Big Wayner’s BBQ Blog Review of our book can be found here along with all kinds of other interesting topics.  This is quickly becoming one of the best bbq blogs on the web…you should check it out!

-Thanks Wayne for doing this!-

Book Review: The Book on Competition Barbeque

In the days leading up to the 2011 Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational Barbecue, I did a series of articles highlighting teams that competed there.  One of the teams that I had the pleasure of highlighting was Hot Grill on Grill Action (click here for the review).  Today I’m here to talk about their eBook: “The Book on Competition Barbeque”.

About the Book

The guys at Hot Grill on Grill Action tout the book as much more than just recipes, and I have to concur.  While the book does contain many recipes that they use in the award-winning BBQ, it is a summation of knowledge chock full of tips and pointers collected over the years.  The level of detail in this book can only be rivaled by competition BBQ classes that are offered by many competition teams throughout the country, and I would venture to say that there is more detail in this book than many of those classes.

This book is written for a wide range of audiences — from the backyard guy looking to enter his first competition to the seasoned pro looking to break through for his/her first grand championship.  No matter your experience level, you will have no problem finding relevant material for you.

Making the Meats Count

Approximately half of the book (73 out of 159 pages) is dedicated to preparation of meats in the four KCBS categories (chicken, ribs, pork, brisket).  Every facet of preparation is covered — from meat selection to meat prep to the cooking process.  They even go into great detail about meat boxing and presentation.  The main thing they stress, however, is the importance of taste, and this is reflected by dedication of an entire section to this.

If you’re a firm believer in that a picture is worth a thousand words, then you won’t be disappointed.  Each section is full of colorful photos clearly outlining crucial steps in the process.  The guys at Hot Grill on Grill Action took great steps to make sure their points are clearly communicated.

All You Want to Know

But the guys don’t limit their book to how they prep their entries.  They examine every element pertaining to a contest.  For example, they provide a general checklist of items to bring as well as a contest timeline of events.  Also included is a primer of various woods that could be used along with recommendations as to whether or not it should be used.  There’s much more in there, but I can’t give it all away here…

No matter how forthcoming a lot of teams are in classes, they always hold some info close to their chest that puts them over the top.  The guys at Hot Grill on Grill Action don’t do this; in fact, they are fully forthcoming in detailing what they believe gives them the competitive edge.

Because I have to Nitpick…

My job as a reviewer is to be as objective as possible when checking out a product.  As far as the content in the eBook goes, I could not find anything absolutely outrageous or objectionable.  The guys did a good job outlining the tips and tricks and plans that have been successful for their team.  In saying that, I do have some observations…

• Because this book is delivered in a PDF format, it would be super nice if the entries in the Table of Contents were clickable to go directly to their respective areas.
• Something that could be done as a benefit with purchasing the eBook would be access to a subscribers area that contains more in-depth info pertaining to the book.  A prime example would be videos for different methods of meat prep, for example.
• People may think the price point for the download — $39.99 — may be high.  However, if you are serious about competing, the price point is an outright bargain compared to the $500-750 one can spend on a competition BBQ class.

Conclusion

If you are looking to become a serious competitor on the BBQ circuit or to step your game up to the next level, I highly recommend purchasing this book.  The amount of information presented in there is well worth the price.

“The Book on Competition Barbeque” is available for purchase in PDF format for $39.99 at http://www.bbqrevolution.com.

• Book

1^st Annual Tri-Cities BBQ Contest – September 23, 2005

Here it is, the first BBQ contest.  Who would have guessed it would be the start of Hot Grill on Grill Action.  After digging up the pictures and looking at the date it’s hard to believe that what seemed like just yesterday was over 6 years ago.

My wife Tasha had helped me get set up that morning for what was a going to be a one day event.  She later returned for awards and to help clean up, but from raw meat to turn-ins it was all me.  The categories were ribs, chicken and Tri-Tip.  I felt pretty confident going into this event even though the Tri-Tip category was new to me.  I had spent several weeks getting my Tri-Tip right.  I had purchased several nice big Tri-Tip roasts from the local butcher and mixed up a few dry rub options and ate well for a few weekends in a row (I love Tri-Tip).  Getting the roasts done the way I wanted them was the real trick that I had to figure out.  There’s a fine line between just right and overdone and with such a small relatively lean piece of meat that window is pretty small.  I knew what I was going to use on my spare ribs and had my chicken process just where I wanted it.  Regardless, I practiced both a couple of times to make sure.

