North Kansas City

Our second contest of the year was in North Kansas City. It was our third time cooking this one and this contest has had a few organizational problems in the past. This year they moved locations and fixed a few other issues and put together a pretty solid event. It's a shame the weather wasn't a little better.

With the new location the sites were all centrally located around Finnegen's, a bowling alley and event center in Northtown. This put us all closer to cleaner restrooms and it allowed them to hold the cook's meeting and awards indoors as opposed to outside as in years past. We also got a our full results print out instead of waiting for them to be posted online. There were some other issues with alcohol consumption that were worked out with NKC officials as well - which is good because I like to drink beer.

After braving the cold, wind, rain and snow we got everything turned in on time - but just barely...I took way too long on our pork & brisket boxes but Chris literally ran our boxes in just in time and in the end we faired pretty well - finishing first in ribs and ending up fourth overall. I was a little disappointed in our pork score as I thought it was pretty good. Chicken was OK. We tried a new recipe and it will need some tweaking, but we are on the right track. Brisket continues to weigh us down. We actually scored better than I thought we would, but I think it was just luck.

All in all it was a good weekend...we got to hang out with our ol' pals The Slabs and took in a few of the Big XII Basketball tournament games over at Pork Me Purple's site (nice brisket call, Jerrod), had a nice dinner with fam and friends on Friday, then we got a surprise visit from my buddy Officer Jon Going and we even came home with a little bit of money, which will help us keep feeding our BBQ habit.

Butt to Butt X Teams Announced

The cooking teams that will compete in the 2008 Butt to Butt(c) Invitational were recently announced in the March issue of the Kansas City Bullsheet. We are excited beyond words to be part of this group of fantastic teams! Cookers like Johnny Trigg of Smokin' Triggers (pictured with his wife, Trish after his Butt to Butt win in 2007) and Chris Lilly of Big Bob Gibson's are legendary on the competition circuit and you will be hard pressed to find better competition cooks than Bad Byron of ButtRub.com and Rod Gray of Pellet Envy...hell, every team in this group is threat to take home a Grand Championship every time they fire up their pit!

The Butt to Butt Invitational is a truely unique event...Every July for the past ten years, cooking teams from nine different events across the country and the Pork Team of the Year have all been invited to Shannon, Illinois (pop. 900) for the opportunity to cook and turn in one category and one category only: pork butt. Every year the winner scores a cash prize and a handsome plaque, but the most coveted prize is the boar's tooth that contest organizer Mike Lake personally harvests.

Here are the 2008 Qualifiers and the event at which they each qualified:

(which one of these teams doesn't belong?)

Wild Bunch Butt Burners....BBQ & Blues Challenge; Hammond, LA

Pellet Envy........................Capitol City Cookoff; Jeff City, MO

Dodge County Smokers......Great American BBQ Invitational; Kansas City, KS

Weekend Smokers..............Iowa St. Championship; Marshalltown, IA

Smokin' Triggers.................Butt to Butt IX Winner; Shannon, IL

Chi-Town Smokers.............Illinois St. Championship; Shannon, IL

J-Mack Cookers.................Amazin' Blazin' Cookoff; Lebanon, TN

Big Bob Gibson's.................American Royal; Kansas City

The Heat Is On....................Jack Daniel's World Championship; Lynchburg, TN

ButtRub.com......................KCBS Pork Team of the Year

These guys are on a whole 'nother level! Chris and I are real proud of our pork and I always feel like we have a chance to win when we turn it in, but we are going to have to really nail it to have a respectable showing in this field. We can't wait to give it a shot!

I should also note that the regular KCBS contest that follows the Butt to Butt competition is one of the most highly regarded contests on the circuit. I have heard nothing but good things about Mike Lake and the top-notch event that he runs in Shannon. We are really looking forward to competing in the Illinois State BBQ Championship and Butt to Butt X on July 10th, 11th & 12th.

Starting the 2008 Season: Great Bend, KS

I was pretty excited when I saw a few posts on the BBQ Forum late last year checking the interest level for a winter contest happening out in Great Bend, KS.

The weekend finally came February 15th & 16th. Chris and I packed up and drove the 4 hours to G.B. where we found the hospitality to be top notch and contest organizer Kent Romaine one of a kind!

This was unique event in that we had the option to set up camp indoors (in 70 degree comfort) while keeping our cooker outside. Quite a few teams choose to stay near their cookers, but a good number set up with us inside too. We were fortunate enough to set up next to our good friends Kyle and Steph from The Slabs.com.

Having our cooker outside and the rest of our stuff inside did prove to be somewhat of a challenge. We are so used to working close to our cooker and had to adapt to having it over a hundred feet away. It's really not that far - but you are used to it being three feet away - well, it might as well be a mile! I had brought our wireless thermometers to monitor the pit temperature, but the distance from the pit coupled with the fact that we were inside the build with the receiver rendered it useless. Thank goodness for our BBQ Guru Pit Minder forced draft control. But we couldn't use that with out incident either...

I had sent my Guru unit in to have problem looked at and got it back the the day before we left. I thought the root of the problem I was having was a burned lead wire on my probe. So I ordered a new one and the problem persisted. After sending it in and not finding a problem, it was shipped back and we set it up to cook - but again we ran into a brick wall. Chris then decided to cut out the burned up spot of the lead, splice it back together and we were in business. So new probe lead was the problem and upon learning this, Fred Jr at Guru headquarters offered to ship me a new one.

Back to the contest...once we got the cooker set up we put a tent up around it to deflect the wind and chilly temps that dipped below 20 degrees over night. We made a few trips out in the cold to check on things and I made the rounds checking out some of the other cooks.

The contingent of cookers at this contest was quite impressive. I have to think that the fact that no other cook-off was happening helped bring in some very successful teams. Chris and I were just hoping to get a couple of calls when the awards rolled around. We have some work to do on our brisket, but we did get calls in ribs and pork. Chicken was middle of the road.

We won't be able to make it back to Great Bend for the contest that Kent puts on in July, but I would highly recommend it based on our experience at the Kansas Winter Q. Oh - and it should be noted that Bart Clark of Twin Oak Smokin' Crew took Grand Champ honors at the contest. His winning score of 691 and change in one of the first contests of 2008, fighting the cold and wind on the plains of Kansas in February, was higher than any winning score put up in all of 2007. Quite an accomplishment.