My BBQ Blog at HomeBBQ.com

Kevin Bevington, creator of HomeBBQ.com , redesigned and relaunched his bbq website earlier this year. If you haven't visited the site for a few months, I'd encourage to stop by and check out the new design.

I've been contributing to HomeBBQ.com as a guest blogger for several weeks now and wanted to share an excerpt of one of my recent posts about our chicken turn-in box:

A few years ago while competing in a barbecue event in Arcadia, Florida the unthinkable happened while preparing our chicken turn-in box. We prepared fantastic turn-in samples and were sure we had a good chance to win, but after placing the samples in the box and closing it I discovered that our box had been damaged.

I froze for a few seconds and wasn’t sure what to do next. Should I turn in the sample anyway and take a chance that the box would be disqualified? Should I throw in the towel for the chicken category and start preparing for the rib turn-in?

Read the rest of the article here

Pork Tapas, Bell Peppers, and Potato Wedges

Here's a quick and easy recipe for tapas-style grilled pork.


1. Start with 1 pound of pork sliced into 1 inch cubes.

2. Brush with marinade mixture and refrigerate until ready to cook. For best results, marinate the pork in the refrigerator overnight.

3. Place pork on skewers and cook on a charcoal grill for 10-15 minutes. Turn frequently to prevent burning.

Marinade Mixture

1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp cummin
1 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
Juice from 1 lemon
3 tbsp olive oil

Roasted bell peppers make a nice side dish.

Just slice and brush with a little olive oil and Sherry Wine Vinegar. Sprinkle with a little garlic and serve.

I also made some potato wedges. Fry for 10-12 minutes in a frying pan and sprinkle with paprika, cummin, and salt.

Improve Your BBQ Results

One of the easiest and quickest ways to improve your bbq is to begin documenting your cooking sessions in a bbq journal. A spiral notebook or three ring binder will work well. Some also use a computer document instead of pen and paper, but it's not quite as portable unless you have a laptop.

At contests, I keep a journal for each meat. I keep track of everything following the arrival at the contest. I pay attention to the time we prepare each meat for marinating. I carefully document the cooking start times for each meat, the weather conditions, the outside temperature, and the cooker temperatures.

I also document the critical times for the various meats. For example, I start my briskets fat side up and document the time I flip them to fat side down. (This particular tip has paid big dividends for me in contest winnings.) I document the times I spray the various cuts with apple juice. I pay particular attention to when I wrap the briskets and pork butts with aluminum foil.

After a few cooking sessions, you'll be able to improve your results dramatically by tweaking your start times, temperatures, and methods based on your historic results. Barbecue is more art than science, but anytime you can add a little science to the art, it will reap dividends in the long run.

Jambo Pits

Jambopits.com is going strong. Besides offering contact information for its proprietor, Jamie Geer, the website also features a photo album for the works of bbq art that he builds.

I first saw one up close in Brooksville, FL back in 2001. Smokin Triggers used it to win the event. Some of the best bbq teams in the country cook on them and just about everyone else wishes they did.

I'd like to park a Jambo Pit in my own garage someday. But even if I did own one, I'm not quite sure I could make myself mess it up by cooking on it.

Click here for more pictures of Geer pits.

NFL Gameday Cookbook

Naked Chicken Thighs

In the quest to find the perfect bbq spice rub and sauce combination, we barbecue fanatics sometimes overdo them both and end up with bbq "candy".

This past weekend I decided to experiment with chicken thighs without using spice rub and with very little bbq sauce added.

I've been marinating my chicken thighs and drumsticks in Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar since the beginning, but after spending some time thinking about it this weekend I realized that I have never really experimented to identify exactly what the dressing adds to my chicken recipes. I just started using it because I read about it on the web at some point and followed suit.

The thighs in the picture were not trimmed and squared up properly for a bbq contest turn-in, but they were fine for eating here at home.

