Arrived home last night very very late from Sayville, got a few calls in the grilling event, sort of a lackluster performance during the KCBS event with a call for 6th in ribs. The contest was eventful to say the least.
Many bbq competition teams talk about events that are “cooker friendly”. Its sort of a loose term meaning that things are run smoothly, there are things like power and water for the teams, and things go as they are advertised by the organizer. Even on a broader sense it involves contests where the organizers provide some sort of extras that show the teams are a first priority.
I’d rate Sayville as an “Organizer and Judge friendly” event.
Here’s one of the longest recaps you’ll see on here… its my perspective as a team at an event…
We arrived Friday night a little after midnight, and found a spot with a little help from some of the teams that had already arrived. The assigned spots that the teams had been told about seemed not to have materialized, but we sort of picked a place close to where we were last year… and pulled in. We unloaded the trailer, found some power, and got some sleep.
Woke up a little after 8 on Saturday, got some coffee and finished setting up the site. With the trailer this is about a 10 minute job, this mostly consisting opening a 10×10 and hanging up a sign– We had a good spot, with some regular neighbors that we knew would be fun.
Attended the cooks meeting where we were supposed to receive our boxes, some hotdogs from the sponsor, our secret ingredient for the Iron Choice, and also to find out when judges would coming to our sites for the onsite portion.
Well… there were no hot dogs, the original secret ingredient the organizers were going to give us—not there… and teams had not been assigned times yet. So we got boxes and headed back to our site.
The first category we were supposed to turn in was hot dogs at 12:00. At some point another team came by to tell us that there were still no hot dogs… and that that category would be skipped… either to be turned in at 1:30 or to be skipped altogether.
Through some word of mouth from teams around us we ended up returning to the judges tent several times that morning to pick up the new secret ingredient (apples… not avocados which was the original item)… hot dogs (1;30 turn in)… and to exchange our pizza box for a larger size. So with some running around and some change in the schedules… we managed to turn in our Fatty entry which we were pleased with (Thanks Kris for the assistance), and our pizza entry. Hot dog was a little rushed, had maybe a few too many ingredients… but we managed to get it in on time. (some of this due to poor planning on my part… and not wanting to do any prep beforehand till I knew we were actually turning the category in).
It was now 1:35 and we were not going to see judges till 4 at our site… so we had some time to get ready… and some time to visit our neighbors who’d just pulled up. Although we hang out a lot at contests, we usually don’t have a site next to Lakeside. Was good to have them on one side and Smoke on the Water next door. (for anyone new to contests, your neighbors are important… I’ll get to a couple specific examples why a little later)
Weather started to get a little dark, but the rain held off for the onsite judging. We served chocolate shakes, steak and fries… it was simple stuff, but the flavor was there. Our current set up allowed us to clear out the tent, put the sides up and set a more formal table. I think there would have been a little struggle for teams with a single 10×10… especially if the weather had arrived during this portion. Having soaked judges… or soaked gear you need for a contests the next day is a tough choice to make… For dessert we served chocolate covered caramels that Julie made on site, each topped with some pink salt that we bought on the first day we both lived in San Francisco. (the salt is from the Himalayas).
A short time after the judges left the wind started. We were cranked down tight on the tent, and stored the rest of the gear inside. It was already dark and we were just getting started on prepping the meat. Julie handles trimming on the bigger cuts, and typically I handle the rubs and injections, and trimming the ribs and chicken. This time we did some horse trading and Julie trimmed chicken too, I spent a good hour or so washing dishes left over from the grilling event… then moved onto my stuff for the KCBS contest.
At 7, there was an awards ceremony… which we heard, but did not see. We were one of the last to arrive and had missed a chance to be in the tent… so we stood outside in the rain and listened. A second, a tenth, a second, a fifth… and a no call in dessert… Only prizes for the winners in each category… so we’d come close but would walk away empty handed. Turns out one of the seconds missed 1st place by .0002… Very busy day and 7 and a half hours of a grilling contest… nothing to show for it. Bummer… but Sunday was the important one… so hey, we moved on.
A few teams showed up late on Saturday, they’d skipped the grilling and were there for the bbq only. We are notorious for the late arrival at contest, work, errands, distance often get in the way for us. We try to slide in, get our gear ready, out meat inspected and prepped and get into the swing like we’ve been there all day.
At contests when it gets wet, power can be touch and go. Water tends to trip a lot of breakers… and wham… power goes out for a set of teams. Water plus a lot of teams raises the odds…
Add those new teams and their big lights and the rain and well… the power went out.
When you do these contests a lot… you realize there are some priorities… guru’s, stokers, FE’s… these things come at the top of the list. Our set up can pull some power… but I will in a second unplug if it means someone’s guru can’t work. Teams in my corner were stripping down their set ups… Lakeside unplugged the tiny pig lights which was the only thing they had plugged in (maybe ¼ of an amp); we took the trailer, the rope lights “off line”, and the guys next to us unplugged all their lights… It became a mission to find a circuit that could run the gurus and give some people a little sleep. It wasn’t however the mission of all the teams in our area… for some having halogen flood lights running was their concern… and while 6 teams struggled to find minimal power… some were content to watch people run around in the rain from their artificial sun. (remember?… pick good neighbors).
After a long long time and a couple hundred feet of cord… and trying 25 combinations… we were able to get some minimal power for the guys in our area. The cookers had been started before the power issues… and in reality we can cook perfectly fine without it… but it lets us sleep with both eyes closed rather than watching dials all night…
Things calmed down for a little while, and the meat went on the cookers, changed into some dry clothes, ditched my soaked shoes, some people went to sleep and some of the guys stayed up to bs and have a beer. Around 1am there is a group of guys who you’ll find at a lot of NEBS events, joking around, having a beer, walking around and visiting people we see only at contests… but are sometimes to busy to talk to at normal hours.
