BBQ Blog: UP Hog Wild BBQ Contest

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

UP Hog Wild BBQ Contest

This morning I received an e-mail from John Bertoldi, president of UP Hog Wild . For the uninitiated, UP stands for Upper Peninsula. (It's a Michigan thing.)

The popularity of bbq contests in Michigan is growing and the UP contest is in its' fourth year.

The UP Hog Wild event is sanctioned by KCBS and is being held in Kingsford Michigan. They will have music, a car show, a big class reunion, and more. Check out http://www.uphogwild.com/ for all the details and a list of teams registered for 2008. They are looking for a few good bbq vendors for the event.

1 comment:

Old Rock House said...: Gateway City BBQ Festival
St. Louis MO
July 3-4, 2009
The Gateway City Barbeque Festival will take place July 3-4, 2009 at the Old Rock House in downtown St. Louis. We are now accepting entries and are limited to 20 spaces, so first come first serve. Be sure to sign up before the June 25, 2009.

Grand Champion Takes Home $500

Pork (shoulder/butt)
1st - $300
2nd- $200
3rd- $100
4th -$50
5th- Case of beer

Rib
1st - $300
2nd- $200
3rd- $100
4th -$50
5th- Case of beer

Pork Steak
1st - $300
2nd-$ 200
3rd- $100
4th - $50
5th- Case of beer
Peoples Choice Award- 2 Cardinal Tickets and one night free hotel stay

For information and an application
Email: Melissa.payne@oldrockhousestl.com; 1:49 PM

BBQ Tips

How to keep BBQ hot if you're not quite ready to eat it...

use an ice chest/ice cooler. Put some hot water in an empty ice chest, close the lid and let it set for 3 or 4 minutes. Drain the hot water and you've got yourself a portable BBQ warmer. We've kept pork butts warm this way for 6 or 7 hours.

How to keep your hands clean when cooking BBQ...

use powder free latex gloves. They come in packs of 100 at the local Sam's and will keep your hands clean. You'll maintain good sanitary practices too.

How to keep your spouse interested in the BBQ hobby...

get him/her involved in it with you. It's a lot of fun. You meet nice people and it's something you can do together.

How to keep your BBQ expenses in line with your budget...

Research all your purchases thoroughly. Make sure your purchase will do what you want it to do BEFORE you purchase it. For example, if you want to learn to cook whole hogs, you probably need to consider a big cooker or if you want to cook 10-15 racks spare ribs every weekend you're going to need something bigger than a WSM.

How to continually improve your BBQ recipes...

keep records of your cooking efforts including cook times, prepping techniques used and especially measurements for sauces or rubs and spices used. When you tweak the recipe for taste, only change one thing at a time--change the cook time, change the rub, change the sauce, but try to avoid completely changing everything all at once. Small changes to your technique and recipes will help you focus on the effects better and you'll be able to fine tune the product quality more efficiently.

How to BBQ Brisket

Brisket has become one of my favorite foods to barbecue. A pencil width slice of properly cooked brisket lightly coated with some Blues Hog BBQ Sauce is hard to beat.

I prefer to cook briskets in my Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM). I receive quite a few e-mails asking for help with barbecue brisket and thought I'd share some questions I received today.

Do you cook brisket with direct or indirect heat?

I use indirect heat and cook the brisket slowly at a temperature of 225-250 degrees.

Do you cook with fat cap up or fat cap down?

I begin cooking the brisket fat cap up for the first cooking segment. I don't flip until the brisket reaches 130 degrees or so. That's the point when the bark starts to harden a little bit. Then I flip it to fat side down. I used to skip this part but wanted a little more bark and found that this method will promote more bark formation.

Do you use foil?

I wrap in foil when the internal brisket temp is 165 degrees or if it's been cooking for at least 5 hours. Most of my briskets are completely done in 8 hours or so. I cook to an internal temp of 196-198 degrees and hold them in an Igloo cooler for a few hours to "rest" before slicing.

I hope this helps.

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Tuesday, April 01, 2008

UP Hog Wild BBQ Contest

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