Grillin' On The Bay Rules Debate

This post didn't start out to be about contest rules, but it has evolved into one. It was supposed to be about putting Griilin' On The Bay together, but sometimes you just have to follow the flow. So rather than a long rambling post about putting the event together and incorporating some of the discussion about interpreting rules, here's a post concentrating on the cook's reactions and discussions about the rules of Grilin' On The Bay and grilling contests in general.

Grillin' On The Bay and The Brooklyn Chili Smackdown is officially announced to the public. Grillin' On the Bay and The Brooklyn Chili Smackdown is out there in the wild. It's on the web, it's on a few news sites, a bunch of foodie sites, The NEBS calendar and as a friend over at Sheepshead Bites says, "In our world, things are only official when banners go public." Well, the banners are flying. I guess it's too late to turn back now.

As anyone who's ever thrown a party knows, there's that moment after the invitations are sent when you wonder if anyone is going to show. There's a deafening silence that could drive one nuts!

Then, when you least expect it, the phone calls start. People do want to come. There are always some congratulatory phone calls, but being the pessimist I seem to have become, these fade quickly from my brain and the questions from the cooks start. "Why'd you pick this date?" "This location?" "These categories?" "On rule 14 - do you mean?" "If I submit X, will it be legal?" "Why did you rule out X but not Y"?"

The only question I'll answer here, since it's not the official site for Grillin' On The Bay or The Brooklyn Chili Smackdown is I ruled out X and not Y because it's my contest and I don't like X. You know who I'm talking to.

It amazes me how the cooks interpret the rules and are always looking for the loopholes. It's always a small handful but it's usually the same cooks who are always looking for that competitive edge. It may be my Catholic school upbringing, but I was raised to accept a set of rules and find ways to work and succeed within them. There are conversations about the "letter of the rule" and the "intent of the rule" to the extent that you'd think we're arguing life and death here. It's only a cooking contest. It's supposed to be fun.

These guys - wow. Not that there's anything wrong with looking for any legal advantage, but these guys could argue forever. They would have made some great lawyers. I know I'd hire them. I certainly respect their determination.

A few years ago, long before Grillin' On The Bay and The Brooklyn Chili Smackdown existed, there was a contest where it was debated if using Worcestershire sauce on a fish entry was in violation of the "one type of fish only" rule at that event since Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies. I don't want to open a can of old worms, but to me this is common sense. Worcestershire sauce should be legal. No one I know would swallow a spoonful of Worcestershire sauce and exclaim, "Now that's some good anchovies!" Sauce is sauce and fish is fish.

Here's the rule of fish for Grillin' On The Bay 2010..

Fish: Whole, steak or fillet. No shellfish, mollusk or crustaceans. Fish may be cooked whole, but must be submitted in 6 separate and identifiable pieces. Teams have the option to use stuffing. The fish entry can not be stuffed with additional fish, shellfish, crustacean or mollusk. See stuffing definitions below.

GARNISH - Only green leaf lettuce, Italian or flat leaf parsley and curly parsley. Entry may not be wrapped with another item, (i.e. meat or pastry dough). Sauces, if used, shall be on the entry. No sauce containers are allowed. Chunks in any sauce must be finely diced. For NEBS purposes, ‘finely diced’ is defined as less than 1/8 inch in size. Additional edible products, of any kind, in the sauce are OK as long as these products are finely diced.

Inedible objects are NOT allowed in the entry box.

Pretty clear huh? I think so, but what do I know? I wrote them. Some folks think this is clear as mud. Even now when I look at the rule, new opportunities present themselves for the cooks. I don't want to give anyone any ideas, but boy this rule is a lot more "open" than I ever realized.

But the questions are good things. If there were no questions, that would mean there's no interest. So let the questions fly! I hope to see you there.

Grillin' On The Bay - The Truth - Really

The legend of Grillin' On The Bay is well known, but like most things its beginnings are much more humble. Today I debunk the legend and tell you the truth.



I first entered into the world of competitive barbecue back in 2004. I looked around at who were the players from New York City and at the time only two names emerged; Sam Barbieri (I hope I got the spelling of his last name right) from the Waterfront Ale House and Robbie Richter from Big Island Barbecue. I got to know these two fine gentlemen and the fact that a guy from Brooklyn (Sam) and a guy from Queens (Robbie) were competing and winning, made me more determined to enter the fray, which I did that very summer by cooking with Phil Rizzardi as a member of The BBQ Brethren team.

In the off season I continued with my life as a parent and responsible citizen of Sheepshead Bay by serving on our local school's sports association board of directors. Now 2004 was not a particular good year for the sports association with rising costs nearly putting us out of business. One particularly dark and stormy night, our board met to discuss ways to raise some ducats without putting the touch on our usual band of suspects. We ended the meeting without any real new ideas, but we were determined not to let the organization fail.

Heading out to my car, I thought I heard someone call to me as I was pondering what a new fund raiser could be. Getting in my car my phone rang. It was Robbie. "Hey Rob, do you know where we could hold a barbecue contest in the city?" he asked. A light popped on in my head of such colors I had never seen on this earth and I replied "I have a place if we can make it a fund raiser."

