putting it off, competition season will be here and my entries will still stink. I think I'm going to do barbecue for some of the holiday meals this year. Instead of prime rib, maybe brisket? Instead of turkey, chicken thighs? Ok, maybe keep the turkey...I can hear Suzanne groaning from here about having chicken thighs. But I must get some practice in...no excuses.

I'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff, like that work thing that is always determined to get in the way of my personal life. It's a busy time at work this month, with all of the planning for 2010.

So with that said, happy holidays everyone! I'm wishing you peace this holiday season. Serenity now.

BBQ Politics

2009-11-11T13:57:00.008-05:00

My name will be on the ballot this year for the New England Barbecue Society Board of Directors. If you are a NEBS member, I ask that you please consider voting for me when you receive your ballot next month.

I attended the monthly NEBS BOD meeting yesterday as a guest, as I have been doing for over a year now. The nominating committee is working diligently this week to finalize their recommendations to the BOD in regards to who will be on the ballot (in addition to me) and also how many Directors will be on the Board next year. The way it is looking, there will be six spots available and four incumbents up for re-election. Assuming the incumbents will all get re-elected, and I don't see any reason why they wouldn't, that leaves two available spots.

I really can't bash the four incumbent candidates who are running for another term. They are all fine people, and each of them brings something to the table and will continue to contribute to the good of barbecue in New England.

My "platform" is simple:

1) To improve member services in order to retain current NEBS members and to increase membership. The best way to do this is to ask members what they want to get from their NEBS membership and then, as a Board, figure out the best way to make that happen. More barbecue/grilling classes (both beginner and competition level) and additional member discounts are two things that immediately come to mind, but we should let the membership tell us what they want.

2) To promote barbecue in New England. This is very broad, I know. But I think more can be done to spread the word that barbecue is alive and well in NewEngland. The success of competition teams like iQue and I Smell Smoke!! are certainly getting the attention of the barbecue community, but there are other ways to promote barbecue in New England as well. Holding informational meetings across New England, forming more relationships with barbecue restaurants, and getting more ink in the local press are other ways to do this besides competing in contests. And we need to do this across ALL of New England...not just in Massachusetts! Otherwise we might as well call ourselves the Massachusetts Barbecue Society.

Regardless of who you end up voting for, I hope you will do your research beyond the standard questions/answers that appear on the web site and in the National Barbecue News. Ask the candidates questions. If the person is an incumbent, ask which committees they were part of this past year and what their duties were on those committees. Ask what was accomplished on those committees. If the person is not an incumbent, ask how many BOD meetings they have attended as a guest this year. My answer: all of them. Since a NEBS member can participate on committees without being on the BOD, ask the person how many committees they served on this year. My answer: three, which is more than some of the already elected Directors served on.

Thanks again for considering me, and happy voting. Hope to see you all at the NEBS holiday party on December 5th!

Harvard Fall Festival - Final Words

2009-10-03T09:31:00.009-04:00

As usual, the Harvard contest was well-run and a lot of fun. Good job Chris, Ken, Kathie, and all the volunteers who helped to make it a success. No rain this year, so we really can't complain. Well, except for the freezing temperatures Saturday night. Brr. For those of us who sleep in tents, it was particularly chilly. Actually, we have been sleeping in the back of that Explorer lately, but that's really no better than a tent...just easier because we don't need to spend time setting up and breaking down the tent. Sully had his damn dip available to warm us all up, which was great. Good times.

I already listed our scores in each category, so I won't go through each one individually again. The only thing I'll say is that the chicken really does stink. I probably deserved an even lower score than I got. I was fairly happy with everything else. Pork seems to be our category. I just need to fine-tune the pork presentation, and I don't see any reason why we shouldn't finish among the top teams at every contest.

The chicken. For the first time, I'm handing over the meat to Suzanne. She volunteered to try some new things and attempt to improve our chicken score (which really can't get much worse). It's her task to practice chicken over the next several months and come up with a new plan. This may be difficult for me, since I'm controlling when it comes to meat duties, but I'm also excited to try new things.

I'm also going to work on fine-tuning the ribs and brisket. Both need a bit better execution and a lot better presentation. Now that we have it down pat in terms of getting things turned in on time, we need to refine a few things in order to improve the scores.

