1st Annual Winter Sizzler, Lincoln, NH

When the plans were announced for the 1st annual Winter Sizzler in Lincoln, New Hampshire in mid January, I wasn’t sure whether or not I would participate.

Now, I’m really glad I did.

And not just because we did well.

It’s because we had such a great time, hanging out with the other teams that braved the cold and the snow to participate. And also because of the organizers, especially Eric Pyra of InnSeason Resorts, who went the extra mile to make sure the teams were comfortable.

Eric Pyra, Inn Season Resorts

He’s also our good luck charm, as every time he has been at an event we have done well.

The trip to Lincoln was a long one. We departed from Norwich, Connecticut at around 10:30 AM Saturday, and didn’t arrive on site until around three in the afternoon. It was just myself and my brother Cristiaan, as the girls sat this one out. Sheila was supposed to come up Sunday, but got really sick and stayed home.

The contest area was pretty well filled up when we got there. The back of our team site was a snow bank; in reality our site was around 12 feet by 25 feet of usable space. It was plenty for us in this event, as we scaled back our equipment, as we usually bring way too much crap we don’t need. We still had too much, but it wasn’t as bad. This is our camp site below.

The good part was that we were located next to Mike Boisvert’s team Lakeside Smokers. Mike is one of our favorite people on the circuit, and it was great to spend time with him, Kris, Shawn and Lisa.

Mike Boisvert, the "Lakeside Smoker"

The first part of the event was the wing competition. After much deliberation, we decided to do Buffalo wings, and to fry them. We had to turn in at least three pounds. We turned in ten pounds, and the camp stove we got at Wal-Mart worked really well, at least for this part of the competition. More on that later. We used a metal hotel pan to fry the wings, which were floured, then doused with Cristiaan’s sauce, which was great.

As it turned out, we were the only team to turn in Buffalo wings. The other teams were a lot more creative than us, and apparently that’s what the judges were looking for. No big deal, this was a comparative judging system, and the 12 judges could only vote for their favorite one. We got zero votes, but I still think they were damn good, regardless of the voting.

Once the butt and brisket was on, we decided to spend Saturday night visiting with the other teams and having a good time. At some of the previous competitions, especially the Jack, we took the event way too seriously and didn’t enjoy the company of some of the great people on other teams.

We hung around at the I Smell Smoke!!! Camp for a while. They had a big outdoor fireplace and it kept everyone warm. We had a lot of laughs with Steve, Charlie, Doug, Carlotta and Patrick, and pounded a few Jello shots. Cristiaan ate the worm in one of them; no ill effects too! They really have a great team, are a lot of fun, and win a lot. At first we were intimidated by them because of their success, but now that we know them, I consider them friends and am very happy for their success. It is well deserved.

Steve Farrin, Charile Pini and Doug Pini from I Smell Smoke!!!

We also shared beers with the wild bunch Q Ball, including Sean McCabe, who usually cooks as Bourbon and Beale, and Michelle from Lunchmeat. Nobody seemed fazed by the cold temperatures. It was a great night of camaraderie, and made the trip worthwhile alone.

Sleeping, that was another issue. I didn’t want to book a room at the resort, so we roughed it. We tried to use sleeping bags under our pop-up tent, and Cristiaan was able to get a few hours of sleep. My inflatable mattress sprung a leak, and within a half hour I was on the freezing ground because of the deflated mattress. I was so cold that I moved into the truck, cranked the heat and slept in the driver seat.

I probably slept two hours in 12 minute intervals.

Backing up, Sheila called during Saturday evening with bad news. She was planning on coming up early Sunday morning, bringing breakfast and garnish, but she had become very sick and wasn’t coming. She ended up going to the hospital, and fortunately it was just a viral infection instead of something more serious. But it was a little scary going straight from the competition to the hospital.

So in the morning, we had no coffee, no breakfast, and no garnish. Fortunately, there is a supermarket within walking distance of the competition site. Cristiaan walked over and got some green leaf and some curly parsley; they had no flat parsley. But it was better than nothing. Found coffee in the resort shops and we were ready to cook. It snowed all morning, which created some nice ambiance.

The chicken; I have been struggling with the skin since we started competing. Our first event last year in Rhode Island, we took 6th in chicken, and have gone downhill since. I went back to that exact preparation, smoked, then finished indirect on a hot grill, and it came out really well. Also, we turned in some drums for the first time. We took second place chicken, our first real call since New Hampshire in May.

The box comes through pretty sloppy in this picture. In fact, all of our boxes this weekend looked pretty sloppy to me. But we did clean this chicken box up a little after the picture, and the appearance scores were two 9’s, two 8’s and two 7’s.

Next was ribs, and they didn’t come out that great. They were average at best. I tried a new homemade rub and it didn’t work well. Took 9th out of 15, our worst score of the day.

The pork. This is a great story. I used a great injection on the butt we brought up for the event. However, the organizers also supplied a butt to us for the people’s choice pork competition they were having. However, somehow they got mixed up on the grill, and we ended up turning in the injected butt for the people’s choice instead of the Q competition as I had planned. We turned in the donated butt, which I just rubbed and threw onto the smoker.