The next week Robbie set up a meeting between me, him and Matt Fisher, aka The Hampton Smoker who is currently employed at RUB Barbecue and who quickly became one of my best friends, at the Union Square Barnes and Noble. We sat on one of the upper floors throwing out ideas about what we could do, who should do what and anything else we could think of. Things were looking good.

But there was one stumbling block; Robbie wanted to cook at Grillin' On The Bay (Yes, we came up with the name that very night!) After much discussion it was agreed that we all felt that an organizer shouldn't cook at his own event and Robbie stepped aside leaving Matt and I to put the contest together. Sometimes I wonder if he planned it that way all along.

Matt and I looked around and found that the New England BBQ Society had been hosting a one day contest every year up in Massachusetts called The Snowshoe Grilling Challenge. This event sounded like it was very similar to our ideas for Grillin' On The Bay and decided to check it out. I don't remember now if Matt came on that first trip to MA, but much of what Gary and Michelle Taft were doing we stole for our contest. Watching that contest, judging at it, I knew that Grillin' On The Bay was going to work.

NEBS was kind enough to agree to sanction our event and to supply the representatives who ran it. That's a story in and of itself and I'll get to that another day.

So, one a beautiful day in March 2004, Grillin' On The Bay was born. That's the truth and I'm sticking to it. Others may remember things differently, but this is how it was burned into my memory by a column of fire and smoke.

We are much indebted to the Tafts of the award winning barbecue team Lunchmeat, Robbie Richter, our continuing sponsor, RUB BBQ, the guys at the Waterfront Ale House for donations to the event every year and the rest of the NEBS board of directors for the success of this "little" Brooklyn event. We couldn't have done it without them.

The Making of a Barbecue Contest

I'm tired of looking at the computer screen. I've spent the day sending out invites and notifications for NYC's only sanctioned barbeque contest: Grillin' On The Bay and The Brooklyn Chili Smackdown. Literally, I've been working on this since 10:00 this morning and now it's almost 5. Enough. I wish I was getting paid!

I will write more about the contest and the work it takes to put it together, but not tonight.

School's In Session

The New England Barbecue Society will be hosting an overnight hands on BBQ competition class May 9th and 10th, 2009 at the Maynard Rod and Gun Club in Maynard Massachusetts. The cost of the class is $130 for NEBS members and $165 for non members. Please contact Jed Lebonte This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for more details.

Kansas City Bull Shit - Part One

The KCBS Board of Directors made the determination to remove Ken and Kathy Dakai as KCBS Reps and Ken as a CBJ instructor. The reason was listed on the KCBS Quick Notes from the Board 4/8/09 and was stated as: involved for conduct unbecoming the best interest of KCBS. This cryptic infomation can be found on the KCBS web site. Hopefully the upcoming minutes from that meeting will shed more light on the situation. Because, for the moment, it's a decision that is leaving many in the dark.

I'll have more on this in the near future, but trust me, I'm not happy.

Grillin' On The Bay

Grillin' On The Bay and The Brooklyn Chili Smack Down

Sponsored by RUB BBQ and Butternuts Beer and Ale with

The RUB Rapid Fire Challenge
Sponsored by Pat LeFrieda Meat and RUB BBQ

Saturday, April 4th, 20009
Corner of East 18th Street and Ave Z Brooklyn, NY
11:00 AM to 4:30 PM

Free Admission. $10 for all the chili you can eat.
BBQ, Beer and other food items for sale.

It's an incredible line up of cooks this year.

• Smoke In Da Eye - Defending Champion!
• Purple Turtle Caterers - Returning Champions from the first Grillin' On The Bay.
• Beer Belly Porkers
• iQue featuring Andy O. C. Husbands of the award winning Tremont647
• Ribs Within
• King's County BBQ Truck
• Josh Ozersky of the Feedbag formerly of Grub Street with Shane McBride of Craft Steak
  
• Wildwood BBQ featuring Big Lou Elrose with Robbie Richter, former Pitmaster of Hill Country
  
• Moose's Mayhem
• Atom's Ribs featuring Matt Fisher, former Pitmaster of Wildwood BBQ NYC
• Team Agave
• Ma's Cue Crew
• Transformer BBQ
• Smoke On The Water
• Porkaholics
• Rb's BBQ
• Pearl Lee Q's
• Eat A Donut

And some wild entertainment from Cirque Du Soleil. I don't know what they've got planned, but I'm sure it will be fun. The New England Barbecue Society is sanctioning this event.

Additional sponsors include Grill Charms, The Waterfront Ale House, Andrews McMeel Publishing and Carrie Bachman Public Relations

This going to be a great day. I hope to see all of you there.

Gillin' On The Bay AND The Brooklyn Chili Smackdown - An Update

Grillin' On The Bay And The Brooklyn Chili Smackdown is approaching rapidly. April 4, 2009. It looks like this is going to be a great event with some real heated competition amongst some very talented cooks.

Here's the list of the grillin' teams that are signed on as of today. If you're thinking of cooking, Get your application in soon. Space is limited and just about gone.

• Smoke In Da Eye - Defending Champion!


• Purple Turtle Caterers - Returning Champions from the first Grillin' On The Bay.


