Page 13 - August 2021 Barbecue News Magazine

By sheer luck, we didn’t finish DAL, still not sure how. We had a great time, the hook was set and it was time to really dig into this whole KCBS scene. After doing some research, the answer was clear: learn the whole process. We went in knowing a few bits and pieces, but lacked the whole picture as to what needed to be done to compete in these Pro events. We started out by finding some Pro comps in Minnesota and signed up for the first judging class we could find. The judging class was the real eye opener. The sample boxes looked fantastic! I know what we turned in for our first contest, and to say I was embarrassed by those entries is put- ting it lightly. I bet there were more than a few judges that looked at our boxes and visions of a new team filled their minds. The judging class really opened our eyes to what it was going to take to compete with these “Pro’s”. Then we judged a few contests and cooked one or two each year. Each time our process improved with the painstaking speed of a snail. We tried to take in as many details as we could when judging, then go home and try to tweak our recipes to mirror what we felt were the best entries we judged. We would take our leftover samples from judging and hold show and tell when we got home. This continued for probably the first 7 years. As we went along, we would upgrade equipment here and there till finally our 6x12 trailer was bursting at the seams and busting axles. We finally came to the conclusion that we needed a bigger trailer, and a place to get away from the Minnesota State Bird, the mosquito.
That fateful day arrived, the one where you find that cook trailer you always wanted but never knew you needed. Jen got home from work and I showed her the Facebook post. Instead of the “I don’t know” I was expecting, I got the “when are you going to go get it?” Did I mention my wife is probably more into barbeque than I am? Off to Nebraska I went and 24 hours later I was back with the new to us trailer. Getting that was a turning point for us in competing in Pro events. Instead of coming home exhausted from catching a few hours of sleep in a night while fighting off the bugs and having to play Tetris packing the little trailer, we came home relatively rested and relaxed from a fun weekend. We had finally arrived at that decision that Pro comps were our hobby, and that we needed to treat it as such. Now, if it just hadn’t taken us ten years to realize this.
Looking back, I wish we had waded into the pool with some smaller rib comps and backyard events. We jumped into the deep end of the pool, and in trying to do so it severely limited what we
could do to compete from a budget standpoint. Lets face it, even trying to run commodity meats, make your own rubs, build your own grill, sleep in a lawn chair; competing in Pro events is not an inexpensive hobby. We probably would have learned more by cooking several small events vs one big Pro one each year.
These are some of the big things I should have learned be- fore doing Pro events:
-Learn to cook! Be it a mentor, a class, research, books, online courses, tons of methods. We tried to learn on the fly, and we paid for it in years.
-Ask. The biggest thing I have learned is that the nicest people you will ever know will be the people you meet at BBQ comps, and they are always willing to help. I have learned to turn to my BBQ friends and ask for help.
-Document everything. Most of the cooks I did early on, I never took notes, now I wish I had, as it was wasted research. As my mother always reminds me, “The faintest ink is better than the best memory.”
-Budget for your hobby. We spent years trying to shoestring things together. Our practice cooks were the contests because there was only enough to either practice or compete, but not both. The stress of trying to make it work with less than it takes took a lot of the fun away from it. Like most hobbies, be it fishing, four wheeling, biking, etc it takes money. Compete in the range that you are comfortable spending and it will be a lot more fun.
-Practice. BBQ is a sport, and like any other, learning from the mistakes and repetition is what makes you great. Unless you’re that .1% that can simply master something by doing it once.
Now that I wrote this, I can honestly say that I'm still trying to master the above list. I figure another 10-15 years I'll have it down pat. No matter what level of competition you do, keep it fun and don’t be above laughing at your mistakes. We all learned in grade school to be a good sport, and that should follow you in BBQ as well. You probably won’t hit it out of the park every time, or even most times, and that's ok. The key is to have a great time taking that swing.
Minnesota Upcoming BBQ Events
Backyard:
B Dale BBQ Contest – August 7 – TOY and KCBS Sanctioned Boomer Backyard BBQ Cookoff – August 21 – TOY and KCBS Sanctioned Big Island BBQ – August 22 – TOY and KCBS Sanctioned
Youth First Rib Competition - September 11
LIVIN Festival - September 18 – TOY
Bring’n Home the Bacon 2 – Oct 15 & 16 – TOY and KCBS Sanctioned
Pro:
Big Island BBQ – Aug 20-21
JOIN US • #MNBBQCREW • Facebook.com/mnbbqsociety
AUGUST 2021
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