Stoker gear arrived today…
(So did a bunch of stuff I ordered Monday)
Anyone interested in Sox tickets for July 4th or July 6th send me an email. 2 seats for each game, $30 a seat.
Gear@transformerbbq.com
This is a paste from an email that is circulating concerning the KCBS Board…
Here’s one post to catch us up.
Friday I woke up about 5:15, got dressed, brushed my teeth, and got on the road.
The long flat highway of Rt. 90, and about 5hours left to go till the contest. The trip was uneventful, and I arrived about 11.
Teams had started pulling in when I arrived, a great contest location, very flat, and considering the recent rain, the field was very dry.
Some of the big Midwest teams had already arrived. Smoke on Wheels (2nd at the Americal Royal in 2008- 475 teams), and Quau (currently 1st among 4000+ KCBS teams, and KCBS chicken team of the year 2007 and 2008)…
Our site was between I Smell Smoke, and Mr. Bobo’s BBQ All-stars… two NEBS teams we like being near. As I have said before, there are three kinds of neigbors… great ones, terrible ones and non-factors. Great neighbors make the contest a better experience; non-factors don’t impact your weekend… and terrible neighbors are the ones who when the contest is over leave a sour feeling- sometimes so much that it can leave a lasting impression on the event as a whole, and can influence if a return trip will be made the following year.
Julie was arriving around 10pm, so I got the site set up, and got the meat all ready to go. Rubbed, massaged, injected… and back into the coolers. We spent the afternoon all hanging out in the ISS site, and eventually it was time for the cooks meeting and the pot luck.
The theme was Mexican, and I think there were 20 versions of Nachos… I personally took a shortcut and made mexican rice… which was the premade stuff from a packet. I eat this stuff at home all the time, and I like it… figured it would be a something different from the other stuff that was laid out.
Dinner was good, started the cooker and picking Julie up at the airport was easy. Meats went on…
Andy and I spent some time at the free beer tent, a perk for all the competitors was free draft beer all weekend; and we made some friends with the bar tender.
Diva Q had a big table full of apps, which were enjoyed by the crowd that was laughing at one of her smokers… something was up with the pellet feeder, and it was spilling pellets into the cooker about 5 times faster than they were burning. I’m not sure she thought it was as funny as we all did.
Checked the cooker, topped off the water, and headed to bed.
Things went well the next morning, the Geer pit was right where I wanted it. There is a lot of ‘touch’ with this cooker, but its truely made for ’stick burners’. This is not a pit someone new to bbq should own. It requires the fine tuning that pitmasters pride themselves on. proper airflow, vent adjustment, damper control, fire size and makeup… all important with this pit.
Turn in went as planned, and we were happy with the food. The meat was better than New Hampshire, where we had felt something was off. We also did some experimenting at this contest (Boston Hills). We put different rubs on each of the briskets, and changed the rub we’ve been using on pork back to what we used last year. We were looking to break up the rut from last weekend, and decided that we’d try to make a slight change to see if it helped.
Awards- We finished as Reserve Grand Champion, which included an incredible trophy topped with a fireman helmet… a real, fullsize, authentic helmet. This trophy must weigh over 20lbs… its awesome. One of the other highlights was finishing 1st in chicken, something we have never done in any chicken category since we competed.
Andy and Kim from Smoke on Wheels took top honors, with a very impressive score. Quau finishing 3rd and I Smell Smoke 4th. I’d love to see if there is a photo from the day before, with this exact group sitting around on chairs and coolers…
Also, the first person through the crowd to congratulat Andy and I was the bartender from the night before. He couldn’t stop laughing…
Showers
Dinner with ISS!, Smoke on Wheels, Mr. Bobos, Yabba Dabba Que, Them Ohio City Boys
Beer Tent
Sleep
Grilling
We really liked our food for the grilling contest, and again loved the chicken wings. I’m not a stubborn person when it comes to bbq contests. A lot of people say they cook for themselves… I don’t. I cook for the judges. I would turn in anything if the judges were going to give it high scores. So hot it burned your mouth, so sweet your teeth hurt… if it was going to score high… I’m all for it.
So… with that, the wings have been retired. I actually did well with them from 4 judges, but two judges gave me 4’s and 5’s… I don’t think these were 180 point wings, but a 4? 5? that seems a little off to me. So the wings are retired from contest duty.
We finished 5th in the grilling with actually a good score. ISS was RGC with a monster score and pretty much sealed up the NEBS team of the year race. Still not impossible, but not far from it.
Categories are still up for grabs… and this is how we stand..
Overall: 2nd 41.xx points back
Chicken: 1st 17.7xx points ahead
Ribs: 2nd 8 points back
Pork: 3rd 11.xxx points from first
Brisket: 4th 14.xxx points from first
Its going to be a close race… i’ll update this after Troy. There are still a bunch of heavy hitter teams with ony 4 ‘category’ scores, they will be in the running after Troy, and hopefully we improve in that same period.
Tomorrow will be three weeks since I ordered parts from Rocks Barbecue the makers of the Stoker products that we use. It has been three weeks since they charged my credit card… and I have yet to see anything arrive.
I also haven’t seen an email saying that things are back ordered… or even explaining what is taking so long.
Sorry for the lack of picture lately. Our camera was stolen about a month ago…
Shopped for the grilling contest
Packed the cooler (word of advice I have picked up along the way. If you are solo, put the cooler in the truck first, then pack it. The extra trips in and out of the house are a lot easier than tryinng to get a 200+ lb cooler into the truck alone)
My dad came over and helped me get the cookers into the truck… its about a 1.25 person job because of where we park the trailer. The cargok do backs onto the grass… so getting the cookers onto the ramp is a little tough alone.
8:30 I hit the road to Albany. Julie was going to be flying to Buffalo because of work. So I was responsible for driving out. I did about 3 or so hours on Thursday, and then would finish up the drive on Friday morning. (Thank you to Eric and Grace, www.pigmakerproductions.com who gave me a bed for a few hours)
Picked up some remaining meats
Packed the truck
Washed the cookers
This year we were invited to compete in Rib Wars at Jakes Dixie Roadhouse. IN the past it has been a mix of restaurants taking on competition teams. Seems like the restaurants have faded a little after being beaten every year… but the event is still fun.
Each team cooks about 20 racks of ribs which are served in the restaurant, and the customers vote. There were also celebrity Judges who picked their own winner…
In this case both awards went to I Smell Smoke!!! who picked up back to back year honors at the event.
This certainly deserved its own post. Just wanted to congratulate Lakeside Smokers for their win this past Sunday. It was their first Grand Championship… and it was a great contest to win. A ticket to the Jack and the Royal Invitational came with the win, so no worries come lottery time.
Nice work Kris and Mike… now feel free to stay home for a while and celebrate… no need to attend any more contests.
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