We plan on competing in at least 3 KCBS contests next year...started with one in 2008 (Harvard), added Maine in 2009, and will add at least one more next year. And hopefully the Snowshoe will keep happening...we had a blast at that earlier this year. Since this will be the first year we've competed in more than two TOY contests, we will officially be a candidate for rookie team of the year.

Oh yeah...and I found a $20 bill on the ground while walking around and trying to keep warm Saturday night at Harvard. So I nearly doubled my prize money.

Harvard Fall Festival - Brief Recap

2009-09-21T10:40:00.005-04:00

I'll post a full recap later, but here it is in a nutshell...

Chicken - Sucked. I need to come up with a completely new plan for this. 31/40

Ribs - Not bad. Need to work on appearance a bit, but I was pretty happy with them. 14/40

Pork - Turned out really well, but again need to work on appearance. Got my only call in this category. 5/40

Brisket - Again, not bad. I know what I did wrong, so that's half the battle. 23/40

Overall - A fairly successful contest, especially given that the competition was even stiffer than at Maine. I solved some issues from Maine but a couple new ones popped up. I don't care what anyone says...not being able to use parsley definitely affected my scores at this contest. I'm sure the bigger, more experienced teams and the ones who don't use parsley didn't have an issue with it. It was a big deal for me. 16/40

More later...

Harvard Fall Festival

2009-09-09T11:40:00.003-04:00

The Harvard Fall Festival is the last contest of the year for us. I feel like I'm pretty well prepared. The pork and brisket are all set and I did a practice rib cook on Monday. The ribs tasted really good, but once again they were terribly overcooked.

This time, my excuse is that the damn wholesale club I bought the ribs from put a tiny little rack of ribs between two larger racks. There was no way for me to see the little rack until I was ready to cook and opened up the package. So I ended up with two large, but very THIN racks and one dinky little rack that could probably feed a small dog. I was pissed. But I cooked them anyway, and they were plenty tasty...just not worth a crap as far as competition ribs go. Lesson learned: open the ribs and check them the day before the contest then vacuum seal them back up.

Chicken is marinading now for one final cook tonight. I know what I did wrong in Maine, so I'm hoping to fix the issue tonight.

I'm looking forward to Harvard. My parents will be visiting from Illinois. My dad has always been interested in barbecue contests, but has never been a part of one. So he's on my team roster and I plan to put him to work!

NEBS SummerFest

2009-08-17T09:30:00.010-04:00

The New England Barbecue Society is holding the 2nd Annual SummerFest this weekend. The event is free to NEBS members and $10 per day for non-members. There are tons of activities for the entire family, and there will be lots of good food as well. I encourage all NEBS members and those with a zeal for barbecue to come join the fun.

Several people have signed up so far, but I'm hoping many more will do so this week. Please help me spread the word! Tell all of your fellow NEBS members and your friends that are interested in barbecue that we'd love to see them there. If people aren't big on camping, they can certainly come for the day on Saturday and/or Sunday. All they have to do is sign up by clicking here. People are allowed to show up without registering, but it helps us out with planning if they register.

If you have any questions about SummerFest, please send me an email.

Here are some views from the last SummerFest when we opened up our tent on Sunday morning...

Back from Maine

2009-08-11T13:21:00.005-04:00

We survived our second KCBS contest in Eliot, ME this past weekend (just barely). Here is a rundown by category:

1) Chicken - This is the only thing I really missed the mark on. However, after thinking about this quite a bit, I think I know what I did wrong and I also think it will be pretty easy to fix at our next competition. Finish: 25 out of 29.

2) Pork ribs - Horribly overcooked due to an electronic malfunction. But as Mike from Lakeside said, better overcooked than undercooked. That made me feel better, and he was right. Finish: 14/29 Very surprising...thought I'd be in the 20s in ribs. One judge gave it a perfect score. Go figure.

3) Pork - I was happy with what we turned in for pork. I thought it was probably our best chance at getting a call in anything that day. But I had no idea, with such get teams like I Smell Smoke!!!, Yabba Dabba Que, Bastey Boys, Transformer, Lakeside, Lunchmeat, Cancer Sucks, etc. that it would end up in first. It totally blew me away. Suzanne said she thought that maybe they were trying to figure out how to pronounce our last name when there was a delay in announcing first place pork, but I wasn't thinking that at all. I'm still in shock! Finish: 1/29.

