Comp thigh comparison

Competition season is well underway and I’m just days away from my first event this year. It’s really exciting to get out there again and see all my BBQ friends and meet new folks. I’m also excited to try my new recipes I have developed over the winter. Practice was something I wanted to emphasize after the American Royal. Kansas City was a taste of what kind of dedication I needed to improve my scores and win some trophies.

After some time off for the holidays, I hit the ground running in January. Every weekend, I practiced and tweaked my flavor profiles and techniques for chicken, pork and brisket. My ribs did well for me last year, a wrinkle was added, but it remained the same recipe. Did I mentioned how much I practiced?

Months later, I have a plan for all 4 categories. Here are few shots on what got me to this point.

Competition chicken prep

Chicken thighs topped with butter

Thighs done

These chicken thighs were not what I had in mind. They looked good, my trimming skills are improved, but the flavors were not there and the chicken was over cooked. Back to the drawing board.

Practice pork butt

Pork practice box

I was happy with the way my pork turned out. A little refinement was all that it needed. Of course, I will need to cook additional pork butts because I cut off the money muscle during the cook which is illegal in KCBS competition. Nonetheless, the following pork practice was such a success that I purposely didn’t take pictures because I probably would have posted them here. However, if the judges love the pork in competition, I will most definately post it.

2nd Chicken practice

Sauced competition thigh

Tenderness and moistness improved greatly on my second chicken attempt when I cut the cooking time down, but the presentation was not what I liked. The rub washed right off when I brushed the sauce on, it was a mess. A new sauce was just what my chicken needed to boost flavor, I’m digging this chicken.

Practice brisket

My brisket compeititon recipe was completely over hauled. Last year, I just couldn’t impress the judges. This year, I’m not using any sauce…it’s all in the Au Jus!  I love the flavor but I’m skittish on whether this would work. There is only one way to find out, I hope it ends with a call.

Final chicken practice

I’m not sure if the judges will like my chicken, but DAMN!!!…it was good!. Appearance, taste and tenderness were absoluetly there in this batch of thighs. I fixed all the problems I had before and it all came together perfectly. Can’t wait to see what the judges think of all my barbecue.

Saber Grill LLC

Disclaimer: Saber Grills, LLC contacted me regarding an offer for a complementary grill. By accepting a Saber Grill, I was under no obligation to write a favorable review nor was I paid to do so. My analysis of products on this blog will not be influenced by any type of compensation. In addition, I am not liable for any recommendation or instruction of the product that appears in this review.

Spring has arrived and many of you are considering a high end grill this season, look no further…the Saber Grill Cast 500 (Model R50CC0312) is the answer. Saber grills (Retails for $999.00) are the grandiose adaptation of Char-Broil’s line of infrared grills. This souped up cooker is tough and built to last, but the most impressive feature is the ability to produce picturesque, juicy food. Not to mention the overall quality of this propane grill has a good dose of bling bling.

Out of the Box

For starters, if you’re a stickler for the care of your package like I am, prepare to have your mind blown. My Saber Grill was packed tighter than antique artwork. Every nook and cranny had packing foam, plastic or cardboard protecting every piece of hardware…literally! Even the screws, washers and nuts were meticulously packaged so you know you won’t be missing these essential parts. This leads me to believe that something special is in this box.

Saber Grill in package

In addition, the stainless steel sections were sturdy and heavy…an indication of a well built cooker. So much so, that I needed a buddy, Tony, to help me lift some parts. No problem, we grabbed a beer and unfolded the assembly instructions which was as large as a world map. This was because the graphics were enormous, perfect for the farsighted griller. Clear instructions were much appreciated along with detail boxes to show close ups. Total time of assembly: a 6-pack, equivalent to about an hour.

One nugget of advice for assembly, the edges are sharp and we sustained a couple of cuts as one would handling stainless steel edges. None were remotely serious, but still, gloves would protect your hands. Nonetheless, we fought through our pain and suffering to complete the assembly.

Saber Grill Assembled

Saber Grill Profile shots

Afterwards, Tony and I gazed upon the Saber Grill in complete awe, then we looked at each other as if we telepathically said…GRILL MEAT! Okay, that didn’t happen, but we were impressed with the grill space. Easily you can stretch out a couple racks of ribs or place a whole turkey on this bad boy. Additionally, if you’re a patio partyer, there is plenty of room for burgers and brats for your large gathering of friends, family or neighbors.

