A barbecue adventure, the saga unfolds.

Mahneuvers said:
Did I say boil? Braise...that's what I meant! Sounds so much less offensive! Seriously, I've decided these things are not worth firing up the smoker or grill. I'm taking @TCABM's advice and will braise.
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Shoot, I’d take one of your experimental ribs and do it like a prime rib and braise the other one.

But I’m not going to take another man’s meat.
 
Matthew said:
heh - as much a BBQ geek as I am, I am not a rib Nazi. Cook them whatever way works for you.
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As hard-core as you are, that's surprising!

Early on I realized how boiling, although fast and producing a tender rib, results in nothing more than a sauce delivery medium void of natural flavors. I understand why those just starting out use the technique, but nothing turns me off more than when I go to a restaurant and am served boiled ribs.
 
Mahneuvers said:
As hard-core as you are, that's surprising!

Early on I realized how boiling, although fast and producing a tender rib, results in nothing more than a sauce delivery medium void of natural flavors. I understand why those just starting out use the technique, but nothing turns me off more than when I go to a restaurant and am served boiled ribs.
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One thing about living in KC is that no restaurant is going to boil ribs and stay in business longer than 48 hrs.
 
Matthew said:
One thing about living in KC is that no restaurant is going to boil ribs and stay in business longer than 48 hrs.
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how far are you from 2I3 and what are you doing at the end of April?
 
Oh, yeah, I’m judging again tomorrow. This will be a new, first time contest. I haven’t seen a team list yet. I hope some of the big boys are there, that usually raises everyone else’s game.
 
29 teams here for this contest. 2 of them are trying to knock each other out for national team of the year. One is in first place going into today, the other is just a few spots behind.

First turn in is in 30 min (chicken), then ribs, pork butt, and brisket at 30 minute intervals.
 
Matthew said:
29 teams here for this contest. 2 of them are trying to knock each other out for national team of the year. One is in first place going into today, the other is just a few spots behind.

First turn in is in 30 min (chicken), then ribs, pork butt, and brisket at 30 minute intervals.
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Have fun! You’re going to eat some great ‘Q!
 
Twinkies, Ding Dongs and a fifth of Jack. Life doesn't get better.
 
Speaking of, I almost tri tipped it today, but the pork shoulder strips were looking too good. Big meaty ones.
 
Each judge samples 6 teams at a time. The 6 chicken entries (out of 29 teams) were all outstanding. Probably the best 6 samples of anything I’ve ever had. Ribs, pork, and brisket were a little more spread out, though. Some were very good and some were just ok. Brisket was the hardest to judge today - some tasted great but were a little overdone and some were done perfectly but lacked flavor.
 
Sounds like a tough job. (where do I sign up?)
 
Forgot to post the gratuitous pictures. Poor (okay lazy) man's smoker. Dry rub is Kinder's Lemon Pepper. Not bad at all.

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Happy birthday to me. Niman Farms prime.

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GaryM said:
Yep, Red, White, and Q. Team Smoke-Chem BBQ (I'm a chemist).
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Next weekend?

I’m cooking a contest next weekend, too. Looks like I’m doing the chicken and butts. My buddy will do the brisket and ribs. The ribs are pretty much a two man operation: he’ll trim and season, then I’ll probably do most of the cooking. For brisket I stay out of his way to avoid getting punched in the throat. I’m making the shopping list for groceries, meat, and liquor. Looking forward to it. Overnight lows might be mid 30s so it will be heavy sleeping bag weather.
 
GaryM said:
yep, Saturday the 22nd. We’re just doing one day, too much work to do it all again on Sunday. :)
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Those double headers would break me. I do the full contests, so I get set up on Friday, then cook overnight and Sat morning for the judging on Sat afternoon. A double header would mean starting all over again after the Saturday turn in.
 
The contest I'm in this weekend will have the #2 and #8 teams in the country, both of them are local teams. I don't know who else will be there, but it's likely there will another couple top 20 teams...and then us.

The #2 team, "Slaps", was #1 for a few weeks, but got passed by a team from out east, NJ I think, "Uncle Pig's BBQ Pit". The story I got from the guys at my local BBQ store, who are also looking for team of the year points, is that Slaps was #1 but then cooked at the Royal. The Royal (Kansas City) is the largest contest in the world. Uncle Pig's skipped the Royal and cooked in a double-header and grabbed up some extra points. The Royal doesn't count towards team of the year points - I'm not sure why, but I think it's because Slaps cooked in the Invitational division rather than the Open. So he got passed by the other team. Slaps is also cooking in the National Invitational in Gadsden, AL and he won't be getting any points for that one, either. So he'll be cooking in the contest this weekend, and then doing a double-header the following weekend before the National. I just checked the schedule, there are a few other contests before the end of the year scattered around the southeast, so maybe he'll hit one of those before he drives back here. He's a good guy, and I wish him well. It would be an honor to get whipped by him this weekend. But we'll see, maybe we can sneak something ahead of him.

