The art of recovery and the importance of Teamwork

This past weekend I competed in the Grillin' On the Bay event with Dave and Nancy Peterson. I'm about to explain to you the disaster and recovery of our chefs choice Entry.

The chefs choice category for this event was pretty wide open which meant we knew we would be competing against things like lobster and filet mignion. We had to decide if we wanted to attempt to make the best lobster or filet dish or try to come up with something different. If you knew anything about the 3 of us you would realize that we tend to buck the trends and go our own way. Our first thought was beef ribs which is something I cook with I Smell Smoke on occasion and we do very well with, but hey been there done that right ? Then we thought about beef shanks and again I felt that was too similar to the short rib recipe. Finally we decided to do a classic Veal Osso Bucco in the dutch oven, remember everything for this event had to be cooked over wood or charcoal.

If you've had Osso Bucco in a restaurant then you know the portions tend to be pretty large and it would be very difficult for us to fit 6 pieces in the 9x9 styrofoam container that we are required to use for competition. A quick phone call to my friend Doug who is in the food service business and we had some 3 oz portions of Veal shanks on order. This plan was starting to come together.Osso Bucco is a pretty involved dish to make, not difficult but somewhat time consuming. Tie the meat, Season the meat, brown the meat, chop the veggies, saute the veggies, deglaze the pan with wine, add stock as needed during the braising process, etc. And to top that off you have to add in the effort it takes to keep the dutch oven hot enough to keep the liquid simmering but not so hot that you burn what's inside. This is done by adding a few lit pieces of charcoal over a 3 hour time period. We had to do this and work on 3 other categories that we were cooking.

I won't even mention how Windy the weather was that day because it really wasn't a factor. We were able to go through all the steps and had a great Veal Osso Bucco ready to go a little over 1 hour before the turn in time for the chefs choice category. We tasted the veal and the sauce and it was outstanding, melt in your mouth meat with a rich flavorful sauce. The fact that we were early was not a big deal. We removed the dutch oven from the fire and set it aside to cool and planned to reheat the dish shortly before serving.

The category before Chefs Choice was pork and we had the fire pretty hot to quickly grill some Pork chops. After we grilled the chops we spread out the charcoal in the grill so it would cool somewhat. There were 45 minutes between categories so we figured the coals would die down enough for us to put the dutch oven in the fire to reheat the veal and sauce. Twenty minutes before it was time to turn in the Veal we put the dutch oven on the grill to reaheat. Literally 3 minutes later when I went to check to see how it was doing I opened the lid to find a burnt mess ! A lot of the liquid in the sauce must have evaporated while it was resting for that hour off of the fire, the cast iron does hold heat well. First I tasted the sauce.....yuck the burn totally permeated it. Then I tasted the meat.....double yuck, I couldn't get that burnt taste out of my mouth. The dish was ruined, there was no point in even turning it in...........or was there ?

I'm sure my team mates could see the look of frustration on my face. All that work for nothing. Nancy suggested maybe we could come up with a sauce that would work with the veal, we did have some tomato sauce and other ingredients. I was doubtful, at this point I think I was ready to just throw in the towel. Then Dave suggested we seek out Brendan from Transfomer BBQ and see if he had any of the bbq sauce we loaned him earlier in the day. I perked up a little at that suggestion. Bbq sauce can hide a lot of mistakes but that burnt taste was still in my mouth so I was still very skeptical. Then it came to me...maybe we could wash some of that burned taste off the meat, maybe it hadn't penetrated the meat and it was just from the sauce that was still covering it. I asked Dave to start heating some chicken stock while I went over to Brendan's to see if he had any bbq sauce left.

I think Brendan sensed that I was stressing a bit and I explained to him I destroyed my chefs choice entry. He handed me the sauce and I moped back to my site convinced I was wasting my time but resigned to produce something we could turn in.

When I got back we took each shank and swirled it in the heated chicken stock to rinse them trying to get as much of the osso bucco sauce off as we could. We were running out of time. I asked for a brush for the sauce but both of our brushes were in dishwater waiting to be cleaned, we were going to spoon the osso bucco sauce over the meat not brush it on. So I just poured some of the sauce out and applied it to a piece of meat with my gloved hand. Here was the moment of truth...do or die time.... put up or shut up time....I had to taste the meat, I wasn't looking forward to it. I broke off a small piece I really didn't want any more of that burnt taste in my mouth. I placed it in my mouth..... began to slowly chew....hmmm....ummmm...err hey this isn't bad. I took a bigger piece.... not bad at all. We had something I wasn't totally embarrassed to turn it. I figured at least we won't get last place......I hope !