• Beer Belly Porkers


• iQue featuring Andy O. C. Husbands of the award winning Tremont647


• Ribs Within


• Smokey Mikes


• Fire Fish


• Bay Burners


• King's County BBQ Truck


• Josh Ozersky of the Feedbag formerly of Grub Street with Robbie Richter, former Pitmaster of Hill Country


• Born Again BBQ featuring Kevin Lincoln founder of the New York BBQ Lover's Meetup Group


• Moose's Mayhem


• Atom's Ribs featuring Matt Fisher, former Pitmaster of Wildwood BBQ NYC


• Team Agave


• Ma's Cue Crew


• Transformer BBQ


• Smoke On The Water

BBQ Contests: Battle of the BBQ Brethren

On the weekend of October 24th to the 26th the Sayville Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the Battle of the BBQ Brethren as part of their annual Sayville Fall Festival.

This KCBS sanctioned event is a NY State Championship.

Come down and enjoy live bands, demonstrations, lectures, great food from our BBQ vendors and the heat of competition.

The cook-off will include Chili on Friday after set-up, Grilling and Kids Q on Saturday and BBQ on Sunday.

The Sayville Chamber of Commerce will be aided in the BBQ aspects of their Fall Festival by members of the BBQ Brethren.

The Brethren will be dedicating two of their on-site locations to Breast Cancer Help, Inc., a Long Island charity dedicated to eradicating the scourge of breast cancer.

Judges Application: Now Available

Competitors Application: Still Available

The "cut off" date for applications is October 15th, any applications received after that date will not be accepted. To avoid disappointment please get your applications in as early as possible.

They are currently looking for people who would be interested in judging, grilling and/or BBQ at this event.

BBQ Contests: Judging Ribs at Blues, Views and BBQ

Today we continue reporting back on my experiences in judging at the Connecticut Blues Views and BBQ Contest. When we had left off, we had just finished judging chicken.

Next up into the judge's pool comes pork ribs. I always look forward to this category. After chicken, ribs are my favorite barbecue meat.

According to the KCBS rules, PORK RIBS are defined as: Ribs shall include the bone. Country style ribs are prohibited. And ribs must be submitted bone in. So that means that the cooks can submit either back ribs or spare ribs.

According to The Other White Meat, ribs can be back ribs or spare ribs. "Back ribs originate from the blade and center section of the pork loin, which is known for the “finger meat” between the bones. Back ribs also are referred to as “baby” back ribs because they are smaller than spareribs. A rack typically weighs between 1 ½ and 1 ¾ pounds.

Spare ribs come from the belly of the hog and are known for their delicious, meaty pork flavor. These curved ribs are the least meaty variety of ribs, but the lean meat is still full of flavor. Spareribs are typically larger and heavier than back ribs."

So that gives the cook some leeway here. Should they cook baby back ribs, which cook faster and require much less preparation or spare ribs which are more flavorful (my personal opinion) require longer cooking time, and more preparation as a rack would need to be trimmed down to St. Louis style (if that's what the cook wants to do.) Take a look at the picture from the Dizzy Pig, you can see the ribs, cut and prepared St. Louis style and all the trimmings. While the trimmings make good eats, they can't be submitted in a KCBS sanctioned contest.

Up here in the North East, I would say that 85% of the teams submit baby back ribs. According to a poll on The World Famous BBQ Forum, nationally the numbers were closer to 60% spares to 40% baby backs. (If I remember correctly, the current list of past polls ends in July 2008 and I think the poll ran sometime in August.)

I didn't have as much time between categories to write as many notes about the ribs as I did the chicken, so this post will be not so entry specific.

In the rib category, no putting green parsley presentations appeared on my table. All presentations were a mixture of lettuce only or lettuce and parsley. Sauces were very much on the sweet side, no spicy ribs and only 2 entries were sauced with Blues Hog. That's a huge difference from Harpoon were it seemed 80% of the ribs were sauced with Blues Hog.

All of the ribs submitted to my table were baby back ribs. One box had the smallest ribs I've ever seen. They were so small, that many of them didn't curve at all, which is unsual for baby backs. I purposely sampled the smallest ribs in the box to see if they were over cooked, but the cook did a great job. They were tender and nicely flavored. I would like to know who cooked these ribs and how they cooked them and timed them, but as a judge I can't reveal to a team that I've had their food. I can't go around asking "Who had really small ribs?" And since it's blind judging there's no way I can ever find out.

Two of the rib entries were vastly over cooked and dried out. Another looked like it was going to be dried out and tough but turned out to be moist, tender and surprisingly bland. One rib was so tough that I couldn't bite a piece of it off on one side of the bone. On the other side it was OK which helped bring up its score.

I always make sure that I take at least two bites of an entry, on different sides of the entry, before I score it. If my mind is stuck between two numbers in terms of scores, I will take additional bites to help me determine the final score. Some times 2 bites is all you need but usually three or four are necessary. I'll keep eating until I'm comfortable with the score. If the entry is an 8 or 9, well, it usually gets eaten completely.

Overall in the ribs category, nothing really stood out as "excellent" barbecue. But then again, nothing stood out as really bad or "poor" barbecue either. All in all it was a pretty good category. If I had to rate it on the KCBS scale, I'd give it a 7 (above average.)