Temps here over the next 2 days are lows in the low 20s and highs about 50. For the weekend, though, it's looking like 82 for both Fri and Sat, and about 63 overnight. That's some good bbq weather.

Good times.
 
Uncle Pigs BBQ Pit will be cooking at the Red White and Q contest with me this coming weekend in NJ. I didn’t realize they were leading the National points chase. Good thing I’m in a different division! They were Reserve Grand Champion there last year.

The website shows them entered in the Masters of Ribs contests both Friday and Saturday nights, but only doing the four-meat Masters contest on Sunday, not both days.
 
GaryM said:
yep, Saturday the 22nd. We’re just doing one day, too much work to do it all again on Sunday. :)
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OK - I'll watch the results. Probably will be posted online either Sunday night or Monday.

https://campgroundbbq.com/red-white-q

I see that Uncle Pig's BBQ Pit will be doing the double-header at that contest. You might wander over to see what the #1 team in the country looks like. He's trying to grab as many points as he can by the end of the year to stay ahead of Slaps.


Edit: I posted this but didn't see your post just ahead. Yeah, it might be that he isn't doing the two masters contests.
 
Ugh - finally finished trimming the chicken this morning, that saves me about an hour and a half tomorrow afternoon at the contest site - I really don't like chicken. We are allowed to trim meat in advance, but any seasoning or brines can only be done on-site after a contest rep inspects the meat. Will trim and doctor up the pork butts on site, they are pretty simple. Ribs are easy, and 2 people trimming one brisket each doesn't take much time. That gives plenty of time to setup, eat lunch, hang out with a few adult beverages, get the logistics settled down for the overnight cook times, and get dinner going. Menu for tomorrow night - pork loin, some home made sausage, and a big pan of smoked mac and cheese that my daughter is going to fix for us. There might be a few other things going into the smoker, too. My daughter invited a co-worker, he's bringing his family plus a Japanese exchange student. This could be interesting. A couple years ago I hung out with a guy from the Mexican consulate in KC at one of our contests. He wanted to talk regional differences in bbq and I wanted to talk regional differences in tacos.

Life is good.
 
I might consider some sort of small, portable framed tent canopy, about 6x6 to shelter the smoker on rainy days. It's supposed to rain on Saturday (my bbq day.) Putting a smoker or grill under the house patio overhang is a complete nogo.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I might consider some sort of small, portable framed tent canopy, about 6x6 to shelter the smoker on rainy days. It's supposed to rain on Saturday (my bbq day.) Putting a smoker or grill under the house patio overhang is a complete nogo.
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A 10x10 popup is pretty standard equipment. Hang a tarp from the windward side if you want. Make sure to tie it down well, though, one wind gust will send it flying. A 5-gal bucket of water on each corner will usually be enough, or a good set of tent pegs. Keep an eye out for sale prices, sometimes they can be had pretty cheaply. I'd recommend the straight sided, they have a 10x10 canopy and a 10x10 footprint. The slope sided ones are usually cheaper but have a 10x10 footprint and only an 8x8 canopy.

A tarp strung from your patio overhang or some other structure might be a good temporary solution.

The fun thing is to have 2 10x10s placed side by side, and then it rains. Rain will run down that valley and soak everything, so someone will get the idea that a tarp across the top will help with that, and then rainwater will collect in the tarp in that valley until someone pushes up on the low spot from underneath and then dumps gallons of cold rainwater on someone trying to catch some shuteye in a lawn chair at about 3am. Just sayin'.

edit: Those popups are actually not very sturdy in the rain. They don't usually have a very good tension on the canopy so rain can collect on top. If that happens and you don't push it off once in a while, that frame can twist or collapse.
 
Matthew said:
A 10x10 popup is pretty standard equipment. Hang a tarp from the windward side if you want. Make sure to tie it down well, though, one wind gust will send it flying. A 5-gal bucket of water on each corner will usually be enough, or a good set of tent pegs. Keep an eye out for sale prices, sometimes they can be had pretty cheaply. I'd recommend the straight sided, they have a 10x10 canopy and a 10x10 footprint. The slope sided ones are usually cheaper but have a 10x10 footprint and only an 8x8 canopy.

A tarp strung from your patio overhang or some other structure might be a good temporary solution.

The fun thing is to have 2 10x10s placed side by side, and then it rains. Rain will run down that valley and soak everything, so someone will get the idea that a tarp across the top will help with that, and then rainwater will collect in the tarp in that valley until someone pushes up on the low spot from underneath and then dumps gallons of cold rainwater on someone trying to catch some shuteye in a lawn chair at about 3am. Just sayin'.

edit: Those popups are actually not very sturdy in the rain. They don't usually have a very good tension on the canopy so rain can collect on top. If that happens and you don't push it off once in a while, that frame can twist or collapse.
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A 10x10 would be ideal, but I'm space limited for backyard concrete real estate and I'm too lazy to pour a concrete pad out in the middle of the dirt. I'm sure I would have to sand bag it for the wind, but I'm probably not using the smoker in howling winds either. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and build one of those backyard sheds I've been wanting. I can do up to a 10x12 without pulling a permit. Then I can put an overhang (or a detached overhang if that counts towards the square footage) and call it a day.

