Topic: Tis the season, BBQ anyone?

[Shamb]

Been Q'n a lot lately, I did three racks last week. Sold some stuff the other day and ill be going to pick up my 22" smokey mountain tomorrow. I was gonna go get it today but its nap time for the little one.

Can't wait!!  I'll be breaking it in Saturday for UFC. I got a couple comps I signed up for in may, I'll post my results. I've got a ton of pics I've neglected to post lately

[Cheesemaker]

You suck Shamb!!   The only thing I've smoked lately was a tri tip today.   I miss using the grill/smoker.

[Shamb [OP]]

Here it is in all it's glory, got 14 lbs of shoulder on there right now for the trial run. I goofed by not stocking briquet's around the inside so adding them now is a PITA.. but I'm making it work...

The side door IS NOT for adding coals... re guardless of what they say.. its not big enough for the stoker and you end up kinda tossing them in... not good...

I rubbed it down with bacon grease before starting the cook. It holds temp incredably well..

For those of you who use lump coal how the hell do you start it?  I started mine like I would briquet's in the chimney stoker but it was popping bits and pieces of wood all over the place and i was afraid of catching things on fire so I went back to briquet's and tossed in some of the lump coal....

Oh yea.. smoking with mesquit today.. just getting rid of some leftover stuff I had.. I also used this rub that's been sitting in my spice cabinet for about a year now.. premade rub.. wasn't bad but I do my own thing now..

[Shamb [OP]]

Oh yea on a side note the 14+lbs of pork shoulder only costed me $8... lol...

I'm standing in line at Sams Club to renew my membership and there was probably 4-5 people infront of me... when it's my turn the lady asks me "how long have you been waiting in line?"  I told her "ah.. about 10 minutes or so"  she says "oh well that's too long to stand in line!"   ..I responded "nah that's no biggie.. i have nothing but time to kill"  which I really didnt.. I was in a hurry but dealing with customers on a daily bases and known what most customer service people have to deal with I try and take it easy on them... they get their fair share of irrate customers i'm sure.

She says "let me make it up to you by giving you this gift card"  she swipes the card, renews my memership in a matter of seconds... I thank her and i'm off to buy some pork.

SCORE! 

[Cheesemaker]

The way I start Lump coal, is I put a handful of briquets in the bottom of a chimney and and then fill the chimney with lump and then top off the chimney with briquets to keep them from popping.  And I start them on a gas burner on my old gas grill.  Which sadly died.  So, I have lighter fluid,  as a back up.  Or I also use one of those electric briquet heater starter things.   

[Shamb [OP]]

Yea I use my side burner off my propane because the stoker fits perfectly and starts within about a minute.

I will try sandwiching the lump in between the briquets!  thanks

[Shamb [OP]]

Doing some trial runs before my comp at Roseville Brewing Company on May 25th. I'll try and snap as many shots as I can of the event, should be lots of fun!

I'm cooking 4 racks of baby backs today, gotta feel out the temp controls on this bbq!  It's ALOT harder then my horizontal as far as keeping a consistent temp. Although it will hold temp much longer then my horizontal. I will post back with my results, I decided to go with the "minion method" for keeping the coals going on the WSM and so far so good.
This bbq isnt as forgiving, when you crack the vents open that sucker shoots up to 300-350 in a quickness then it's near impossible to get it back down to temp again.

I got some buddies that'll be part of my "team" this year including my wife and daughter. My wifes not into bbq (go figure) but i've had her help me so many times here and there.. she's actually getting good at it.. LOL... (sneak attack)  she will learn to love the bbq! 

Also since this comp is at a brewery we get as much as we can drink for free including early access before everyone else. I'll be show casing one of their beers in my braising liquid just for the heck of it.

The next couple days I will be prep'n by creating all my sauces that I will need and bottling them up so they've got some time to "rest"

I'll be giving peoples choice an option to choice their sauce, hopefully this will give me an edge. I have my cider/ketchup based "original"  my Dr.pepper based sauce which everyone seems to love and a sweet chipotle that I use once in awhile.

[Shamb [OP]]

found great resources if anyone has questions about webers.

tvwbb.com

[Shamb [OP]]

got some goodies for the WSM,  went to bbqguru.com and purchased a PartyQ  (which is broke!) I tried it today and the fan doesnt work so it'll be going back. But excited to try it out once I get one that will work..

Also bought a thermapen waiting for it to come in the mail.