What I do remember is how stressed out I was to be going at this alone.  Why was this so stressful?  It’s supposed to be fun right?  Afterall, it was a georgeous 65 degree day and I was finally competing, something that I’d wanted to do for several years.  One can never be too prepared for a contest.

I had spent the whole night prior to the event loading up everything I thought I would need.  One of the things I find humorous about looking at these pictures is the lack of equipment and gear that I had.  It’s funny to think that this simple one day event had me stressed out so much.  I can recall pacing around in my garage and going through my totes numerous times making sure I wasn’t forgetting anything.  As most of us know, you’re going to forget something almost every time going into a contest.

After arrival on site it didn’t take long to figure out that this was clearly a first annual event.  Now don’t get me wrong, I was just as unprepared as the contest reps for this event but I had anticipated working with a group of reps that could provide a bit of guidance.  This certainly added to the stress levels especially since the only person present that knew what to do was the county health inspector which for whatever reason was brought in to assist.  Don’t get me wrong, food safety is surely important but this guy was a HUGE pain in the pork shoulder!

My set up was simple, two tables an 8’ x 8’ canopy an 18” WSM and a Weber Kettle.

I had prepared 12 boneless chicken thighs, 2 racks of ribs and 2 Tri-Tip Roasts.  The kettle and WSM both ran flawlessly.  I cooked the ribs on the WSM and had also started the Tri-Tip there to get a bit of smoke on it.  I had cooked the chicken on the kettle.  After the chicken was done I moved the Tri-Tip over to the kettle to get a sear on the outside.

Did I mention that the meat was provided?  Upon entering the contest I was excited to not have to pick up the meat from the store.  Unfortunately when I picked up my meat from the reps I was handed partially frozen chicken thighs, two racks of Baby Back ribs with one rack having broken bones in it and two really small Tri-Tip Roasts.  In an effort to thaw out my chicken I left it sitting out on the table in its package which sparked the interest of the health inspector.  This guy was comical.  I simply explained that they were being left out to thaw a bit before cooking them which he wasn’t having.  At this point I decided to request new chicken and figured I’d go for some new ribs as well hoping to get some that didn’t have any broken bones.  Having received neither I continued along my process of thawing the chicken which really chaffed the health inspector.  He began to pick on me by asking where my hot water was and threatened that if I didn’t have hot water in the next 30 minutes I was going to be asked to leave the contest.  I ignored this request after having taken a quick glance around to see if anyone else had hot water on site which only one team did.  Also, I had no way to heat water?  I surely wasn’t giving up my cooking space to heat water, I was there to compete.  When the inspector came back 30 minutes later to no hot water he was furious.  Just as I was going to point out the fact that I wasn’t the only one without hot water the neighboring team had overheard the previous conversations and had put a pot of water on his firebox for “us to share”.  Ahh, the camaraderie of BBQ cooks runs deep!  This had satisfied this point with the inspector but the chicken was still a problem.  I threw the chicken in the cooler to satisfy him until he left then took it back out and placed in my tote with my BBQ supplies.

After the Chicken and Rib categories were complete I thought I was going to “own” this little event.  Everything had gone as planned with these categories and were done to my liking.  Then came the Tri-Tip.  The roasts that they had provided were much smaller than those that I had practiced with.  I remember throwing one of them that was a bit bigger on 30 minutes earlier than the smaller of the two.  This attempt to get them done properly gained me nothing.  I should have put them both on at the same time in hopes that one would be done perfectly.  Both came out over cooked and I knew that this was not my day for Tri-Tip.  This just goes back to practice and in this case the lack thereof.  You can never practice too much for these things.

There were 11 teams consisting of competitors from the local casinos, the police, fire department and radio personalities.  Overall, I came in 7^th with the local DJ coming in first followed by one of the casino teams.  This was a great event and a memory that will last forever.  Most importantly to me, it was the birth of who we are and what we represent today.  Hot Grill on Grill Action!!

