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I built this for alan for christmas

BIG COMPETITIONS

well I think we are going to compete at the royal this year.Hopefully our friends from SMOKIN HOGGZ and our sponsor Humphreys Charcoal go with us to Kansas it would be fun.Chad from humphreys also asked us about competing at Smoke on the water in march in Arkansas we'll see that would fun to especially with such a big 1st place finish.Ultimately we hope we can win a GC and go to the jack.I want to do all these comps just once....at least that's what i say now..

BBQ CULTURE

It seems to me that the bbq culture is one unto itself as this is more of a declaration of how i see this culture.First off Alan and myself are really newcomers to this sport competing 3 years ,the 1st year 1 event ,the 2nd year becoming certified judges and judging, 3rd year 3 events and next year 5 and hopefully 7.In that time we have made a couple of good friends namely Bill and his team from SMOKIN HOGGZ (by the way if you don't know Bill he would literaly give you the shirt off his back) and even though we are all competing against one another every one i met would do the same to any other team.It seemed most evident this past week as Mike from I SMELL SMOKE passed away .On my facebook page,Steve farrins and Charlie Pini pages there was alot of support from the bbq community as a whole.From all over the country from people who did not know Mike ,including myself other than to say hi, to show there respect and support
to someone who shared the same passion for bbq as they feel themselves.Also it was evident again when the show pitmasters on tlc started it went through the community almost as fast with blogs,facebook pages and websites dedicated to all things bbq.I find myself lucky to to have met and the people I have and will meet in the future who share the same love of bbq as Alan and myself.

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Cold smoker at work

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A little light reading

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Light reading

UPDATE

Well the new weber did great 2 pork butts on 1 shelf and 2 racks on the other with some room to spare. It ran a little hotter than I like but i will figure that out as i use it more.I was surprised but the bowl holds almost 3 gallons of water and the fire ring almost 1 bag of charcoal (HUMPHREY"S CHARCOAL) and ran just about 9 hours without refueling.While that was happening i built a cold smoke to attach to my smaller wsm at work to smoker all of our own bacon and other things as the menu changes.I going to give the cold smoker a dry run tomorrow to see if it will work

and also to season the barrel.

NEW TOY

Well i just picked up the 22" wsm going to give it it's first trial run this week .Also we want to congratulate all the New england teams who competed and did very well at "The Jack"

.Hopefully we will be able to get there. My first hope for this year is to be accepted and compete at harpoon. I'm using my old wsm to convert to a cold smoker parttime to make bacon for work. I'm also talking with chad from humphrey's charcoal about building a new smoker similar to my backwoods but hopefully better designed.

HARVARD 2

Well harvard was very fun we had 5 calls including first place peoples choice for pulled pork.Also we met up with our good friends Smokin Hoggz and had a great time with them.We also met the guy's from Dogs in smoke and hung out with them also.It was cold 34 degree's in fact so cold there was frost on my tent. With the photo's posted you will get to see what I'm talking about .

Also I want to thank Mike from lakeside smokers with all the advice he has given us about competing. Humphreys charcoal was nice enough to sponsor us so thanks to Chad and Nicole for that and thanks to bill (Smokin Hoggz )for introducing us.Unfortunately this is our last competition for this year and hopefully we will do 5 comps next year god luck to the teams going to the jack and to the teams still competing this year.

HARVARD

Well today is the day we leave for harvard .hope all goes well I think we finally figured out the brisket but we'll see.There are 43 teams competing do date the largest one Alan and myself have competed in and a lot of them are very good teams. I try to update this weekend.

FOOTBALL

Well last night Alan and I went to the Patriot's to watch an unbelievable game also with great seats.We met up with bill (Smokin Hoggz)and tailgated before and after the game .Bill made corn chowder ,grilled pork loin,steak tips , hot dogs and hamburgers.Alan and I brought ribs and brat's with peppers and onions.there was about 10-14 of us hanging out so it was a great time.
Now for the focus at hand which is the Harvard fall festival in Harvard mass coming up this weekend.I'm off the rest of the week to start getting some stuff done the usual stuff rub's,sauces,injections and the going to costco for the other stuff.

BACKWOODS REPAIR

Well today i had a day off so it was time to fix the cover on my smoker .As you see by the photo's you can see the rust and the dent and also how I built the frame to reinforce it.So I'll do the final install on sat morning.

PATRIOTS

Well next week Alan got free tickets to the patriots game so we are heading down for a tailgate party and hopefully the pats winning(which is going to be tough for Alan because it is against Buffalo his home team).Also a few of you know that on our way home from Maine the tie down on the trailer came off and crushed the top of the backwoods.But all is well Mike from backwoods sent up a new top I'm going to reinforce it with some angle iron and make that cover unbreakable...also as a side note becareful of the tops as I took mine off it was covered in rust mike said it was because it is so humid in LA that the insulation absorbs water and has you cook steam rises and settled on the top and rusted .So with the new cover BWS took the liberty and painted the inside so unless you have a backwoods built like Brendan's (Transformer bbq) ,which is all diamond plate and probably the coolest looking smoker , then you should take off the cover and repaint it.

