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. 

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.

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.

Breaking In The Ole Hickory

Yesterday I decided to fire up the new cooker from Ole Hickory, not knowing that I would put it to the ultimate test: the weather.

The cooker took about an hour to get up to temp, which was 225. During that time I prepped two slabs of ribs and two chicken halves, since they both take about the same time to cook.

Once they were on for about an hour maybe, here comes a thunderstorm. 9 times out of 10 most BBQ competitors run around like chickens with their heads cut-off trying to prepare for what's coming: temps on the cooker drop like a rock because of wind and rain. But not so with this cooker. I was amazed. It never wavered one degree even with a brief, but heavy downpour fell directly on the cooker.

Another tidbit from my first run on this cooker is the way it's built. The only place smoke comes out of these things is the exhaust pipes on top so there is no wind getting into the cooking chamber and that makes a big difference.

The result? This photo was taken about 2 hours into the cook and you can see how things were turning out, but the finished product was amazing. For the first time in a long time, the ribs came off the cooker with a beautiful dark red color and the chickens were a dark-light brown color with crispy skin.

Next on the docket is a brisket and pork butt. But seriously, this Ole Hickory Pit is the best I've ever cooked on and I am looking forward to our first cook-off in Laurie, MO.

Wonder Boy and Savoy Special Rolled Into One

If you've ever seen "The Natural" then you know the backdrop that led to the title of this posting.

Like Roy Hobbs, I had been knocking around in the "minors" as a backyard BBQ warrior for over 20 years. Not until this year, at the tender age of 53, did my family and I decide to enter KCBS BBQ competitions, aka, the major league of barbecue. 

As Pop Fisher told Hobbs, "People don't start playing ball at your age fella, they retire."

Well maybe so, but not this Hobbs. Despite the fact that our team, Chaingang BBQ has only competed in four KCBS events and already received a "call" at competition, I knew there had to be more; we needed a way to break out. 

Like Hobbs, I can now finally show folks how good my 'cue can be with my version of a Wonder Boy slash Savoy Special baseball bat in the form of a BBQ cooker. Now, Chaingang BBQ can step to the plate and knock one out of the park with our new Ole Hickory Convecture Tri-Oven pit. 

No more sleepless nights at competition. I am really looking forward learning the in's and out's of this Ole Hickory Pit. It features over 19 1/2 square feet of cooking space with four large sliding racks and 46,000 BTU's to get the party started using either charcoal or wood chunks - your choice.

By the way, if you're in the market for an Ole Hickory Pit let me tell you the team there is top notch and wonderful to work with. Check out their cookers at www.olehickorypits.com

The Four Seasonings

Well, after much thinking, web browsing and limited marketing skills, I've decided to jump into marketing my barbecue seasonings locally.

Coming up with a catchy name, one that would identify the product with barbecuing was tough. There are countless names on the market like Bubba's this and Junior's that, but I wanted one that would stand out and be rememberable; in marketing that's not always easy.

Then the other night it hit me. Remember that old rock n' roll song "Goin' To Kansas City"? Well, there is a street corner in the song, 18th and Vine. "Bam!" That's it. Not only did Jazz and Blues get their start at 18th and Vine in Kansas City, so did Barbecue. 

I've posted a picture of the label here for you to see. There will be four rubs available for sale such as "Sweet Stevie's Rhythmic Rib Rub", "Big Ella's Yardbird BBQ Rub", "Boss Tom's Brisket Rub" and "Cool Pappa's Pork Butt Rub."

I have ordered UPC bar codes and plan on ordering containers this week. If all goes well, I plan on doing 25, 16 ounce bottles of each. Still working on the pricing, and heck, if all goes well, I'll add BBQ Sauce to the line. I also have an application to join AGRIMISSOURI this week, which designates your product as being Made In Missouri. They allow members to participate in trade shows for independent grocers and sponsor product fairs for the general public to buy your stuff; it also opens doors to the area farmer markets.

The main point of the rubs are the fact they're all natural ingredients. No chemicals or artificial flavors. 

Let me know what you think.

Sedalia, MO Cook-Off

Boy, talk about crappy weather, we had it this past weekend in Sedalia, Missouri. We had strong southerly winds at about 25-30 miles an hour which absolutely killed our firebox on our Series 70 Diamond Plate smoker. Running with full charcoal and logs, the wind sucked the heat out of the firebox not allowing the smoker to go above 50 degrees. I believe in "low and slow," but let's get real.

Around Midnight there were tons of thunderstorms to our south. We watched them fade over the horizon thinking we'd dodged a bullet. Then the wind died down and the temp on the cooker went up to 225; perfect temp. We're cooking now, I thought. It wasn't long before the storms reversed engines and headed back our way. With that the wind picked back up and the temp plummeted.

I continued to play the damper game, but to no avail. Then, the skies opened and it rained for 2 to 3 hours straight. Our fire was dead. Our brisket and pork butt was way behind schedule, so we had no choice but to pack-up and head for home.

It's a real "whizzer" to get all geared up and then have the charcoal yanked out from underneath you. Oh well, So-long Sedalia, so-long.