4) Brisket - This was another entry I was very happy with. It came out pretty much as I had hoped. I only got two perfect scores from judges (different judges) and the second was in brisket. Another judge disagreed, however, and gave it a 5 for taste. I only cook one brisket and the entry all came from the same place on that brisket. Cut me a break, Judge #5. :-) That's ok. I'm going to cook it the exact same way next time, because I'm confident in the product. Finish: 10/29.

Overall - Finish: 11/29. Not bad for our second competition. At our first competition last year at Harvard, we finished 31/35 and we were 34/35 in pork. Ouch. What a difference a year makes.

It was a great competition and I'm hoping they will have us again next year. Great job, Jane and Laurel and also Kathie and Leslie (I know the chicken wing turn in time change wasn't your fault!). Also, thanks to Ann, Dan, Carol, Peter, and everyone else who stopped by our site to say hi!

Next up, the Harvard Fall Festival. My parents are joining us from Illinois for that one, so it should be a lot of fun.

Sick

2009-08-05T15:09:00.002-04:00

I can't friggin believe it. I've got some sort of flu bug. Taking drugs. The damn thing better be gone by Friday!

Catching up

2009-08-03T09:21:00.005-04:00

I'm guilty of blog neglect. This is what's been going on...

1) June/July - Caught a very nasty virus which basically kept me in bed for a full two weeks and took a full four weeks to get back to "normal." Missed judging in NH and spent my birthday in bed. Not a fun time, to say the least.

2) Harpoon - I was feeling good just in time for Harpoon. I judged both days and got to try a lot of good entries. I had fun with the NEBS BOD folks, and spent some time helping out in the NEBS booth. I know everyone says this, but Harpoon truly is the best.

3) Brookline, NH - Andy and Ken were looking for more judges for this backyard contest, so I decided at the last minute to lend a hand. It was some of the worst barbeque I've had in a long time. I feel a little bad about saying that because this is a backyard contest and I'm sure many teams were competing for the first time, but I have to be honest. Maybe I was just at the wrong table. My first competition was at Brookline, and I really hope my food wasn't that bad. It probably was. In any case, it's too bad the Brookline event doesn't draw bigger crowds. There is a lot of potential there.

4) Upcoming Maine Competition - I've been remiss in posting about my practice cooks for the upcoming Maine competition. Lord knows I've been practicing! The last of the practicing is done. Chicken was giving me fits...until last night. I finally figured out the key that will earn me first place chicken in Maine. Or at least won't earn me DAL. Maine should be a lot of fun. With a little prodding from Jane the Maine BBQ coordinator, I decided to cook the People's Choice and Iron Chef competitions as well. The People's Choice should be easy enough (chicken wings) and I've always wanted to do an Iron Chef. Oddly, I already know what I'm going to make for the Iron Chef competition. How do I know without even knowing what the secret ingredient is? I have easily adaptable recipes. I can make my recipes with shrimp, beef, pork, eggplant, or whatever. Bring it on.

5) NEBS SummerFest - I've been busy, with Andy King's help, getting things lined up for the 2nd Annual NEBS SummerFest. This is a free event for NEBS members. All you have to do is go here to register. For more information about SummerFest, you should click here. If you aren't a NEBS member, what are you waiting for?

Dakai Vote

2009-07-16T13:01:00.002-04:00

All KCBS members should be interested in learning how the KCBS BOD voted on the Dakai's reinstatement...

Ed Roith made a motion to reinstate Ken and Kathie Dakai. Tana Shupe seconded the motion.

Linda Mullane - Yes
Rod Gray - Yes
Don Harwell - Yes
Paul Kirk - Yes
Ed Roith - Yes
Steve Ownby - Yes
Wayne Lohman - Yes
Tana Shupe - Yes
Carol Whitebook - Abstain
Gene Goycochea - No
Merl Whitebook - No

Details are in the July Bullsheet.