Congrats to Willie Breakstone and his team I like Smoke n' Lightning for topping this category. Will was estatic with his win. Ya see, it's been five years since he's won the rib category. Good job bucky.

BBQ Contests: Judging Chicken at Blues, Views and BBQ

Yes folks he still has opinions to share! This isn't a photo blog after all. With that in mind let's get down to the nitty gritty of the event; the food. First off, I only judged the KCBS sanctioned BBQ contest at this event. On Saturday, there was a NEBS sanctioned grilling competition and an Iron Chef competition that I don't know anything about. Sorry but you'll have to look elsewhere for that information.

In all KCBS sanctioned contests cooks are required to cook the following four meats: 1. Chicken, 2. Pork Ribs, 3. Pork shoulder (aka Boston Butt) and 4. Beef Brisket.

I was there to judge these foods but the organizers had a surprise in store. We were told that we would be judging BBQ sauce as well. Contest organizers can add additional categories to an event, but without the first four, and many do, KCBS will not sanction an event.

First up in the judging pool is chicken. Now I love BBQ chicken, smoked or grilled, it's all good to me. Chicken is by far my favorite food on the grill. We had some interesting chicken submitted to our eyes, our nose and our palate at this event.

The first entry I tasted was a very nice mellow seasoned thigh. I really liked my first bite. The skin was bite through tender and the spices and glaze complimented the flavor of the meat. My first reaction was that this was going to score very well. Being the dutiful judge that I try so hard to be, I flipped over this thigh and took a bite from the other side. What the hell happened? Was this meat bad? I couldn't believe this was the same piece of meat! How do you score this? What would have been my reaction if I got the bad side first?

Up next was a real surprise; a spicy thigh! In competition judging, you are usually presented with sweet to very sweet seasonings. I was glad that someone decided to take a risk and add some heat.

The next entry had the judges scratching their heads during presentation. It was obviously chicken and the eight or so "pieces" were laid out in the box with flat leaf parsley as a garnish. While that is OK and perfectly acceptable, the skin on the chicken curled up around the edges of each piece! It reminded me of Sally Field's habit in The Flying Nun or worse.

Thinking more about that chicken, it would have been perfectly at home in a Wes Craven slasher flick. Taking it out of the box, the chicken fell apart in my hands. All it needed was some red sauce for blood and the imagery would have been complete. The flavor wasn't bad, but it was very overcooked. Unfortunately, I and one other judge I spoke with were unable to determine exactly what cut of chicken the entry actually was.

Next was a box with chicken that was so badly burnt, all of the pieces of chicken were pitch black. Now I don't think this was what the cook was going for, but whomever he or she was did an amazing job of getting the skin completely and evenly black. It was so dark that if you told me they were spray painted, I would have believed you. Flavor wise, it was burned and dried out.

This box elicited the often repeated comment from a judge, "Why would they submit that?" Whenever I hear that comment I know that the judge is not a cook. Things happen in the pit and the cook submits the best he/she has. Sometimes the only food the cook has to submit is something that is burned, dried out or even undercooked. We were in that position at New Platz when we submitted our over cooked brisket.

Next was another bone in chicken thigh but with a SPICY sauce. To me it was just under the point where the heat overwhelms the meat and other flavors. I was still able to taste the meat, the heat and the tomato base of the sauce. This was the only entry where I ate the entire piece.

I felt it was nicely done, but I could see this seasoning possibly overwhelming other judges. Some judges say that spicy entries dull the taste buds, which affect the judging of the next entry, but i don't believe that at all. Take some time, eat some crackers and some water before moving on (which you should be doing between entrys anyway) and you'll be fine. Part of being a judge is putting aside your personal preferences and trying to determine if the cook obtained the flavor and tenderness they were after, all the while remaining in the world of barbeque. Yes, it's as vague as it sounds.

Unfortunately, I don't remember much about the last entry. I guess it was average competition BBQ. Now before you all go off on me, for all I remember it could have been really good and above average, I just don't remember how I scored it. We're not allowed to take photos and I'm going by some quickly written notes.

I've only mentioned one presentation so far and it was a parsley presentation, and it wasn't the putting green presentation I railed against in a previous post. At this event I only saw one parsley putting green. All the others were a mixture of lettuce and or parsley. Have the cooks changed their ways because of me? Does my blog have so much power and influence? I think not. I certainly hope not! I'm still learning this game.

I'm really glad to see the cooks shaking things up a bit. The putting green presentation is very nice, but in my never to be humble opinion, it's bad for the sport of competitive barbecue if everyone is using the same presentation or flavorings. And I think the scores reflected the judges approval of the new flavors and presentations. Red Planet BBQ won this field followed by some others who usually don't see the top five. Good job all of you.

And that looks like a great place to stop tonight. More on judging the Blues, Views and BBQ Contest tomorrow.

Photograph of the BBQ chicken courtesy of BBQ Info. Photograph of The Flying Nun courtesy of The People Quiz.

BBQ Contests: Blues, Views and BBQ Festival

There's a new barbeque contest coming up in Westport, Connecticut; The 1st Annual Blues, Views & BBQ Festival.

