A barbecue adventure, the saga unfolds.

Another something we rarely do. Bone in loin chops. Seasoned last night and going on the smoker. There’s sweet potatoes underway.
bc097f545f29edcf0517726cf58c1e19.jpg
 
TCABM said:
Another something we rarely do. Bone in loin chops. Seasoned last night and going on the smoker. There’s sweet potatoes underway.
bc097f545f29edcf0517726cf58c1e19.jpg
Click to expand...
Have you tried a whole loin and then cutting it into chops?

This made me hungry. I need to try this real soon now.

I usually smoke a boneless loin whole, but I don’t think I’ve done any bone in loins or chops.
 
I was able to work another bbq contest today. I was told I didn’t get selected to judge, they had a lot more sign up than they needed so I was on the wait list. I did what I always recommend, show up anyway. Turns out 5 of us did that. Then it turns out 4 judges and 1 table captain were no-shows so we all got in. I was TC, so I had responsibility for a table of judges. I was able to sample leftovers, like when a team turns in extra samples.

There definitely was one WTF moment. I opened one box of pork butt so the judges could score for appearance, and I wanted to close it right away. It was money muscle medallions, pretty common, and normally very good. But these were just about 2 minutes past bloody-rare. Not only were the judges looking at way undercooked pork, any that did try it had to pull on it like they were trying to tear a bite off a piece of leather. That one did not score well. Ooof.
 
Mahneuvers said:
Points for presentation!
Click to expand...
Yes, there is a story behind this. I posted the picture directly from the phone but was going to type in the explanation on the computer.

Yesterday I totally botched dinner. Alcohol was involved. Don't tell the FAA. I thought dinner was on me when the Other Person was called in to work late. I fired up the grill. I pulled out two frozen packs of meat - chuck steak and hamburger, rolled into cylinders. My thought process was that I would thaw them on the grill and cook them in to steaks and burgers. I started that way but didn't end that way. I guess I must have grilled all of the steaks and ate them but the cylinder of frozen hamburger was burned burger with undercooked hamburger on the inside.

Long story short, the Other Person fried up the half BBQ'd burger in to a 'bbq burger bowl' so I guess there is some sort of burger thingie or perhaps twice fried ground beef under the sauce and avocado.
 
I judge another contest this weekend. I judged it last year, and the year before that it was my final contest as a cook. That last cook was in the worst storm I cooked in. I still feel wet when I think about it. We could see it coming so we scrambled to tie down tarps over everything we could. I brought the same tie downs I took with me to OSH and I cinched those down tight to keep the 10x20 pop up from blowing away. When the gust front blasted through I didn’t expect the tent to bow up and lift so high in the middle. It took two of us, one on each side, to hold it down in the center. Then the rain hit, and it was blowing sideways. This all happened right when we needed to get samples ready for the judges. We were able to do pretty well that day. Other teams lost a lot when tents and other equipment let go and smokers got blown over. I do not miss days like that.

We should have around 100-110 teams this year.

Edit:

Looks more like 70 teams right now. I remember years with 115 at this one. Meat and fuel costs have been driving down participation over the last few years. I think Covid shutdowns caused teams to quit the sport, too.
 
Last edited:
Went out to the bbq contest to hang out for a little while on the party night. There was a decent blues band and the beer tent had Harp lager on ice. I caught up with a few friends and saw a few others in the distance that I will chat with next week. What a beautiful night for it.

I head back in the morning for judging.

Life is good.
 
Matthew said:
Went out to the bbq contest to hang out for a little while on the party night. There was a decent blues band and the beer tent had Harp lager on ice. I caught up with a few friends and saw a few others in the distance that I will chat with next week. What a beautiful night for it.

I head back in the morning for judging.

Life is good.
Click to expand...
Have fun! I miss competing and judging both, though judging in many ways was more enjoyable. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of competition nearby now that I've moved to the Pacific Northwest.
 
GaryM said:
Have fun! I miss competing and judging both, though judging in many ways was more enjoyable. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of competition nearby now that I've moved to the Pacific Northwest.
Click to expand...
I remember you were involved in a few out east. I just signed up for another contest early April. I need to find one out near Boise so I have another excuse to visit my nephew.