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef

Brisket is a tough meat to master for many competition and backyard cooks. You may or may not have noticed that brisket can have different grades from the USDA.  Below are the grades you may run into and a quick course in the differences.

Select Grade: This is the second lowest grade of brisket I have seen available. There are lower grades such as standard, cutter, etc.  These cuts contain the least amount of fat and will be firmer. Do not use these in competitions if you can avoid it. These are usually seen in grocery stores.

Choice Grade: This is the most common grade you will see and the most used grade in competition. Sam’s, Costco, and many butchers will carry these.  They will have more marbling than select and standard.  It is very important use the basic factors such as size, thickness, marbling and feel to find the correct choice brisket. They all may be labeled Choice, but some are clearly better.

Prime:  This is actually a choice brisket that has received the highest mark of the choice cuts. Typically they will have a little more marbling and will have a softer feel to them.  If you keep your eyes peeled, they are often mixed in with the Choice grades  at Sam’s and Costco. Look fat side of the packaging and you will see a USDA Prime stamp. You can talk to the butcher and the above resources and they can order prime for you.

Wagyu- Referred to as the American Kobe beef.  The USDA does not grade Wagyu.  It’s actually a different breed of cow originating from Japan and uses a different grading system. The Kobe breed of cattle used in these cuts produce a well-marbled brisket. The biggest deterrent is price. They can be up to 5x the price of the above briskets, and often you have to pay a hefty shipping cost as they need to ship refrigerated. We cooked a few of these and they produce a slightly different taste and seem to cook faster. If you can cook them correctly, they are just fine. However, reports of low scores using Wagyu are common, due to unfamiliarity of the judges and the difficulty to cook.

CAB Certified Briskets:  Beef branded as Certified Angus Beef® has a higher amount of marbling and an exceptionally tender, juicy flavor. Only some USDA Prime beef and top grades of USDA Choice beef are sold under this brand name.

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef

Book

See the full PDF of the November/ December edition of ‘Drippings” magazine here and go to pages 10 and 11.  The Drippings Click Here

Hot Grill on Grill Action’s new book!

The Book on Competitive Barbeque

A Book Review by Sonny Ashford 

The Flabongo’s are hung on the tent rail with care so that any who venture close will know that Hot Grill on Grill Action are there and ready to compete.  It certainly distinguishes them from the other teams that are generating smoke in the early hours before a contest. I had the pleasure of meeting this vibrant group of young men at several of the contests in and around the Midwest.  Ryan Amys, Matt Frampton, Logan Hendrickson, and Chris Yelick comprise the team known as Hot Grill on Grill Action, and to their credit beyond authoring The Book on Competitive Barbeque, that I’m reviewing they represented Nebraska at the Jack Daniels Invitational this year.

The whole group has opened their tent flap to people that want to learn what goes on after the Friday night party comes to an end and now there is a book that shows what you need from “git to go” in a contest environment. This book is for everyone that wants to cook “Competition Quality” barbeque whether you’re in the backyard, a street bragging rights event or one of the 350+ events sanctioned by KCBS. It appears to all be there in one electronic source.

Yes, this is an e-book. I did a review of an e-cookbook in September that was packed with recipes from the Carolina’s but this e-book is much more than a cookbook, it is a how too book. Yes, there is an introduction with some strong opinions and opinions well worth listening too, such as: “Following this intro, you will NOT find the phrase “use your favorite rub or sauce.” There aren’t many resources that we find “useless”…..but those recipes that state this are, quite frankly, VERY useless.”

They point out that their opinion is not the end all of what you need to know about smoking barbeque but they assure you that want they have in this ebook is well founded from years of practice and information gathered over the years.

What I find very interesting is that right after the Introduction is the BBQ Competition Overview where they show the beginning to end of a contest.  They dig into “The POWER of Taste” as this is the “#1 most important aspect of competition BBQ, no question.” It goes so far as to list the weighting factors that are used in the KCBS Scoring Software with TASTE obviously carrying the highest value and this is put there to illustrate the effort that needs to be put into having a product with great taste.

From there it goes into all the things required for the Chicken category. Matt Frampton is the team Chicken Man and he gives not just words, but pictures so that even John Underwood can follow the directions. Nice color pictures that illustrate every facet from the type of chicken to buy to the whole preparation you go through. And yes, they give you a chicken rub recipe. This will take you through everything from on the tray to the final product and even how to build a box for the presentation. This is a super book for everyone!

