|
Our First BBQ Competition
Mac McCuller
Smoke Rats Team Leader
It felt strange telling our New England friends we would be gone
for the weekend to the "Carlisle Pig & Pepper" BBQ cook-off. It's
the sort of activity that demands explanation, since many of them
only associate BBQ with my backyard offerings! After 2 weeks
of worrying, planning and packing, the Smoke Rats team spent the
morning of the set-up day borrowing a truck and renting a
tent in preparation for what promised to be an exciting weekend
of smoking meats and meeting new friends. We arrived early
and were able to give the tent assembly the two attempts necessary
to finally get it set up straight in the location pointed out by
Bob Rosenburg, the P&P organizer. Two trips to the house and two
hours later, we were officially set-up and killing time until 5:30,
when we planned to fire up our 55 gallon drum smoker. We used this
time to get our brisket, ribs, chicken and pork shoulder looked
over by Bob Rosenburg, since cooking at the P&P had to start with
fresh, untreated meat, and getting the marinading/rubbing work
underway. By late afternoon we were looking around us at the
other amateur groups getting set up, and starting to wonder
why in the world we had agreed to compete. We saw enormous,
elaborate truck-towed smoking rigs, many with flags, banners,
whistles and smokestacks generally associated with huge factory
boilers! Most looked like they were engineered for BBQ. All of
them looked like lean, mean, serious BBQ machines. As my team
(wife, daughter, son and cooking-partner Carl Cave from Nashua)
and I wandered through the cooking area and chatted with the
competition, we became more and more uneasy about the wisdom of
challenging our BBQ prowess against these well-equiped BBQ
masters. We were even more impressed when the professionals
(vendors) started showing up. Their huge rigs were complemented
by full time staffs! When one of them strung up three full-
sized pigs on electric spits, I sat down on my bench and
gave the whole situation a moment of well-deserved thought.
Time for a team meeting. After some heated discussion, we
came to the conclusion that we were really there just for fun,
and the chance to learn more about BBQ---and boy, were we getting
that opportunity! After this meeting, our spirits were much
improved. Could of improved even more if we were not set up in
a State Park with absolutely no adult libations allowed!
By now, it was time to fire up the smoker and get the Smoke
Rats competition officially underway. We hit the ground running,
and had the brisket and pork shoulder in the smoker about an
hour later. After that, it was kick-back time except for our
hourly open-the-smoker, check the temperature and fire. The
hourly checks were essential, since our fire was built into
the inside of our 55 gallon drum, away from the meat. Didn't
take us long to realize that most everyone else had an off-set
fire box built onto their rigs, and outside thermometers (ours
was a simple kitchen oven thermometer, sitting on the grill next
to the brisket). Hmmm. Well, checking the fire hourly kept us
out of trouble (and sleep) the entire night! Have to check into
that off-set fire box, though...
Things were pretty quiet for the next 5-6 hours. Met some
real nice people, traded some lies, and generally started to
calm down from the hectic pace of that morning. We got the
coffee started on a small grill set up in the middle of our
cooking area for warmth and general cooking, and settled down
for a quiet night of tending the 'que and keeping awake.
Well past midnight, a battered pick-up truck rumbled into
the field and stopped. It was a late arrival who had to work
all day before they could drive up to the competition. Working
in the dark with a small lantern, several of us helped this
fellow unload an old, rusty-looking 75 gallon oil tank from his
pickup. He and his partner spent the next 45 minutes constructing
their grill using bolt cutters, a sledge hammer and what looked like
old bed springs. Talk about primitive! Eventually, they got
their fire going and we drifted back to our cook site to shoot the
breeze with the famous Johnny St. Laurent and crew, who also arrived
late after their rig jack-knifed on the way down from Maine!