We didn’t make the top 3 in people’s choice. However, we took 2nd place in the BBQ event. Go figure! Maybe the injection wasn’t as good as I thought.

The brisket was a problem from the start. I asked my butcher for a large brisket, 13 to 15 pounds. He came through with an 11 pounder. It was done very early, I pulled it at around 9AM at 195 degrees, wrapped in foil and a towel and held. It had great flavor but was pretty dry. The two judges that got the driest pieces didn’t appreciate it, and two gave us 5’s in tenderness. That cost us, and we finished 6th in brisket, .5 away from a call.

The last category of the day was chili. I practiced chili three times leading up to the event, and came up with a recipe I was really happy with. The cook went along fine, until the end. An hour before turn in, it was done, and I took it off the heat to hold. As turn in approached, I turned the camp stove back on, what I thought was low, and put the corner of the chili pot over the flame.

I went outside to talk to another team, and came in a few minutes later to find smoke billowing from the pot. I grabbed the pot and yanked it off the heat (burning my finger in the process) but the damage was done. A little of the burned flavor made it in. I sent a sample over to I Smell Smoke to see if they would notice, as I trust their opinions and know they wouldn’t sugarcoat it. They noticed, and that confirmed that I was screwed.

You can see the burn was small, but the damage was done.

I was stunned that the chili finished 6th, even with the burning. Some of the other teams must have turned in some pretty bad chili.

In the end, we got two calls and were reserve grand champions. That made the long drive home a lot easier. Cristiaan and I worked really well together, and had a lot of fun. It was a great way to start the year.

And it didn’t rain.

Back From Lincoln

We're back from Lincoln, NH, where Q Haven did well in the Winter Sizzler BBQ competition. We took home reserve grand champions, taking 2nd place in both pork and chicken. We had a great time at this unique and challenging event. I'll post a long winded, detailed account of our trip tonight or tomorrow.

Q Haven Team Site, Lincoln, NH

2007 Schedule

I have posted the planned Q Haven team schedule for 2007. We may add an event or two, based on whether or not we can all attend. Here's the tentative schedule.

- January 13-14: First Annual Winter Sizzler, Lincoln NH
- March 10th: Snoeshoe Grilling Challenge, Abington, MA
- March 31st: Grilling on the Bay, Brooklyn, NY
- May 19-20: Rhode Island State BBQ Championship, Warwick, RI
- May 26-28: Connecticut State Championship, Lime Rock, CT
- June 23-24: TBA
- July 6-8: Guitarbeque, Asbury Park, NJ
- July 28-29: Harpoon BBQ Championship of New England (hopefully)
- August 18-19: Hudson Valley Ribfest, New Paltz, NY
- September 8-9: Rib and Brews Festival, Lowell, MA

The TBA in June is because there are two New England events that are apparently scheduled for the same weekend. One is the New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest, where we won grand champions in 2006. The other is scheduled to be held in East Hartford, Connecticut, which is a half-hour from our house. If the contest schedule remains the same, we will have to make a difficult decision. I am leaning towards the CT event, just based on logistics.

I hope to add one or two more events during the summer, we'll have to see if we can make it work.

Going to Lincoln

Well it's official, the check and application is in the mail, we're going to Lincoln for the Winter Sizzler BBQ Competition.

I'm starting to get excited. The month of December is flying by, the holidays will fly by, next thing we know it will be MLK weekend and time to get back to it. I really expected that after the Jack, there would be at least five months of relative inactivity before the grilling competitions in March and the New England season opener in Rhode Island in May. Now we have something much closer to look forward to.

Q Haven started off so well in our rookie season. Third place in Rhode Island, grand champions at New Hampshire, then we hit the wall. Three more competitions including the Jack, and only one call. That was for dessert at the Jack, and they gave us the wrong ribbon. They took it away and told us they would send us a new one, and now I can't get anyone to answer e-mails about it.

Adding insult to injury, we recently got amended scores from the Jack, and apparently they forgot to add the international teams when they tallied the scores, and now they're saying we were 12th in dessert, not 10th. We probably should have kept that 5th place sauce ribbon, as I highly doubt we will be getting the one we were called to the stage for. The whole scoring thing was a complete mess, they need to work that out.

I went off on a Jack tangent there, but the real point is that I am not really happy with the way things went in those last three events. The first two events, I relied on my research and practice and it paid off. After that, everyone wanted to be more involved, with the added pressure of additional family and friends coming to events and being interested in what was going on. While that is great when people are interested, it can be a distraction and cause me to lose focus.

Hopefully we will be able to get the ship going straight again in 2007. I've already done a few practice cooks over the last month, and will keep practicing until the busy season comes in the spring.

In the meantime, I'm going to get a little "spying" in this week. Sheila and I are going into New York City on Friday to do the whole Christmas thing, and are planning to stop by Adam Perry Lang's restaurant Daisy May's BBQ in Manhattan. I hear good things, and am looking forward to sampling his Q.

The Q Mobile

The days of renting cargo vans to get to and from BBQ competitions are now over.

I have traded in my beloved 2005 Ford Mustang for a Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer. It's a whole lot of truck, with a big V8 for hauling stuff and all the bells and whistles to keep my wife happy.

