© 2007 Curt. All rights reserved.
For those of us that live and breathe barbecue, what could be better than a pig a day? For 2008, it can happen! The “A Pig A Day Calendar – Icons of Barbecue” is now on sale! The calendar features … Continue reading
© 2007 Curt. All rights reserved.
The Ohio Smoked Meat and BBQ Festival needs some help this year… So this is a call to any teams within range. There are only 10 teams signed up right now, and the even is coming up on October 19-20, … Continue reading
Fall is in the air! Actually, it’s not in the air; in SW Ohio, we reached almost 90 degrees F today. I’m ready for 65 degree days, a touch of fog first thing in the morning, and temps that make … Continue reading
Last weekend was the 2nd Annual Jim Dandy’s BBQ Competition. It was the first year that it was KCBS sanctioned. We were originally slated to compete, but Mark was really under the weather, so we didn’t. The competition got a great write up in the Cincinnati Enquirer (click on the photo below). Meggan Booker was the photographer there for the paper, and she waited patiently to get several judging shots; she took one of me feeding my face, but, fortunately, didn’t use that one! Continue reading
This week is really hectic for Bucky McOinkum’s Barbecue. We started off the week with a barbecue class at Cooks’ Wares in Springboro, OH. The class was a big success; it was full in less than a week after registration opened up for it. We had a full house, with some on a waiting list, too. Props to my peeps (Maria and the staff) at Cooks’ Wares for all their help (like my ‘urban’ talk there… I’m so with it… Not!) We did a full competition menu of chicken, ribs, pork and brisket, with cole slaw, tomato pie and doughnut bread pudding added. The sauce for the bread pudding included some Maker’s Mark whisky… Man oh man, was it good stuff! Continue reading
I’ve seen several threads on message boards about whether barbecue competitors cook at home just like they do for competition. The answer is often ‘Yes’. I sometimes wonder, though, if this is due to wanting to practice or because of preferring competition barbecue all the time.
Here’s how I see competition cooking being different from cooking at home:
It’s simply that, when I cook at a competition, I concentrate on making 6 servings/slices/pieces/ribs as good as I can make them. Continue reading
With this new MacBook Pro, I got some software that takes photos and lets me put them into a sort of photo movie. Here’s my first attempt, from the 2006 Blues-B-Q competition in Carmel, IN… Continue reading
It’s just three more weeks until the first KCBS-like barbecue competition takes place in Dayton, Ohio! The competition is called the Ohio Open Barbecue Cook-Off, and information can be found at www.rollingsmoke.com. It’s being put on by Jim Weaver of Jimmy’s Hog Pen and Jim Ferguson of Rolling Smoke Barbecue, both local competitors to the Dayton Area.The location is at the American Legion in Kettering. Entry fee is low this year, $100. Continue reading
The conventional wisdom on getting ready for a competition includes practice cooks. For new teams, this also usually includes advice on setting up at home to do a cook, but acting as though you’re off site. This helps a team figure out if they have the right equipment or not.
I’ve been thinking about this lately, and while that works, it leads to a different problem then not having what’s needed…
Problem #2: Having too much stuff!!!
While this may not sound like a problem, try prepping and cooking 60 pounds or so of meat under a canopy with nothing but coolers and bins of supplies. When you have too much, you just have to wade through all the extra stuff to get to what you need! Continue reading
Our first competition of the season is over! It was both a disappointment and a success.
It was a disappointment because we made 2 big blunders… First, we didn’t test the sauce we used for chicken, and it was too thick, resulting in low scores for oversaucing. Second, I didn’t get the ribs done enough, resulting in low scores for tenderness/texture. I think those scores also lead to lower taste scores. Continue reading
Tonight, we get loaded up and ready to go to Fairbanks, IN, for Q For The Kids, our sixth competition.
We’re pretty excited about this one; we just took Dr. BBQ’s class last month, and we think we have a shot to place better than we have in the past. There are some great teams going, but we’ve cooked against most of them before. Whether we win or not, we’ll have a great time. Continue reading
This Friday, June 1, Bucky McOinkum’s Barbecue will be in their 6th competition at Q For The Kids in Fairbanks, IN!
We’ve taken Ray Lampe’s “Dr BBQ’s Real Deal Cooking Class”, and we went through a practice cook over the weekend. We were EXTREMELY happy with our results. The ribs were moist and tasty, and the color was great. The chicken was good, but maybe a bit too spicy; we thought we might need a thinner sauce than the Javacue sauce, and one that’s a bit lighter in color. Continue reading