Shortly after dawn, other contestants started showing up,
many of whom sported simple smoker-kettles and other such basic
backyard BBQ gear. One fellow appeared in the cook area behind
us with a Weber grill, a stool and a chicken under his arm! We
watched him build his fire, rub down his chicken, and settle down
on his stool with a book. At 8:00 AM, a "cooks meeting" was held
on the lawn and we were carefully briefed by the folks from the
Kansas City Barbeque Society (this was a KCBS-sanctioned event)
on how to set up our judging trays, exact timing for submissions,
etc. From that point until early afternoon, everything seemed a
blur as we raced to finish our meats on time, cut and arrange food
for judging trays, repeat the operation for the next meat, and so on.
By 2:00 PM everything had been submitted---brisket, chicken, ribs
and pork shoulder, and we collapsed in our cook area, exhausted and
anxious for the results of the judging. Lots of the public
wandered through our cook area, curious about cooking 'que, and we
were kept busy chatting with them and packing up our stuff.
Around 4:30, the results of the judging were announced. We
were pleased to hear that we had taken 4th Place with our brisket,
and my wifes' "Calcutta Rainbow Salsa" took a "Very Good".
Even more interesting was that First Place for chicken in our
category went to the fellow with the Weber, stool & book, who
apparently went home after submitting his entry---we didn't see him
after that. Grand Winner in the professional category, with lots
of First, Second and Third Place prizes, went to the team that built
their rig from the 75 gallon oil tank in the middle of the night!
Go figure! Boy, did we learn a lot. Let's see, for next year we need....
The Smoke Rats:
Mac McCuller
Marti McCuller
Michelle McCuller
Patrick McCuller
Carl Cave
|
| Thanks, Mac. Wish we could've tasted your stuff, but here's what
happened when we went to the Pig 'n' Pepper cook-off:
First, we waited in a traffic jam for about an hour and a half, which
began about a mile outside of Carlisle center, and continued to the
parking lot. When we got there, we were parked in a corn field (for the
reasonable fee of $2 per car), where the foot-high remains of the corn
stalks managed to damage the exhaust system (and possibly the brake
lines) on my car. We then walked through a muddy ditch to the cook-off
area, where we saw people by the thousands waiting in 1/2-hour lines to
pay surprisingly high prices for what must surely have been excellent
food. However, the "system", such as it was, required you to purchase
tickets which were then used to purchase the food. After a half hour of
walking around, asking, walking, asking, walking, asking, and more
walking, we were never able to find out where to buy these tickets. At
this point, my wife and kids were furious and unpleasant, and I decided
it was time to leave. We then found that it was almost impossible to
leave the parking area, as there was no exit, only an entrance. They
had to hold up incoming traffic for us (and others who had had enough)
to leave, being extremely unpleasant about it the entire time. I
wondered out loud how a medical emergency would've been handled.
We got home and barbequed chicken on the grill ourselves.
On a positive note, the bluegrass music was quite good.
Until there's some evidence that the town of Carlisle can manage to
plan this event a little better (like by matching the amount of
facilities to the amount of advertising, for instance), I'll recommend
to everyone I know to stay away. Which is really too bad, since it
looked like a great time for those who got there early enough.
|
| I had a much better time than you did, Mike, at the Pig and Pepper, but
this was because I went last year, and knew from that to get there
early. I agree that the idea of buying tickets to buy food with
doesn't make sense at all. I don't remember their doing this last
year. I expect that it will be better next year -- last year there was
almost nobody there, so it looks like they decided to do more
advertising. I think the crowd they got was beyond *anything* they
expected. I too, left early, and it was very difficult to get out of
the corn field parking lot. I'm not sure what better arrangements
could be made for parking, though. After all this is a rural area, so
the only cleared areas large enough to hold a lot of cars are most
likely going to be fields. We drove our Trooper, so the corn stubble
wasn't a problem.
The food -- apparently unlike the offerings in Gilroy -- was excellent.
We had pulled pork sandwiches from the Redbone's concession, and it was
even better than the meal I had at their restaurant. I hope they do
manage to organize this better next year, so it doesn't just die. I
like the idea of a barbecue festival just 2 miles from my house!
-ellie
|