This is something I have been considering for some time as part of our competition plan for 2007. It just gets way too expensive to compete when in addition to meat, entry fees and all the other associated costs, you have to pay $200 to $250 for a cargo van and the fuel for a vehicle that gets 8 miles to the gallon.

Having our own truck will make a huge difference this year. With a Mustang and a VW Jetta, we certainly couldn't get it done with our own vehicles. It also removed the biggest financial constraint to competing for us, the van rentals. It will allow us to hit so many more events.

It was so difficult to get rid of the Mustang. I loved that car. It was two years ago today that I bought it. I was one of the first people to get it with the new body style, and it was so much fun to drive. I kept it in immaculate condition, and had a great Sirius install. While I will miss driving the Stang, I do not regret the decision. We are committed to BBQ competitions for the long haul, and now we have the wheels to guide us on our journey.

The Stang

Now, I can turn my sights to what I want to pull with the truck. Right now I'm somewhat torn between a pop-up camper or a cargo trailer. I despise sleeping in tents, and am very intrigued by the pop up camper idea. We could fit it right in our site at most competitions, and be able to sleep comfortably. Also, if it is nice enough, maybe it will reduce the amount we spend on hotels!

BBQ in the Snow?

Are these the right conditions for a BBQ competition?

That's the question I am asking myself tonight.

An innocent comment from Steve Farrin of I Smell Smoke! on the New England BBQ Society message boards about wanting a winter competition quickly escalated, and now there is a full event scheduled for Martin Luther King Day weekend in January in the mountains of New Hampshire.

No, that's not a typo, it says New Hampshire.

The event is to be held at the Inn Season resort in Lincoln, New Hampshire. The hotel looks nice, and the event would take place in a plowed parking lot at the hotel. If the temperatures are not too cold and there is no snow, the event could be fine. However, too many things could go wrong.

For example, what happens if there is a blizzard the day of the event, or the day before, or if for some reason the weather makes the contest impossible. I would be out hundreds of dollars in costs for entry fees, hotel rooms meat, etc. Also, if it is below zero, will I be able to maintain temperatures warm enough to cook? Will I freeze to death? The AVERAGE low is 5 degrees for January in Lincoln, NH. The average high is 25 degrees.

I'm still on the fence on this one. It seems that most of the big New England teams are planning to cook at the event, and I do want to be involved. However, I'm not sure what to do. Hopefully a few people will read this blog and post their thoughts.

The Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational BBQ

The planning for “The Jack” began in the minutes that followed learning that we had won the New Hampshire draw and were invited. The weeks of planning culminated Tuesday morning, October 24th, when I picked up the cargo van from Enterprise and we began packing the massive pile of equipment, coolers and other assorted items for the trip. At around 1PM, we were on our way to arguably the most prestigious BBQ competition in the world.

First, here is some background for those of you who have not been following the Q Haven blog this year. I decided to try my hand at competition BBQ this past May. We came out of the box with a lot of success, taking 3rd place overall in our first event in Rhode Island in May, then a few weeks later we amazingly won grand champion of the New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest. We competed twice more over the summer, and “The Jack” was our fifth ever competition.

While I think my Q is pretty good, I feel we were extremely lucky to have this opportunity. There are many teams in New England, and certainly nationwide that were much more deserving than us to be attending this event. But we were in, and I wanted to make sure we didn’t embarrass ourselves too much and that we would represent New England well. I hope we did. Here is my story of the week, the good, the bad and the ugly.

I covered the trip down to Lynchburg in previous blog posts. I was hoping to make it down to Lynchburg Thursday morning, but instead we arrived at around 3PM because of heavy traffic in Knoxville and getting a slow start in the morning. When we arrived, the volunteers were very helpful and showed us to our site.

The site was huge, at least 50 feet by 50 feet, with a water and power hook-up in the back. The site was in a high traffic area, and was bordered in the rear by a creek. We also had a port-o-potty in the rear of the site, which I cannot recommend enough. It was so great to have our own facilities, we will definitely do this at future competitions whenever possible.

We were situated right across a gully from cancersuckschicago.com. Their RV had its back to us so we didn't see them much. Turns out their pit boss Scotty's father died Friday, but he was somehow able to carry on and he won the grand championship. I have never met Scotty, but all accounts are that he is a great man and has lived through a tremendous amount of adversity. My thoughts go out to him, and I give him tremendous credit for being able to do what he did.

It was dark and overcast throughout Thursday afternoon, but the rain held off until we got our basic site setup complete. Sheila and I stayed in a hotel Thursday night, but Cristiaan, Kim, Kathleen and John wanted to camp out. They certainly regretted it, as it poured most of the night.

Unfortunately, it poured most of Friday too. This dampened our spirits, and our well-organized site quickly became a mess because everything had to be brought inside. We had to put up the walls to our pop up tents and basically lock up inside to stay out of the rain and cold, stiff winds. Fortunately, we had a drainage ditch next to our site, so it did not flood at all. I used most of the day to trim, season, inject and marinate our competition meats.