We filled the turn in box with the wonderful truffle risotto that Dave cooked and carefully added 7 veal shanks that we were able to save. I don't have any pictures but someone from SeriousEats.com snapped one just before we closed the box for turn in. We joked that we hope the picture doesn't show up on his website and we place DAL with it. I dusted the meat with an orange gremalata I had made for the osso bucco, I figured what the heck I took the time to make it so I might as well put it on there then I gave the box to Nancy to turn in to the judges. Phew that was intense.

When Nancy returned to the site and we were cleaning up we started joking about what if it does well we won't be able to keep a straight face. While I wasn't very happy with the entry I was pretty happy how we dealt with the whole situation. We didn't give up and we all worked together to get something turned in and at least not get disqualified. I had a real feeling of pride and satisfaction at that point, it's hard to explain but it was really an uplifting experience. I think these are the moments that real competitors live for. It was a real challenge, we faced it head on and we persevered.

When the Chefs Choice category was announced I figured we didn't stand a chance of hearing our name called. I'm not saying what we turned in was horrible but it was a far cry from what I envisioned us turning in. They were also announcing the last place team in each category and I even feared if we did hear our name it would be for that. To my amazement and Nancy's hysterical laughter we were called for 4th place in Chef's choice. Unbelievable ! There were some pretty skilled competitors there that we beat.


So what's the moral to this whole thing ? To me it's this... First, when you start a team make sure you surround yourself with good people that will lift you up when things go bad, people you can count on during a crisis(I've been pretty lucky in this regard). Second...Never give up. Always do your best to turn something in. It may not be your best but it will be the best you could come up with in that situation.



Next stop Salisbury Maryland....

Grillin' On The Bay 4/4/09

I'm headed to Sheapshead Bay NY this weekend to compete in the Grillin' On the Bay competition. Dave and Nancy Peterson of Petey's Crispy Critters will be joining me and we'll be competing as Team Agave. The categories are Chicken Breast, Pork, Fish and Chefs Choice. We had a little team meeting on Tuesday night, sampled a little Agave and came up with a pretty good plan of action in my opinion. Wish us luck.

Everything is off the cooker and looking great. First up is pulled pork. Here's a picture of the butt Before I pulled it. There is a little sauce painted on it.

Here is a picture of the pulled pork. I add seasonings and sauce to the pulled product to give it that special something that the judges seem to like.

I didn't take any pictures of the whole brisket but here's a picture of one sliced. The new marinade was a tad on the salty side but I think I'm headed in the right direction. The briskets came out moist and tender.

Here's a picture of a sandwich made from the scraps that are left on the cutting board after slicing. Mmmm mmmm Good !

I'm working on my photo skills trying to improve my composition. I'm pretty new to the world of photography and I know I have a lot of room for improvement. I must say though the ribs were very tasty and I would be proud to turn them in at any competition.


The salad in the background is broccoli slaw. I first had this at the Harpoon competition at the Meddling Kids site. Very tasty and a nice change from regular coleslaw.

All in all a very successful cook. I was able to compare some rubs and sauces side by side which is not something you really want to do at a competition. You should always go in with a plan and try to stick to it.

Yes I'm really cooking

Barbecue is a long slow process (at least the way I cook it is). The weather started out Warm and sunny yesterday when I was running around purchasing meat, then it turned cold and foggy as I was preparing to put the meat on the cooker. Now it's cold and rainy and the meat is chugging along.


I put the ribs on at 7:15 and wrapped the Butts and Briskets around 9:00 am. I'm working on a new brisket marinade loosely based on Rick's Sinful marinade that I put in the foil when the briskets are wrapped.



More Later...

Practicing

Practicing is just not something I do on a normal basis or at all really. Not that I don't see any value in it, but it's hard to set aside the time to cook bbq for 10 to 12 hours. I'm usually too busy or too lazy to commit the time.

This weekend I need to cook some bbq for a party so I'm going to use the cook as a contest practice run. I've been struggling with brisket a little lately so I will pay particular attention to that. I'll use a couple of different rubs and sauces and hopefully come up with a winning combination.

