What I loved most about Sweet Home, OR, was who I shared it with......da Family.

Part II of Pacific Northwest is Calling:  

Cougar Que, KCBS and the Results 

That's a cougar in the background being grilled, along with a gator, 2 mountain goats and 2 pigs.

To all the Masters of the Grill, Chiefs of the Charcoal, King of the Pit, Boss of the BBQ - also known as the dude in the apron.

(The first part will rehash some of our last BBQ Bytes - to provide context....and because I forgot Part I included the vending.)

After day one of the Ice Box Cook-off, a SCA event, the family shut down our site and headed back to our hotel for the night.  I would need to be back and set up for the day of vending to the locals.  Jackie dropped me off at 10 and Anabell and I started prepping for our People's Choice product we would be selling.  Fruit Kabobs.

I have done a few people's choice vending events.  Generally - the guys with trailers or food trucks clean up.  My first year - we were going to do steak street tacos, but we modified because our neighbor was also doing tacos - including making home made tortillas.  We switched to Steak on a stick and Cowboy beans.  We split a small pot with the event.  Our second one was in Absarokee in 2021.  We were to begin selling at 1 pm (30 minutes before Brisket turn in.)  It was in the 90s and Anabell and I had not gotten very much sleep the night before.  All morning I was dragging ass - so I quickly decided - even though we had made two lasagna pans of Jambalaya (sounds delish in 90 degree temperature right) we were just going to stay closed all afternoon.  I have found that when the vending is the night before the KCBS comp - it is more reasonable - especially if you did all of your trimming before you arrived.  

Because we did not have time to trim our meats before arriving (remember - we took off on Tuesday) - I wanted something easy to prep and serve.  I was also nervous about the temperature.  The weekend before Oregon was mostly in the 90s.  I choose Fruit Kabobs because prep would be easy, storage in an ice chest would be easy and there would be little effort needed.  We called it a little palate cleanser for everyone's BBQ.  Next time - I should see if they would offer wine at the beer stations and I could call it BYOW Sangria.

Some of the other BBQ teams shook their heads.  Many had spent Friday night prepping Pork Shoulder or pork belly for their vending station.  They looked at me like I had lost my mind, but also that I was cheating in some way.  Jackie summed up their head scratches with - "we brought a knife to a gun fight - Fruit Kabobs to a BBQ."  Now the 50 I made to begin with were quickly replaced/"fixed" when Jackie arrived.  And she made some beauties.  

Early on, a lot of people stared in disbelief at our modest operation.  I mean our immediate neighbors had some awesome products to sell. They were all great and each was definitely worth the $3/6.  And here I was with a skewer of grapes, oranges, strawberries and mango.  But after about an hour people returned for a cold refreshing Fruit Skewer.  We knocked out over 150 @ $3 a pop.  We were not even close to the leaders, but a little money back is always nice.

Bearded Boar had Pork Belly Burnt Ends

    

Hoggin' da Sauce was selling BBQ Sundaes - Cole Slaw, Pork and Beans.

Hogger Q made two:  pulled pork slider and Brisket and Beans

That night Anabell and I would settle in and prep the meats and I would get the fire going around midnight.  My son and wife returned to the hotel.    Because he is on the spectrum, it is usually easier for comfort (he complains a lot.)  He was happy with his hotel pool, AC and wifi.  

At this competition all turn in times were moved up an hour - Chicken at 11, Brisket at 12:30.    During the previous two competitions - I had a couple of conversations with Beer Belly BBQ and Owens BBQ about my cooking style.  I was the epitome of a low and slow cooker.  I basically kept my fire at 235 for 10-12 hours. I would be excited about 1-2 hours of sleep.  I would have scraps of brisket that were just too thin to cook, but I cooked them anyways. This was the night I decided to start changing how I did things.

Old School Style - Flat and Point together

I started shaping my brisket for the turn in box.  This meant serious trimming.  Those thin edges that usually would turn into crumbly brisket bits were chopped off.   When I am at home, this is not a problem - as I just freeze it and then grind it into wagyu burgers later.  But on the road - well I decided to just wrap it all up in foil and braise it in some beef broth.  They turned out very good for the scaps they were.).  While I did not separate the point and the flat completely, the tiny thread of fat that connected the two made me truly question why I was clinging on to this tradition.  I also decided it was time to cook at a higher temperature and take the brisket to a higher temperature.  My pits ran at 260 and I pulled my brisket at 207.  These changes should allow me to start at 3 AM instead of midnight - meaning - I can actually go to bed and get up at 3 to start cooking.  

Overall - the cook went well (I mean other than forgetting to take pictures again.)  I was disappointed with our Pulled Pork.  The money muscles in the pork shoulders I have been buying are tiny.  Hormel and Smithfield are the two major pork providers in Montana.  I have not been happy with them.   Other than that, I was pretty happy with all of the meats.

After turn in - we all broke down the BBQ site.  Anabell and I took a short nap and then we started making plans.  The hotel we had stayed at the previous three nights was excessive.  We decided to find a small local motel and made reservations.  We also located a Chinese Restaurant to fulfill our post competition tradition of eating Chinese food.  

It was time for the awards and we grabbed our chairs and headed over to the main stage.  The event director thanked the sponsors (it was really a great event) and then the awards were called. 

Unfortunately - we did not hear our name called again.  But some of our new friends were called for all categories.  Interestingly enough the event pays out in cash - in $2 bills.  So Grand Champion won 3500 $2 bills.  

I grabbed the KCBS Score sheet and was reading the scores while walking with my son.  As I mentioned before, he is on the Autism Spectrum.  He really does not show interest in many team events or activities.  He has a YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers, and that is where his focus is.  On this day, however, he was completely outspoken about the judges and their lack of "knowing what good BBQ was."  He gets quite colorful in his language - so I will leave it at that.  But I assured him the scores were not too bad.  

Every one of my scores was the highest for the season (except pork) and Brisket was my highest score ever.  Overall it was a great cook.  Unfortunately, my competition also had good cooks and are really great teams.  The entire family had a great time.  We had a couple more beers, said goodbye to our new friends, picked up some Chinese and we all fell asleep before 8 pm.  Even our dog Buddy was exhausted after a 7 day road trip to the Pacific Northwest.

Podcast connections:  I mentioned before I thought I would sum up each blog with my thoughts on something I heard from various podcasts.  At this point, who am I kidding.  While I have listened to plenty of podcasts - my go to is Pitmaster - OVS.  I love the stories and relevant competition information Luke and his guest share and he really has some great guests.  Each podcasts - he asks the same questions - one of which is Pre/During/Post BBQ Meal.  I do notice  most do not say BBQ.  Most of the ones interviewed say Tex/Mex or pizza.  For my family it is Chinese.  

The Next BBQ Bytes will focus on our prep for the Wyoming BBQ and Bluegrass Festival and we will take part in some name dropping from past comps.  I will also talk about the Pitmaster Podcast with Matt Barber from Hot Wauchula's.  Thanks for reading.