We were entered in the “Happiest Home in the Hollow” competition, which was an event where teams decorated their sites to reflect their home state spirit. We decorated the best we could, despite the bad weather. We all wore Connecticut or UConn shirts and hats, hung a lot of Jack Daniel’s signs and banners. Also, the plan was to give away slices of Mystic Pizza and cups of New England clam chowder. The crowds were thin because of the weather, and we never did see any judges. Buttrub.com won the event. I guess the judges made it to their site.

Late Friday afternoon, the weather cleared for a while, and that was perfect timing for the parade. It was really cool; every team lined up and paraded into the town square. There were hundreds of people lining the streets, waving to the crowds. For a few minutes, we felt like rock stars.

After the parade, we went to the reception at the pavilion at the Jack Daniel’s distillery. I hope that nobody thinks that I am being negative about the event, but this was a disappointment. We ended up waiting forever for the school bus to bring us up there. We then ended up waiting forever on line for food, which only consisted of bowls of chili, cornbread, nacho chips and apples with Jack Daniel’s sauce. Once we had food, we couldn’t find seats and the team had to scatter to sit down and eat all over the place. The positive was the open bars serving Jack & Cokes and Lynchburg Lemonades. If we ever go back I will skip the banquet.

The rain returned Friday night, and after getting the butts and briskets on, Cristiaan tended to the fires and I got a few hours of sleep in the tent.

We were one of the few teams to be “roughing it” by sleeping in tents. It seemed that most of the teams had these massive RV’s with all the luxury of a Manhattan townhouse. I have to get me one of those…..

I got up around 5AM and basically worked non-stop until we finished loading the van and pulled out of town Saturday night.

This being our rookie season and obviously our first Jack, I wanted us to experience everything. We entered all seven categories, were selling rub and t-shirts, and agreed to give away samples to the public. We had a lot of help from family and others to work the various stations, but it still was crazy. There were so many people, and I tried to accommodate all of them when the asked questions about the cookers, the team, etc.

Too many people to mention came by and said “Connecticut? They have barbeque in Connecticut?” It was really funny, and all good-natured. Our site was mobbed all day long, between people buying rub, or seeing the chaffing dishes and looking for samples, or just stopping by to say hi.

Somebody who was a friend of Andy King of the Bastey Boys came by, I believe his name was Johnny. He was a really nice guy. We also had special guests, Chuck and Lisa Edman, a couple we met earlier this month in Jamaica. They happen to live in Shelbyville, and we were happy they were able to make it to see us.

The rub sales went well, we sold all 75 bottles I made by around 3PM. We probably could have sold another 25, wish I had made more. Unfortunately, we didn’t sell any t-shirts, probably because I overpriced them at $15.

Turn-in’s began at 12:00 with sauce. I made an apple “Jack” sauce, but I wasn’t blown away with the flavor. I had Cristiaan work on it and he spruced it up a bit, and the sauce finished 24th, not bad.

Next was cook’s choice, which I delegated the preparation to Cristiaan so I could focus on the BBQ that needed to be tended to in the smokers. We made flank steak. It was flash grilled, rolled with a crabmeat mixture and then smoked for a while. It was finished with béarnaise, which is my father’s specialty, and he pitched in on the preparation. The judges seemed to like it, as it came in 13th place out of the 35 U.S. teams that participated.

Next was chicken. For the first time in our short history, we were required to cook both white and dark meat. I cooked thighs for the dark meat, and then smoked two whole chickens for the white meat. I detached the breasts and sliced them, placing the best one in the bottom of the box with six thighs. I didn’t like the way the box looked overall, and it came in 35th place.

Looking at the picture, I can't believe that one of the judges actually gave us a 9 for chicken appearance.

Next were ribs. I probably should have cooked spares, and judges in the south are probably more used to them. However, I always cook loin backs, and I wasn’t going to try something new. I thought they had great flavor, probably not our best but still pretty good. Again, I was unhappy with the box, but because of time constraints I went ahead and turned them in. Ribs placed 36th out of 65.

Next was pork, and I really felt this was our best category of the day. The meat and bark had great flavor, and I thought the presentation was our best ever for pork. It scored 20th, which was our best Q score of the day.

Next was brisket. I really thought it came out great. I thought the tenderness was right on and it had nice flavor. The judges disagreed. Brisket finished 44th place, not last but towards the bottom.

Finally, the last category was dessert. I delegated this category to Sheila and gave her total control over what to make. She did tons of research, and decided to make a chocolate trifle. After several test cooks, I knew it was great. The judges agreed, and we got our only call and ribbon for 10th place dessert.

I am so proud of Sheila, and because of her we were able to bring home something for our trophy case.

Well, we were supposed to take it home.

Once the excitement subsided, I looked at the ribbon and it was not for dessert, it said “5th place sauce.” The envelope for the check also said “5th place sauce.” Sheila brought them up to the woman at the side of the stage and alerted her to the problem. They took away the ribbon and the check, and told her they couldn’t deal with it now. She had to walk away empty handed. Afterwards, they told us that they would mail the correct ribbon and check to us at a later date. At least we got the walk.

Meanwhile, as we completed our turn-ins, all of the leftover meat was given away to the public. I cooked extra meat so we would have a lot to give away. We made around 25 thighs, two whole chickens which were pulled and sauced, 10 racks of ribs, three butts, two 14 pound packer briskets and an additional brisket flat.