Saturday, September 20 and 21st on the grounds of the Levitt Pavilion and the Westport Library.

This is the state of Connecticut's only KCBS sanctioned barbecue contest, so the winner of this event will be guaranteed an invitation to next year's Jack Daniel's Invitational barbecue contest, which is debatably the most prestigious barbeque contest in the world.

In addtion to the barbecue contest, there will be a craft beer showcase featuring our friends from Butternuts, the makers of Pork Slap Ale.

And in addition to the craft beer showcase, there's going to be a Guitar World clinic with Andy Aledort.

And in addition to all that there's going to be cooking demostrations featuring local chefs and some of the BBQ contestants in the Viking outdoor kitchen.

For more information check out the website or call Bob LeRose at Bobby Q's Barbeque and Grill 42 Main Street Westport, CT 06880, phone 917-446-2921 or drop him an email at rlerose@msn.com

It looks like it's going to be a splendid time for all.

More Meat

Well, we're at the midpoint of the Hudson Valley Ribfest. Chicken's in. Ribs are in. Now it's time for the pork shoulder.

KCBS rules allow pork to be submitted chopped, pulled, sliced, or diced as the cook sees fit, as long as there is enough meat in that box for six (6) judges. That can be as little as six threads of pulled pork to an entire shoulder.

In my experience as a judge, I've seen it all and in many cases the cooks decide to submit their pork both sliced and pulled. I've always found that to be a mistake. Again, this is just my opinion and your mileage may vary, but I've found that if the pulled pork is good, the sliced pork sucked. Now that is a little harsh, but usually one of the meat variations will be better than the other one, which in turn brings down the score. I was taught to only put your best in the box and nothing less.

We cooked two very small bone in pork shoulders. With our delayed start on Saturday, it gave me Friday night at home to create the rubs, brines and injections that we'd use for the contest. I made my usual pork injection and decided to play a little and create a new one. Now my friend Matt sassed me a little about how the serious cooks don't change their tried and true recipes or techniques right before a contest, but hey, I don't do this often enough to have any tried and true recipes or techniques! Let's play!

The pork cooked over a fire of hickory and apple and sat tightly wrapped in a cooler for a couple of hours before we pulled them for presentation. My tried and true recipe pork came out flavorful but a bit dry. The new injection recipe shoulder that was rubbed with Big Daddy's Pork Rub came out moist and flavorful. Both were tossed with our doctored version of Sweet Baby Ray's and taste tested. We went with the new recipe.

And I'm glad we did. This pork gave us our highest score in contest! 9 out of 53.

Judge's scores: 766, 877, 979, 788, 799 (Thank you whomever you were!) 788

Total points: 157.7142 which gave us 9th place. YES! iQue, the first place team's points were: 169.1428. A great showing for guy who hasn't made pulled pork in almost 6 months.

Last entry in any KCBS contest is brisket. The WhiteTrash BBQ team has a real disadvantage when it comes to the brisket category. None of us particularly like brisket. Yes, I admit it. I prefer my brisket corned thank you very much. But here's an even more shocking secret. The last time I came close to bbq brisket that wasn't bought in a restaurant was at last year's Hudson Valley Ribfest and I didn't even cook that one, my buddy Mike did. Pete tells me he's never cooked a brisket!

Even in the best of circumstances brisket will always be my Achilles heel. And this was not the best of circumstances, we only had two flats to cook. In my very limited brisket cooks, I've only made flats once and that wasn't a sucess. Why would I expect it to be different this time?

We cooked our brisket over an oak and charcoal fire. Brisket is notorious for drying out as soon as it's cut so we waited until the window (the ten minute turn in period) before cutting our briskets. Both flats were tough, dried out and hard to cut. One had a little more flavor than the other so we went with that one. It was hard getting six complete slices in the box without them falling apart, but we did. Instead of the putting green of parsley presentation, I created a putting green of lettuce and laid the slices out slightly overlapping each other and basted them with a light coating of our sauce.

Let's go to the judges...

767, 977, 876, 678, 867, 778 (No disrespect, but two 8's for tenderness? What box were those judges eating from because it certainly wasn't ours!)

Total points: 140.5712 which gave us 30th place. Ya gotta be kidding. 50th place should have been more like it. iQue, once again the first place team points were: 166.2858

Sorry, but there are no pictures of the brisket. We didn't have time to take any as we barely got the box turned in before the window closed.

So that's it. My experiences this year. Overall, I'm very happy with our scores. We placed better than some teams that are out there every week, got all our meat turned in, didn't embarrass ourselves and had a good time to boot. Not bad considering I hadn't cooked on my horizontal offset smoker since the last HVRF! I don't know why, but the bbq bug was dormant in WhiteTrash world this season, but it's back with a vengeance now! See you on the circuit.

Barbeque - The Meats

I've certainly given you a lot to read about the Hudson Valley Ribfest, but I still haven't gotten to the meat of the topic - the meat! Well here goes. I'll address the chicken and ribs today. The pork shoulder and brisket will be covered tomorrow or Monday. I don't want to overload you with everything.

I know that there's another post coming about my thoughts about cooking under my own banner for the first time and I might write it tonight, but it won't be up for a few more days. I've teased you all long enough. Tonight we talk about meat.