In Arkansas my brisket ended up being overcooked. When I took the meat off the cooker and put it in a cambro (insulated box) to stay warm, the brisket was definitely not overcooked. I think it overcooked in the cambro because I had it loaded with more meat then I normally do. The Arkansas contest had $50,000 in prize money so I thought it was worth cooking extra meat to try to get an edge on the competition. I think my decision to do that cost me in the end. I don't think cooking the extra meat was a bad decision but loading it all in the same cambro was, it may be time to invest in a second one.

I'll try to post some pictures of my progress this weekend but don't expect to see a lot about my recipes or techniques. The team is looking at schduling a class sometime this spring so if your interested in attending keep an eye on our website www.ismellsmoke.com

Snowshoe Results

We got one call at the Snowshoe for 2nd place fatty and ended up coming in 3rd overall losing by 3.5 point or so. There was only a .5 point spread separating the first and second place teams ! It was a little cold and windy all day but the sun made up for it. I forgot to bring my camera so I thought I would post some pictures from an old Snowshoe that was held at the Concord Junction Brewing company, the original site of the contest. It was fun to see that several of the teams that competed this year were also there back in the day. I hope you enjoy them.

Re

2009 Snowshoe Results

Grand Champion
Wildwood BBQ-NYC

Reserve Grand Champion
IQue

3 - I Smell Smoke!!!
4 - Transformer BBQ
5 - Porkaholics

Fish

1 - QHaven
2 - Uncle Jed
3 - Wildwood BBQ-NYC
4 - Insane Swine BBQ
5 - Shoe City Smokers

Pork Tenderloin

1 - Transformer BBQ
2 - IQue
3 - Wildwood BBQ-NYC
4 - Dr. Frankenswine
5 - Lakeside Smokers

Fatty

1 - Smokey O's
2 - I Smell Smoke!!!
3 - IQue
4 - Transformer BBQ
5 - Insane Swine BBQ

Burger

1 - Porkaholics
2 - Wildwood BBQ-NYC
3 - Garden State Porkway
4 - Boneyard Smokers
5 - Transformer BBQ

Grilling vs BBQ contests

This weekend we will be competing in the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge. Grilling contests are popular here in the Northeast but they are a whole different beast from a barbecue competition. The entry fees are normally much lower but the cost of the meat and spices are higher. If the category is steak do you want to be the guy cooking bottom round when the competition is cooking filet migon ? Of course not so that's going to drive the price of competing up. But then you have to think if 8 teams are cooking filet do you want to try to cook the best filet or try to stand out a little by cooking a ribeye. Now for your ribeye to stand up to their filet it may be necessary to purchase prime beef so again the cost jumps up.


Since the entry fees are lower then it follows that the prize money is also lower. Your mindset going into a grilling contest has to be that your doing it for the plastic trophy. Your not going to come out ahead money wise and you may even be lucky just to break even. So why do we do it ? Some say it's a sickness others a passion for competitions but I like to think it's for the enjoyment. We like the people that come to these contests and we enjoys spending time with them. Most of us also share a passion for cooking, and grilling let's us show that bbq is not the only thing we can do.


In a bbq competition there is a lot of time spent waiting. You put your meat on the cooker and just let it do it's thing for x amount of hours. That leaves a lot of time for socializing and hanging out. In grilling there is a lot more prep and a lot less time to do it in. We arrive at the contest site, set up, prep meat and then start grilling. That doesn't mean we don't socialize. I like to use a hit and run technique. With my trusty camera in hand I'll try to visit all the teams, sometimes before we start grilling and sometimes between categories. I've even caught a team prepping their box for the wrong entry and tried to save them from a dq. We also like to shout friendly jabs from our site to a neighboring team, it's all in fun afterall.


I like to joke around with people that grilling competitions are too much like stir fry and there's way too much jumping around but the fact is I have a lot of fun at these contests. Oh and I also happen to enjoy Stir Fry.

Arkansas continued...

Charlie put the ribs on earlier in the morning and they were looking good, the briskets seemed to be cooking on their normal schedule. At this point it was my job to get the chicken ready to go on the cooker and prep some sauces and marinades/flavorizers we use during our cooking process. Things were going smoothly after I prepped the chicken so I decided it was time to start rattling the neighbors.I find a camera always helps to put people on edge. I hit the Pellet Envy site to our left and the Transformers to the right. Poor Julie and Brendan had a number of people pushing their buttons during one step of their rib process. It was pretty funny from my vantage point.