Edit:

I see there was one in Blackfoot and another in Meridian this year.
 
Last edited:
Matthew said:
I remember you were involved in a few out east. I just signed up for another contest early April. I need to find one out near Boise so I have another excuse to visit my nephew.

Edit:

I see there was one in Blackfoot and another in Meridian this year.
Click to expand...
Smaller contests, I believe, but both are 7+ hours from here. Idaho is a tall state, with the middle third blessed with an abundance of very tall mountains and cursed with very few roads. The quickest way from where I now live in the panhandle down to where I grew up in southern Idaho is to drive out into Washington, down into Oregon, then cut back into the state near Boise. The second quickest way is to drive out into Montana, down into Wyoming, then cut back into Idaho over Teton Pass. Driving south through the state takes hours longer, though it is incredibly scenic.
 
GaryM said:
Smaller contests, I believe, but both are 7+ hours from here. Idaho is a tall state, with the middle third blessed with an abundance of very tall mountains and cursed with very few roads. The quickest way from where I now live in the panhandle down to where I grew up in southern Idaho is to drive out into Washington, down into Oregon, then cut back into the state near Boise. The second quickest way is to drive out into Montana, down into Wyoming, then cut back into Idaho over Teton Pass. Driving south through the state takes hours longer, though it is incredibly scenic.
Click to expand...
If there were only some way to go from one end of a state to another that didn't involve driving...

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
 
GaryM said:
Smaller contests, I believe, but both are 7+ hours from here. Idaho is a tall state, with the middle third blessed with an abundance of very tall mountains and cursed with very few roads. The quickest way from where I now live in the panhandle down to where I grew up in southern Idaho is to drive out into Washington, down into Oregon, then cut back into the state near Boise. The second quickest way is to drive out into Montana, down into Wyoming, then cut back into Idaho over Teton Pass. Driving south through the state takes hours longer, though it is incredibly scenic.
Click to expand...
Blackfoot had 32 teams, Meridian had 39.

I saw that the Texas Smoke Whisperer was in Blackfoot. I met him at the contest in Greeley, CO a few years ago. He was set up right behind my buddy and I. Really nice guy. The following year he was at my local contest, I was judging that one. I lost track of him and thought he he might have dropped out of the circuit. He and his wife would travel to 35-40 contests each year.
 
It’s almost an hour long, but Heath Riles shows off what goes into a KCBS competition cook and turn-in.

At a really high quality contest, a judge will get to look at and sample 1 piece from 6 boxes of each meat and they will all look this good. Each entry turn in is 30 minutes apart, that’s why he’s staggering the resting times in the Cambro.

 
DJTorrente said:
Kassler Rippchen?
Click to expand...
Not really, I don't brine it. But...now that you mention it...

DJTorrente said:
Boneless loins are often cheaper than bone-in; even cheaper than back ribs. :dunno:
Click to expand...
Boneless loins really fly under the radar. They are cheap and because they are so lean you don't lose very much at all during cooking, so if you buy a 7lb loin you end up with pretty close to 7lb of cooked loin. They are really simple to cook, just make sure to use a thermometer and pull it at about 137. I should do them more often. About my only complaint is they can seem pretty bland if you don't add something.

Back ribs: When I do ribs at home it's usually backs. Contests are almost always spares trimmed St Louis style. St Louis trimmed will get a really good consistency in the size and shape of the ribs so they all cook as evenly as possible. Backs can be so thick in some areas and much thinner in others and can be hard to cook well.
 
Matthew said:
Not really, I don't brine it. But...now that you mention it...


Boneless loins really fly under the radar. They are cheap and because they are so lean you don't lose very much at all during cooking, so if you buy a 7lb loin you end up with pretty close to 7lb of cooked loin. They are really simple to cook, just make sure to use a thermometer and pull it at about 137. I should do them more often. About my only complaint is they can seem pretty bland if you don't add something.