The thighs and dressing were placed in a 2 gallon plastic bag and were marinated for 4 hours in the refrigerator. I pre-heated the WSM (without the water pan) to 275 degrees and put the chicken on for cooking. The naked thighs were cooked for 1 1/2 hours to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Near the end I brushed on a little bbq sauce for a little flavor, but as you can see from the picture there was very, very little sauce used. That really wasn't the main point of this test anyway.

What did I learn?

The salad dressing helps keep the chicken moist while cooking, but adds very little flavor. The thighs were juicy and tender, but were quite bland. Based on my test, I doubt that it matters what kind of salad dressing is used for a marinade. Anything with olive oil and a little vinegar will probably work fairly well. I don't think the Newman's Own is an absolute requirement.

On a BBQ Mission

Have you ever met someone that every time you talk to them the conversation inevitably turns into a series of unending statements such as, "When I have more time......I'm going to...(do this or that)" and "One of these days when I get things lined out....I'm going to...(do such and such)" and "When I get some money saved up....I'm going to...(go meet so and so)"? I'm sure we've all met people like this in our travels whether it's at work, family reunions, class reunions, converstions with neighbors, folks at church, or sometimes even our own spouses.

Barbecue is no different. I meet people at bbq contests, on discussion boards, and via e-mail correspondence that use similar phrases and expressions when talking about their infactuation with bbq as a competitive sport.

I mean no disrespect to anyone when I say this, because I've had these same traits myself from time-to-time, but I'm proud to say that for the most part...I'm in the process of doing, or I've already done many of the things "I've always meant to get around to."

Don't sell yourself short on barbecue. Don't let the naysayers intimidate you, chastise you, or "rain on your parade".

If you've always had a desire to purchase a "real" bbq cooker, whether it's a Lang, Klose, Backwoods, Stumps, or one of the various styles of pellet cookers on the market; bite the bullet and do it. If you've always had a dream of owning your own restaurant, or to start a catering company...develop some goals, write a plan, tie them to a definitive time schedule, and get started on your journey.

It's time to get off the porch and get fired-up about bbq. Don't let it pass you buy. It's fun. It's challenging, but perhaps most of all, your abilities to learn new things and to meet interesting new people will surprise you.

But, when you really get down to it and boil it down to the brass tacks perhaps the most compelling reason is that there's really and truly nothing stopping you.

All things are possible.

NFL Gameday Cookbook

Florida Chili Cookoffs

For all the chili heads that read the bbq blog, I'm going to pass along some information that was passed along to me today regarding CASI chili events in Florida.

The Florida State Open Chili Championship will be held October 4th this year. So get your recipes ready.

Oct. 4, 2008 - DeLand, FLA. CASI. Florida State Open Chili Championship, 7th Annual Great Bowls of Fire Chili Cookoff. Visit their website: www.greatbowlsofchilicookoff.com. Contact Sally Bohon at SalBohon@AOL.com or Candace Knight Arevalo at candikisseschili@gmail.com for more information.

Oct 11, 2008 - Homosassa FL CASI. Southeast Chili Cookoff. Held at Natures RV Resort on the waterfront. Contact Candace Knight-Arevalo farevelo@bellsouth.net for more information.

Oct 12, 2008 - Homosassa FL CASI. Sunshine State Chili Pod Cookoff. Contact Candace Knight-Arevalo 561-795- 5888, farevelo@bellsouth.net. Visit their website: www.naturesresortfla.com

Nov 1, 2008- Terlingua TX CASI. Terlingua International Chili Champ Cookoff. Held at Rancho CASI De Los Chisos. Contact Alan Dean pepperdean@ctesc.net for more information.

You can find out more about chili cook-offs in Florida at the Sunshine State Chili Pod website.

Barbecue Food Safety

Nothing can ruin a fantastic day of barbecuing faster than someone getting sick after eating food you prepared. Whether you are grilling in the back yard, catering for a group of friends and family, or preparing bbq food in a restaurant for hundreds of customers each day, you need to follow safe food preparation techniques.

Keeping it cold

When shopping for food, purchase meat and poultry just before you leave the store. Food in the grocery store is stored at temperatures of below 40 degrees and needs to maintained below 40 degrees whenever possible. Food should be referigerated after the drive home as soon as possible. Allowing the temperature of the food to rise above 40 degrees for any length of time increases the possibility of bacteria growth.

