BBQ Pitmasters On TLC

Tuned in for the series premiere of BBQ Pitmasters series on The Learning Channel (TLC) last night. I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I thought it was an accurate portrayal of what goes on at a contest from a cook's perspective. Even included a massive storm and a flat tire!

I liked that it profiled a few of the big, nationally known cooks, but also a relatively new team, and one that had never competed before and had absolutely no clue what they were doing. The guy Paul Peterson probably thought KCBS was a California TV station before that weekend.

If you haven't seen it yet, give it a look. It won't disappoint. New episodes air Thursdays at 10PM eastern, but it replays several times during the week, next Sunday at 1PM and Monday at 10PM.

I'd also like to suggest Q Haven for season two. I might be willing to let someone spray me down with mustard on camera. Also I think "Drunk Ted" might be good TV. I have a feeling our team could turn the show into a drama!

Next Stop, Lake Placid

Well early tomorrow morning it's off to Lake Placid, NY and the I Love BBQ Festival. We are really looking forward to getting up there. Before many contests, I'm frantic getting ready, but for some strange reason there is an unusual calm.

I figure there are a few reasons for this. One, we just competed less than two weeks ago, and for the most part everything is still packed. Many times, I leave things to the last possible second, including securing the load in the trailer, dumping the tanks, etc. All that stuff is already done. All I really need to do is throw a couple of coolers into the trailer, hook up and go.

Also, there is very little pressure. We are not in contention for any team of the year honors, so no pressure there. My brother is cooking the midnight grilling bash, so I don't have to worry about that. We are doing the buck a bone contest, but there is no real pressure there either. Regardless, we make a few dollars there, whether we win any awards or not.

Then there's the KCBS contest. I am really looking forward to this. New Hampshire was a bit of a wake up call for me, and I don't plan on making the same mistakes this time around. I'll probably make some new ones though. There are obviously no guarantees of doing any better but I feel pretty good going in.

Lake Placid is just such a great place. Just knowing we are going to be there for a few days is enough alone to lift my spirits.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that the weather is going to cooperate, again. I'm beginning to think that we are turning into "Black Cloud BBQ" again. Why the heck can't we just have a couple of contests where it is 80 degrees and sunny all weekend? This was supposed to be the summer of George!

NASCAR Tailgate Party

Catered my first tailgate party Sunday, which was for a bus trip to Dover, Delaware for the NASCAR Sprint Cup series race. Cooking an event like this is very difficult logistically, as everything needs to be packed in the lower compartment of the bus.

The planning and preparation has been going on for weeks. The menu was relatively straightforward. Pulled pork, burgers, hot dogs, sausage and peppers were the main food, with sides of cole slaw and potato salad. Sheila made her salsa and chips as well, and I also served cookies, soda and water.

While there was a lot of prep work to be done, the thing I was most worried about was getting the setup done. It would not have been a problem, but I had no help. My brother had agreed to come and help me months ago, but apparently lacks a calendar and a pen, because about a month ago he scheduled a BBQ at his house for the same day. Said he couldn't move the date, so I knew I was going solo. Most people I know would rather be waterboarded than go to a NASCAR race, so I knew it would be me going it alone.

Fortunately, my friend Brendan Burek of Transformer BBQ came down Saturday and helped with the prep, which was awesome. As it was, I didn't get everything finished and packed into the SUV until around 10 PM, so I probably would have been up all night without his help. He pretty much made the sausage and peppers, which everyone loved.

Sheila helped a great deal Saturday too, and the salsa got numerous compliments too.

The good news was that the weather was perfect, and we got a great bus parking spot with plenty of room to set up, and for the 46 guests to enjoy themselves.

So as soon as the bus parked I swung into action. The bus driver helped me get the pop up tent up, so by the time everyone got off the bus I had much of the setup done.