Back ribs: When I do ribs at home it's usually backs. Contests are almost always spares trimmed St Louis style. St Louis trimmed will get a really good consistency in the size and shape of the ribs so they all cook as evenly as possible. Backs can be so thick in some areas and much thinner in others and can be hard to cook well.
Click to expand...
I'm kicking myself. Really big boneless loins were on sale at the LGS. I usually cut them in to thick chops and grill them, with dry rub spices. I might do that next weekend if they are still available. It's hard to beat bone in chops, of any variety for taste though. If I could combine Shake and Bake with boneless loin chops with grilling I probably would.
 
DJTorrente said:
Boneless loins are often cheaper than bone-in; even cheaper than back ribs. :dunno:
Click to expand...
I’m pretty sure it is a legacy result from prior times thing. I haven’t been in the pork industry for decades, but when I was the market push from the late 1990’s (?) was for “lean pork” and long backs in the genetics to maximize the yeild from the loin behind the ribs because it was the “in demand” pork the public payed premium for. They were going so far as loading up the feed with paylean (judging by the pigs behavior, essentially pig meth) the last week of grow out to get them to burn out the fat in their body to market a more lean meat. Most of the legacy larder landrace genetics were lost during this time. Then 2006 if I remember correctly was the year porcine circovirus hit and it hit hard… in PRRS positive pigs it was having mortality rates approaching and exceeding 50% and it was doing it when they were around 200 pounds (already a lot invested in them). Many of the breeding stock herds were lost and or culled to both contain the spread of ciro and to try to eliminate PRRS. In short a lot of genetics were lost and what was left over were long backed lean market hogs, the market has shifted back to flavor and understanding that fat is not evil, it’s flavor… but the landrace breeding herds of the commercial growers no longer contain the genetics to do it… so cheap lean loins as a byproduct.
 
Matthew said:
Boneless loins really fly under the radar. They are cheap and because they are so lean you don't lose very much at all during cooking, so if you buy a 7lb loin you end up with pretty close to 7lb of cooked loin. They are really simple to cook, just make sure to use a thermometer and pull it at about 137. I should do them more often. About my only complaint is they can seem pretty bland if you don't add something.
Click to expand...
I've had good luck doing them as a roulade.
Flatiowa said:
Many of the breeding stock herds were lost and or culled to both contain the spread of ciro and to try to eliminate PRRS. In short a lot of genetics were lost and what was left over were long backed lean market hogs, the market has shifted back to flavor and understanding that fat is not evil, it’s flavor… but the landrace breeding herds of the commercial growers no longer contain the genetics to do it… so cheap lean loins as a byproduct.
Click to expand...
My household has noticed that loin chops seem to really benefit from sourcing a heritage pig.
 
asicer said:
My household has noticed that loin chops seem to really benefit from sourcing a heritage pig.
Click to expand...
If you can find duroc they are fantastic, but they are prime for butcher closer to 550lbs.
 
With boneless pork loin chops the flavor ends with the cooking, it begins with the breed, enhanced/tuned by the feed, and only then can the cook do their best with what they can get.
 
I had a schedule conflict today and wasn’t able to judge one of the local bbq contests. It’s only a few years old, but it really deserves more teams. Every year there’s a risk they just won’t get enough teams for a viable contest. This year they had 21 teams. I think the magic number is 25: at a 25 team contest the points count towards team of the year. Some teams chasing that national award will wait until the last minute to join a small contest they feel like they can win. If they see other TOY contenders they might not sign up, and if they don’t see 24 teams they might also bail. But this contest is interesting that it’s so close to the American Royal BBQ, the biggest of them all, that a lot of very strong local teams not chasing TOY points will use it as practice for the Royal. Today was no exception, I looked at the score sheet online and saw some really big names. And I saw there were four perfect scores in chicken. It’s rare to see more than one perfect score per contest. Today there were 6. This was a great contest.

I’m judging the Royal Open, about 600 teams. I haven’t heard yet if I got picked for the Invitational, about 200 teams.
 
IMG_6268.jpeg
Tri tip and chicken. I was going to do pork chops but there was a tri tip that looked too good to pass up.
 
We shall see how this turns out.
a45373ec931c6a332b89c8c869795b85.jpg


Nap time.

ec844753d9b8716949eb2193ed1445d7.jpg


Not bad

5d9626df635597147e33e7051ddee1a2.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top