Vacuum seal bulk purchases

I often purchase food in bulk to save money. Meat that is not going to be consumed within a couple of days should be frozen. I like to vacuum seal large quantities into smaller packages. For example, if we buy a package of 16 pork chops, I split the chops into packets of 4, vacuum seal them, mark the package with the date, and then place it in the freezer until we are ready to prepare them.

Avoid cross-contamination

As meat begins to thaw, juices can sometimes escape the packaging and cross-contamination can occur. Vacuum sealing is another way to help prevent cross-contamination between meat and poultry when storing or transporting food. When handling chicken, thoroughly wash your hands and any knives and utensils with hot, soapy water before using the utensils to cut other meat.

Marinate Properly

Always marinade meat and poultry in the refrigerator. Contrary to some advice I've read recently on a very popular bbq forum, never, never, allow meat to marinade at room temperature. Meat should be marinated in the refrigerator. When removing marinated food from the refrigerator, place it directly on the smoker or grill for cooking.

Cooking temps

Pre-heat your cooker to ensure that you attain a 140 degree internal meat temperature within 4 hours. Do not allow meat to remain in the danger zone (i.e. greater than 40 degrees and less than 140 degrees) for more than 4 hours.

For more food safety tips and information, there's a nice article on the USDA website that should help.

NFL Gameday Cookbook

Blog About BBQ?

Do you have a bbq blog? In the next few days I'm going to be refreshing my list of bbq links and sites. If you are interested in exchanging bbq links, please let me know.

Please send me a picture of your bbq logo or bbq contest team banner, if you have one, and I'll try to use that as well.

If you don't have a bbq blog, now is a great time to get one started. It's free with Blogger and pretty simple to set-up. You don't have to be an expert in html programming to get started. With Blogger everything is set-up in templates and menus. You select the one you like and you're set to go. All you have to do is prepare the content for your site. Check the menu of blog links in the right hand margin for ideas on what yours might look like if you decide to publish your own.

Jump on in! Let's cook some 'que.

NFL Gameday Cookbook

BBQ Appearance Scores

The most effective tool for improving your barbecue contest results is a a digital camera. Forget about the secret rubs and sauces and all the time wasting and money wasting gadgets for sale. If the best barbecue in the world doesn't look good in a turn-in box, it's probably not going to win 1st place.

The Canon Powershot at the left costs less than $260 at Amazon and can be purchased at Wal-Mart and Target too. Linda and I have taken a lot of bbq pictures with it.

If you are not already doing it, take a picture of your turn-in boxes just before you close the lid. When the box is opened for judging, that picture is what they're going to see. After you get your results from the event, whether they are positive or negative, the digital picture can help you make adjustments for the next event. You can download the pictures to you computer at home and then you'll have the entire season of turn-in boxes for reference later. Over a period of three or four contests, I am sure the camera will provide you with ideas to improve your appearance scores and win more prize money.

A digital camera can also help you with your at home practicing. Get some boxes and practice setting up boxes when you do your practice cooks. Take pictures of them and compare them with your next practice cook or to your next contest boxes. I promise it works.

Here's a picture of a first place brisket box.

If you're looking for an all around top of the line point and shoot camera, consider the Panasonic FZ50.

NFL Gameday Cookbook

Arizona Barbecue

AZ Barbeque has relaunched their website. They've put a lot of hard work into the re-designed site and they've changed its' overall look. The site now offers discussion forums, a barbecue store, a bbq blog, photo gallery, and a bbq team section.

AZBarbeque.com is all about BBQ in Arizona and they're looking for new members. I encourage you to check out their new website.

Eastern Carolina BBQ Throw Down

The Eastern Carolina BBQ Throw Down is scheduled for October 10-11 in Rocky Mount, NC. The grand champion will earn $3,000 with reserve grand champion earning $1,500. First place in each category will receive $500. The showmanship winner receives $250.