This night we found ourselves at Smoke in Da Eye’s site. Mike from Lakeside, and Clint and his brother John from SIDE’s… all joking around… many jokes at the fact I was shoeless.
There was a crash… I saw Sled’s face… and he said the word “fire”.
Now at a bbq contest there are burning cookers all over the place… even some of us use big propane torches to start our smokers…. So you’d think the word fire is a common word. It isn’t. “My cooker is lit, that cooker is “on”, “started”, “cooking”, or “going””… these are normal. Even smoke isn’t an issue… but FIRE… fire isn’t usually a good sign.
And it wasn’t. Someone who was way past social consumption, knocked over their smoker… and sort of stumbled away. Grease, charcoal, and meat… all spilled all over the ground… and all on fire. Some quick decisions and some stories that will be told for a long time… and the damage was kept to a minimum.
The story involves more than just a fire… but its best left to… well, bbq stories to be told around a smoker and some JD.
Morning rolled around, and I slept in a little later than usual. Ribs went on as usual, and the rain had stopped. I usually stay up late, and Julie gets up early… takes care of some of the morning prep. With all the stuff the night before, I overslept a little and she picked up the slack… thanks Jules.
First thing I noticed was the trash… with a 5 category grilling contest, a full kcbc contest… morning prep, and breakfast… the bags were piling up. Not only for us, but is seemed like each team had their own little collection going around their sites.
At some point our friends Kim and Brian showed up. Brian is from the area, and planned a trip down to visit his parents at the same time as the contest. Both Kim and Brian have come up to Harpoon the last two year… and are our famous vendors, really helps us concentrate on the contest. Kim, also has a knack for making turn in boxes. Its great when people can help with the boxes… it really frees up time to concentrate on the food.
Chicken went on as planned and we got into our routine for turn ins. Chicken looked good, and we were happy with what we cooked and turned in.
We had two cookers at this contest, one a BWS that we had borrowed from our friends at Q Haven. (We are considering making some changes to our gear for 2009, and wanted a chance to cook on some of the things we are thinking about. The stick burner isn’t going anywhere… just want to maybe add to the collection). With the extra cooker space we decided to cook 6 racks of ribs vs. the 4 we normally do. Three came out almost black and we immediately eliminated them as possible turn ins.
Ribs went into the box, into the judges…
The rest of the turn ins went as planned… none of the food was very spectacular. One of the briskets broke taking it out of the cooker… totally overcooked. The pork was a little bit bland, and we tried to make adjustments but honestly… it just wasn’t all that great.
1:35 rolled around… everything turned in on time, and the clean up started.
We tend to make a minor mess when turning in food; sauce, cutting boards, knives all covered in bbq. Foil, paper towels, garnish all getting knocked around in the scramble to get things in on time.
So after a tiring day… we clean, and we pack. I started on the smokers; removing the ash, emptying the water in the BWS, removing the fans and getting them ready to go back into the trailer. Two bi-products of the bbq contest… Ash and Grease. Both things you don’t want to be taking home… the grease can be dealt with, but hot ash is not something teams want to put in their trucks. Most time contests provide bins for these items… makes clean up easy and really is a benefit for teams. (I’m not sure the guy at the royal, who parked his car next to, and down wind of the ash dumpster would agree with me… but my guess is he’ll look for different parking in 2009). Anyway, no bins at Sayville as far as anyone could find… so the ash was watered down… scooped up and was packed back in the truck…a wonderful cleanup job for the Monday after.
Julie, Kim, and Brian worked washing dishes, packing tools, rolling the signs, and breaking down the 10×10’s. Again… the help during this time really makes a difference to have extra hands…thank you both for helping.
With this crew we were all packed and ready to go by about 2:30, a little scare on finding the pickup truck keys… and we were hooked up and ready to go. Waiting for awards we thought were at 4… we sat out in front of our site with some friends. Awards weren’t until 5 we found out, which was the posted time, we just had mis-read. It’s a little unusual to have results this late, so after some grumbling by teams… we waited.
At about 4:55 we headed to the area where awards would be, it had started to get cold so everyone was geared up in jacket and sweatshirts. Everyone hoping to hear their names called…
Awards didn’t start till about 5:35, and as the sun was going down the temps outside had really started to get cold. No calls in the chicken category… which we were a little surprised at, it was the only thing we really liked. We’d tried something a little different… and were happy with the results… guess we’re going back to the drawing board on this one.
We had a 6th place call in Ribs, a category that has been our go to for the last year or so… and a recipe that hasn’t changed ever. Its one of those rare items that we cooked at home before competitions… and people said “these are great, you should enter into contests”… well, judges seem to agree on that one. Just wish we could have that same consistency in the other three categories.
No calls in Pork and nothing in Brisket… we weren’t happy with what we’d turned in… but sometimes we get lucky… not this time. One interesting item was that the team that had the “accident” the night before had calls in both categories which their meat had fallen on the ground (washed, re-seasoned and placed back on the cooker). I’m not sure if this means that our food is really bad… or if judges prefer dirt over bbq rub. Seems whatever the case is, the judges decided about 40 teams cooked meat that was deserving of lower scores in both categories…
Awards were over around 6:30, I would guess this was the longest awards ceremony we’ve been to. It was actually longer than the American Royal awards with scores for about 500 teams, and in which they announce to 20th place for 8-9 categories…
We hit the road, and made it back to Canton with little issues. Took a couple tries to park the trailer in the dark and after being so tired… but got it parked. 12:30am and we finally got those end of the weekend showers… having Monday off was going to be nice…
Transformer BBQ
“More than Meats the Eye”
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