4th Annual Keystone Classic Barbeque - Harrisburg, PA

Well, here it is, our last competition of the year and wouldn't you know it... the sun was shining bright! We arrived there around noon Friday, Oct. 7th, and setup camp, ready to enjoy our season ending event. I prepped the meats early so there would be plenty of time to relax with some Jäger. We fired up the deep fryer and watched the Phillies playing in a series deciding playoff game. After the Phills lost we consoled ourselves by deep frying... everything! We had brats, mushrooms, s'mores and well if you were there and are missing any small pets...

Saturday rolled in and everything went pretty smoothly. First up was chicken.

                                                                                              Chicken has been up and down all year. It finished 38th out of 47 teams.

                                                                                         The ribs came through for me again landing 3rd place!

I was happy with the pulled pork and it finished in 14th place.

The brisket was so over cooked that I had to cut meatloaf sized pieces to keep it from falling apart. The flavor, however, was right on! It took 20th place.





Overall, this was a great competition held in conjunction with the Keystone International Livestock Exposition. The sun shined bright for our last event of the season and we finished up in 12th place overall out of 47 teams! Not a bad way to finish up, I'm already looking forward to 2012.

Cheers!

3rd Annual Southern York County BBQ Cookoff - Glen Rock, PA

Here we go again, I feel like a broken record... rain, rain, and more rain. After surviving hurricane Irene a few weeks earlier, I was hoping for a nice DRY competition in southern York, PA. That wasn't going to happen thanks to Tropical Storm Lee flooding out the Northeast. The 3rd Annual Southern York County BBQ Cookoff was held in Glen Rock, PA September 9th - 10th.

Lee's remnants helped cause torrential downpours over the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, which led to massive, record river flooding on September 8 and 9.  This included the Susquehanna River at Binghamton, N.Y., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. and Meshoppen, Pa. The Swatara Creek in Hershey, Pa. beat the previous record level by 10 feet! - weather.com.

The days leading up to the event did not look good with all the flood reports for the area surrounding the competition site. Alicia, the event coordinator, assured every one that the competition was a go! So Friday September 9th I packed up and headed to Glen Rock. The competition was held on the grounds at The Markets at Shrewsbury. The Amish market hosts some great food and crafts. I always look forward to getting the oyster pie... OH,  and the house made ice cream! I'm glad this event wasn't canceled.

When I pulled into Shrewsbury, around noon, most teams were already setup. The dirt / gravel lot we were in was swampy and wet but workable. The sky looked threatening but held off for the most part, but I do think it kept some of the spectators away.

The band played Friday night as we settled into our site and began to cook some competition BBQ!

We had no problem with the weather at this competition... but encountered a big problem with the bees, there were every where, like we setup on their hive. During turn-ins they were buzzing around and landing on everything. I had to be very careful not to close one up in a turn-in box. Quite a few of them lost their lives in my sweet sauce... sorry guys!

                                                                                                                                                  

Chicken has given me lots of trouble this season. I've gone from top 3 to last using same cooking methods. I switched up slightly for this contest and pulled a 3rd place!






Ribs have been my best category and they finished in 9th place.

19th place pulled pork.

I loved this brisket and was happy with an 11th place finish out of 28 teams.

We ended up finishing 6th place overall out of 28 teams. The soggy ground and bees couldn't sabotage this event, always a good time... and I did get my oyster pie at the market, top notch! Full results can be seen here - KCBS.

Cheers!



New Holland Summerfest – New Holland, PA

August 26th, around 9:30am, on I-76 heading towards New Holland, PA and I couldn't get her out of my mind. The Summerfest competition is a PA State Championship and one of the best organized events of the year. I should be thinking about cooking times and meat presentation but I couldn't get her out of my head, knowing she will be there soon. I tried preparing early for her but there was only so much I could do to get ready. Irene is off the coast of Florida and expected to make landfall on the 27th somewhere in North Carolina then continue screaming right up the east coast.

You would never know there was a category 3 hurricane closing in by the weather Friday morning as we set up camp, the sun even poked out a few times. Around 11pm that night, as I was putting our brisket on the smoker, the wind started picking up slightly - a reminder of what was only 24hrs., or so, away.

At 5am Saturday, the ribs hit the smoker and chicken took a swim in some brine and it started to look like rain.

The chicken started cooking around 9am, the wind was also starting to pick up.

The rain did hold off long enough for us to get all of our meats turned in to the judges, but by the time the award ceremony began it started getting nasty! They rushed giving out the awards so teams could get out of there before it really got bad... some teams did not wait around for the awards at all!
 

 
 
Chicken was dead ass last, 67th.
 
 
 
 
 

 
Ribs finished in 4th place, some of the best ribs I have made at a competition!
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
The pork landed at 23rd, I thought it should have scored a bit higher.
 
 
 
 
 

This was the first time I ever injected brisket, till now I have been a purist when it comes to the large meats.
 
Brisket took 6th place!
 
 
 
 
 
We ended up finishing 16th overall out of 67 teams. The biggest challenge was heading home to Philly in that blinding rain, with Irene racing to meet us there! We made it home safe and I didn't even get that much water in my basement... nice try Irene!
 
Oh - and special thanks to my good luck charm that showed up at the event, the real reason all ended up well!
 
Cheers!
 
 
 

BBQ and Blues in the Park - Mount Holly, NJ

What began as a joke started looking like a curse by our 5th competition in a row with rain and wind. On July 29th we headed to Mount Holly, NJ to BBQ and Blues in the Park, this was our 7th competition of the year with the same gloomy forecast... RAIN! And boy did it rain - the hardest downpour of the season and some of the heaviest winds we had to endure. At one point as we hung from our ez-ups, being blinded by the rain, I didn't think we would make it through damage free. Luckily we did, but not all the teams were unscathed. The rain passed late Friday afternoon giving us time to clean up and get ready for the contest ahead.