Bought 4 new rub's, three from Simply Marvelous rubs and one called "money"  that won the royal invitational last year. I haven't tried them on ribs yet but just taking a taste of each rub by itself was damn good.

Can't wait to try them out!

Also bought myself a banner for this up coming comp on the 25th, says "Little Buddies BBQ"  then right below that says "Porkin' It"  "Since 2008"

lol... my wife said it was border line inappropriate but asking all my friends they choose that one over the others.

Did another test run today with a rack of ribs, gave them to my neighbor.. this was a much more controlled cook and the ribs turned out a bit more firm so I can cut them.. which i what I wanted.
Prior I couldn't cut them because they where falling apart...

[Toymin8r]

Great weekend to stock up the deep freeze on meats for the smoker.   Everything is on sale.

[Cheesemaker]

Thought about doing that.  I have some extra $$ right now, but I've got a gut feeling I need to squirrel it away.   Or I'd have my freezer full.     Heck I can't even pull out the BBQ or the smoker, cause my BIL Toyota is in the freaking way!!  But I have to work this weekend anyway.  Double time and a half tomorrow. 

[Shamb [OP]]

 Did a competition on Saturday, had some up's and downs but overall had a great time.

Got a late start because my buddy couldnt find the cover to his popup so I had to go to wally world and buy one. Everyone else had already started their ribs.. we where an hour late so they didn't get as tender as I would have liked. Got alot of great compliments, my sauce killed it. Rib's turned out great other than I didn't get to wrap them long enough.

It was peoples choice, everyone there seemed to want a very sweet rib so all the guys that cooked sweet ribs won, mine are spicy with a hint of sweet on the backend. Guy who won 3rd had to of had alot of friends or something because his ribs where REALLY bad "pirates of the pig" or something... tasted like a rib dipped in cinnamon powder... literally!   

It was at Roseville Brewery.. the beer was not good either which was kind of a let down but all the people there where nice.

On the way home the lid flew off my new WSM and smacked the tailgate leaving a huge dent. The dent of course is at the exhaust vent of all places!! I gave it some hammertime and it's back in action.. doesn't fit snug anymore.. pissed me off but it's all good... it was actually tied down too or it would have flew out into the street!

I picked up another weber kettle this morning and picked up a 55 gallon drum yesterday to make a UDS (ugly drum smoker) 
That's what i've been doing all day today.. I popped the top off, fired it to get all the paint and crap off the inside... just finished hitting the outside with a buffer pad.. still has hot coals so once those die down i'm gonna clean the inside really well. Ordered a few weber grates and a thermometer. I've got all the bolts... have to go to the local steel yard for some expanded grate material to make my basket then i'll be good to go... gonna try and keep it cheap (ha..)   no casters, no fancy anything.. just want it to work well.

I'm doing another comp on June 6th called Grog n Grub in Wheatland, it's a fund raiser for the local high school. Should be fun, have a buddy giving me a hand and cooking.. this will be my first tri tip, chicken and rib competition!

Wish me luck 


Oh btw, I have pictures.. just gotta get off my lazy butt and post them!

[Shamb [OP]]

 Oh yea and I bought 360lbs of charcoal!   

[Cheesemaker]

Oh yea and I bought 360lbs of charcoal!

Now your talking.     I'm still working on the last batch of Kingsfords I bought last year.  I still have five of the double bags.

[Shamb [OP]]

the stupid thing is there was a 2 bag max per person so I had to buy two bags at lowes, 2 bags at home depot then go get reinforcements so I could buy the rest of the bags.. just went to home depot because they where 11 cents cheaper.

[Cheesemaker]

I've probably posted this picture before, but I always get funny looks when I shop like this!!  Usually, I can't find any flatcarts!!

[Shamb [OP]]

That's exactly what I did, lol

[Shamb [OP]]

Doing a competition June 8th at our local pumpkin farm to help benefit the local high school. Should be fun, going to be my first comp turning in 3 different proteins!

Chicken, Tri tip and Ribs. I gotta buddy that's gonna come out and help. Trying to round up a few additional helpers to help setup and tear down our stuff. Finally got my PartyQ in today, i'll post how that goes!

As of right now I would not recommend BBQGURU equipment to anyone.. this has been such a long drawn out hassle getting one that works. They're customer service is pretty bad and the owner doesn't seem to really care.

Also doing a vendor event on July 6th which should be fun, hoping to actually make some money at that gig, selling pulled pork sammies.