I had cooked the pork butts Saturday, and they were holding hot in the Cambro with the Italian sausage. Backing up, as I was unloading the SUV into the bus at around 4:30 AM, the packed Cambro slid out of the truck and landed door side on the ground. I was worried that I had ruined the food, but it ended up being fine, with barely a drop leaking from any of the pans. Love that Cambro.

Anyway, I heated up the pork and sausage, fired up the gas grill to start the burgers and hot dogs, and basically was going berserk getting everything done. I knew people wanted to get inside, which I I never really have been able to understand. We were there at around 10:30 AM, and the race didn't start until after 2 PM. But that's how NASCAR fans are.

Fortunately Sheila's salsa and chips gave people something to snack on while I got everything ready. When the buffet opened things went pretty smooth for the most part. Regardless, people were understanding and saw how hard I was working to get everything done. Many offered to help, but I didn't want to have paying customers having to work.

The food itself was a success. People just raved about the pork and sausage, with some less adventureous types sticking to the burgers and dogs. I got through about 2/3 of the people before I ran out of cooked burgers, so a few had to wait for the second batch to finish.

So by 11:30, everyone had eaten and most of them headed into the track. It was so great to decompress. When it was all said and done, I had one pan each of pork and sausage left. I put them back on the stove and got them really hot, then put them back in the Cambro. When the race was over, I rushed back and put out the leftover pork and sausage, rolls, slaw, chips and salsa and cookies. Everything was devoured except the salsa and slaw, which I brought way too much of anyway.

So in the end, everyone seemed to enjoy the trip. The whole day just went extremely well, with virtually no traffic the whole way down, a great race (neither Busch brother won), food afterwards, and really no problems.

Ok, those who know me are aware that at every BBQ contest, I forget something. Small, random things. So I really tried to be prepared this time, because Mike from Lakeside Smokers would not be there to lend me whatever I forgot. And of course, I forgot stuff. Here's the short list: apron, salt and pepper, and knives.

I learned a bunch of things too. I'm doing another race tailgate party in September for a bus trip up to the NASCAR race in Loudon, New Hampshire. For more information click HERE.

NASCAR Tailgate Party 5/31

Hey you NASCAR fans out there, our tailgate party at the Dover International Speedway is approaching fast. On May 31st, Q Haven is cooking the tailgate party for TLG Travel's motorcoach trip for the Sprint Cup race in Dover, Delaware.

The bus picks up guests in Norwich and Waterford, CT, and has also added a stop in the Bridgeport area. There are still some spaces left on the bus.

Click HERE for more information.

Lack Of Motivation

It's a combination of that and a lack of subject matter that explains my lack of posts lately. I haven't been doing a whole lot of cooking over the last few weeks. I had planned to make a few different types of wings for the Super Bowl, but got lazy and just made buffalo chicken wraps. They were good, but the wings would have been a lot better!

Have been starting to plan for the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge next month. It's the only contest that is on my schedule in the near term. The categories will be fun: Fish, Burger, Pork Tenderloin and Sausage Fatty. I am most excited about the burger. I have strong opinions about what should and should not be on a burger, and lets see if the judges concur. Oh yeah, I have to cook it well too...

Maybe I'll do a burger post soon...

I had really hoped to cook the Freeze Your Butt Off on February 28th and March 1st in Maynard, Massachusetts. However, Sheila will be away that weekend on business, returning home Sunday morning. The good news is that she is flying into Boston, and we timed her return flight from Montreal so that she will get in at around 10AM. If all goes well, we will head up to Maynard after she lands and visit with the brave teams that attend.

For those who are on the fence about this contest, I suggest that you enter. It was cold last year, no question about that, but it was a blast. Saturday night, the I Smell Smoke!!! team had a fireplace going, and the partying went deep into the night.


There was also a potluck dinner Saturday, where the teams all cooked up some great stuff.

Wish I was cooking it....sometimes life gets in the way of my fun.

Saturday Cook

Braved the elements yesterday to do some Q'in....