Teams can arrive as early as Wednesday and stay until Sunday. This KCBS sanctioned event will also feature an optional showmanship category.

The contest entry fee is $250 for a 20 x 35 cooking space. Electrical service costs an additional $25, but can be offset by the $25 early bird discount for entries received prior to August 1. The deadline for entries is September 15. For questions, e-mail events@rockymountnc.gov.

Increase Restaurant Profits

Dutch Oven Breakfast

My dutch oven gear.

12 inch and 10 inch dutch ovens.

The bacon has been browned. I'm adding the onions, green peppers, and red peppers.

A close-up after the hashbrowns and chunks of ham were added.

Adding a dozen eggs.

The eggs are cooked. Adding the cheese topping.

Finished "Mountain Man Breakfast" after the cheese melted.

Mountain Man Breakfast

A recipe by Danny Wardle

Preheat a 12" dutch oven

Brown a 1/2 pound of bacon cut into pieces

Add and cook a medium onion chopped

Add green and red pepper

Remove the bacon, onions, and peppers

Add a 32 ounce bag of hash browns

Brown hash browns and stir in bacon and onions back in

Add 12 eggs and poor over potatoes, bacon, onions, and peppers

Cook until eggs are almost solid

Sprinkle top with grated cheddar cheese

Cook until eggs are solid and cheese is melted

Serve with salsa

This recipe is published in Lovin' Dutch Ovens by Joan S. Larsen. I added the ham and peppers based on my personal tastes. The next time I make it I'm going to add more black pepper.

How to Roast a Whole Hog

If you've ever thought about roasting a pig, but weren't quite sure how to do it, Three Guy's From Miami provide step-by-step barbecue details Cuban-Christmas.com. The website has many pictures to guide you through the process and many more pictures of the final results to keep you motivated.

Besides learning to crack the spine, the hardest part of the entire process might be simply finding a pig. You want one that weighs between 60 and 100 pounds after it's dressed out. Talk to local butcher shops and grocery stores to see if they can order one for you.

The website talks about marinating the pig over night. One word of caution: if you decide to take this approach, make sure you're able to keep the pig cool during this process. If you can't maintain the pig's internal meat temperature below 40 degrees while marinating, you should skip the marinade and proceed directly to cooking.

Increase Restaurant Profits

To Garnish, or Not to Garnish

It's not quite Shakespeare, but for some bbq contestants the decision to use or not use garnish can mean the difference between winning and losing. The Florida Barbecue Association has instituted a "no garnish" rule that is growing more and more popular with competitors. The Kansas City Barbeque Society sanctions events that provide competitors the ability to choose whether they think garnish offers an advantage or not.

Greg Rempe, publisher of TheBBQCentral.com, recently hosted a BBQ Roundtable Discussion with guests including Rod Grey of Pellet Envy, Kevin Bevington of HomeBBQ.com and Jim Minion of Two Loose Screws about personal bias when judging bbq contest turn-in boxes. The trio also discussed the use or non-use of garnish when turning in sample boxes. I hope you enjoy the discussion as much as I did.

Best BBQ in Texas

This is a short follow-up to an article that first appeared in May about Snow's Barbecue, which was recently named the "Best BBQ in Texas". National Public Radio featured Snow's in a recent program and I wanted to share it with you. It seems business at the restaurant is picking up. Here's a podcast. I hope you enjoy it.

I've only been to Texas once...about 18 years ago. My employer (at the time) let me fly from Sikeston, MO with the CEO and a couple of other managers to Dallas on their corporate jet. My boss and I rented a car and drove to Tyler for a week long training event. We ate some bbq here and there, but I don't really remember any of the names or towns.

I received an e-mail tonight from Chuck Sackman and a heads up about an article in Texas Monthly proclaiming Snow's BBQ in Lexington, TX as the "best barbecue in Texas". Snow's is only open on Saturdays and for only four hours. When the meats gone, Snow's is closed until next week.

Some may be surprised that the best bbq in Texas comes from such unlikely circumstances, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. It's difficult to "mass produce" quality anything and bbq is no exception. You can't program a computer to cook bbq, although some keep trying. A drawer full of gadgets and a bank full of money doesn't qualify anyone as a bbq cook.