Ryan Amys goes forward as the Rib Man. He is quick to tell you that there are people who believe that the longer you cook ribs the better they are and he says that is not true. He gives you the recipe for proven success.  Some of the ingredients are store bought, but his product is bone-sucking good.

Ryan enhances his trip through rib world with when to buy ribs and what to look for – like straight bones. He goes through the preparation and again the pictures are worth the words as you read through the color pictures.  It is very detailed and even gives you the cooking temperatures and the schedule and also the wrapping times.  Again there is great detail for the novice or the pro to address what they are doing and validate what is currently being done with what kind of success. Ryan, I could use a slab or two, no make that three of your ribs.

Great job!

Chris Yelick is the Man of Pork, and he’s about to release what Myron Mixon was the first to hear when Hot Grill on Grill Action appeared on BBQ PItmasters, secrets to their pork that made Warren Sapp say, “Cook on my team. You had a 300 lb man smiling inside.” Like the Chicken and Ribs sections there is nothing held back as the recipe and all the pictures are there to illustrate how they are winning the pork category time and time again.  Cooking temperatures, wrap times, it is all there including the turn-in box for you to see. You can’t go wrong with a guide like this. But you still have one more category to go and that is brisket.

Logan Hendrickson jumps all over the brisket and starts of with words like “unpredictable, tough, and capable of driving cookers crazy as they are all different.” In his very capable way Logan has made all, well most of the mistakes and gives you a path to a probable success when you follow his roadmap. He gives you all the stuff you need to start and then the “Miracle Mop”. Pictures are worth a thousand words and this is so true with brisket.  Learn all you can and Logan gives a box full with his words and pictures. Please note the electric knife in the pictures.

In closing up this review, the guys give you so much more to go over. Things that include:

• • General Equipment, lists and what to bring
• • KCBS Rules and Judging
• • Official general Rules
• • Official judging Guidelines
• • How to become a judge [Call Sonny]
• • Contest timeline
• • Cooks meetings
• • Woods, etc
• • Competitive Edge

There are several more, but suffice it to say that they have tried to give you everything you need in a contest, whether in your backyard or at the American Royal. I guess you have figured out I think this a good book and definitely one you can use time and again. 

Get your own copy at www.bbqrevolution.com, or you can write to BBQ Revolution – Hot Grill on Grill Action BBQ Team, 4350 S 154th Street, Omaha, NE 68137. 

You can also find out what a Flabongo is and how to make one for your own party, and it will settle some challenges.

Thank you for allowing me to review the book, it was worth every minute.

GOBS Sep-Oct Drippings

Pulled chicken is one of the most delicious smoked meats you’re going to get your taste buds on. It’s also one of the healthiest. It is far superior to grilling chicken. It requires more patience as it takes on average 3-4 hours to do, not counting prep time. The end product is the most juicy, succulent, and tasty chicken you will ever eat. It is well worth the wait. Today, I am going to demonstrate just how easy it is to make pulled chicken from a whole chicken (using techniques bestowed upon me by the Chicken King of the Midwest, pitmaster Matt Frampton, a fellow author on this site.

The first thing you need to do is butterfly the chicken. For this, go to Matt’s Post entitled “how to butterfly a chicken.” You will be doing yourself a disservice not to start here:

http://www.bbqrevolution.com/how-to-butterfly-a-chicken/

 Rig: The Weber Silver One Touch Kettle Grill.

Ingredients:

-1 whole chicken

-1 cup apple juice

-4 tbsp salted butter

-Spray bottle

-Your favorite chicken rub

First, you’ll need to set the kettle grill to operate in smoke mode. To do this, use charcoal separates to hold charcoal one a small portion of 1 side of the grill. Add a small bed of coals ant then add a few chunks of your favorite wood on top (apple and/or hickory are good choices). Use a charcoal starter to get a few coals lit and place them un top off the unlit coals. Now we’re smoking!

use a charcoal separater, add only a few chuncks of smoke wood

Note: chicken can be smoked at a wide range of temperatures (225 to 350). For this cook, I will cook around 250-275.