Fired up the Backwoods and cooked four pork butts for my brother's engagement party next weekend, and a few beef short ribs for myself.

Cooked the short ribs for about 8 hours, they were real tender.

I have to credit Steve Farrin of I Smell Smoke! for my interest in cooking short ribs. He let me try one of the short ribs they had cooked for the Snowshoe in 2007. They were so good, and I think a week went by before I had cooked some myself. Now, I usually throw some in whenever I have a smoker going.

The butts took about 13 hours to finish.

Pulled them all, then immediately vaccum sealed them and put them into the freezer. I don't use bear claws for competition pork, but they sure come in handy when you have a lot of pork to pull.

I've never vaccum sealed and frozen BBQ pork before. I'm interested to see how well it holds.

NEBS Holiday Party

Went to the NEBS holiday party yesterday. A good time was had by all. Had some good food, saw some friends and made a few new ones. Below are a few pictures from the day.

Full picture album HERE. We didn't take too many though....

Q Haven Meets NASCAR

Next year, Q Haven BBQ will be catering the tailgate party for two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series bus trips run by Norwich, CT based Bokoff Kaplan Travel.

Click HERE for Information about the bus trip on May 31st, 2009 to Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware.

Click HERE for information about the bus trip to New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, NH.

Thanks to Bokoff Kaplan Travel and TLG Travel Management for partnering with us for what will surely be a pair of great events!

Daisy May's BBQ, NYC

Not a full review or anything, but had a few hours to kill in NYC today and headed over to Daisy May's BBQ. I really was just craving the chili, which is just awesome. Got the chili and figured since I was already there, a half rack of Memphis dry rubbed spare ribs.

The chili was everything I remembered and then some. Served with cheddar cheese, red onion and sour cream. Big chunks of beef. Still my favorite chili.

The ribs were really spicy. I like them spicy so it was all good. The flavor profile reminded me a little of my competition rib, so that was a good sign.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures....

I love sweet tea, so I gave that a try. It came in a large mason jar, ice cold, with a sprig of mint. My new favorite place for sweet tea!

Ate half the chili and half the ribs, brought the rest home. That means I will be having a great lunch at work tomorrow!

Click HERE for the post about my previous visit to Daisy May's.

2008, The Year In Review

2008....this has been a great year, complete with high highs and low lows. The highlight obviously is the birth of our first son Max, but there were a few BBQ highlights too. Here's the recap of 2008.

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FYBO

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In what seams like forever ago, the season got underway at the end of February with the Freeze Your Butt Off contest, held at the end of February in Maynard, Massachusetts. While most think it is nuts to go cook out in the cold in the New England winter, I disagree. This type of event is great for so many reasons. It allows teams to get a competition under their belts after a long layoff, and try out those recipes we have been working on all winter to see how they fare with the judges. We got calls for 4th place chicken and pork, along with 5th place brisket and finished 5th place overall. Pretty much all the top New England teams were at the contest, so 5th was OK. It was my first contest cooking on the new Backwoods Party as well.

Brrrrrr.... Next came a couple of grilling contests, and some especially bad results. First was the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge in Abington, Massachusetts. Just missed the mark here, no calls, although I was pretty happy with what we cooked. There were 17 teams, and we finished 9th overall, just missing calls with 6th place sausage and vegetable.

The following event was the worst we have ever done in a contest. it was the Oyster Bay Smoke N Steam grilling contest on Long Island. I'm trying to forget this contest. We finished second to last, and probably would have had our first DAL if one of the teams had not been disqualified in the steak category. In summary, the steak was awful, the pork wasn't much better, I burned the wings and apparently got a table that hated oysters Rockefeller. Here are the oysters, which I thought were very good, followed by a very pregnant Sheila at the contest.

The highlight of Oyster Bay was seeing our good friends Brendan and Julie Burek turn in a truly dominating performance, taking home almost all the trophies and being grand champions.