Getting Down to Business

2009-06-29T13:52:00.010-04:00

I just looked at the calendar and realized that the KCBS contest in Eliot, ME is only six weeks away. For a seasoned competitor who has already competed in numerous contests this year, that's an eternity. But our last (and first!) KCBS competition was last September in Harvard.

That means it's time to brush off the rust and get down to business. We need to practice all four categories, work on our timing, and put together a new contest-day timeline. My goal for our two contests this year (Eliot, ME and Harvard, MA) is pretty simple. Do better than we did at Harvard last year. I don't think this will be difficult to do. I've learned a lot in the past nine months. Our major problem last year is that we didn't have a strict schedule for the weekend. We had a rough outline of things that needed to be done, but not one that said "Do X at 5am on Sunday." It lead to a little bit of chaos and stress. This year will be different.

Brisket this weekend.

On a side note, congratulations to my friends Mike and Kris of Lakeside Smokers who took home their first GC at Merrimack a little over a week ago. Great job, guys!

Exhibit A

2009-06-16T22:01:00.005-04:00

All KCBS members should read this blog post. If you don't know who Rod is talking about, let me know.

Pulled Chicken

2009-05-26T21:42:00.002-04:00

I’ve recently decided to drop a few pounds by eating healthier. Exercise never seems to happen as often as it should, so the least I can do is try to eat better. It’s not a diet. It’s a healthier eating lifestyle. That’s not to say I won’t “cheat” here and there, and I’m still going to cook and judge plenty of barbeque this summer. But for the most part, I’m being more selective about what I eat.

The best, “cleanest” source of natural protein you can eat is white meat chicken. Ask Hugh Jackman. He claims to have eaten tons of chicken breasts while gaining massive amounts of muscle preparing for his recent role as Wolverine. It is too bad he felt he had to apologize to all the nut cases who preach against eating meat. In any case, chicken breast is good for you and I plan on cooking a lot of it in the coming months.

I don’t understand why pulled chicken gets such a bad rap. Maybe it’s because people don’t know how to cook it properly and it comes out dry. That’s too bad, because I say pulled chicken can be great. Last week, Shaw’s was having a sale on split chicken breasts. I picked up a few packages, brined them, seasoned them, and tossed them on the smoker for a couple hours. The result was some of the juiciest, most flavorful chicken I’ve EVER had. I’ve had some great chicken while judging contests and at restaurants, but I enjoyed this pulled chicken just as much as most competition entries. Next time, I’ll take pictures. I was so happy with the way it came out that I couldn’t wait to eat it. I made some sauce to go with it, but it really didn’t need any.

Will I be turning in pulled chicken at my next competition? Probably not, but it did make me think for a minute!

I'm a Foodie

2009-05-23T21:55:00.000-04:00

I hate the word “foodie.” It sounds snobby and pretentious and it reminds me of “yuppie.” But I just looked “foodie” up on Wikipedia, and it looks like that’s what I am. From Wiki: “…foodies are sometimes viewed as obsessively interested in all things culinary…typical foodie interests and activities include the food industry, wineries and wine tasting, food science, following restaurant openings and closings, food distribution, food fads, health and nutrition, and restaurant management. A foodie might develop a particular interest in a specific item, such as the best egg cream or burrito.”

I tend to obsess about a certain type of food until I feel I’ve perfected it. A few weeks ago, the obsession was ABTs and I think I have a pretty good formula for those now. Lately, I’ve been focused on barbeque finishing sauces. I used to think my sauce was pretty good, but not anymore. Over the past couple years, I’ve tried a lot of great sauces that put mine to shame. So now I’ve been focused on perfecting my recipe. I got some good ideas from IQue’s competition cooking class back in April, but it still needs a little tinkering. I think I’m getting really close.

Here is how bad it has gotten. I found an interesting glaze at the grocery store today. One that sounded so good that I couldn’t wait to try it. So I didn’t. I started driving home and, after about a minute, I grabbed the bottle out of the bag in the passenger seat and opened it up. I poured a few drops on my fingers and gave it a taste. No easy task while driving on city streets.

My house is less than 5 minutes from the store.

KCBS Reps Reinstated

2009-05-13T11:34:00.000-04:00

The KCBS Board of Directors reinstated Ken and Kathie Dakai as reps and also reinstated Ken as a CBJ instructor. It was the right decision, and I'm very happy for Ken and Kathie. Not that you ever "left," but it's good to have you back.