As soon as we opened our sampling buffet, our site was completely mobbed. One by one, each of our trays of meat was devoured by the public. This helped us sell rub, which was the marketing plan, although I know free food was the main motivation.

We had a great time serving the people who attended the event. All of us on the team either have worked or currently work in restaurants, and we embraced the chance to serve the Q fans. However, if we ever are lucky enough to go back to the Jack, we probably will not do it the same way, but it was awesome to get so much attention from people at the event, and they seemed to really enjoy our food and hospitality.

We met some great people, and I had the chance to meet some of the best Q’ers in the world. Being able to meet Ray Lampe AKA Dr. BBQ was a big thrill too. Also was able to spend a little bit of time with some of the other people I look up to on the competition circuit, including Steve Farrin and the Pinis of “I Smell Smoke,” Chris Hart and company from iQue, and the family from Dirty Dick’s Legless Wonders.

The “Dirty Dicks” were next to us at our very first competition back in May. That seems like a lifetime ago. They helped saved our tent and were so great to us that day in so many ways. I’m glad we were able to repay the favor a little bit by lending Richard a vegetable peeler for the “I Know Jack” event.

Sorry this has been such a long post. I have so much more to say, and so many other stories to tell. As a competition rookie to go to what I consider the Super Bowl of BBQ is a huge accomplishment, and we feel honored to have had this chance. Who knows when the next one will come, or if we will ever go again. I hope all of our fellow competitors get the same opportunity.

For a lot more pictures visit our web site at www.qhavenbbq.com

What A Day

What an exciting, exhilarating day today was. I will fill in the blanks in the coming days, as I am currently in a hotel around two hours away from Lynchburg and don't recall ever feeling quite so tired.

Here's the short of it. We had two goals coming to Lynchburg, not to finish last and to hopefully get a call in a category. Both things happened.

We finished 40th overall out of 65 teams (24th sauce, 17th cook's choice, 35th chicken, 36th ribs, 20th pork, 44th brisket. We got a call for 10th place dessert, which my wife Sheila gets 100 percent credit for. My only credit is that I tasted her dessert entry numerous times during the last few weeks as she prepared. But to hear our name called in that venue is something I will not soon forget.

The weather was perfect today, a far cry from yesterday, when it poured most of the day and was freezing at night.

We met many great Q'ers during our 3 days in Lynchburg. We also met so many great people who wandered over to our site to say hello or to watch us at work.

We gave away samples, and that attracted a few people.

We got to see some fellow New Englanders have huge success, including iQue winning both the "I know Jack about grilling" event and the cook's choice category. Also, Dirty Dick's Legless Wonders took first place chicken and 4th overall.

There is so much I want to say but I am completely exhausted. More to come....

Lynchburg

After a loooong drive from Elizabethton to Lynchburg (including getting lost twice) we finally rolled in to Lynchburg at around 3PM. Everyone was friendly and they led us right to our site. Fred at Jack Daniel's told me he would hook us up with a great site and he certainly did not disappoint.

Here is what our site looked like upon arrival. Will post what it looked like once decorating is complete.


Our site is around 50 feet by 50 feet, located in a high traffic area, right in front of the main entrance to the competition. Hopefully that will help us sell rub and t-shirts. We have water and power, so we will not need to use the generator we borrowed. A creek runs right behind our site. We spent around three hours setting up our site, and fortunately the rain didn't come until we were finished for the night.

We went to Crockett's in Tullahoma for dinner, and enjoyed several Lynchburg lemonades. I've decided that will be my libation of choice this weekend, with the exception of the occasional shot. I won't be drinking too much though, someone has to keep a slightly clear head.

Staying in the Hampton Inn in Tullahoma, nice place, not far from Lynchburg. I recommend the place to fellow Q'ers who are in the area. A little pricey at $140, but I'm sure everyone jacks up their prices this week.

Met Ray Lampe, aka Dr BBQ today. This was a big thrill for me, as I have read his books and have seen a lot of him on TV. He said that he knew of us and knew we were coming, with surprised me, this heavy hitter even knows that I exist.

Also saw the boys from iQue and the Dirty Dicks, was nice to reconnect with fellow New Englanders. Everyone seems to be the same as us, really just happy to be there and soaking it all in. I know this could be a once in a lifetime thing, so I'm making sure we take time to smell the roses (and the sour mash).

To our friends at Lunchmeat: If there is a team out there that deserves to be here, it is you. Lunchmeat epitomizes what I feel competitive BBQ is all about, and I really hope you get the chance to come here and experience this.

I hope we're here again with you.

Stage Two Complete

Stage two of our journey to Lynchburg is complete. Arrived this afternoon in Elizabethton, Tennessee, home of several relatives on my father's side. it will be nice to see some cousins and reconnect with some family members I haven't seen in a decade.

Great scenery along Interstate-81 in Virginia. I did that drive many times going back and forth to college, brought back some ince memories.

More importantly, the meat is staying cold on ice in the cooler, the rental van is running like a champ, and we haven't had any real problems. Tomorrow morning, we will drive around five hours to Lynchburg. The plan is to get our setup completely done, so we can focus on the tasks at hand Friday and Saturday.