In between those two grilling contests, I attended a judging class and became a Kansas City BBQ Society certified judge.

After Oyster Bay, it was a long layoff for me. Sheila was pregnant and due in mid July, so I didn't want to schedule any contests for June or July. That meant events that we had cooked in previous years in New Hampshire and Lake Placid, New York were taken off the calendar.

I did get to wear my judging hat for the first time in June, however. I judged the Peter's Pond rib and brisket festival in Sandwich, Massachusetts. It was a good learning experience to be on the other side of the table for the first time.

Meanwhile, we didn't want to lose our spot at the Harpoon New England BBQ Championship at the end of July. So we entered, even though it was on July 25th, and Sheila wasn't due until July 22nd. The plan was to have my brother Cristiaan cook the event himself if I couldn't make it. The good news was that Max was born healthy and early on July 11th, which allowed me to be able to go to Harpoon for the whole weekend.

And it was sure worth it.

We got calls for 9th place chicken, 7th place pork and 1st place brisket, winning reserve grand champions in a field that featured all the top New England teams, and some big national names such as the Slabs from Kansas City and the Smoking Triggers from Texas. We missed taking grand champion honors and an automatic trip to the Jack by 2.2 points. Oh so close....but what a great time regardless. Even if we had finished last, this was an awesome time. The only regret was that Sheila was not there to enjoy the moment.

A few weeks later brought our next contest, the Hudson Valley Ribfest just outside of New Paltz, New York. We didn't cook the grilling contest at Harpoon to focus on vending, so this was our first grilling event since the disaster at Oyster Bay. While we didn't get any calls here either, the showing was a lot better for sure. With 33 teams cooking, we took 7th place in pork chop and fish, and 12th place in steak and were 9th overall. Not great, but nowhere near DAL. As for the BBQ, 53 teams cooked. We got a great call for 3rd place ribs, chicken was 10th place, but pork tanked at 23rd place and brisket REALLY tanked at 40th place. Overall, we were 11th out of 53 teams, not our best showing, but it could have been a whole lot better. Life goes on....

Here were the ribs cooked for Saturday night's dinner for friends.



The best part of the contest was again being located next to our good friends Mike and Kris Boisvert from Lakeside Smokers.

This was also our first contest bringing Max along. He was a huge hit with the crowds. While I'm sure his presence was somewhat of a distraction, I am so glad that our BBQ friends were able to meet him. They will be seeing a lot of him in the future for sure.

After another month, our last contest of 2008 was the Blues, Views and BBQ in Westport, Connecticut. In our two-plus years of competing, this was our first contest in our home state. Our tight site:

Long story short, we got called for 3rd place pork out of 45 teams, and finished 9th overall. We struggled on a lot of levels at this contest. Max was difficult, and we didn't work very well together on the iron chef entry. But like every contest, we learned a few things that will help make us better down the road.

So in summary, 2008 was an interesting and exciting year. We didn't get to hit all the contests we would have liked, but it is hard to be upset about that because of the awesome life changing event of having a child. We got to spend a lot of time with friends and family, and made some new friends as well. To me, that is what BBQ is all about.

Positive Results

The results of the cook, and the Alabama-LSU game yesterday, were all positive. Well, mostly positive.

For the cook, I made three racks of baby back ribs. The last few times I have cooked ribs, they came out a little on the bland side. So this time, I wanted to make them spicy. I started with my usual rib rub, then added some cayenne pepper for additional heat. Since I had so much room in the smoker, I decided to throw a fattie in there too for a pre-dinner snack.

The fattie consisted of breakfast sausage, shredded cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, one large chopped jalapeno pepper, then rubbed before going into the smoker with Plowboys Yardbird Rub. Was a great second quarter snack.

The ribs were smoked with apple and hickory chunks for three hours, then a while in foil, finished with a couple of sauces that I wanted to clear out of the fridge. Served with homemade cornbread on the side.