As I eluded to at the beginning, the Saber Grill brand is manufactured under the same parent company that produces Char-Broil grills. Thus the infrared grill technology, which became a sensation for Char-Broil, is the focal point to this outdoor cooker and rightfully so. What you get is a more flavorful and juicier product on the grates.

Saber Grill infrared technology

Saber Grilling in Action

Instead of further boring you with specs and such (which you can find here), why don’t we get to the good stuff…grilling!

What can’t you do on this grill? I put the Saber grill through a rigorous course of techniques and skill that few gas grill are able to achieve. This stainless steel brute has the ability to roast peppers, cook delicate foods, sear and smoke meats to tender, juicy perfection.

It’s easy to write about how simple it was to grill on this amazing cooker, so here are the results in all its delicious glory!

Roasted peppers on Saber Grill

Brats on the Saber Grill

Roasted Peppers and Brats plated

Indirect Cooking on the Saber Grill

Here’s a tip for high heat meat grilling…Most grill masters make the mistake of searing the outside of meat, but not cooking the inside. The best method is to cook indirectly (see the 2-zone method) after searing. In other words, turn one end burner on high while the other burners are turned off. I illustrate this below…this is my favorite setup to perfectly cook anything on the grill.

Indirect on the Saber

Notice which burners are turned off and on. Above, the far left is on and reads 500+ degrees on the temp gauge. The other burners are off, but look what they read on the temp gauge…between 250-300 degrees. Use the hot side for searing, use the cool side to finish at the desired internal temperature of the meat. This is a great rule of thumb to have succulent, tender meat.

More grilling on the Saber Cast 500

I was impressed how intense the heat was on my grill, it reached in excess of 600 degrees in minutes! As a result, I achieved some wicked grill marks. Grill marks not only make your food look appetizing, they add flavor to your palate. Furthermore, I was able to cook pizza dough on my Saber grill to perfection without burning or sticking the grates…amazing!

Grilled chicken on the Saber

As you can see, the Saber Grill can cook a variety of cuisines. But how does it perform on the most important test for a grill…cooking a steak!?!? On this final task, I select two delectable cuts of steak; teres major and a prime strip.

Prime strip steak on the Saber Grill

Prime Strip Steak with fried shallots

Look at those grill marks! My strip steak was juicy and full of flavor. Notice that the steak is not burnt, an indication of even heat distribution. Even more, the fat drippings did not cause flare ups. Instead, it dissipated and enhanced the savory meat….gotta love that infrared technology!

Lastly was a teres major steak, a delicacy in my region (St. Louis, MO). However, I intended to add smoke this time. I placed a handful of dry pecan wood chips directly on the grate. Pecan wood has a mild scent, the smoke will infuse the meat during the cook to add a layer of smoky flavor. Typically, wood chips flame up when placed directly on gas grills.

Smoking on Saber Grill

Teres Major steak on Saber Grill

Not on the Saber Grill! The wood chips lightly smoldered on the grates for a long period of time. They didn’t flame up despite the fact that the surface was more than 600 degrees! Because of this, I was able to enjoy my smoke infused steak. I would be enticed to try smoking ribs on the Saber! Here is the final product cooked to my liking…look at all that juice!

Teres Major steak, sliced

My Saber Grill was able to do so much, it did everything I wanted except fetch me a cold pale ale. I highly recommend this cooker for those who are ambitious with their cooking and can appreciate a well built grill.

Al Bowman (left). Bill Grenko (right)

Some of the biggest rivalries stand the tests of time…

Ali vs Frazier
Coke vs Pepsi
Microsoft vs Apple
Letterman vs Leno

…then again, most rivalries don’t mean jack squat like this one:

Bill Grenko vs Al Bowman

These gladiators of the grates went mano y mano to see who could produce the best 3 BBQ courses. The throwdown venue was held at the St. Louis Home Fires store in Ballwin, MO. Their mission was to cook a championship football themed menu which included an appetizer, sandwich and party wings. Who had the best BBQ? Neither of them did, but between the two, one had to win!

Meat the competitiors

Bill Grenko is the pitmaster for Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels BBQ Competition Team. He cooked on his custom made drum barrel smoker from Gateway BBQ Store. BG’s secret to cooking great BBQ is making his own rubs and sauces.  His favorite ingredient is bacon and he is widely considered a notorious shigging expert.