Even though we live more than a thousand miles from Lynchburg, we are expecting some guests both days of the trip. In addition to my parents, we are expecting relatives from here in Elizabethton to come down Saturday. We are also excited that Chuck and Lisa Edman are coming to visit us both days. They're a couple we met on vacation in Jamaica earlier this month who live in Shelbyville, which is close to Lynchburg. Chuck played for the Tennessee Vols football team in the late 1970's. I went to Alabama, the natural enemies of the Vols, but since he is such a good guy I am able to overlook that.

Chuck and Lisa

Also, a fellow report from my company, Metro Networks is planning to come down Friday. Her name is Mary Perren, and she is our state correspondent from Tennessee. I met her when they flew both of us out to Arizona to help with election night coverage in 2004. She's cool, hope she makes it down.

Mary Perren interviewing one of the teams at the 2005 Jack.

We are staying in a hotel in Tullahoma Thursday night, so I'll update again then.

On The Road

We hit the road Tuesday afternoon, and got some hard miles under us last night. The cargo van is packed tight and we made it as far as Harrisonburg, VA. We stayed in a nice little motel called the Village Inn, a small family run joint that came highly recommended on tripadvisor.com. Comfortable room, can't wait to hit the breakfast buffet in a few minutes. Most reviewers say the breakfast is the highlight of staying here, and I love breakfast buffets.

I plan to post updates whenever the Internet is available to alow people to get updates from The Jack from a rookie team experiencing it all for the first time. While we are really just happy tobe going, we plan to put our best foot forward and try and take our cooking to another level.

After breakfast, we will head to Elizabethton, Tennessee, where we will be reconnecting and staying with relatives. Thursday, we will head down to Lynchburg to set up our site, then Friday and Saturday it will be go time.

Keep checking back for updates, hopefully I will be able to post frequently.

Cheers!

Ted

BBQ, Jamaica Style

I haven't posted in a while because I have been extremely busy, combined with a weeklong trip to Jamaica. While in Jamaica, we stayed at an all inclusive resort in Ocho Rios. It was a tropical paradise, and we had a great time.

While at the resort, jerk chicken and pork were served regularly. Jerk is essentially to Jamacians what BBQ is to Americans, as the meat is cooked low and slow over charcoal or wood fires with intense spice flavor. While the jerk at the resort was good, it got me thinking that I wanted to try the jerk that real Jamacians eat.

On the way to the airport after our week of vacation, I asked our taxi driver to stop somewhere that he feels serves real jerk. Around halfway between Ocho Rios and Montego Bay (around a two hour drive) the driver pulled off into a little hole in the wall along the highway. There was nothing resort about this place. There was a circular bar, and off to the right was a little cage where the jerk is prepared.


Even though English is the language used in Jamacia, the natives speak a broken, fast version that is difficult for Americans to understand. After the communication problems were worked through, we ordered 1/2 of a jerk chicken.

The cook let me have a good look at their pit. There is a little room off to the side where the charcoal is started. The fuel appeared to be standard lump charcoal.

The lit fuel is brought into the main cooking area, where it is placed in the pit. The meat is placed on a metal grid, and is covered with what appeared to be siding used in the building of houses.

The cook took the half chicken and violently hacked it up and placed it in foil for us. The total was eight dollars. I added jerk sauce and we piled back into the van and continued towards the hotel.

The chicken was tasty, extremely spicy with a little wood flavor mixed in. While it was not much different than the jerk we had at the resort, I was glad to have a chance to get some true road food in an exotic place. It was a great way to end a fantastic week in a tropical paradise, where we made new friends and got some much needed relaxation.

Now, the Jack preparation begins in earnest.

We're Tennessee Bound!

Q Haven is going to the Jack!

I never would have imagined that this would be possible so soon in the team's comoetition history, but it is real. We're going to the Jack Daniel's invitational BBQ competition.

We have only competed four times, but our surprise grand championship at the New Hampshire state championship has earned us an invitation to the Jack.

I'll write more about this in the coming days and weeks leading up to the event at the end of October. If you want to help us with this once in a lifetime opportunity, visit our web site at www.qhavenbbq.com to find out how.

Review: Big Bubba's BBQ

Big Bubba’s BBQ
Mohegan Sun Casino
Uncasville, CT
http://www.bigbubbasbbq.com/

The last place in the world one would think they could find some pretty good BBQ would be at an Indian casino in Connecticut. However, Big Bubba’s BBQ is able to pull it off with a reasonable degree of success. While it is a little pricey, Bubba’s is the best commercial Q I have been able to find in Southeastern Connecticut, which is the region where I live.

Big Bubba’s is located upstairs in the newer part of the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. The space is large and open with plenty of tables; along with a large bar that features several flat screen TV’s. The walls are adorned with old advertisements, and the bar area is flooded with sports pennants and banners.

Once at the table, the roll up containing the silverware is a towel, which I thought was a cool touch. Also, there is a six-pack holder on each table containing several different sauces, a Memphis BBQ sauce, a hot BBQ sauce, a Carolina mustard sauce, a hickory smoke sauce and a habanero hot sauce. Most of their Q is served dry, leaving it to the diner to choose their sauce.