Step 1: Butterfly the chicken.

Step 2. Melt the 4 tbsp of butter and combine with the 1 cup of apple juice. This will be our injection. Pump the bird full if this injection. Just get the needle under the skin, you will see the bird swell up as the skin holds in the inject.

Step 3: Add your rub to the chicken. Season both sides of chicken. For this cook, I am using garlic salt and McCormick’s Smoke house pepper seasoning. Cover the skin in the rub.

Kettle is set up, birds are seasoned, let's BBQ!

Step 4: Add your bird to the smoker. Do not place any part of the bird directly over the coals. If you do, you are not going to smoke your chicken, you’re going to be grilling it.

Step 5. Every hour into the cook spray the bird with apple juice. This will help retain moisture as well as add some sweetener to flavor.

spray with apple juice every hour for moisture and for a natural sweetener

Step 6. Once the bird is cooked to 175 (in the breast area), remove the bird and let it rest for 15 minutes. You can also take the temp in the drum/leg area, where the meat is also thick.

step 7. Carefully remove the skin. Use can use a knife and cut out the skin.  Try to keep the skin in as few pieces as possibe. This chunks of skin will become your “dirty rags” in step 9.

Step 8. Grab the legs and pull off the body. Repeat on the wings. Pull the meat off the chicken bones  into bite size chucks. You can separate the dark meat (leg area) and white meat (breast area) if desired. The picture in step 9 shows the dark meat on the left and white on the right.

step 9.  Time to use the dirty rag technique. Remember the skin that you seasoned at the beginning of the cook and subsequently removed in step 7?  That’s your “dirty rag.” Our chicken expert Matt coined this soon to be buzz word on the BBQ circuit. Take the skin you removed, mix it and the chicken together repeatedly . You will see that the chicken meat now looks freckled with the seasoning from the skin. Continue this until you have ragged all the meat. Make sure to remove the rags(skin) from the pulled chicken.

Mix the pulled chicken with the rags and you will be left with seasoned pulled chicken!

Step 10: Enjoy the feast!!! 

Construction overview:

The first thing to do is buy 2 “food grade” drums. Be careful not to buy drums that were used for toxic materials or trash.  You need to burn these barrels for 6 hours minimum to sanitize them. I used all smoke wood when doing this. My neighbor had a ton of apple wood that worked quite well. You will also need to remove all the paint of the drum.

Next, we cut out the door and vents on the bottom. We hinged the door and used electrical box cover with locking washers for the vents.

Barrel is ready to paint.

The next step was paint. Use a high temp engine enamel, black is probably the way to go. However, being from husker country, I just had to have 1 of them be a husker smoker. Here, we apply the first coats of paint.

First coat of red paint is on. Looks like a Longhorn Burnt orange, but don't worry, it will dry to a more powerful Husker Red.

Still drying, but looking better.

After the paint dried, the fun began. I’ll spare you the step by step instructions, but in a nut shell, we added the casters, lined the inside of the barrel with fire brick (for insulation, efficiency) using bbq mortar, added the grates, the diffusion plate (a round piece of stainless steel with lots of holes. This sits right above the coals and prevents the flames from hitting the meat), added a stack, and finally a thermometer.

The last step would making the charcoal basket. My father in law Dan whipped up some awesome baskets.

Now that's a charcoal Basket!

 Here is a look at the smokers first action, cooking up some whole chickens.

The Husker N is added.

The bird is the word, in this case.

Barrel Smoker complete

 The pros of this smoker are the ease of use and most importantly, the efficiency. The fire bricks really make this thing very fuel friendly. It is a very similar to the big green egg in that regard.  It also responds very fast to adjustments to the vents, allowing for easy control of temperature. It cooks up some great chicken and ribs. We  brought it to a competition and turned in the ribs we made on it.  It can cook brisket and pork, but with only 1 shelf, that takes up all the space.

The cons are more abundant. The cost, when we finished, reach about $200 in materials. There were lots of little expenses like furnace gaskets, brackets, metal for the stack, diffusion plate, etc. The time was also a drawback. It just took too long to make a barrel smoker. These should be able to be constructed in a matter of a few hours, not a few days. It also requires welding, cutting, and fabrication, which can be frustrating. The other drawbacks are portability and space. It fits less than the Weber Smokey Mountain 18″ model. The fire brick and mortar make it close to 200 lbs when it is done. The casters help, but getting it to competitions or even through grassy areas is difficult.