The sun did come out Saturday morning and made for a nice day. I feel we handed in some good BBQ and we finished 15th overall out of 45 teams. The chicken ended up 44th... second from last! Same recipe that finished 3rd in Wildwood, NJ. The ribs were an outstanding 2nd place! Pork slid in at 24th and brisket, which I thought was awesome, landed 13th.

When I saw these guys coming around corner, I knew it was going to be a great day in Mount Holly!

Big Craig and little Craig

Marie and her mom

I love this BBQ thing!

Cheers!

Stephen Starr-Garry Maddox Barbecue Challenge 2011

"The annual Stephen Starr-Garry Maddox Barbecue Challenge, presented by Hatfield Quality Meats and KRAFT Barbecue Sauce, returns to Citizens Bank Park on August 13, 2011. Now in its tenth year, the charity fundraiser features restaurant teams and pit master teams cooking off for a good cause. All proceeds from the Challenge support the Youth Golf and Academics Program (YGAP), a non-profit organization founded by Garry Maddox to provide academic support and enrichment services to children who reside in troubled city neighborhoods. Since 2001, the event has raised over $450,000 for charity."

If you followed my blogs you may know that this is the event that started my incurable addiction into competitive BBQ. In 2005, at the request of my friend Steve Tallant and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, I cooked at this event. It was the first time cooking BBQ ribs at a competition and we finished 5th out of 45 teams. Since that day this has been my most anticipated contest of the year! In 2009 I finished 1st in the pit master division and 1st over-all in the Garry's rib challenge making this event a part of me forever!

I've been waiting for this competition since the beginning of BBQ season and it did not disappoint! Lots of great people came out to party and support us. Also some great beer - thanks Craig! I cooked up some great food for the folks hanging out with us which included some nice lamb ribs...

And beef ribs...

And whole pork belly...

Rain and some heavy wind blew through because... you know, that's what happens when I cook at a competition! It didn't last too long and there were plenty of "tent holders" available to keep my canopies from flying away.

I entered the chicken category this year to try a new recipe that I may use in my next KCBS competition.




Anyone one who knows me, knows I hate BBQ chicken so I ended up not putting too much effort into cooking it and I still thought they came out ok. They finished 39 out of 45 pit masters.







Now for the reason we came here... RIBS!

The pit master division ribs were not quite where I wanted them at turn in time, a little tough. The flavors were right on. They finished 15th out of 45 teams.

Now the "Garry's Challenge" ribs had an extra 30 min. on the smoker and I thought they were close to perfect! They finished 7th out of 62 teams, which included the restaurant division.





No World Series tickets for the good guys this year but not a bad overall finish. This is my most anticipated competition of the year - always surrounded by good friends having a great time enjoying this worthwhile charity event... and it never disappoints! Every year I come away form this event with great memories and this year one may just be life changing. Hey Garry - see ya in 2012!

Cheers!



New Jersey State BBQ Championship - Wildwood, NJ

Whoa whoa whoa whoa those wildwood days

Wild wild wildwood days my baby

Every day's a holiday and every night is a saturday night

Oh those wildwood days wild wild wildwood days

And then those party lights wild wild wildwood nights

Even Bobby Rydell would have had sticky fingers and sauce on his cheeks at this event, maybe it would have inspired a new song! This is a great competition organized by the Anglesea Fire Dept. and held in north Wildwood, NJ in conjunction with the Anglesea Blues Festival. BBQ'n right next to the beach with the sounds of the ocean and seagulls... it doesn't get much better!

Friday...
I rolled in at 10:30am on Friday and set up camp. Having a condo 5 blocks from the event is awesome. I spend that 1st night there so I can get some rest before the long nights of cooking. If you have followed any of my blogs you know I've not had a dry competition yet this year...  and this one was no exception. The rain started around the same time as our cooks meeting, 7pm, and it was hard! When we left the fire hall after the meeting the streets were flooded... I mean shin deep, too deep for cars to pass through! We waded back to our cooking site and there was not much we could do - everything was wet. One of our neighboring competitors had their tent collapse under the weight of the water. With the rain lightening somewhat and our tent intact, I hit the condo for some sleep, 9:30pm.

Saturday...
At 9am I headed back to the cook site to access the water damage from the night before. The sun was shining bright, yes, the sun! I put all the wet chairs and charcoal out in the sun to dry, and it did not take long in that heat. There were some competition categories to be turned in on Saturday - Iron Chef, which was a 12lb. turkey, desert, and sauce. I handed in sauce but chose hanging out with some visiting folks over the other categories. It was a damn good decision too, lots of people came to hang out. We cooked up some burgers and dogs and went through lots of brews - the buffalo trace even made an appearance a few times! Before I knew it the time came to start cooking the brisket and pork for the KCBS competition, It was a long night!

Sunday...
We have turn-in day, all the rain and partying is in the past - time to get serious.

This chicken took 3rd place! This came as a surprise, I thought it was our worst turn-in. Goes to show you never can tell - hail the chicken!



Ribs were slightly over cooked - 23rd out of 66 teams.

Pork - 22nd.

Brisket - a disappointing 49th.






Overall this was a great competition, lots of rain, lots of libations and one bathroom for all the competitors. Hell, we were at the beach, who can complain? I'll be back next year!

          And then those party lights wild wild wildwood nights


Cheers!



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.