I doubt that anyone at KCBS reads my little blog, so I'm probably preaching to the choir here. But to the few individuals on the KCBS BOD who seem determined to stir the pot, I'm not sure what you are thinking. Can you honestly look in the mirror in the morning and say that you are doing what you feel is best for barbeque?

Get over yourselves and start doing what is good and right for KCBS members. Firing Ken without cause was a joke and firing Kathie because she is married to Ken was even more of a joke. Nobody from KCBS was able to specifically say what "conduct unbecoming" meant. If the case against Ken and Kathie was so strong, exact details and proof should have been made known. If such details and proof did not exist, why were they fired in the first place?

Come election time, I urge KCBS members to thoroughly analyze their voting options. I for one hope there are some major changes in store for the KCBS BOD. I also hope the people know about the KCBS BOD "bad apples" will step forward and educate other KCBS members about some of the stuff that has been going on. I don't believe in saying "don't vote for such-and-such person" because voting is a personal choice. However, I hope that those who choose to vote will make informed decisions.

First Grilling Competition: Competition Day in Retrospect

2009-04-28T08:26:00.001-04:00

I managed to get the Explorer packed the night before the Snowshoe. The only thing left to do on the morning of the competition was to get dressed and pack the cooler...and stop for coffee, of course. Luckily, everything was arranged in the refrigerator so I could take everything off two shelves and feel confident that I didn’t leave anything behind. We woke up around 5:00am, packed up the food, and left the house around 6:00am.

We were one of the first teams to get there, arriving at the Abington VFW a little before 7:30am. I wanted to get set up and the meat inspected as early as possible, because there was quite a bit of flavorizing that needed to happen before we started cooking. Gary Taft, the organizer of the event along with his wife Michelle, was already there chatting with some of the competitors. Michelle arrived right after we got there. We asked them where we should set up and, once the site was decided, we promptly unloaded.

Gary inspected our meat to make sure it was being kept at the proper temperature and that it was unseasoned—except for the fatty sausage, which was allowed to be pre-seasoned. Once that was done, we pulled out our timeline and took things step by step. I won’t bore you with all the details of every little thing we did. Not because anything we do is secret, but it would make for an extremely long, boring blog entry. In short, we mixed the additives into the fatty and the ground beef, marinated the pork and fish and everything was running smoothly. The fatty was going to be cooked in one of our WSMs, so I started the charcoal just prior to going to the cook’s meeting.

Everything was going according to plan. The fatties were placed on the smoker pretty much on schedule (around 10:30am). Suzanne prepped the turn-in containers ahead of time so we wouldn’t be rushing around during crunch time. I started the charcoal for the Weber kettle at around 11:00am. I even had time to take a few walks—partly to chat with fellow competitors and partly to burn off some nervous energy. It was great to see lots of familiar faces like Mike from Lakeside and Eric from Yabba Dabba Que, and we also got a chance to meet several new folks. My friend Gary, all around good guy and creator of Pigtrip, also stopped by to chat with us a few times.

But before we knew it, grilling time was upon us. As with the previous post, here is a rundown by category…

Fish

I put the fish on the grill around 11:40am because I knew it would cook pretty quickly. I got some nice grill marks on it, which was a bit surprising because I’m usually not very good at that. I was also a bit nervous because I only had eight pieces of fish and had to turn in at least six. All eight ended up looking really good, but the presentation looked better if only six pieces were turned in, so that’s what we did. Plus I wanted to try a piece to make sure it was edible before we turned it in. I thought it tasted just ok. I also thought it could have used one more minute on the grill, but Suzanne thought it was great. She was right. It was our best entry of the day, earning 4th place. I was shocked to hear the call.

Pork Tenderloin

This cooks fast too, although not quite a fast as the fish. I put the pork on right after I took the fish off the grill (after cleaning the grate, of course). Again, everything was going fine with the pork. One of them got a little darker than I had hoped, but we had plenty of pork to spare so it wasn’t a big deal. It was moist and I thought it tasted pretty good. While it didn’t do as well as I expected, it finished in the top half of the pack, earning 9th place. There were a lot of great teams at this competition and most had a lot more experience than me. I really couldn’t complain.