Final thoughts: With a search you can find this plan on the internet. While the barrel does cook decent, I would gravitate toward a simpler, more portable design. After making this smoker, I can truly say I beleive I can build a more efficient, better cooking, more portable, and cheaper smoker from a drum.  In fact, I may do this in the fall and post the step by step instructions and results on here!

Ingredients:

- (1) 12 lb Brisket
- 1 12 oz can of Coca-Cola
- 1 cup of Apple Juice
- Your favorite  Brisket rub seasoning (lots available, to see the ones we win with go here http://www.bbqrevolution.com/ )

Get your Rig of Choice fired up: For this cook, I will utilize the Weber Smokey Mountain (bullet smoker).

The WSM is a fine choice. Grab some hickory chunks and let's get started!!

Step 1. Unwrap and trim brisket.

You can tap the fat areas and if it feels solid, it needs to be trimmed. you will notice 2 major areas of the brisket where you need to trim every time. The are located in the point. One is on top and the other is in the thickest side of the point. These are large fat “wedges” that need to be removed. Some folks trim off the fat cap, I am not a big fan of that. The cap will provide the brisket with moisture and taste as the fat renders and is absorbed into the meat. I also trim of meat on the sides that appears brown.

Inject sites are 1 inch apart. Note: Puddling can be seen in this pic

Step 3. Apply a thin coat of mustard over the brisket. This will act as a binding agent to hold the rub on the brisket throughout the cook.

Step 4. Apply a generous amount of rub on the brisket. It is of this Pitmasters opinion you cannot over-season a brisket. That said, don’t get in a contest to see how much seasoning you can get on your brisket. Use you common sense.

Logan’s note: Some of you pros will appreciate this one: It is not necessary to season the fat cap of the brisket yet… since you will cook the brisket Fat side up, you can season the fat cap after putting the brisket on your rig.

Step 5: Place the brisket on the smoker fat side up and season the fat cap if you have not yet. You will notice you can really get a good amount of seasoning on with this method. As the fat cap renders, this seasoning will absorb into the brisket with the rendered fat.

Pitmaster tip: Wait to season the fat cap until it's on smoker, if you can. You will hold more seasoning.

Step 6. Cook the brisket until internal temp reaches 160 degrees.

Step 7. Re-season and wrap the brisket in heavy duty foil. Many briskets, and pork butts for that matter, seem to hit a wall at this temperature and cook slowly, jeopardizing your turn in time. This will also seal all the juices inside the foil, making for a nice, juicy brisket nearly every time.

Re-season the Brisket

use heavy duty foil

Step 8. Cook brisket to 195 degrees.

Step 9. Keep in foil and let brisket sit for 1/2 hour to 3 hours. A brisket will stay tender for that long, maybe longer. Ideally, for a competition, try to keep this time as close to an hour as possible. The brisket absorbs a portion of the juices in foil. Take it out right away and you will have a dry brisket.

Step 10. Slice against the grain and enjoy!!!!!

-Framps

Check it out everyone…..we’re doing everything we can to bring “BBQ Pitmasters-Season 2″ on TLC to Omaha this year. Join the group “Hot Grill on Grill Action BBQ team” on Facebook and check for updates and events surrounding this!!!

For now….enjoy our audition!!!

The idea is to ensure we don’t lose or forget anything we try…..I think….and along the way – perhaps we’ll give someone an idea to try on their own or inspire someone to take what we have tried and share it here.

Ultimately – I want to see loads of content and I have no intention of withholding any information I have regarding home cooking or competition BBQ….even if I stumble upon an award winning recipe – you’ll find it here.  You’ll also find stuff that wasn’t so good – and I’ll be sure we’re clear about that!!!

Cooking is one of my favorite hobbies and I love trying different things.  I love spicy foods, so you’ll probably see an unbalanced list of pepper laced recipes from me…..but that’s why there’s 4 of us on here!

Enjoy the content and please contact us with any questions…..heck - if you have the right ideas and want to – we could even make you an author.

Peace,

Matt