First up - the results... WhiteTrash BBQ came in 32nd out of 53 teams. Not bad, not great and certainly encouraging enough to want us to compete more. I think we'll be back in October.

Our final score was 579.4280 out of a possible 720. iQue took top place with a score of 646.8570, so you see we have a long long way to go. Congratulations to the iQue team for another well deserved win. If you want to read more about them, check out this very interesting interview with Pitmaster Chris Hart over on PigTrip.

But back to me. First category to be judged is chicken. We cooked 24 chicken thighs for this event. Why thighs you may ask? Well thighs have a good amount of fat and are probably the most forgiving part of the chicken to cook on a smoker. Most teams in the North East cook thighs. We brined the thighs, marinated them, rubbed them with a rub I can't remember and cooked them over an apple wood, hickory and charcoal fire.

Pete did a superb job of trimming the thighs. I was surprised to see how much he knew about trimming chicken thighs. It seems that Pete was schooled by one of the best cooks on the circuit, Steve Farrin of I Smell Smoke on how to trim thighs for competition. I bet Steve doesn't even know that he taught Pete. But he did and Pete created some beautiful little footballs for us to cook. That Pete is a clever little monkey.

We pulled the chicken from the cooker and painted them with a doctored up version of Sweet Baby Ray's sauce and then we firmed it up on the fire. We selected the best looking six, arranged them as best we could in our lettuce only presentation box and handed them off to our runner, the ever lovely Mrs. Pete, Jean.

How'd they do? Here's each of the six judge's scores; the first number is for appearance, then taste and finally tenderness.

755, 888, 766, 877, 988, 956 (In case you haven't been reading previous posts, and shame on you if you haven't, scores run from 2 to 9 in KCBS contests.)

Wow - 2 perfect scores on appearance. I didn't see that coming. I didn't think they looked that good in the box and Matt Fisher of Wildwood BBQ said that they were too dark. The thighs were also on the small side. We could have easily fit another three in the box.

As for the taste, well they were pretty tasty to me but they were definitely over cooked. They weren't dry per say, but they were reaching that point of mealy mouth feel. If they cooked much longer they would have been garbage. If I was judging this chicken, my scores probably would have been closest to judge 3. Maybe even a little lower.

Total points: 140.5714 which gave us 41st place. Sexy Gino's Bare Ass BBQ, the first place team's points were: 169.1430

Next up were ribs. We did spare ribs which I trimmed down to the famous St. Louis cut. I also removed the membrane from the ribs, but I've never had so much trouble getting it off the meat. Out of the six racks of ribs I trimmed, the membrane only came off on the first shot on one rack. Each time I tried to get it off and pulled the membrane shredded. If I was at home, they would have cooked with the damn membrane on them!

We slathered these ribs with a little bit of cheap mustard and rubbed them with Blues Hog. We cooked them over a fire of hickory and cherry wood and finished them with a traditional but not mainstream sauce. I've made them this way at home and the neighbors said they were the best ribs they've ever had. Not so in New Paltz.

Unfortunately, our ribs were undercooked and a bit tough. They needed a little more time on the cooker, but time ran out for us. I thought that the ribs tasted pretty good, but the rest of the team and some visitors to the tent thought they were too spicy. I liked them, first you tasted sweet, then smoke, followed by meat and then a bit of heat. I thought the flavor was spot on and the heat just right.

What did the judges think?

677, 887, 777, 757, 666, 878

Total points: 140.0000 which gave us 40th place. Casual Smokers; the first place team's points were: 170.8572

Poor scores in every category. We need to rethink that category completely before we compete again. Sorry, we didn't get any pictures of the ribs.

This brings us to the middle of the contest and is a good place to wrap up for tonight. Tomorrow we'll talk about pork and brisket. Ya all come back now, ya hear?

Apples

I promise, there will be posts about the barbeque side of the contest, but for today it's a quick review of our apple entry at the Hudson Valley Ribfest 2008.

What you're looking at is a bourbon caramel sauce with honey roasted mixed nuts and apples in a sponge cake tart topped with vanilla icing.

It was the creation of my team mate, Pete. I had absolutely nothing to do with it except for some advice on how to place it in the box. It was absolutely delicious and I thought a sure fire winner.

How'd it do? 39th out of 44. Usually, deep down, you know when your your food deserves to win and when it should tank. This one left me scratching my bald head. If I was served this in a bakery or a restaurant I would have been one very happy WhiteTrash boy.

Looking back, I naturally begin to search for the reasons why the judges didn't like it. The first thing that pops into my head is that underneath the apple/nut mixture, Pete put in a layer of vanilla icing. With the icing on top, was that just overkill? Was it too sweet? Were the apples too tart? Did the filling melt into the sponge cake as it sat in the box making the overall dessert mushy and wet? Did the judges think that using a pre-made sponge cake shell was a cop out? Were the apples not the star of the dessert, but only a bit player? Were there too many nuts and not enough apples? Was the filling too warm/cold? Did the filling get to hard when it sat and cooled?

Who knows. We know we liked it. There's no point in second guessing it. We gave it our best shot. 39th out of 44? You take your licks and you move on. That's part of the challenge and fun of competition. You put out your best and hope the judges agree. Sometimes you grab the brass ring, others you're left grasping air.