Of course the 'right way' to power it for a fan and some juice for the beer and meat cooler is to tie in to the house panel and trench a conduit to the shed, but that will take a permit, and I don't want to feed more money in to the MAN than I need to.
 
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Oh, mama. What an outstanding night for a bbq contest. Dinner tonight was pork loin, beans, and mac and cheese on the smoker. The team next door had a border collie (Oz) that’s been chasing the same tennis ball since 4pm.

Life is good.
 
The chicken is brining now. I’ll give it about 2 hrs, pull it from the brine, then throw it on then smoker in the morning. The butts will go on about midnight and the briskets about 1am.

Ribs and chicken go on in the morning.
 
They should issue a smoke colored beret to Matthew. He is the Special Forces of BBQ.

Looks like the weather will hold for tomorrow, so I might just get some ribs for the smoker if I find some that look good. I want some spares. Big meaty ones.
 
What an awesome evening. Yeah, it’s just getting started and there’s plenty of hours to get burned out. But for now, it’s great. Wx is getting cool, low humidity. I’m going to get the smoker started soon so we can get the butts started about midnight and the briskets about 1am. Chicken is brining now, but I’ll pull that out in about 5 more minutes, then I’ll let it sit on ice until morning.
 
Ahh. 5:45am and the smell of bbq is in the air. It smells like victory.

Butts went on the smoker about 5 hrs ago and they are just reaching 165 so they are right on schedule. Same with the briskets. I’ll pull them off, wrap them, then get them back on to finish. The ribs will go on in another hour, then the chicken.

The turn in time for chicken is noon, ribs 12:30, pork 1:00, and brisket 1:30. This contest also has a sausage category so that turns in at 11:30. Sausage doesn’t take long so it’s going in about the same time as the chicken.

Life is good.
 
Gotta own it: ended up with 2nd place in sausage. I had very little to do with it. My two were chicken and pork. My brain is foggy right now, but I think the chicken ended up at 14, out of 30. The pork was very, very good but scored near the bottom. It’s a case where I had a GPA of 3.5 in a class of 4.0s. Similar situation with the brisket. Good scores, but most everyone else had better. The point totals between first and last are pretty tight. What hurt was ribs. My buddy sliced them and I put them in the box. What neither of us realized was that a couple of them hadn’t cut through. That means one judge ended up with 3 ribs and 2 judges had to give us a DQ score because they didn’t get any. Judges are not allowed to pull them apart. The other judges gave us some pretty good scores, but our overall score couldn’t recover. We ended up with a DAL (dead ass last). In almost 35-40 years of doing contests, this is the first time we’ve screwed up a slice like that.

Will try again next year when the season starts back up. I’m trying to retire from contest cooking but I can’t go out with a last.
 
Sounds like an interesting day. I’m back from a disappointing finish at Red White and Q, but Uncle Pigs finished 9th today, so we all had our troubles.
The write up and pics will have to wait a bit. Hoping to fly tomorrow.
 
Matthew said:
Gotta own it: ended up with 2nd place in sausage. I had very little to do with it. My two were chicken and pork. My brain is foggy right now, but I think the chicken ended up at 14, out of 30. The pork was very, very good but scored near the bottom. It’s a case where I had a GPA of 3.5 in a class of 4.0s. Similar situation with the brisket. Good scores, but most everyone else had better. The point totals between first and last are pretty tight. What hurt was ribs. My buddy sliced them and I put them in the box. What neither of us realized was that a couple of them hadn’t cut through. That means one judge ended up with 3 ribs and 2 judges had to give us a DQ score because they didn’t get any. Judges are not allowed to pull them apart. The other judges gave us some pretty good scores, but our overall score couldn’t recover. We ended up with a DAL (dead *** last). In almost 35-40 years of doing contests, this is the first time we’ve screwed up a slice like that.

Will try again next year when the season starts back up. I’m trying to retire from contest cooking but I can’t go out with a last.
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Well now I’m questioning everything that I’ve ever read about barbecue on this forum. :)

Hey, it happens. Go get em’ next year. :)
 
GaryM said:
Sounds like an interesting day. I’m back from a disappointing finish at Red White and Q, but Uncle Pigs finished 9th today, so we all had our troubles.
The write up and pics will have to wait a bit. Hoping to fly tomorrow.
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The two KC teams trying to catch Uncle
Pigs were not here today. One of them, maybe both, were in Colorado for a double (back to back contests on consecutive days). They’ll be back here next week for another double. That lets them accumulate 4 sets of contest points in 2 weekends. I did 2 this whole year, those teams do 40 or more.
 
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