They were really tender, which was exactly what I was shooting for. I thought they were a little too spicy, although Sheila didn't think so. Extremely flavorful.

So in the end, we had a great afternoon of BBQ and football. It ended well, with Alabama needing overtime but defeating rival LSU to remain undefeated. In two weeks it's Auburn, who Alabama has not beaten in the last six games. I'll be cooking that day too for sure....

Roll Tide!!!

Saturday: Ribs and Alabama Football

It could not be a better plan for a Saturday afternoon. My college football team, Alabama, is ranked number one in the country and is playing a rivalry game against LSU. As a perfect compliment, I will be firing up the Backwoods and cooking a few racks of ribs. My goal is to time the ribs so they are done just in time to be devoured at halftime. I will post some pictures when it is all over.

The Backwoods

Hey, all you New Yorkers: If you want to have some BBQ and experience the passion of Alabama football, head down to Brother Jimmy's BBQ at Lexington Avenue and 31st Street in Manhattan. The Greater New York Alabama Alumni Association holds their game watching events there. I went to one a couple years back, when they used to hold them at the Mercury Bar. It was pretty cool, they even got the waitresses to wear Alabama cheerleader uniforms.

I'm sure it will be even better at Brother Jimmy's. It's apparently a new place, complete with flat screen TV's. I cannot vouch for their BBQ at all, but I'm sure there will be plenty of buzz. The Alabama faithful really come out when the team is playing well. The game starts at 3:30 Saturday afternoon.

Here's a link to a review from PigTrip about one of the other Brother Jimmy's BBQ joints in New York. Can't be too much different....

Brother Jimmy's Review

Judging, Sayville

For the second time since becoming a KCBS certified judge, I judged a contest this past weekend. It was the battle of the BBQ Brethren in Sayville, Long Island, New York. This experience reminded me again that I am really a cook, not a judge.

Before I go any further, I want to say that I respect those who come and judge BBQ contests. They take time out of their lives, and spend in some cases a great deal on gas or hotels to come and serve as a judge, and do not get paid for their efforts. From what I have seen, most come and make their best effort to be fair and judge each entry on its merits. They have an important role in BBQ and I appreciate them as a cook.

The only thing that really bothers me about the judges in the two contests that I have done is that many will take the tiniest nibble of their food, then pack all the rest into plastic bags and coolers to bring home. This process kind of creeps me out. I picture them sitting down to dinner with the family, with this nice platter of BBQ with one bite out of each piece at the center of their dining room table.

Ugh....

They should not allow judges to take food they have scored home. I feel the judges that only take the tiny bite are not doing the cooks any good by doing that. They should take at least one big bite, maybe two. Maybe bite both sides of the rib. But saving any of the entry to bring home should not be an option.

I would rather that they require 10 samples in the box, so there is extra food for judges to bring home afterwards.

But that is not my biggest problem with judging. One of the main reasons I like to cook BBQ contests is being there for the weekend, seeing friends, enjoying adult beverages and what not. And of course, the actual cooking of the food, and the challenge of cooking it just right.

When you judge, it is different. You arrive Sunday morning, and you are not allowed to converse with the teams. You can kind of walk past and wave, but you are not really supposed to stop at anyone's site and talk to them. Then, when it is over, it is also hard to visit with anyone. The teams are all in breakdown mode, they have been there all weekend, and really all they want to do is get their gear packed up so they can get out of there as soon as the awards are over. You kind of feel like you're in the way.

However, the hardest part for me yesterday was the drive. Out the door at 5:30 a.m. and it was two and a half hours to get to my brother's place in Montrose, New York to pick him up. Then, another two hours driving to Sayville. We decided to stay until the awards were handed out, but it turned out they were not scheduled to begin until five and didn't actually start until 5:30. We didn't get on the road until 6:30, and it was just before midnight that I walked in my door at home. And because I took the SUV, I spent around $60 on gas alone.