BG’s Menu:

• Appetizer – Pork Shots
• Sandwich – Pork Tenderloin
• Party Wings – Smoked with Code 3 Spices Back Draft Rub

Bill’s entries

Bill’s drum smoker

Big Al Bowman is the founder of Canadian Bakin’ BBQ Competition Team. His cooker for the evening was the mighty Black Olive smoker, a pellet-kamado style grill (sold at St. Louis Home Fires). Al has a tendency to eat anything with “ghost peppers” in it and there is controversy whether his competition meat has performance enhancing flavors.

Big Al’s Menu:

• Appetizer – Jalapeno Poppers
• Sandwich – Pulled Pork
• Party Wings – Super Wings with Super Sauce

Al’s entries

The Black Olive

Before they started to fire up their grills, both participants were instructed to incorporate 1 of 3 BBQ rubs by Code 3 Spices in each entry. Code 3 Spices donate proceeds from purchases to aid military and first responder charities. Not only is this a first class cause, it’s a first class ingredient for all types of meat, seafood and vegetables. Read my review here.

As the duel went underway, less than desirable conditions were concerns for the battle at the BBQ boutique. Gusty winds and torrential rain became a challenge for the pitmasters as they try to hold consistent grill temperatures. Despite this, they accomplished their task and the entries were immediately served to the judges.

Judges at St. Louis Home Fires

Frank Schmer talking to his guests

I had the distinct honor to help serve these tasty treats to the guests in attendance that evening. Afterwards, I had my own sample plate and I was glad I didn’t have to vote because all the food was amazing. I was even able to pluck extra jalapeno poppers and chicken wings while the opponents talked to the guests inside.

In a unanimous vote, albeit each category was close, Bill Grenko swept the throwdown challenge to take bragging rights. Al was gracious in defeat, congratulating Bill while at the same time, asking for a rematch due to the close results. The two backyard warriors decided to settle it on the competition circuit once and for all. I doubt it will be settled, but I anticipate some trash talking in this ongoing rivalry.

Great job guys! Both BG and Big Al were nice enough to share their appetizer recipes from this throwdown.

Bill Grenko’s Pig Shots

Ingredients

• Johnsonville Smoked Pork Sausage
• Thick Cut Bacon
• Code3 5-0 Rub
• 8 oz. Cream Cheese
• 1 cup Mexican 4-cheese Blend
• 3 oz Diced Green Chiles
• Brown Sugar
• Toothpicks or Skewers

Instructions

1. Cut sausage into ½ inch disks
2. Wrap ½ piece of bacon around the sausage to form a “shot “
3. Fix bacon in place with a toothpick or skew several shots together
4. Mix softened cream cheese, cheese blend and chiles in a bowl
5. Spoon cheese mixture into each shot
6. Top the cheese with brown sugar
7. Lightly sprinkle shot with 5-0 rub
8. Cook indirect at 300 degrees until bacon is crisp (approx. 75 – 90 mins)

Note: Smoke is optional

Big Al’s Jalapeno Poppers

Ingredients

• 30 jalapenos, halved lengthwise, seeds and membrane removed.
• 2 packages apple or hickory smoked bacon, thin cut if available

For the filling….

• 2 packages cream cheese
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• ½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• ¼ cup your favorite bbq sauce such as Nellie’s Hot BBQ Sauce
• 1 tbs your favorite hot bbq rub such as Code 3 Backdraft Rub

Instructions

1. Fill each pepper half with filling, taking care not to over-fill.
2. Slice strips of bacon in half crosswise.  Wrap each filled pepper with a piece of bacon.
3. Sprinkle each assembled pepper lightly with more bbq rub.
4. Smoke peppers at 300 degrees with Mojobricks cherry until bacon crisps…about one hour
5. During the last 10 minutes, baste peppers with more bbq sauce.

Whoa! MLG made the BIG SHOW! I was approached by Skyhorse in February about writing a cookbook for them. They liked this blog and my BBQ and quickly made a decision to let me author a BBQ cookbook. The plan is release the book in the Fall. Here’s a little info about them from their website…

Skyhorse—with its four imprints (Arcade Publishing, Allworth Publishing, Sports Publishing, and Sky Pony Press) now boasts a backlist of more than 2,000 titles. Since its founding, Skyhorse has published an eclectic and maverick list that includes books on history, politics, rural living, humor, and more. With its imprints, the Skyhorse program now includes business, art, fiction, regional books, and children’s books. Skyhorse has had six New York Times bestsellers.

I should have announced this sooner, but I have been busy writing recipes, taking lots of pictures of my delicious BBQ and preparing for BBQ competition season. In addition, I have lots of surprises in the book I know all MLG fans would appreciate. Stay tuned and be patient…I’ll try to keep new content coming.