Three cheers for Snow's and long live the barbecue spirit in Lexington, TX.

Increase Restaurant Profits

BBQ Research

Whether you are preparing bbq in the backyard, for a contest, or for a restaurant, the success of the effort is largely dependent upon the foundation you build under the effort in the beginning.

To start a restaurant, you'd most likely begin by researching the competition in the market area where the restaurant will be located. You'd pay particular attention to the menu choices, parking availability, pricing, hours of operation, location, and on and on. As a next step, you'd be wise to prepare a business plan and a pro-forma balance sheet and income statement that projects the first three years of expenses and revenues.

Some seasoned business people might feel comfortable preparing these items on their own, but most would want to seek out the services of a professional. Financing is another consideration. A local bank might be able to assist you, but you might have better success consulting a bank and loan officer that has experience loaning money to start-up restaurant operations. If financing doesn't work out, a long-term lease is another option. A good accountant or CPA with experience in working with small businesses can offer guidance and recommendations for all of these items.

If your barbecue goals are less ambitious and you simply want to learn how to cook some good barbecue in your backyard, you might seek out the advice of a friend that cooks barbecue, or you might take a class from one of the multiple guru's that cook barbecue. Or if you're like me, you'd probably take a trip down to the local book store or visit Amazon.com to read some books on the subject. The Internet also provides an excellent source of information through various bbq blogs, barbecue forums, discussion lists, newsletters, directories, etc.

Here's a few to get you started:

VirtualWeberBullet.com
HomeBBQ.com
TheBBQForum.com
KCBS.us
FLBBQ.org

When learning anything new, these preliminary steps are the least rewarding part. It's sometimes dirty work and not very glamorous. Many try to skip these basic steps and simply throw money at barbecue by purchasing a turn key business opportunity they know little or nothing about. Backyard barbecuers might purchase the shiniest, newest, latest and greatest most expensive bbq smoker they can find, before they really even know how to use it and if it will work for a particular application.

Take a deep breath and a step back. You just might save yourself some money.

Barbecue Pork from a BBQ Champion

Mike Davis



Myron Mixon

How to make ABT's (Atomic Buffalo Turds)

I made some ABT's today. There are several variations of these popular bbq appetizers. Some use shrimp, some use pulled pork, some use cream cheese, but I chose one that favored sausage.

I've seen the peppers cut two different ways, so I tried both as a test. Some were sliced in half long ways and some were cut open long ways to make a pocket, but not in two pieces (see picture above). I prefer the pocket method best for the sausage stuffing.

I cleaned out the jalapenos, stuffed them with sausage, and topped it off with cheddar cheese. Then I wrapped the whole thing with bacon and cooked them on a medium hot grill for 20 minutes.

Things I learned for next time:

1) I prefer a sausage with more flavor. Using a mild sausage leaves the ABT more bland that I thought it would. Next time, I'm using Tennessee Pride.

2) The bacon wrap is unnessary if you use the pocket stuffing method (see above). If sliced in two pieces, the peppers need the bacon to hold it all in place. From now on I'm leaving the bacon off.

3) Instead of cooking on the grill, I'm going to try using the WSM without the water pan to lift the ABTs farther from the flame. This will allow the ABTs cook a little longer without scorching and burning.

Blues Hog Barbecue Company

St. Louis Today.com has an article about Bill Arnold creator of Blues Hog Barbecue Sauce that's worth reading. If you've never tried Blue Hog Barbecue Sauce, you're missing out because it makes good bbq a little bit better.

I've been using Blues Hog's Original for several years. Usually I buy the sauce directly from the Blues Hog website and sometimes my parents buy it for me at Snoddy's General Store across the Missouri River from Boonville, MO.

Mr. Arnold and his family could use your support now more than ever. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers and better yet, buy some of his barbecue sauce. Barbecue folks have to
stick together.

Update: Bill was featured on Good Morning America this morning. Here's a link to the video.

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