Sunday, June 5, 2011

Roc City Rib Fest

Early Friday we hit the road for our fourth BBQ competition of the season. Rochester is the longest trip of the year, about 6hrs. away! I was hoping, as we made our trek, that luck would be with us this time, but as we got closer that all too familiar threat of rain began echoing in the weekend forecast. Dark clouds welcomed us to the beautiful Ontario Beach Park. Being in Wegman's country, we had to do a little shopping for dinner. We scored some great bone-in rib eye steaks and some fingerling potatoes... Friday night tasted great!


The rain started Friday evening and lasted all night, it was so heavy at times that our ez-up tents decided it was too much and stopped keeping us dry. Marie took shelter in the truck while I slept under that weepy tent covered in a blanket and a trash bag. Needless to say, a dry Saturday morning was very welcome!

The Roc City Rib Fest consisted of four competitions: Roc City Rib competition, NEBS grilling competition, a kids Q and the KCBS, NY State BBQ Championship. There were 144 overall competitors there to do battle! The organizers did a good job holding everything together. We competed in the Roc City Ribs and the KCBS.

First up on Saturday was the Roc City Rib cook-off. There were 124 team signed up to compete in the contest. The ribs we turned in were some of the best I've cooked in a while and I was pretty excited about hearing the results.


They finished a miserable 61 out of 107 teams that received points. Not sure what happened to the other teams listed to compete, but not a good start!





After a few beers and some pondering as to what happened with the ribs, it was time to start cooking for the KCBS part of the competition. Turn ins were to begin noon on Sunday so I had to get those big meat started. There were 83 teams listed for the KCBS portion of the competition and we were fairly happy with all of our meat presentations.



First up was chicken. It was 42nd... will I ever figure this category out?







Next - ribs. Even with the bad results the day before I changed nothing and we ended up... 7th!! Finally a call to the stage and a ribbon, we are not cursed after all!








I was very happy with the pork, we were able to get slices and pulled into the box! 53rd overall.








It did not taste or feel like pot roast, it tasted like smoked brisket! I liked it... 32nd.





When it was all said and done we finished 25th overall. Not bad out of 83 teams. Seems like our bad luck has passed, though the rain is still following us everywhere. There was some strange weather at this one - check out the video at the end of blog. We will definitely be back and hopefully will get the same beach front property! More pictures from the event will be on the Philly Blind Pig BBQ site, please check it out!

Crazy weather in Rochester...


Complete results can be found here.

Cheers.