Brent Richardson volunteered to help us out for the day so I put him on Garnish duty with Carmen and Carlotta.  Appearance doesn't count as much as taste and tenderness but it can be the difference between winning a contest and coming in second place.  I knew I could trust Brent because he's been cooking bbq with his mom and The Slabs since he was knee high to a grasshopper.  He's even competed on his own and has a very distinguished record in Kids Q events.


The next couple of hours of the event are a blur.  Chicken on, ribs wrapped, brisket off, ribs off, chicken turn in etc...  Brent was a big help in doing the box presentation.  He helped us strategically place parsley to get the best look, and he even helped Charlie and I with the tasting of the entries and the adjustment of spices.  I was happy with 3 out of our 4 entries, the brisket I knew was a bit overcooked.  Maybe I should have taken them off the cooker when I took the Butts
off but they didn't seem done to me at that point. Oh well live and learn.  I had 3 briskets, maybe I should have taken them off in stages.  In the early part of the season you need to get a feel for things, your instincts get a little rusty. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it)

After turn in it's time for cleanup.  I Smell Smoke is usually one of the last teams to leave an event but we had early flights in the morning and Charlie and Carlotta needed to get back on the road so we bucked up and got the job done in record time.  In fact the wait for awards seemed to take forever.

At the awards ceremony we ended up next to the Illinois contingent of cooks.  The night before they had stopped by our sight for a drink and the Smack Talk was rolling.  The subject of Jack Qualifiers came up and they seemed to be of the opinion it was easy for a New England team to qualify because we had and I quote "Little contests with only one qualifier in a state".  I'm not really big on the Smack talk thing before I've even cooked my food and turned it in so I just let their comments roll off my back.  I figured we'd see who had the right to talk Smack after the award ceremony.


We placed 14th in Chicken ($150), 19th in Ribs ($100), 18th in Pork($100) and 8th Overall ($700), so the bulk of our expenses were covered. If we can break close to even on a big contest like this we are very happy. I overcooked the Brisket and it placed 47th, if I had not done that we were definitely in the running for Grand champ being one of only a few teams that got 3 calls to the stage. We only got beat by 1 Illinois team and I don't remember them talking smack at my site, at least not to me.

We had a lot of fun and I'm sure we'll make the trip again next year (if I can get Charlie and Carlotta to drive again).

This weekend we will be competing in the Snowshoe Grilling challenge in Abington MA.

Little Rock Arkansas

When I Smell Smoke travels to a distant contest there is usually a whole lot of planning involved, not so for Little Rock Arkansas. On February 2nd I received an ad for the contest in my email and forwarded it to the rest of the team thinking I'd get a reply along the lines of "Yeah Right". Instead I get reply from Carlotta saying "Are you driving ?" and then one from Charlie saying "I'll Drive !". A few emails and a few days later the next thing I knew I was sending in the $350 dollar entry fee for a contest 1446 miles from home. Charlie, Carlotta and Carmen driving and me flying. Somewhere along the line we talked Transformer BBQ into making the trip too, I think their decision was even more spur of the moment than ours was. Rather than having two vehicles drive almost 1500 miles from New England to Arkansas we agreed to take their equipment in our trailer so they could fly out.

The flights to Arkansas were uneventful, the drive on the other hand was a mix of rain sleet and snow all the way from Fitzwilliam NH to Little Rock Arkansas. Even so there were no complaints from our 'Drive Team' when they hit the hotel. We all hit a Mexican Restaurant called Cozy Mels (I know Cheesy name) that turned out to be a great place to eat. We were joined by The Slabs and Smoke on Wheels bbq teams and a good time was had by all.

The weather for the weekend was rainy and in the high 30's to low 40's for the entire weekend. If the contest was a week earlier we would have been cooking in 80 degree sunny weather. Oh well that was out of our control so we just bundled up and dealt with it. Friday night The Slabs organized a St. Paddy's themed potluck which ended up being held on our site due to space constraints. Smoked Corned beef, cabbage with smoked sausage, bacon explosion potatoes, Reuben dip, steak soup, Irish stew, Baileys and Cream, Pizza, Green desserts, Green Soda, lots of beer and some beef sandwiches from Chicago made for a great spread. Thanks to all who attended we enjoyed your food and your company.