MAINE PART 2

Here are some photo's from Maine hopefully I get better about posting them.the first one is our oyster's for peoples choice we came in 4th,next is a photo of alan and I with Paul Kirk and the rest are just some from the day including Alan sleeping on sat after our turn-in because we all had a really late night (you'll see by Sean from bourbon and beale eating a scorpion from a bottle of mezcal) as I have heard before nothing good happens after 3:30 am.Also one photo of pat sleeping in the nerve of him getting up at 8:30 when I was up at 4:30 and Alan at 5:00 being that we all went to bed at around 1:30.

MAINE

Well the Maine comp did'nt goes as planned but went pretty good overall.We took 4th in ribs which means we moved up one more notch.We had a great time with Pat (who I think is now addicted )and we also met a few more teams who where fun to talk to (2bqd,team woonage)
Thanks to jack and adam at Team woonage for the great homemade port,limoncello and jack's grappa (which we keep on hand incase we need lighter fluid).Also alan and I are starting to see how the judges are going so more practice to be had until Harvard Fall festival.

FRIDAY

Well trailer is loaded everything is packed now its time to head up to Eliot ,ME to see how we fair against some really good teams.But all in all it will be a great weekend.Fri will be the check-in day and the teams saying hi and our friends from Smokin hoggz is making steak sanwiches.Sat is the people's choice(chicken wings) and the iron chef (ingredient not revealed until sat).Sat night is when we have some fun because most teams have a potluck dinner and we hang out and have fun.MSD is bringing etoufee (crawfish,shrimp,andouille sausage and tasso ham) and our friends from lakeside are doing a lobster and clam boil.With the weather holding out it should be alot of fun.

THURSDAY

Well most of the trailer is loaded finishing it up today.Looks like we are going to have great comp. weather.Time also to finish my last minute checklist of stuff for the pantry items. Ribs we be in today everything else went into the cooler and is waiting to get there.It also should be interesting because we have never competed in an Iron Chef or people's choice so we are figuring that out as we go along.It is now up to 29 teams so hopefully we do well especially with all the practice we have been doing.

WEDNESDAY

The last couple of days not much going on.Today is the day alot happens.First I just put 24 pcs of chicken from the freezer to have ready for sun.Next getting ready to go over alan's clean the smoker and go through the gear and check our shopping list.Hopefully we get most of the trailer loaded tonight .Alan ordered ribs those should be in tomorrow .Then tonight I'll get injections made,sauces made ,and get packed.

SATURDAY

Dropped off 3 briskets ,3 pork butts,and 50 pcs of chicken to my friend shauna for a cookout she is having today. As far as the timeline goes here is day one.Emailed Patrick (helper for the team this weekend and total competition newbe......he has no idea how hooked he is going to get) to let him know about this weekend.Pulling out of the freezer 2 briskets and 3 pork butts to slowly defrost to have ready for sat night.

TIMELINE

As next week goes it is the week of the Maine grillin& chillin bbq festival.So what I'm going to try to do is give you a day to day breakdown leading up to the day we leave.

FINALLY

Well the mock kcbs style comp went great.we finally found what we think are good for turn-ins hopefully the judges think the same.Also Alan and I want to thank our wive's for being "widow's"

during our practice times and also all the people who have eaten ALOT of bbq these lasty couple of weeks.Last thing is to thank our friend Bill and his team Smokin Hoggz on there wins in the grilling part of Harpoon this weekend.

PRATICE AGAIN

Congrats to lakeside smokers again for rgc award at Harpoon! Hopefully we get to compete there next year. Getting ready to run another practice with the new rubs, injections and some new sauces .Also starting to get ready for the first catering job as luck would have we have 2 jobs and one party to cook for all the same week as Eliot.So hopefully that gives even more pratice and hopefully a gc to send us to jack daniels.

2 1/2 WEEKS

First of all, Congrats to Mike and Kris of Lakeside Smokers for GC in Troy!! See you both in Maine!
Chickens came out great. Of all the different rubs and marinades, we found 2 that we really liked. Now its time to run a "mock" competition schedule to try all the different things we've tried to make sure that they all work.

CHICKEN

Cooking about 60 pcs of chicken on monday .we liked it but still needs work....just like most teams everyone seems to think of chicken as an after thought.hopefully we find a way that will win with the judges.We are trying 4 different marinades and 3 different rubs our sauce will stay the same.Also I wanted to thank everyone for there support and sponsorship especially Rose and Andrea for developing the logo and website for us.

BRISKETS

Well the brisket trial went great .Alan did great manning the smoker as I had to work.....5 briskets by yourself can be a daunting task plus 4 racks of beefribs and 2 racks of st.louis just for fun.Out of 5 ,two were inedible ,thanks to a long soak in meat tenderizer.Two other's were completly good for turn-in and one was the what I hope to turn-in everytime.Next on the trial run is chicken .Eliot will be here soon.

PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE

One of the things I needed to do was pratice after our disappointing score with the brisket Alan and I decided we would smoke about 5 brisket's differant ways to get the best results.So I got differant grades (choice,prime,and waygu) and we'll see what happens.Hopefully we find on that works Eliot,me will be here before you know it.

MSD'S FIRST BLOG

I wanted to start this blog to keep people informed of what it takes to compete in bbq
Being a beginner myself I am bound to make tons of mistakes and if I can help
any new team out Iwould like to do that......and save some headaches.Also it is a way
for us to track our progress through trial and error.