3 Days To Go

I don't know if I'm insane or just really busy, but the Hudson Valley Ribfest is Friday and I haven't thought much about it at all. My team hasn't discussed much, but we'll be there. More later.

Judging Harpoon

I know that I owe you all a post about judging barbecue at Harpoon, but time is catching up with me and remembering the specifics of the various dishes is getting harder and harder with each passing day. Oh, how I long for the days when you could photograph the food. I think the next time I judge, I'll bring a notebook with me to take notes.

While this may be a bit of a cop out, but I'm going to try my best to give you the full run down of what remains in my mind. I can't remember enough about any one entry to give you the full process of scoring that particular piece of meat.

First up to be judged, is chicken and it's my favorite. We received six samples and the first thing I noticed was that the turn-ins have taken on a new look. After a class by the Smokin' Triggers last year, many of the teams have begun submitting their food on a putting green of parsley. It's very pretty and offsets the meat beautifully, but looking at box after box of parsley gets boring quick. I know you don't judge the garnish, but c'mon folks. Show some creativity here!

A few judges at my table complained about having to scrape the parsley off their meat before sampling it. One judge said that if it sticks, he eats the parsley because that's the way the cook presented it. He then said that he scores the meat down because the taste of parsley takes away from the flavor of the meat.

The chicken submitted was almost exclusively thighs, but one entry was the middle, two bone section of chicken wings. That entry was the unanimous favorite at my table.

Ribs were next with most entries composed of baby back ribs, but my table received two spare rib submissions. Nice! One entry of spares was badly burnt and over cooked, but apart from that nothing stands out in my mind.

Pork came in third as it always does and again, nothing stands out in my mind.

Brisket was the final category and by the time this arrived, I really didn't want to eat any more food. It's always the case. One judge and I were discussing that he felt the same way. He and I wondered if brisket scores are affected by it being the last food category turned in. While it's the most difficult of the competition meats to cook properly, does it get the respect and fair shake it deserves coming after the judges are too full to eat? Would brisket be better served if it was judged first?

My brisket samples ranged from OK to almost inedible. One piece was so tough that I couldn't bite through it. Another was so dry it actually snapped in half when I lifted it off the plate.

There are a couple of new trends that I noticed. One, teams are only finishing one side of the entry. The side that lain on the parsley or lettuce was often left un-sauced or seared. It's interesting, but I wonder why a team would do that. When putting the meat in my mouth, I usually keep the top up. With the sauce only on top, all those flavorings are not the first thing my tongue experiences. Did that affect the scores? Maybe.

Another was that this was the year of Blues Hog sauce. It seemed that every other entry in every category was sauced with Blues Hog. As a judge, it got pretty boring and I had to fight the urge to score the teams down for this. It wouldn't be fair to penalize a cook because 10 other teams used the same sauce.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with the food at this year's Harpoon. There was a conformity to the entries as if they were all prepared by the students of one teacher. There was very little uniqueness to any entry. Even the guys over at iQue noticed it...

"One take-away thought I had was so many teams are cooking in a similar fashion its getting harder to standout. I think I saw a Backwoods Smoker and a bottle of Blues Hog sauce at almost every contest site at Harpoon."

The grilling contest the next day was a real disappointment. At last year's event, I had some of the best food I've ever eaten. It was the first time I've ever given perfect scores. Maybe it was just the luck of the draw, but nothing stands out as great this time.

The categories in the Summer Sizzler (the grilling contest) were: fish, beef, lamb and chef's choice.

I remember a really good Chilean sea bass with a ginger touched sauce as being my favorite of the contest. Two of the beef entries looked like melted hockey pucks in the box and most of the lamb submissions didn't taste like lamb. The one exception was iQue's lamb pictured in this post. (Thanks for the photo guys!)

I thought the grilled lamb medallions, only cross hatched on top, were the best meat I had all weekend. One judge noticed that the medallion he sampled was not cooked evenly as the side that was cross hatched on the grill was more "done". Mine, however was cooked perfectly. Unfortunately, the pulled lamb in the box was boring and didn't help the score.

So that's it. One man's experience of the event. Harpoon was a lot of fun and the food was good, not great and a bit boring as too many folks are using the same flavors. But I can't wait to get back. It's a great contest. There's something very unique about Harpoon and well worth the trip.

Barbecue!

I'm off judging the New England BBQ Society Championships at the Harpoon Brewery in Vermont this weekend. It easily has some of the best barbecue in the circuit - and guess what? At this event, the competitive teams are allowed to sell to the public. If you're within 300 miles, it's worth the trip. But before you and I go, here's a quick refresher on what Barbecue is! Talk to you when I get back.

Grillin On The Bay 08

I'm a little crazed right now putting the final touches on Grilin On The Bay. C'mon out to the bay! See you Saturday!

BBQ Events: Smoke N' Steam

The barbeque season is beginning to heat up in New York. There's a new event being held out in Oyster Bay, Long Island - The Smoke n' Steam. I really hope you can attend this event. It's sanctioned by the New England Barbecue Society and should be a lot of fun, it's in a beautiful location and not to mention good eats!