Canadian Bakin’ BBQ Team at the American Royal

An old expression comes to mind from our trip to the American Royal in Kansas City…’It’s colder than a witch’s teat!’. For 3 days, the band of misfits we called ‘our team’, competed at the World Series of Barbecue Invitational and Open competition. This event touted a record 545 teams, the largest in the world!

Man was it cold, but what a thrill it was to be there. Thanks to Al Bowman (Canadian Bakin’ BBQ Team), we got an invitation to the the WSB. It was my last contest of the year and I wanted to end it on a high note. On our endeavor west included, Me, Jamie, Al and Karen represented Canadian Bakin’ BBQ Team.

The results (competed as Canadian Bakin’).

Invitational turn-in boxes

Invitational – 154 teams (Saturday)
Overall – 151
Chicken – 128
Ribs – 144
Pork – 149
Brisket – 101

Open turn-in boxes

Open – 545 teams (Sunday)
Overall – 272
Chicken – 435
Ribs – 221
Pork -  201
Brisket – 219

Okay, so we were not successful…not even close. Despite this, we learned a lot and we had a great time seeing our friends and making new ones. The experience of competing at the WSB made us aware of the amount of work and dedication it takes to get there and win. We also learned that people who come to the American Royal know how to party…hard.

The atmosphere was exactly how I remembered being at Mardi Gras on Bourbon Sreet. An epic party happening at every rented lot in the section of the Kemper Arena grounds known as “The Dark Side”. Every kind of party theme was represented: rave, club, rodeo, luau, rock, country, hip hop, jazz…it was a spectacle. As we walked through the dark side all I can think about was the BBQ cook, clearly my partying days have passed me by.

Our setup

Waiting for awards

Me chillin in the sun

Aside from the non-stop partying, we made our rounds about the perimeter. We went inside the Kemper Arena where they had various food and BBQ product booths. Various food sample stations were set up to taste and buy your favorite products. BBQ vendors were aplenty, for those not familiar with BBQ competitions…teams are not allowed to give food to the public, vendors can only sell BBQ at KCBS events. The health department does this to protect both teams and patrons.

Being that most of our competitions were in the rural parts of Missouri where crowds of hundreds were the most we would see at one time, in KC, we were drowned out by the tens of thousands of folks, many of whom were aloof walking through our lot while we prepped meats. Nonetheless, we were told things like this would happen, but it was rather annoying from the get go.

Despite a hectic schedule, all of us managed to find some time to check out some of the most influential and legendary BBQ competitors at the event. Al was left speechless after meeting Harry Soo and Danielle Dimovski. I got to meet Tuffy Stone and then we tried looking for Johnny Trigg and Myron Mixon. While Trigg was MIA, we found Myron holed up in his truck just about to leave after the first day of competition, but let him be.

Johnny Trigg’s Jambo

Tuffy Stone & Me

We had fun wondering the lot and meeting folks from all over the world! Even got to meet some of the top competitive BBQ teams around. However, we preferred to share our moments with friends who also made the trek from St. Louis to KC. Jeff and Linda Rippelmeyer, Brian and Leo Butts, Jeff Brinker (1st Pork – Invitational, 8th Ribs – Open), Tim Scheer (1st Ribs – Open) and El Mellow (3rd Pork – Open) were there to keep us company and show us how it’s done at the Royal.

We couldn’t have had better neighbors. The guys from ZBQ BBQ Team set up a fort next to our shanty, but they were more than inviting towards us to hang out with them. A little shigging even went on before we just all out disclosed our rib recipes. As we find out later, ZBQ got a 5th place call in ribs at the Invitational, it’s safe to say I’ll be trying their recipe.

Time for a shot

Me & Paul Zonfrillo

By Sunday afternoon, the City of Fountains warmed to balmy temperatures. But the damage was done, the lack of sleep and exhaustion took it’s toll on the final day of competition. My chicken and brisket was lazy and sloppy, much like how I appeared that day. It was worth it, even though our scores didn’t reflect our hard work, I felt we accomplished our ultimate goal…competing against the best BBQers in the world.

I bet you all heard this one before…so I met this person on the internet (enter my Manti Teo moment here). Actually, it was on the BBQ Brethren forum. This pitmaster’s avatar used the screen name “rip” and he was located in a nearby town. Every once in a while, I would message him about competition BBQ and he was more than happy to answer my questions.