I slept through my alarm the next morning and woke up just in time for the potluck breakfast. Steph from The Slabs made Italian Strata and Grit Bake Casserole and there were some Krispy Kreme donuts that they were giving away somewhere on the contest grounds. There may have been more food but I was a little out of it and couldn't really say. I checked on my BBQ and my Pork Butts were done ! Uh oh. I was a little embarrassed pulling my meat off the cooker that early with so many eyes around the site but I had to get those Butts off before they cooked any further. I put them in the cambro but left the door open for a little while so the internal temp on the butts would drop and they would not continue to cook.

to be continued...

Little Rock Arkansas

Fresh off a win and heading to Little Rock Arkansas

(Steve not shown was the official photographer that day)

The team competed at the BBQ Bailout March 1st and walked away with the title of Grand Champion. It was a small event organized by 3 cooks jonesing to get out there and compete after a long snowy winter. 13 teams competed in the categories of chicken, sausage, flank Steak and Ribs, making it a grilling and bbq hybrid contest. We placed 2nd in chicken, 1st in sausage, 3rd in flank steak and 7th in ribs.

Our next stop on the 2009 bbq tour is Little Rock Arkansas, where130 teams will be competing for $50,000 in prize money. The last time we competed in Arkansas we placed 10th overall. We're hoping to top that this time around, wish us luck.

Results

We ended up 21st overall which was a bit disappointing but sometimes that's the way the cookie crumbles. While the end result was not the best I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Waiting for awards

All the cooking is done and the cleanup is well underway. The judges are done sampling now we just have to wait around for the awards ceremony.
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Lakeland FL

It got pretty darn cold last night. Around 38 to 40 degrees, not exactly what I was hoping for in florida. Luckily I brought my winter hat and coat and not just some shorts ! The big meats are looking pretty good and the ribs went on the cooker just a little while ago. The sun is up and the temp is slowly climbing hopefully we will have a good day both weather wise and contest wise. Ill try to check in later.
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Lakeland

Pop's Que lent us his trailer to use in Lakland. Thanks Pop it sure is coming in handy. We had some rain this morning but its cleared out now and the sun is shining bright.
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Lakeland Florida

I'm headed to Lakeland Florida this weekend to compete with Hawgeyes Nation in the Lakeland Pigfest. The team will consist of myself, Stephanie Wilson from The Slabs and Mike Tucker from Hawgeyes BBQ. Mike is towing down a Horizon smoker from Iowa and we are borrowing the rest of the equipment. The meat is being supplied by Oklahoma Joes BBQ. I'm looking forward to getting away from the cold and snow for a few days. With any luck (and a little effort) I'll post some updates about the contest here on the blog.

Check out Transformer BBQ

Hey check out Transformer BBQ's website. They were kind enough to let people know what sites they like to visit but strangely they don't seem to know how to insert a link. They do actually update their site once in a while, we'll see how long that lasts!

An achievment worth writing about.

This weekend I Smell Smoke won it's 5th straight Massachusetts Championship in a row. Overall the team has won 7 Massachusetts State Championships. I can't make any grand claims about this being the biggest streak or anything because I haven't done the research but I'll bet it's right up there near the top.

The team won it's first Massachusetts State Championship in 1997 at the Pig in Pepper Festival in Westford Mass. This was actually the first Grand Championship the team had ever won. We had a dry spell for a few years and did not win our second Mass State Championship until 2001 which was also the Pig and Pepper Festival.

In 2002 there were two Mass State Championships, one in Lowell and one in Acton. The Yahoos managed to win both of those events but I Smell Smoke was Reserve Grand in the Acton event and this marked the rise of our teams success. We placed Reserve Grand in several contests that year.

From 2003 to 2007 the Massachusetts State Championship was held in Lowell Massachusetts. I Smell Smoke did not compete in 2003. I Smell Smoke was Grand Champ of the Lowell event from 2004 to 2007.

That brings us to the present. This years Massachusetts State Championship was held in Harvard Mass at the Harvard fall festival and 35 teams competed in the event. The team was short 2 founding members and the weather posed some problems as well. Doug and Charlie were not able to make it due to other commitments but the rest of the team was up for the challenge. It rained during the night and our site became a mud bowl. The rain also knocked out the power several times forcing us to move our meat from the Cookshack pellet smoker (requires electricity) to our Backwoods Smoker. In the end we persevered placing 8th in chicken, 7th in ribs, 2nd in pork, 2nd in Brisket and Grand Champion for the 5th Year in a Row. BaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhBaQue !