Ain't Nothin' Brilliant About BBQ

Offseason Preperation

2009-10-16T15:00:00.001-07:00

Preparations for PSIP's 2010 are underway. We have started tearing all four categories apart including box presentation so we can evaluate every aspect to make a better product. We're not scraping anything but rather tweaking things to give us better opportunities for consistency, which is what we're all after right? As of right now we are dedicated to 10 contest with 4 more as additional ones we may or may not add. Next week is "The Jack" and we'll be there on Saturday morning to see all our friends, smell BBQ Heaven, and be a part of the ambience associated with Lynchburg. I'll have a full report hopefully by next Sunday but I'll be posting live on my Facebook page. I'd link it to this blog but at this time I can't fugure out how to load the icon on this page. On down the BBQ trail............

The Cat is Out of the Bag

2009-09-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

For the Smokin On The Square contest next weekend (Oct. 3rd) Jeff and Shelia Fellers from Light My Fire BBQ will be teaming with the Pigsmokers for an all star collaboration. Here's a look at the combined team name and logo. See ya in a couple of weeks

BBQ Crawl Pt. 1

2009-02-14T15:51:00.002-08:00

On my way to Sam's Club today, to do my part to stimulate our country's economic problems, I decided to do a small BBQ Crawl. Our friends at Ulika BBQ have a great blog at ulikabbqblog and I thought I would give it a spin and give my reviews of a couple of local estalbishments.
I decided to stop by Centerpoint BBQ located at 1212 W. Main in Hendersonville, TN. It is a place I remember passing by from my childhood when we would visit my grandmother and after graduating and moving from Gallatin to Hendersonville for 12 years had yet visited until today.
As I pulled over into the parking area I had to pull around back. It being luch time the place was full and I found the last space beside their Old Hickory Pit catering trailer. There is a small smoke house located to the side of the restaurant and the smell of hickory filled the air adding to my antsyness to get inside. When I walked in the door the ambience of the small area was pretty cool. A small elevated seating area with limited table and chairs was full as I expected due to all of the cars. The long work area to my left was bustling with workers and I noticed a large flat toaster which toasts the sandwiches just before they are served. Very nice touch. In front of me a small oriental women smiled and said "May I take your order?" I ordered the pulled pork sandwich rather than the chopped and had it within two minutes.
First, the sandwich was heaping with what I call "true pulled pork", chunky with bark and obvious seasonings. The pork was bland and dry and not cooked to the degree of doneness that I prefer. The sauce was a sweet vinegar sauce which tasted like a cross between Memphis and Kansas City sauce. It helped give flavor and was certainly the culprit in the seasonings I had observed. It was confusing because I know they do smoke their product but tasted very little of the oldest spice in the world in the sandwich . Now the price tag for this delicacy was $3.49 plus tax and it delivered on size with over 1/3 a pound of BBQ , but the lack of flavor and the desire to take a drink after the first bite took away from the total experience. I hope that this was just a fluke and I caught them on a bad day because Johnny and June Cash frequented this establishment while they lived in Hendersonville and I know the "Man in Black" knew his BBQ. I do plan on visiting again before giving a letter grade, but at this point I can't give anything more than an average or slightly below the initial verbal grade at this time.

BBQ 101 Class

2009-02-08T12:12:00.001-08:00

On Saturday February 7th, Jeff Fellers from Light My Fire BBQ and myself held our second BBQ 101 class in Murfreesboro. I have to say, each time we do one of these we get better and better. I guess it's all the repetition. We had a good class this year who was full of question and thankfully we had an answer although it may not be the perfect one. We took the class outside and showed them different cooking options with a Lang 84 Deluxe, a Big Green Egg, and a Weber Smoky Mountain.

I handled the ribs this time and divulged most of our secrets. I have to leave a few things out right? I showed the class the proper way to trim a full rack of ribs down to a St. Louis cut and Jeff handled the baby back portion of the class. Overall, the ribs came out very tasty and went very quickly. So fast Jeff and Sheila didn't get to try any. I also grilled up some shrimp as an appetizer. Jeff moved onto the brisket and did an excellent job going through the steps in cooking as well as secret tips to help get the particularly hard cut of meat tender.
All in all the class went very smoothly and all who attended felt they walked away with a little better knowledge and I think they might have gotten a little fired up and are probably cooking something outside today. Our next class will probably be in March as we will tackle Chicken and Pork 101.

Big Green Egg Class

2008-05-18T13:43:00.001-07:00

On Saturday May 17th my wife and I taught the 2008 Big Green Egg class for our sponsor Swim World. This years class was full and I could definitely tell there were some seasoned users in the audience. Last year I felt that I kinda went over everyone's head with theory about BBQ. It's hard to take the competition mindset out of the equation, even if you are trying to be as universal and basic so you can get through to everyone.
Marc was unable to make it and his presence was surely missed. I think the class will remember his name since I kept saying "I wish Marc was here." For two hours the class went and for two hours I worked on pulling off quality food while answering questions and manning two eggs I realized I should have put side by side , but for the sake of having it look good I dealt it.
On the menu there was first what I call Power Smoked Chicken, which i nothing more than chicken smoked at 400* with the place setter accessory. Next I lost track of the medium egg and let it get up to 550* before I knew it. I made the decision that due to time constraints I had to go ahead and grill it at that temp. I just laid a piece of aluminum foil down under to protect the bottom. It was seasoned with our Stardust seasoning along with sime Master Que seasoning and it came out great. I had my doubts at that temp, but it looks like I may do it at that temp from now on. Talk about juicy. They ran all over the table as I sliced it. Next we grilled some shrimp using some Tiger Sauce and they were a big hit. We next baked a pizza and tried to figure out why one of our attendees was burning his all the time. The pizza came of really good and for the first time I got a crispy crust all the way around. Lastly, we baked chocolate chip cookies on the egg. Not as easy as I thought but none the less they came off pretty tasty.
All in all I felt is was a pretty good class. At times I wondered if I was not going far enough into the "why's and how's" but every seemed to learn something that may help them as they go into their own world to produce good times and great food for their friends and family and after all isn't that what it's all about?