I'll post back my results!

Oh and I gotta get some pics up of this UDS i'm building right now.

[Shamb [OP]]

Finished the UDS yesterday, my daughter taped it up and helped paint it. 80's flash back.. I think it turned out awesome.



Gonna try and cook on it tonight if I can get off at a decent time.

[Shamb [OP]]

Thought i'd let you guys know that I took first place in last weekends Wheatland Grog N Grub! 

It was my first three meat comp and everything turned out great. We battled a record 115* day, Q'n in that kinda temp is brutal but it was all worth it to hear my name called for first place ribs, first place tri tip and second plate chicken!!

I'm thinking about competing in a BIG local comp at the casino, prize money ranges from $3000-$1000

I'm also doing a vendors event on July 5th to try and get my name out there, maybe make some contacts for catering jobs.

The UDS works amazingly well!  I'm actually smoking a whole chicken on it for dinner right now 


My phones been all goofed up, if you guys would like to see pictures my wife typically post's stuff on facebook just add me

Shayne Pharis

[Wainiha]

That's great!  To bad I don't get a taste.  I've been thinking about building a smoker.

Ususally here we make "smoke meat"(we speak pidgin----Google "Pidgin to Da Max")

It is wild pig marinated in shoyu, ginger, sugar and chili pepper.  We make big batches smoked with guava wood.  It is an all day affair.  Usually served chopped and sauted with onion.  Served over rice.


And 115 degrees!  You're hot smoking that, whether you like it or not

[Cheesemaker]

Need to post pictures since I don't have a Facebutt account yet!!

I went to my local meat market last weekend.  Got a freakin huge tritip, their homemade hot dogs, which were like brats, and I did some yard bird.  I'm thinking of getting more tritip this weekend.

[Toymin8r]

Awesome!  Congrats.   I really want to compete someday but I'd rather get on someones team first so i can learn the ropes first.

[Shamb [OP]]

Toymin8r just go to comp's and watch.. that's the best thing to do in my opinion. Most people are pretty nice and will guide you on your way. You get good idea's for setting up etc.

I just jumped in feet first, had never been to a competition.. nothing.. lol.. but it worked out. I'm still learning easier ways to do things everytime. My first competition a few years back was a complete failure. I WAY over cooked the ribs... basically burnt them and still had to turn in something.. needless to say I didn't score very well but I got some experience. I've progressively got better from there on out.. and right now i'm doing some kind of BBQ event just about ever other weekend which keeps me in the groove.

If you lived closer or where ever in the area i'd say come hang out. My "team" consists of me and a friend of mine.. lol.. i've got another guy at work that's a big "brew guy" he does alot of craft beers and has been getting into the BBQ scene so he helps out.

Just like anything else, it's very addicting!   By this time next month i'll probably have close to 10 bbq's, hopefully some will be going to new homes

[Shamb [OP]]

If anyone's in the area tomorrow there will be a 3 meat competition with open public tasting at Feather Falls Casino in Oroville! 

I'll be one of the judges, should be alot of fun! Come hang out!!

[Cheesemaker]

Sounds fun.  Luckily for me I will be 3 hours closer to you.  But not close enough to be there!!   

I had to put my pork loin in the freezer I had planned to smoke this weekend.  But I have to go to Cottage Grove for the weekend and help out my BIL on his 400+ acre property.  Him and his dad are logging it.  And they want me to know where the boundary lines are, just in case something happens to them.  And when I get back, if it isn't raining, I have to fix some leaky roofs.   

[Shamb [OP]]

that doesn't sound like any fun!

we had a GREAT time today, learnt alot about competition judging and what they're looking for... met some great people as well

Let's see if this works, pictures from today

https://www.facebook.com/carrie.valdez.39/media_set?set=a.157006351153752.1073741827.100005331632370&type=1

[Toymin8r]

Man I could never be a judge for one of those things.    It would take everything I have to only take one bite from each piece of meat and throw the rest away.   

[Shamb [OP]]

Toymin8r we get to keep ALL the leftovers   

I took only one bite because I didn't want to fill up on trying 21 teams worth of ribs, chicken and tri tip but took two if I wasn't sure on something I marked down.


I have alot of BBQ in my fridge right now!  Can't wait for lunch today.. lol...


The hard part was not licking your fingers for sanitary reason's because you grabbed a piece out of the box then passed it along.

[Wainiha]

What a job.  BBQ judge.  If you got paid it may one of the best in the world.