Race Fast, Cook Slow, and Enjoy Life
Well, welcome to our site!
Just a bit of history to start things on an even keel (yes, I was in the Navy, as was my Father).
Our team was conceived while I was judging the American Royal BBQ Open Contest a number of years ago with both my Brother-In-Law Steve and our great friend Bryon. Once we were done trying all of the entries put in front of us, Steve said “This stuff sucked, you can do better than this. You should start a team!” Well, knowing very little about competition BBQ I just laughed it off. I was way too busy anyway.
At that time, I was cooking for NASCAR. We had a great group of people that would cook for upwards of 35 of the teams racing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of each NASCAR race weekend. Since I had a ‘real job’ outside of cooking, I only did roughly 8 to 12 races a year. But the preparation for each race was considerable. You see, I was the pit master for the catering company putting on this shindig and was cooking brisket for each race that I went to. This meant spending, at least one weekend preparing, cooking, slicing, and freezing up to 250 pounds of brisket for each race weekend. Not an easy task that left very little time for starting up a competition BBQ team.
Well, in 2007, I meet a wonderful woman I’ll call ‘Ramona’ (yet another story for later) and having left NASCAR, she convinced me to at least look into what it would take to start a team. We found some new friends in Walt and Theresa on the BBQ Brethren and agreed to meet up for the last competition in the area for that year, the 2007 “Barn Burner Bar-B-Q” in Libertyville, Illinois. I’ll tell you, the competitors couldn’t have been nicer and we were hooked!
Over that winter, our new smoker, “The Mistress”, was purchased from Ben Lang in South-East Georgia. You should have heard the conversations between a Southern Gentleman and one of those “Damn Yankees” to get her delivered to North Chicago in February. I guess they weren’t quite ready for a little thing we call ‘snow’. Once she arrived, I got started on learning everything I could about my new toy, purchased a trailer, and talked a couple of friends into helping me form the team.
Our first year was what we should have expected (but didn’t). We were in a new land and didn’t really understand that the food that I had cooked for my friends and family (and NASCAR) wasn’t really what the judges wanted. What a letdown. It was then that a friend reminded me that the judges aren’t eating all of the food that is put in front of them (if they did it would come close to 2 1/2 pounds!) so a lot of the nuances that you would normally look for were lost. The Judges were taking one bite, two if you are lucky. On top of that, by the time they get to taste it, the food is room temperature at best which also changes the flavors.
The next year we revamped our recipes completely and you know what? We won our first competition of the year. We took the Grand Champion at the “Wolf It Down BBQ Bash” in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin with a third in Chicken, first in Ribs, first in Pork, and a first in Brisket. Talk about a turnaround! The rest of the year was both up and down finishing off with a fourth overall at the “Barn Burner Bar-B-Q” in Libertyville, Illinois where we also took fifth in Ribs and first in Brisket.
Well, last year was a short one for us. Between family issues and the economy, we only did four competitions. Mind you, we had fun, but we didn’t produce the results we wanted. This year we are back to being aggressive with over ten challenges. Please stop by our schedule and if you’re in the area, stop by and say hi!
Now please keep in mind that new contests do pop up and unfortunately some do get canceled (yes, it’s a bummer) so our schedule does change. One of the competitions we are already registered for is the “Sam’s Club National Series’. In this series we start with a ‘local’ competition in Madison, Wisconsin and if we do well enough (top six) we move onto the regional completion in Rockford, Illinois. Do well there (top 10) and we are in the national competition in Bentonville, Arkansas. On top of that there is always the chance at both the American Royal and the Jack Daniels. As always, check back because the schedule can and does change.
One new thing we are adding is the search for sponsors. Unfortunately, competitions are not free. There are entrance fees, meat costs, gas to get to and from the location, maintenance on the trailer and cooker, and even spices. They all cost money. We are willing to work with all comers. Now if we could get our employers to give us some more vacation time we would be doing even more competitions!
Well that’s it for now, I hope to see you on the road, and remember “Race Fast, Cook Slow, and Enjoy Life”!
Jeff