I met “rip” (aka Jeff Rippelmeyer) competing as Rippel-Que at the Lakeside Que-Topia event and I was blown away with his site setup. The most impressive item was his cooker, a custom insulated smoker. Little did I know, this was a prototype to what would later be used in the Rebel line. For some time now, Jeff has been a mentor to me on the in’s and out’s of competition BBQ. He’s a many times over Grand Champion, consistently a top 10 overall finisher and has a 3rd place trophy in brisket at the American Royal Open. There’s no question his knowledge was valuable to my success in 2012.

As luck would have it, Jeff lives right down the road from me. One of the perks to having a pitmaker as a neighbor is to beg ask him to borrow a Rebel (base price $2,450 for the 23) for a review I want to post on this blog. However, the notion that my facade had worked would be far fetched, Jeff is just a good guy. He sent me a message to drop off a Rebel soon afterwards. I was floored when he pulled up and rolled a big ass Rebel 23 (who I christened ‘Becky’) into my garage…SWEET!

Meet “Becky”

Cargo space

The Rebel is big (says the guy who rocks on a WSM), but not as big compared to commercial smokers found in restaurants and catering/vending establishments. For example, 2 full pans can fit on each of the 5 racks in the smoker…in other words, I can fit (20) 1/2 pans in this thing! By comparison, I can stack about 6-8 half pans on my 22.5″ WSM.

All the racks pull out so you can remove them if you have clearance issues such as with this turkey I smoked on the Rebel.

The 23 had more than enough room for the main 4 competition meats; chicken, ribs, pork butts and brisket, so no rack would have to be removed. By giving the eyeball test, I’d say that 2 briskets, 6 pork butts, 5-6 ribs and at least 36 pieces of chicken can all fit in the 5 rack insulated beast. However, that 5th rack at the bottom should be used with caution at a competition because that is where the heat is closest to.

Instead, the lower rack could be used for water pans or some type of buffer. I thought about using water pans, but the Rebel doesn’t need it. All the meat I cooked was juicy and moist without any type of buffer (except when the food was wrap in foil or in a foil pan).

All of the food cooked faster compared to my WSM, despite some technical difficulties (I’ll explain later). The heat is all locked in the cooker because it’s sealed with insulation and steel. I won’t go into all the specifications, they can be found here. But I will say, insulated smokers are very popular right now and there is a reason why…because they are extremely convenient.

More about the Rebel

Common sense would tell me that getting a bigger smoker is more work to clean, not so. Cleaning the rebel takes a fraction of the time in comparison to my cooker and would have been even easier had I lined the drip tray with aluminum foil. In addition, using lump charcoal as we all know, produces less ash, but it’s hard to maintain low temps on cheaper cookers. The insulated Rebel solves that issue and uses a gravity feed system for supreme convenience.

The charcoal chute, opened

The gravity feed system, offset to the right

Fire box door

Down the chute

In a gravity feed system, the fuel (lump or briquettes) is loaded at the top of smoker, which is offset to the right facing the door. Add chunks of smoke wood by alternating charcoal and wood in the chamber. At the bottom of the chamber a fire box door, lined with rope insulation, is where the ash pan sits and this is where to light the fuel. The easiest method to light the fuel (located above the ash pan) is to use a handheld, trigger-start torch. Since no such device was around, the charcoal was lit by lighting newspaper in the ash pan. This took a few attempts and worked best when the fire box door and the ball valve (located in the rear of the smoker) were open.

I was able to use an entire 10lb bag of lump charcoal, cooked for 16 hours, shut it down and still had lump in the chamber! Even better, while the Rebel was still hot on the inside after cooking, I easily rolled the 500lb cooker out of the way to let the wife park in the garage. I envision being at a comp where as soon as I’m done with turn-in’s, just roll the Rebel on the trailer and fasten it down using 4 D-rings. Instead, I currently have to clean and disassemble my grill on location and secure very part so it doesn’t fall of the trailer. That is how versatile and efficient the Rebel is.

Pitmaster IQ

A great supplement your Rebel smoker is the Pitmaster IQ 110 fire management control unit. How else are you gonna get some sleep at a contest? The dialed control box allows you to turn temps up or down. For some time, the 110 has shown to be reliable with kettle grills, WSM’s, Big Green Eggs, etc., the same goes for the Rebel. But because the Rebel is a different kind of cooker, the guys from Pitmaster IQ developed a program specifically for it for high efficiency.

While the Pitmaster IQ is a excellent addition for managing the heat in the pit, you are not limited to only that. However, any temp control system is a must for maximum performance from the Rebel.