Sundrop BBQ Cookoff

2008-05-17T18:02:00.001-07:00

The weather was great as we descended up on the town of Pulaski for the Sundrop BBQ Cookoff. Sundrop..........it's got tree sap in it. We dropped our trailer in a great spot behind our friends Ulika , High on the Hawg, Music City Pig Pals, and Ivy Place Saucers. Being placed under full shade of the trees was an added bonus. We decided not to participate in the Antyhing But competition on Friday so we walked around and visited teams we haven't seen since last year and checked out a pretty good band.
Saturday turned out to be a pretty decent. First off NO RAIN! This was the first contest this year that was clear. I felt pretty good about our product that came off of the Eddy's. For the most part we are getting a much more consistent product. I know the debate that it is the cook rather than the cooker. But I feel that if a cook truly has his recipes and techniques down, a consistent cooker will do nothing but help turn out time after time a product that will eventually lead to more top ten calls.
At the awards chicken and ribs were called and we didn't hear any calls. I began to worry that it was Winchester all over again. Well we did hear our name called for 7th place pork. That was the only call we received, but it was a defining call. We have received a top ten call for each of the four categories off of the FE 100's After working all winter it was a great feeling.
Our chicken ended up 15th, our ribs 21st, and our brisket 13th. This led to an overall finish of 12th. We are finishing more consistently at the top of the field since going to the dark side.
Well off to Nashvegas in a few weeks and hopefully our current results will continue.

Winchester High on the Hog Contest

2008-05-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

Winchester High on the Hog was not kind to us again in 2008. This is one of the two contest we have never scored a top ten in any of the four categories and this year would be no different. For the most part, the weather was pretty good until around 9 p.m. on Friday night when the heavens poured down for about four hours. We had the Eddy's secured and they cooked great through the night.
Our friends from Pig Pak came over to our camp for an 11:00 shot of Gentleman Jack. They returned the favor at 2:30 for a shot of Maker's Mark. Anyway, we knew that we had pretty decent bbq but not enough to really be a contender this weekend and we were right again.
We finished in at 27th out of 52 teams this weekend. Our only real bright spot was our chicken and it finished at 14th. Our ribs came in at 33rd, our pork came in at23rd, and our brisket was 34th. Not our best effort, but so goes this love we call competition bbq. As always we just get back on that horse and try to ride again.

Clarksville Cookoff April 4th and 5th 2008

2008-05-16T19:23:00.001-07:00

The rain came down in buckets leading up to the days of the first annual Clarksville Cookoff. This was our first event of 2008 and even the weather couldn't dampen our spirits. After 6 months of practice since Lenoir City we had high expectations for 2008 since adding another FE 100.
We arrived around 10 on Friday morning and after moving the trailer four times to our final location we had our meat inspected and began our prep work.
It was great seeing our friends Ulika, High on the Hog, Do Rag Q, Smoky Mountain Smokers and so many more than I can list.
Friday night was capped off with a low country boil consisting of shrimp, corn, and potatoes. After that a pretty good local band played for a few hours and we went to sleep.
Saturday started off pretty good. Number one, it was great getting a good nights sleep due to the FE's chugging along all night virtually unattended. When I went to wrap the pork and briskets they had great color so I thought we were in good shape.
The water in the fairgrounds had risen over night and they ended up gettin a little closer than I had liked but nothing to worry about.
After the turn ins we felt so-so about our product and were hoping for the best.
We ended up getting a 10th place call in chicken and 2nd place call in brisket. Our ribs and pork finished 12th and 16th respectively giving us an over all finish of 6th place. We are ecstatic about this finish because we never start the year off good at all. It usually doesn't start going good until September and October when the season is winding down. Hope this is a good sign for the year.
**Since the contest a F1 tornado hit the area of Clarksville we were in and destroyed the pavilion we were beside. They hope to rebuild and we hope to return next year.

Too Long Since My Last Post

2008-05-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

After many practices during February and March getting ready for the contest calendar to roll around, and already three contests under our belt, I have neglected yet again our website and blog. Our friend Rob Marlow, chief cook for Ulika, reminded me of that this past weekend at Pulaski for the Sundrop BBQ Cookoff. I told him that I probably should get on it and so here I begin.
I'll be having gall bladder surgery on Monday and will have plenty of time over the next two to three weeks to at least get most of our results and site updated.
As of right now I can say it's already been a blast and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season, gas prices willing. Anyway, keep I'll have some stuff to check out in the next week as well as pics from the previous contest to share so until then.
AW

Fred Gould

2008-01-13T20:12:00.000-08:00

The BBQ World lost a priceless ambassador of the sport this past Friday night. I just found out yesterday and to say the least I was floored. The news spread fast as I talked to many who compete, and the mood with all was sadness.
Fred was as about all the contest we have ever done in some form or fashion. Be it rep, meat inspector, or just there hanging out, he was always seen with a smile on his face and always met me with a firm handshake.
I'll will cherish his memory and I will find it hard to keep myself from looking for him at contest as we begin in a few months.
Our thought and prayers are with Linda and family during this hard time. His memory will be with us always. God Speed my friend.