When I judge in the future, it will be a lot closer to home.

Oh yeah, the food. I'm not going to be one of the haters who says "everything was terrible." There was some of what I consider to be bad BBQ, but I also tried some really good food. One of the rib entries was outstanding, and we didn't have any really tough brisket out of all 6 entries. Several chicken entries were good too, with both nice flavor and bite through skin.

The worst entries of the day were two of the pork turn ins. Both had the appearance of cat food, this cold, mushy pile of unappetizing pork. Both tasted a little better than they looked, but all at our table agreed that these were the worst two entries of the entire day.

I do take my judging responsibility seriously though. I feel that my scoring is fair, accurate and thoughtful. I don't give out too many 9's, but I also don't give out many 5's either. I actually did give a 4 yesterday, it was a rib that was so tough you could barely bite it.

So in the end, it was an OK day. The weather was nice, and it was nice to visit with friends, and see Clint and Smoke In Da Eye win the contest. However, all things being equal, I would have rather picked up some BBQ from one of the local slop joints, spent the day with Sheila and Max, and watched the Giants-Steelers game on the plasma.

Big Week In BBQ

It's a big week in the BBQ world, and for the most part Q Haven will be on the sidelines for it.

This Thursday through Saturday is the Jack Daniel's World Invitational BBQ, which in my opinion is the most prestigious BBQ contest there is. There are others that are bigger, that have larger payouts, but no contest is harder to get into than The Jack. In case there are any readers who are not aware how it works, you have to win a state championship to even have a chance to go to the Jack. If there are more than one championships in a state, there is a draw to determine which team goes. Some states like Vermont only have one, so they are an automatic qualifier. Others, like Missouri have more than 30 contests each year, so winning that draw is much more difficult.

Q Haven qualified for The Jack by winning our second ever contest in 2006. However, we have not won a contest since. I would really like to go back someday.

Also this weekend is the Battle of the BBQ Brethren in Sayville, NY. We cooked this contest last year and had a great time, but we have so much going on with Max, and it turns out Sheila will be in California Friday and Saturday anyway, that I decided not to cook it this year. However, my brother Cristiaan and I will be heading down to judge on Sunday. It will be fun to see everyone, but I would much rather be cooking.


So when is our next contest? I don't know. I hear the "Freeze Your Butt Off" contest is going to happen again this winter. I'll probably cook it if it happens. In the meantime, there will be lots of practice...

To read about Q Haven's 2006 trip to "The Jack" click HERE

Pork, The Other White Meat

My competition pork recipe has been pretty much the same for the last two years. But it is very different from when I first started cooking BBQ.

When I got my first smoker, I started cooking pork using the "Mr Brown" recipe that I found at the Virtual Weber Bulletin Board web site. For someone first starting out cooking Q, this is a great recipe. By the time I cooked my first contest in May of 2006, my pork recipe had changed somewhat, but was still based on the Mr. Brown recipe. However, I turned the pork in without sauce at that contest. Here is the picture from the turn in box at Rhode Island.

To me, this box looked super dry. It scored 12th out of 21 teams.

The next contest we cooked, I changed it up and used pulled, chunks and slices of pork in the box. This took 13th out of 33 teams.

This box was kind of a mess looking at it now....and it is the only time I have ever turned in sliced pork.

Anyway, the next few contests, it was pretty much the same, with pork scoring in the middle of the pack. I knew that I had to make some changes to push it over the top. I made wholesale changes, using new rub and sauce, and I also started injecting. The first time I tried this recipe in competition was at the Jack Daniel's in 2006. It was our best BBQ result of the Jack, taking 20th place. Here it is....

Since then, the recipe has been tweaked and the presentations have changed, but overall my pork is pretty much the same. It has gotten some really good calls, including 3rd place out of 35 teams at Westport last month. While I love change and experimenting, this is one category I will be leaving alone, at least for now.