I've eaten at Bubba's more than ten times and overall, I feel the BBQ is very good. For ribs, they serve Kansas City Style spares, but occasionally offer baby backs as a special. They also feature BBQ beef, pulled pork and chicken, along with Kentucky lamb. The meat has a strong, smoky flavor and a nice touch of spice. The “Big Bubbaque” is a great sampling of all their best offerings, a platter of pork, brisket, ribs, and Louisiana links. However, it’s not cheap at $24.95.

My last visit to Bubba’s, I had the two-meat combo sandwich with beef and pork. The meat was piled high and was excellent, served with a side order of potato salad and slaw. In previous visits I have sampled the ribs, and was very impressed with their chicken, which was juicy and flavorful. Mid-weeks, they offer an all you can eat ribs and chicken special, perfect for those with big appetites.

Their large menu offers much more than BBQ, with a definite slant towards southern comfort food. Steaks, burgers, fish, Po-boys, fried chicken, and even salads are all on the menu. Appetizers feature such southern staples as biscuits and gravy, hush puppies with honey butter; onion rings with bleu cheese dressing and Texas chili. They also have trash ribs, which are the burnt ends from their entrée ribs, which are a good way to sample their ribs if you’re really in the mood for something else. Look out for the cartilage though!

Haven’t tried dessert yet, usually I’m feeling too full from all the Q to partake. Offerings include pecan pie, chocolate cake and sweet potato pie.

Service is decent at the tables, but watch out for the bar. On several visits I have found the bartenders to be gruff and unaccommodating. On two different occasions, I stood at the bar for more than ten minutes before I could get bar service. Stick to the tables.

In summary, I like Big Bubba’s BBQ. It is expensive for a BBQ restaurant, but that has a lot to do with the location. If you’re in the area or are visiting the casino and have Q on your mind, it is probably worth the trip. If you live in Eastern Connecticut and want good Q, you don’t have too many other choices.

The menu:

http://www.mohegansun.com/pdf/menus/bigbubbas.pdf

Hudson Valley Rib Festival

We had a lot of success early on in Q Haven’s competition barbeque career. We won grand champion in our second competition, and it seemed like the sky was the limit. This past weekend at the Hudson Valley Rib Festival in New Paltz, New York, it became abundantly clear that we are a rookie team with a great deal to learn.

In the barbeque competition, Q Haven finished 13th overall out of 42 teams. While that looks pretty good on the surface, a deeper look at the numbers shows that without a couple of major mistakes, we could have had a banner weekend. Instead, we sat and watched as nearly 40 trophies and envelopes of prize money were passed out Saturday and Sunday, and we received none of them.

Let’s start with the ribs. I made a few minor adjustments to the recipe, which worked out extremely well. I feel the flavor is excellent, and most of the judges agreed. However, I made a serious rookie mistake. The ribs were very tender, and were very close to “falling off the bone” tenderness. While this would be great for most of the general public, BBQ judges are trained that falling off the bone tenderness is an overcooked rib. This caused two judges to punish us with low tenderness scores (one was a 5) and that cost us a call. In ribs we finished 8th.

Chicken. I just can’t figure these little things out. We took a big step backwards in chicken, even though we all thought this was our best effort yet once the box was turned in. However, it’s clear to me that I cannot figure out how to get the skin either tender or crispy enough to satisfy the judges. Our chicken finished in 31st place.

Brisket, however, was by far the biggest disappointment for me, as we had taken two second places in our first three competitions in this category. The problem started before we even arrived at the contest site. When I arrived at my butcher to pick up the brisket, he had two Certified Angus Beef briskets for me, but both were much smaller that I had asked for. My best briskets have been between 13 and 15 pounds, but these were barely eleven pounds each. Naturally, I overcooked them too, and the meat was dry.

An experienced pit boss would have changed strategy at this point, and sauced the brisket before turn in to try and mask the dryness. I turned the brisket in dry, and two judges really hammered it. The KCBS scoring system throws out the lowest score, but you cannot afford to get low scores from two of them and expect to get a call. The brisket finished in 19th place.

The real positive from the event was our improvement in pork shoulder. We came in next to last in pork in Lake Placid, so it was clear that major changes were needed. These changes were effective, and pork finished 12th out of 41 entries. That’s a big improvement, something to build on in the future.

So overall, 13th out of 42 is pretty good. But it could have been so much better without the rookie mistakes.

Our turn-in boxes have looked better, too. Overall, it’s hard to point to the boxes as a reason for our mediocre showing. Most of the appearances scores were 7’s and 8’s, with a few 9’s and only one 6. Our average appearance score was 7.6. However, the lettuce looked shoddy in several of the boxes, and we clearly left some appearance points on the table that could have helped us overall.

Without getting into too much detail, several rookie mistakes were made in the grilling competition on Saturday as well. We made swordfish with a spice rub, and I thought it tasted great, but apparently it was not the type of fish the judges were looking for. Our pork chop entry ended up being a disaster. The sausage was delicious, and it took 8th, our best finish in the event.

The steak was 100 percent my fault. I decided we should do a strip steak, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. However, many teams turned in rib eyes and prime rib, and our entry must have seemed very tough against those much more tender cuts of meat. Live and learn. We finished 13th overall out of 24 in the grilling event.

