This weekend was the 1st Annual BBQ Cook-Off was held on May 21-22 at the Dutch Country Farmers Market in Middletown, DE. It was organized by Mose Zook and Ben Riehl, proprietors of the Farmers Market. I have to say that they did a great job and it was noticed and appreciated by all in attendance. Their hard work made this a very cook friendly competition and it will no doubt grow by leaps and bounds.
This was our home town competition and the pressure was on for Pigheaded BBQ to have a good showing, since so many friends and family were going to be there. We didn't do too bad and even had a walk and a ribbon for pork.
My wife Norma and I arrived around 6:30AM to begin setting up, as most of the other members of the team weren't due to arrive 'till later in the day. This also allowed a leisurly pace which was good because the competition site was situated in the parking lot and the weather forecast called for a sunny day in the mid to upper 80's and asphalt can be a tad warm in hot weather. I must say that I get tired just watching my wife work as she works circles around most people. I was ready for a beer by 7:00AM.
Mike and Trina, my daughter and son in law along with Michael and Maddie (grandchildren)arrived around noon and pitched in with site prep. Meats were injected, trimmed and put away for later preparation. Stephanie arrived next bringing more welcomed tidbits as usual. I walked around and chatted with most of my BBQ friends and fellow competitors that had shown up by then and then started some prep work on tidbits to munch on. I prepped the buffalo chicken stuffed jalapenos, the roasted red pepper/blue cheese fatties and the "Redneck Cannolis".
My son Ron v2.0 along with my daughter in law Jeanette and Wade & Reid grandsons) arrived aroung 7:30PM and my nephew Brian arrived later in the evening. All through the day and well into the night, friends and family members of the team stopped by for a chat and some liquid refreshments and to nibble on whatever was around. About 10:30 things got serious and we put the finishing touches on the butts and brisket so they could hit the smoker by midnight. This went very smoothly and everything went according to plan. Now it was time to relax for most and after ensuring that the pit and temp was stable, I decided to lay back in my chair with the intention of getting a little shuteye. I should know better, because sleep does not come easily for me at a competition. I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve and try as I might, I just can't shut the old brain off so sleep comes in little spurts totalling about 1 1/2 hours. I will add that the 3:00AM whistling train didn't help, nor did the 3:30AM street sweeper who must have been trying to get a raise because he made numerous passes in our vicinity. You could have eaten off the asphalt in that parking lot.
5:30AM arrived and I realized sleep was futile, and I got up and started the final ribs prep work and worked with the chicken before putting it back into the cooler for later. You would be amazed at how time flies when crunch time is approaching. We always worry about finishing everything in time, but it seems to work out as planned in the long run. Maybe it's the fact that the team has become a pretty well oiled machine with everyone knowing just what needs to be done next and picking up for someone else that may happen to need help. This was my daughter, Trina's first time with the team from start to finish. She did a great job and it looked like she had always been there.
Our finish, while not great, was certainly better than our last one and we did get a walk up to the stage for a ribbon for pork. We finished 18th overall out of 42 teams and placed as follows in the 4 categories:
Chicken - 16th, Ribs- 28th, Pork- 10th and Brisket-30th. We had a ball here and again want to express our thanks and appreciation to the organizers, volunteers and all involved with the successful competition that's sure to grow by leaps and bounds.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
1st Competition on New Smoker (Raquel)
Well, after a long 12 week wait, Raquel has arrived,was seasoned and cooked on twice before her first competition. She was a little nervous standing there, ready to be fired up and loaded up with a full complement of meat for the "Pork in the Park" competition at Salisbury, MD. This is always the first competition of the year for this region and legions of BBQ teams were chomping at the bit after a long, cold winter to get back in the swing of things.
We arrived Thursday night to pick out a prime spot, as the majority of teams wouldn't be showing up 'till sometime on Friday. Salisbury is a first come first served competition, meaning there aren't assigned sites. You pick out what you consider to be the best site for you. There are as many different criteria as teams when it comes to picking out the ideal site. Some teams vie for closest to the judges tent, so you don't have to walk far to turn in your entries, some look for ease of entry and exit and I'm sure that some look for as much privacy as possible in a crowded field that was to hold 132 teams from around the country. We picked a site close to the electric and water hook-ups and in the middle of the pack so we could socialize. Or at least that's what we intended to do. It seems we never get around to doing as much as we would like.
Friday morning, we finished setting up our site and after having our meat inspected, we began to trim and prep the meats. Since we wouldn't be putting on the big cuts (brisket and butts) 'till midnight or later, we had a pretty leisurely pace going and enjoyed not being rushed. Our families came down Friday afternoon and we took the kids to the festival for the rides and enjoyed the comraderie of it all. The family went to a nearby hotel for the night and our activities began to pick up the pace getting ready to do our first cook of the season and the first serious cook on Raquel. Just about midnight, I lit the charcoal in the chute, set the guru and waited for Raquel to come up to temperature. Around 12:30AM the briskets and butts were placed inside and we were excited. It got down into the high 50's to low 60's and we settled in for the long night. Raquel hummed along throughout the night, holding at a steady 250 degrees. We couldn't have been happier about her performance.
Early Saturday morning, about 6:30AM, the ribs were loaded in and only chicken waited it's turn to be cooked to perfection. We were in a zone and things were progressing as we hoped and had high hopes for the results. The chicken turned out tasty, but alas the skin wasn't where we wanted it to be. The ribs were a tad overdone, having cooked a little faster than we were used to. The pork was good and the brisket was pretty much where we wanted it to be. Now it was in the judges hands.
So by now, I'm sure you're wondering how we did. Well, lets just say that Raquel, the newest member of the team is sueing the rest of us for non-support. She did her job, but somehow we didn't. The judges didn't like our chicken, ribs or pork and just tolerated our brisket. Not exactly the finished we envisioned. In fact, we were downright depressed. I guess we need a few more cooks on Raquel to learn her enough to correct our mistakes, but then isn't that the way with most new relationships? We will grow together, learn together and progress together. This is just the beginning of the season and we're not giving up. Look out for Pigheaded BBQ, we're fired up!!
Friday, April 2, 2010
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