Fatty

In terms of cooking, this was by far the easiest category. I put the fatties on the WSM and let them cook for a couple hours. They got done a little faster on contest day than in my practice runs, but it wasn’t a big deal. I wrapped them in foil, put them in the empty cooler, and they were the perfect temperature when it came time for fatty turn in. After everything was cooked at 1:30, this was the entry I was happiest with and I was pretty confident it would get us a call. I was right, but surprisingly our fish was better that day. We got a medal for 5th place in fatty. I was thrilled to get two calls. This was a day when only four teams earned two or more calls.

Burger

As I mentioned in my “Preparation” post, I was really happy with the burger idea going into the contest. Suzanne and I both really liked what we came up with. We were a bit rushed with the burger category on the day of the contest, mostly because we had the fries to deal with for garnish as well. The other small issue was that I didn’t manage our fire quite as well as I could have. I used Wicked Good briquettes, and I only lit one chimney at 11:00. By 1:10pm when I put the burgers on, the fire was not as hot as I would have liked it to be. At that point it was too late to solve the problem and we just had to keep the lid on the kettle and hope that there was enough heat to get the burgers to my target temperature. The burgers were perfect for me, hovering between rare and medium-rare, but I feared they were a bit undercooked for those judges who like their burgers more on the medium to medium-well side. Alas, it was the worst category of the day, finishing 14th. I’m still convinced that the concept was good, but the execution was definitely lacking. Chalk it up to a valuable learning experience.

Overall

Despite a very disappointing burger score, we ended up 6th overall. I was ecstatic. Getting one call was great. Getting two calls was unbelievable. Finishing 6th overall among such a strong pack of competitors made me smile for a week. I swear that if Suzanne woke up in the middle of the night and looked over at me that I would have still had a grin from ear to ear even in my sleep.

Will I cook at the Snowshoe again? Absolutely. Gary and Michelle Taft are excellent organizers/hosts who welcome barbeque newbies like me with open arms. I’d encourage anyone who is thinking about competing in their first grilling competition to give the Snowshoe a try. Thanks for everything, Michelle and Gary!

We finished packing our gear and headed home. We were both pretty tired after such a long day. We made it home, unpacked, and got cleaned up. It was supper time and after weeks of eating fish, pork tenderloins, fatties, and burgers we wanted something different. Time for a pizza!

First Grilling Competition: Preparation in Retrospect

2009-04-17T22:11:00.000-04:00

A strong intention in the mind is often overcome by a stronger fatigue of the body.

It was my intent, competing in my first ever grilling contest, to blog the entire journey. The preparation, practicing, joys, sorrows—all were going to be detailed in my blog. Leading up to the event, I recorded every recipe I tried, including not only the ingredients but also outside temperature/weather, cooker temperature, type and amount of charcoal used, length of time each meat spent on the grill, and on and on and on. It simply left no time for blogging, other than the occasional Facebook status update. I was nervous as hell that I would embarrass myself at the contest, and I was determined to make sure that didn’t happen. The last thing on my mind at the end of the day was blogging. As my father often says “we make ourselves too busy.” That makes a whole lot more sense to me than some of his other sayings, like “go take a flying leap into a rolling donut.”

So here we are. A full month has passed since the Shoeshoe Grilling Competition in Abington, MA and I’m just getting around to blogging about it. Better late than never, and I want to write things down before I forget everything. This entry will focus on the weeks leading up to the completion. Another entry will be devoted to the actual day of the competition. For those interested in grilling, competitions, food in general, or perhaps all of those things, happy reading.

I’m going to recap the preparation phase by category. The categories for the competition were: fish, pork tenderloin, sausage fatty, and burger.

Fish

I had grilled fish only a handful of times prior to preparing for this competition. My wife and I simply don’t eat a lot of fish, and when we do it is usually baked (her) or fried (me). Grilled fish isn’t something I grew up eating, so I never crave it or think about cooking it that way.

