Hi all. Hope you all had happy and safe holidays. With the new year upon us, Smokehouse 72 is in their planning mode for the 2011 BBQ season but let us recap what happen in 2010.
It started out with the team purchasing a trailer to convert into a competition rig. We are happy to say the conversion went very well and nobody lost a digit during the process. This trailer started out as a 1978 27’ travel trailer that we completely gutted and equipped with a prep area, a wash bay area and 4 bunks. If you missed the transformation video, you can see it here.
The new rig worked out great! The inaugural contest would start out in Council Bluffs, Ia. early in May and were we glad we had the trailer as the temps plummeted into the upper 30’s over night. It was great to have a warm place to sleep and prep our product. As for the contest, we finished with a 10th place overall with a 6th place in Chicken and 3rd place in a people choice chicken wing contest. We thought this was a pretty good start given that we didn’t have time to practice all winter long, or so we thought.
Up next, we took the trip up to Minnesota for the Minnesota in May BBQ contest held in Austin. This is were we our lack of practice over the winter reared its ugly head. This was the first contest that we did not receive a call in the top 10 for over a year! It was devastating and makes for a long drive back home. The highlight of the weekend was watching Ricks boy, Evan, get Reserve Grand Champion in his kids Q chicken contest. He had a swagger in his step for weeks after that and with good reason; he did better than we did on chicken. Congratulations Evan!
Onto a contest close to home, we entered the Smokin in the Junction Contest in Valley Junction. We were happy to be so close but found quickly that being close was not going to be in our favor. Make it 2 in a row with a no call! By this time we were getting frustrated cause we had thought we put our best foot forward. We needed to get something going, not just for us but also for our sponsors. They deserve it.
Our next shot for a call was also a close contest held in State Center, Ia. This contest is typically a pretty good contest for us so we went in with high hopes. Late Friday afternoon we had a thunderstorm move through and just dumped on us but we were high and dry prepping meats in that new rig. We had noticed that the ribs so far this year had a fat layer that we didn’t care for so we bought extra ribs for this contest to have a better choice. We were rewarded with a 9th place call in ribs and 13th overall! Finally, the monkey is off our back.
Next up was the Iowa State BBQ Championship in Marshalltown. This time we decided to change our ribs and pork vendors and see if we can get a better product. This decision turned out to be a good move as we ended up with a 1st place call in ribs, a 6th place call in pork and 6th place overall finish out of a line up of 70 teams.
We were pleased that the pork had come around since our next stop would be the XII annual Butt to Butt invitational in Shannon, Ill. We had been excited about this trip since getting the invite the year before by winning Pork in Marshalltown. The Butt to Butt is the best of the best pork cooks in the nation and also is the Illinois State BBQ Championship held the next day. Again, we were not disappointed but there is always room for improvement. For the Butt to Butt we finished 5th and for the Illinois Championship we finished 16th overall with a 5th place in Ribs.
Back to Iowa for our next contests. We were on to Waterloo and LaPorte City the next week for our Iowa double header. This is a pretty tiring contest with cooking one contest in Waterloo then packing up and hauling to LaPorte City to do it all over again. In Waterloo we hit the chicken again this year with a 2nd place call. All other calls were high enough to give us 16th overall. Then it was LaPorte City. We didn’t fare so well here getting our 3rd no call of the year. We’d just caulk this one up to being tired.
The next on the list was an out of state contest in Laurie, Mo. I would be on a family vacation during this contest so it was up to Jay, Rick and Bob to bring home some hardware. Sorry to say there was no hardware and our 4th no call of the year but they did placed 13th in pork out of a very strong field of competitors. All in all they told me this was a great contest in a park setting. The only draw backs’ being it’s on a hill and it happened to be very hot that weekend. Lucky for the AC in the rig.
Back to Iowa the Kiwanis BBQ contest held in Nevada. Another close one! This has been a popular contest for our sponsors to stop by and see us in action. We got back on track with the calls on this contest with an 8th place in Ribs and a 3rd place in the pork finishing 15th overall.
Then we head just 7 miles west to our next contest in Ames. This was a first year contest held in downtown Ames during the All American weekend on Labor Day weekend. It was a very well run contest for the first year with a lot of focus on the cooks. We were hoping for a good showing being so close to home and also being a first year contest. But can you say number 5? 5th no call of the year bit us in the butt for sure. This was going to be our last contest of the year but because of the finish we thought we should go somewhere else for redemption.
We chose to go to Omaha, Neb. for the River City Round up. We had heard good things about this contest and the coordinators have been trying to get us there for the past few years so we thought what the heck. This was just me and Jay cooking this contest as Bob was on vacation and Rick had to work, but we did have a friend (Rick)from Council Bluffs that came over to lend a hand. Our focus was just fine tuning things before we put it all to sleep before the end of the season. We also decided to do the side dish contest since it was included in the entry fee and we have a pretty good baked bean recipe that has brought home some trophies. A rain and wind storm came in over night and challenged our cooking skills, and temperature probes as it turns out. Every one of our temperature probes were acting up so we needed to borrow one form a neighbor (thanks Pat!). Luck moved in as the sun came out and we went on to the awards. We placed 2nd in side dish (baked beans), 2nd in Ribs and 5th in pork finishing 6th overall! That was a good finish to the season!
All in all it was a trying season with all the no calls but this winter is dedicated to practice. If anybody needs some pork, pork ribs, chicken or brisket cooked, let me know and we can practice while we cook for you. Free of charge or course, you just pay for the meat and seasoning.
Here’s looking forward to a great 2011!