So now what?

I’m definitely bummed about our showing, and so is Sheila. I’m sure Cristiaan and Kim are not happy about it either. As pit boss, I made most of the calls that led to the low scores, and I take full responsibility for our scores. I have done a lot of soul searching in the last day and have a newfound motivation to get better.

Every competition, I learn a thing or two. This one shows me that I need to avoid the distractions that can pop up and react better to adversity on the fly.

I got really frustrated by the torrential rain Saturday night, more because we had planned to have a big feast, and it completely disrupted the evening. But now that I look back, we are there to compete, not to cook up big feasts or drink to excess. There is plenty of time for fun, but I have to keep my focus.

Now, the next competition for us might be the Jack Daniel’s World Championships at the end of October, if we are lucky enough to get our name drawn. If we do go, we will have to be a lot better than we are right now. I will not go down to Tennessee and embarrass myself at the Super Bowl of competition barbeque. While I’m sure it will be fun, it will really be a business trip and I will make sure we bring our A-game.

If we are not invited to the Jack, then our next competition will be in 2007. That will give me a lot of time to practice.

Almost Go Time

There's a tell tale sign that it's almost time for our first BBQ competition since Lake Placid seven weeks ago: I can't sleep. I found myself staring at the ceiling at five o'clock this morning, running through things that need to be done before I pack the van and head for New Paltz Friday morning.

There is meat that needs to be picked up. Along with beer, last minute supplies and groceries, our new aprons and t-shirts with Q Haven logos will be ready Thursday. Naturally, in normal Ted fashion I have compounded things and have decided to work a bar shift Thursday night (competition BBQ ain't cheap!) and additionally have to help Sheila's sister move a couch into her new condo. Thursday is already shaping up to be what I like to call a "three ring circus" day.


The good news is that after a test cook last night with Cristiaan and Kim, we are confident that we should do well in the Saturday grilling competition. We had already agreed on the pork chop recipe that will be used, but were still very much up in the air about the fish, sausage and steak entries. After trying several combinations, we are confident that we will be able to make some great stuff Saturday.

We have also been practicing for the main event, the KCBS BBQ competition Sunday. We've made some slight changes to our rib and chicken recipes that we hope will score well.

The contest is going to be a great time. There are 39 teams signed up, which will make this our largest event since we began competing in May. There are some "heavy hitters" at the event, including I Smell Smoke, who seems to win every competition they enter these days.

I Smell Smoke!

Also on hand will be Daisy Mae's BBQ, whose pit boss is a French trained, Culinary Institute of America graduate named Adam Perry Lang.

Adam Perry Lang

Between the four of us on Q Haven, we have a grand total of zero days of cooking schooling. Fortunately, foie gras and yellow-fin tuna are not categories in this weekend's events.

We are planning to camp next to Mike Lee and the Yankee BBQ Boys, and hopefully near Ward Mann and Waldo the dog from Hog Heaven BBQ. We are planning a huge feast for Saturday night, and are going to make enough food that basicly anyone who stops by will be able to feast with us. Hopefully we will have good news to report Sunday. Even if we don't win or even place in an individual category, I'm certain we will have a great time this weekend.

Coming Soon: New Paltz

Next Friday, we head to New Paltz, New York for the Hudson Valley Ribfest. This should be a fun event, and I expect it will be well attended by the top BBQ teams in the Northeast. It has been way too long since our last competition, over the 4th of July in Lake Placid.

Even though Q Haven hasn't been competing in recent weeks, we have been active, BBQ wise. We have done several practice cooks, and have attended two events. The first was Harpoon, which was documented in an earlier post, and last weekend we went to the Brookline Backyard BBQ, where Sheila and I were judges. This was an interesting experience.

The backyard competition was run by Andy King of the Bastey Boys, who is President of the New England Barbeque Society. It is designed to get new teams involved in competitive BBQ, and I feel it was a huge success in that department. There were 19 teams, and all but two of them were competing for the first time. There were definately some creative names, including the Green Goobers, Squealing for Vengance and Smokedelic. There were only two categories, ribs and chicken wings.

The judging was a learning experience. Not to criticize the process used, but it was difficult as a judge. Each table of judges got six turn in boxes, and we had to rank them first through sixth place on appearance. That part was easy enough, but we then had to score the samples the same way for taste and tenderness. I found it difficult to score the six different samples in this way, but I did the best I could.

I was particularly interested in trying the rib turn-ins. Out of the six samples I tried, I really liked two of them. However, two of them were so bad, I could barely get a bite down. The other two were decent, one would have scored better if they removed the membrane. I tried to score as fairly and accurately as possible.

Interestingly, neither of the established teams won the contest, or the individual categories. We did hang around with the Lakeside Smokers for a while after the judging was complete. What a real nice group of people. Mike is their pit boss, and he is a real good guy. He has a great group of supporters around him too, and as a metal fabricater he built his own backwoods style smoker. I had hoped we would get to compete with them soon, but it won't be this year. They're not going to New Paltz, and we're not going to Lowell where they compete next.

Anyway, we are really looking forward to getting down to it next weekend. I miss the competition scene, and this event looks like it will be a lot of fun.