So the first step was to decide what type of fish I wanted to cook. In my mind, there were only two options: salmon or swordfish. Some competitors like to cook tuna, but my opinion is that many judges don’t like it—or at least they don’t like it the way tuna should be eaten. I decided on swordfish 1) because I like it better than salmon and 2) I feel it is the easiest fish to grill. At a first competition, easy sounded just fine to me!

In terms of flavors to add to the fish, I decided on a basic Asian marinade with very mild flavors. My first test turned out surprisingly well. The only complaint was that the fish need just a little bit more flavor than what the marinade provided, given the abbreviated marinating time that would be allowed at the competition.

For the second test, I used a commercial glaze at the end to give the swordfish a little added kick. Success. The fish was good to go after two trial cooks. Thank goodness, because swordfish isn’t cheap.

Pork Tenderloin

As with the fish, pork isn’t something I grill a lot. We eat a lot of smoked ribs and pork butt, but I’m not a big fan of pork chops, tenderloin, etc. That said, I must admit that I had never in my life cooked pork tenderloin. Never. I did a bit of reading on cooking techniques for pork tenderloin, and found some good advice from the folks at Cooks Illustrated. Whenever I need to learn about the science behind cooking something new, I turn to Cooks Illustrated. It’s an excellent resource.

After investigating the art and science of cooking pork tenderloin, I again decided that mild Asian flavors would pair well with it. My first cook used a similar marinade, although not exactly the same, as the fish marinade. It tasted great, and was moist and flavorful. To make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I did a second cook which produced the same result. I decided to use a little bit of commercial glaze on the pork as well, and it made the taste buds happy. Two categories down, two to go.

Sausage Fatty

Once again, fatties were something totally foreign to me. I’d read a lot about them, but had never cooked one before. Under the advice of many posts I had read about fatties, my first couple of fatty cooks were basically taking the fatty out of the casing, rubbing them, and smoking them with fruit wood. My wife tried my first two fatty attempts, declared them disgusting, and refused to try any further fatty concoctions. Honestly, I don’t blame her. I’m not a huge fan either. But I had to keep practicing until I came up with a recipe and technique I was happy with.

Unlike the fish and pork, I had to cook fatties several times before I was satisfied. There are several different flavor profiles you can use with a fatty. I kept things pretty simple, and used some cheese, onions, and peppers as the main additives. Texture is also a concern. As a judge, I’ve had slices of fatties that were so dense you could use them as hockey pucks. I wanted to avoid that, so I experimented several times to get the flavor and texture just right. All I’ll say is that I tried a couple of different bread crumbs, and it tasted like crap. I found another way to lighten up the texture. After getting that right, I worked on another problem…

A challenge with fatties is they tend to lose their nice, round, fatty shape when you put them on the cooking grate. This results in an oblong, half moon shape. This is especially true if you are mixing soft/liquid ingredients in with the sausage, as I was doing. It took me three tries and quite a bit of creativity to fix this problem. After several weeks of testing and a whole lot of frustration, the fatty was ready for prime time.

Burger

Now, burgers are something I’ve done a million times before. I rival that big franchise with the golden arches. Or is that the golden arcs…McDowell’s? In any case, I know my burgers. Or do I?

When I cook burgers at home for me and my wife, I keep them really basic. Most burgers consist of salt, pepper, a slice of cheese, a bun, and a medium-rare burger. Would this be enough for the judges? After thinking about it for way too long, I decided the burgers needed to be something more. A decision I would later regret. More on that in the next post.

I knew all along that I wanted to do sliders, because I thought cutting up a full-sized burger would dry out the meat in the time it took to get to the judges’ mats. I also decided that I didn’t want to mix anything in with the ground beef other than basic seasonings. That was the easy part, as was the decision to use cheddar cheese on top of the burgers. The harder part was figuring out if anything else should go on the burger or the bun. I really struggled with this. It finally got to the point where I just had to make a decision and go with it. I decided on a basic flavored mayonnaise. Nothing else. I tested this a few times, and both my wife and I absolutely loved it.

Another aspect of the burger category is that it was “open garnish” which basically meant that competitors could put anything in the turn-in box. This opened up a bunch of different options, rather than just the standard parsley or green leaf lettuce. What goes well with burgers? French fries! One problem with this was that my butane burner was incapable of generating enough heat to get the oil to a good frying temperature. I decided to see if using a chimney of lump charcoal dumped in a little Smokey Joe grill would get the oil up to the proper temperature. Boy did it ever. The fries were coming out great, and they looked great in the box.