SMOKE N’ STEAM
SANCTIONED BBQ GRILLING COMPETITION EVENT
SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2008
7:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

The first annual Smoke n’ Steam BBQ grilling competition event will be held on the Audrey Avenue extension in the beautiful and historic downtown Hamlet of Oyster Bay, NY, Saturday, May 10, 2008, from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The event is organized by the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum, and sanctioned by the New England Barbecue Society.

Grilling teams from throughout the New York area will be competing for prizes in four categories: beefsteak, pork chop, chicken, and oysters.

For more information check out their website at: The Oyster Bay Railroad Museum

BBQ Events: Judging the Snowshoe: II

So, we've talked about the first two entries fish and fattie, now let's talk about the beef and vegetables.

Beef - any cut was the contest requirement. There were some discussions over on the NEBS mailing list about people submitting some of the more esoteric cuts of beef, but unfortunately that didn't come to fruition. I was looking forward to the threatened submission of tongue. I enjoy tongue and would have liked to see some experimenting in this category.

We received six beef steak entries. All of them were ice cold. Not a little cold, but ice cold. The winds must have picked up outside or the temperatures dipped significantly, because the fish entry half an hour earlier were all fairly warm. Fortunately for the cooks, temperature is not a consideration in judging.

We had a mix the usual of steaks. One entry was presented almost as if you had bought it in a Chinese restaurant; as strips in a pile covered in teriyaki sauce. It was tough and overly sweet. A couple were just flavorless.

I hate to say this, but this category was a lousy sampling of steak. Having said that, except for one entry, not pictured here or mentioned above, I would have enjoyed eating any one of these at home. They weren't bad, but not one stands out in my mind for its flavor.

One steak remains in my memory because of the presentation box. Ya see, according to KCBS rules, meat can be presented with a garnish of green leaf lettuce, parsley and or cilantro. Most cooks fill the box with a mix of lettuce and parsley. In the box that stands out in my mind, which is pictured above, only the top half of the box had greenery with the steak fanning down from the lettuce and parsley.

I thought that was a very interesting presentation and one I was thinking about stealing for one of my cooks. But then it happened. When the box was presented and tilted so that the judges could get a good look, the meat slid around the box and ruined the presentation. Ha, right there in front of me was the best reason I know of for keeping the garnish, it holds the meat in place.

Now I hear the howls; "you're only supposed to judge the appearance of the meat, not the presentation of the box." I know I tried to do that, but I think that subconsciously a sloppy presentation affects the appearance of the meat. One other thing I notice about this box is that in the sunlight outside, you can see the grill marks and the pinkness of the meat. In the lighting of the judge's room, it just appeared dark and almost completely brown.

On to the vegetables. Yes, the Snowshoe always includes that nemesis of the pit master, vegetables. But you know what, before judging the Snowshoe two years ago, I thought that didn't like sweet potatoes. The Snowshoe showed me that I do.

This year's vegetable entries were a mixed bag. There were two entries that stood out for taste but both got hammered in the presentation category. First up was a stuffed long green pepper. It tasted very good and was cooked beautifully but it looked like crap. The peppers must have rolled around while they were in the box because the stuffing was everywhere and not too much remained in the pepper. What did remain of the stuffing was a little bland for my tastes, but that didn't hurt its score. A couple of the judges complained that the pepper was too spicy, but I didn't get that at all. There was some heat, but it wasn't overpowering.

Someone presented a vegetable lasagna that was absolutely beautiful. You could see where it was cut, but it looked whole and as if it was cooked in the presentation box. But because of that it was hard to get a whole piece out of the box. I noticed that some judges left the bottom layers in the box when taking their sample. They didn't miss anything. Unfortunately for all it's beauty, the only flavors I could get out of it was smoke. Bleah.

As expected, there was a stuffed mushroom entry. It was OK but nothing great. Last time we had some stuffed portabellos, this time it was standard white mushrooms.

Sweet potatoes were here again. One sweet potato entry was a sandwich with sweet potato slices serving as the bread and a sweet stuffing. It was OK, but the sweet potatoes were chalky, a bit undercooked and not very sweet.

The other sweet potato entry was the star of this category for me. It was a simple grilled slice of sweet potato with a sweet maple, I think, based sauce. Now this was it! This entry got a perfect score from me for taste and tenderness, but got hit hard in presentation. Again, I think this presentation suffered from the lighting in the judge's room. When it was presented, it just looked like a brownish slice of "something." What it was I had no idea.

The simplicity of this entry was surprising. Sometimes cooks, me included, forget that sometimes simple is best. I'm still pondering how the cook got such amazing flavors from just a slice of a potato.

So there you have it. One man's experience and thoughts about the food that was presented to him at the Snowshoe. I'm sure the other judges will have their own thoughts and opinions. Their opinions and conclusions are as valid as mine. We're all right.

Today's random barbeque link: Red Hot & Blue BBQ Grill. Be sure to come back Monday, ol' WhiteTrash has some exciting news for all of you.

The photograph of the steak is courtesy of Ted Lorson from the Q Haven BBQ competition team. You can check out Ted's blog and get his take on the Snowshoe and his entries here at Ted Lorson's Blog.