Thursday, August 27, 2009

Need A Butcher? Problem Solved


Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of darn good BBQ is the quality of the meat.

Obviously the better the quality, the better the taste. The better the taste, the better your chances are of winning in competitive BBQ. Easier said than done, however. I give you this as an example:
In the town where I live, there is a market chain whose initials are H-H and they are the "know-all-end-all" of meat. NOT! To give you an example, to get St. Louis style ribs trimmed the right way, I had to take the "butchers" a picture of how I wanted them trimmed.

Now, many of you might say, "hey, trim the ribs yourself." I say, "hey, if I'm paying for the meat, I'll have it done my way." But, to no avail, the so called butchers at "H-H" couldn't trim squat. Sorry if I sound frustrated, but I was; until today.

I took the drive from Springfield/Nixa to Kansas City, Kansas to a place called Bichelmeyer Meats; they boast a 60 foot long meat case, so I thought, why not drive up there. OMG!!!

Walked through the doors. A guy asked if he could help me and I told him what I just described above; I'm frustrated and wanted to know if anyone there knew how to trim ribs. That's when I met Matt Bichelmeyer. He was incredible. This guy could trim ribs in his sleep. Come to find out Paul Kirk is his Uncle. And the funny part was his 80+ year-old grandma prefers Matt's ribs over Kirk's.

I was given a grand tour of the store. Well, I shouldn't say store because this family operation grows their own cattle and pigs, slaughters them there on site, butchers them and sells the meat as fresh as you can get.

Folks, if you live within 200 miles of KC, load up some coolers and head for this meat market. I can promise you this, without checking the facts, there's probably not a hand full of places like this left in the US.

For my meat from now on, hands down it's Bichelmeyer's. Google it. 

Monday, August 17, 2009

Another Call for The Chain Gang


Just completed the Cattlemen's Ozark BBQ Challenge this weekend in our home town of Nixa, MO. and took 9TH place in Ribs. In doing so we scored better than some of our formidable competitors such as Little Pig Town, Hogzilla and Southern Smoke BBQ. Not bad.

We photographed our presentation boxes at this cook-off, a first for us, so we could look back and see why presentation scores were given by the judges. Getting meat in boxes and arranged just right with seconds ticking away to turn-in time is hectic and stressful. As a result, I photographed every box except the Ribs which took 9TH. Go figure.

It was funny, though how many competitors came by the Chain Gang spot to look at our Ole Hickory Pit convecture oven - even teams cooking on bigger Ole Hickory Pits! The guys using O.H.P's said they had heard about these cookers, but after seeing one in action, they were going to place their orders for one. By my count, there were at least 5 teams, including us, cooking on an Ole Hickory Pit cooker.

Trying to decide now whether to keep entering competitions for the remainder of 2009 or just lay low until The Royal in KC. Decisions decisions. All in all, out of 5 cook-offs Chain Gang has had two calls at the Award Ceremonies, so we're not doing too shabby.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

The Cook-Off at Laurie, MO


We, and 76 other BBQ Teams just concluded competing in the 17th Annual Hillbilly BBQ contest in Laurie, Missouri. The weather for this event was unbelievable for late July and early August in the Missouri Ozarks. Friday's temps were in the low 80's and Saturday morning it was in the low 60's with a nice breeze.

When we checked in to set-up "camp" organizers asked if we could cook wings for an event they were having later that night. They asked, with big puppy dog eyes and you had no choice but to say yes, even though I'd never smoked wings before; they're just not my cup of tea. I ended up preparing about 70 wings and handed them over later that night.

We had our cooks meeting at 8pm, that where you get your four numbered styrofoam boxes in which you place your meats and garnish at turn-in the next day. KCBS does Chicken at 12:00 noon, Pork Ribs at 12:30, Pulled Pork at 1:00 and Brisket at 1:30. If you are one second past the turn-in deadline your entry is disqualified. We managed, as with previous cook-offs to make each deadline without being DQ'ed. 

This was the first contest I used our new Ole Hickory Pit, the Convecture model. I'd cooked on it five or six times at home and loved the results, so I was pumped to use it in competition. It was a dream come true, our meats looked incredible especially the half-chickens. Our turn-in box with those six breasts I thought we would get our first call in chicken. Not so; we finished 21 out of 77. The reason we placed 21st is because I'm probably the only team at competition to cook half-chickens instead of thighs. I've always cooked half-chickens at home, so I am comfortable with them. Granted, you can't put six half-chickens in a turn-in box, but slicing off the breast meat with the skin attached makes for a beautiful presentation. With most cookers, breast meat is fairly dry, but with this Ole Hickory pit our chicken was as moist as it could be. I'm just not sure going to thighs is change I can believe in. Stubborn? Not me.

Our next event is the Cattlemen's BBQ Cook-Off at Summer's On The River, and as of now 32 teams are signed up to compete. Time to make our rubs, sauces, brines and marinades and suit up for another challenge.