When all the burger practicing was done, we were really happy with it. I was feeling more and more confident that, if we had a chance in hell to get a call in a category, this was it!

Putting It All Together

I’m a firm believer in timelines and practicing using competition timing at least once before the actual competition. I would have liked to have done this a couple of weeks before the competition, but the only time I had available was the weekend before. It wouldn’t allow me much time to adjust things if they went wrong, but it would have to do.

The night before my practice competition, I made the marinades and trimmed all the meats just as I would the night before the real competition. I got a good night’s sleep, and woke up bright and early just as I would have to do at the competition. I won’t go into too much detail, because there isn’t a lot to say. The practice went fine. I forgot a couple of steps in my timeline, but I simply added those and everything was good to go. It was a successful practice run and I finally felt ready for the competition.

So there you go. The practicing was done, and it was competition time. To be continued in the next post…

KCBS Fires New England Area Reps

2009-04-14T11:47:00.000-04:00

The KCBS Board of Directors made the determination to remove Ken and Kathy Dakai as KCBS Reps and Ken as a CBJ instructor. The reason was listed on the KCBS Quick Notes from the Board 4/8/09 and was stated as: "conduct unbecoming the best interest of KCBS." This info can be found on the KCBS web site. Hopefully the upcoming minutes from that meeting will shed more light on the situation. Because, for the moment, it's a decision that is leaving many in the dark.

This post was used by permission, courtesy of Lakeside Smokers.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T09:09:00.001-05:00

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

First Post

2008-12-16T10:40:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog. I guess at the moment "everyone" means just me, but it wouldn't be the first time I've talked to myself and it won't be the last!

I created this blog to talk about two things I love: food and beer. I became interested in cooking when I was 15 years old. Now that I think about it, my interest in beer came about at around the same time...shh, don't tell mom! My main focus is "home style" cooking. I'm not into fancy ingredients or plating food so it stands up in a pyramid just so. Give me a pile of pork ribs with sauce on the side and a cold Belgian beer and I'm happy as a lark. Add a piece of chocolate cake or carrot cake at the end and I'm in heaven.

My passion for barbeque led me to start a competition team this year called Insane Swine BBQ. We competed in two competions: a two-category "backyard" competition in Brookline, NH and a four-category "professional" competition in Harvard, MA. I was pretty nervous going into the Harvard competition and I had only two goals for the contest: 1) get all four categories turned in on time, and 2) don't finish last in any of the four categories. Luckily, I accomplished both of these things...although my pork butt tried its hardest to finish last! It was great fun, and I met a lot of wonderful people while competing.

One more thing for now. If you live in New England and like to cook and/or eat barbeque, I encourage you to look into joining the New England Barbeques Society: http://www.nebs.org/. There are some really nice people in the society and you can learn a lot from them.

That's it for now. More coming really soon. Play nice!

Jared

INSANE SWINE BBQ

The First Time Nothing Sucked

Western Maine BBQ Festival

Let's Try This Again...

Looking Forward to the 2011 Season

2010 Barbecue Retrospective

Harvard Fall Festival 2010 Recap

My Final Competition

Mainely Grillin' & Chillin' 2010

Harpoon 2010

Merrimack Rock 'N Ribfest 2010

Return of Peter's Pond

Barbecue Season...Here It Comes!

Chicken Skin Problem Solved?

Snowshoe Results

Snowshoe

Random Stuff

Rib Tips

Merry Christmas Everyone

Beef Ribs

The Holidays Are Here, Like It Or Not

BBQ Politics

Harvard Fall Festival - Final Words

Harvard Fall Festival - Brief Recap

Harvard Fall Festival

NEBS SummerFest

Back from Maine

Sick

Catching up

Dakai Vote

Getting Down to Business

Exhibit A

Pulled Chicken

I'm a Foodie

KCBS Reps Reinstated

First Grilling Competition: Competition Day in Retrospect

First Grilling Competition: Preparation in Retrospect

KCBS Fires New England Area Reps

More posts!

Merry Christmas

First Post