The 110 hooked up to ball valve

Cooking

In my first cook with the Rebel, it was used more as a prop for a video shot (with Al Bowman) for submission to the TV show BBQ Pitmasters. That included the 4 protein comp meats. It was a small learning curve because we didn’t expect to get done so quickly. That was great and it allowed us to complete a lot of our video in 1 day, including some terrific pron (food porn).

The second cook with the Rebel didn’t go as smooth only because I had difficulties with the Pitmaster IQ. It turns out, I wasn’t aware the settings were reset to the WSM program. Make sure you’re running the correct settings before you start. Otherwise, the cooker would take longer to bring up to temp, thus a longer cook time.

Despite the hiccup, the times were still faster than my cookers and each item come out spot on perfect. The 17lb turkey was tender and moist, the chicken thighs were juicy and evenly cooked through and the ribs were incredible. It feels like I’m cheating, cooking on this is too easy.

Conclusion

What else can I say, this is my dream smoker. If I had one, I would do some vending with it too, again it’s versatile. And just to be clear, I’m not hiding the fact that Jeff is a good friend of mine, so you can make up your mind how much bias is in this review. Some of the top BBQ teams are already cooking on Rebels…the results speak for themselves.

Another caveat that should be taken into consideration when you order a Rebel smoker is customizing it. Add a slam latch instead of the standard latches or get locking wheels, Jeff can do it for you.

When Rippy came by to pick Becky up, there was a tear in my eye. We’ve gone through so much the 2 weeks we spent together, the break up was hard to endure. Now that I know what the Rebel is capable of, it’s not a matter of if I get one…it’s when. For yours truly, that day may be when I get my tax return (fingers crossed).

What a wild weekend this was. The St. Louis BBQ Society hosted the 2012 BBQ Bash in Wildwood, MO. This is their signature competition with almost 80 teams participating in 8 categories that count towards the overall scores. In addition, teams are encouraged to vend at this event, so we did that too. At this contest, we competed as Bauman’s Fine Meats (BFM). Here’s our results:

Category – BFM/Total entries
Overall – 20/79
Chef’s Choice – 43/59
Brisket – 17/66
Chicken – 7/68
Chili – 48/68
Dessert – 31/63
Pork – 5/69
Pork Steak – 30/67
Ribs – 36/74

Al Bowman did a phenomenal job with the chicken and pork. As a result, we got calls in both categories. I really thought he cooked a great brisket too, but settled for 17th. BFM placed 20th overall, that means a lot when some of the best chefs, restaurants and catering businesses in St. Louis are competing against you.

This was my first time competing at this event and the first time ever vending BBQ to boot. I teamed up with Al as we balanced competition and selling BBQ. Moreover, we couldn’t have done Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday without the help of our family and friends. Everybody busted their ass to help us be successful, that was special.

Overall, it was a great experience as we did well in the competition and we sold out of all the pork butts and ribs we brought to cook. Our crew were repeatedly told we had the best BBQ, that was great to hear. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to enjoy the festivities because we were so busy with sales or tending the competition meats. Sorry to those who came by the site to visit, we were slammed for 4 days straight!

Despite all the grinding we had to do to make this successful, we accomplished our goal and made enough money to pay for our trip to the American Royal…SWEET!

We’re at it again. Al Bowman and I created a “Gangham Style” inspired music video for the 5th season of BBQ Pitmasters on Destination America. This time we shot on location at the Gateway BBQ Store. Store owner, Tim Scheer helped us out with the video. Enjoy!

I met some fans of MLG at the 3rd Annual GrillinFools Barbecue Bash who were also there to compete. Mike Radosevich and Chris Bohnemeier (Smoke N’ Siren’s BBQ Team) came over to my site to offer me some samples of their Q and I was more than happy to try it. The samples were phenomenal and as a result, they won big at the Bash.

These guys were pumped up about their spice rub, so when I had a taste of it, I told them they should bottle it up and sell it. So fast forward later, they enlisted St. Louis based McCarthy Spices to bottle their product and start taking pre-orders by November.

Pork loin

Mike and Chris generously offered to send me samples of their newly named, Code 3 Spices BBQ rubs. I was extremely excited to be one of the few to try their rubs before they shipped out. I received the whole set of 3:

1. Rescue Rub – An all purpose BBQ rub. Great on anything wrapped in BACON!
2. 5-0 Rub – A medium step up in spiciness. Great for authentic BBQ like ribs, pork shoulder and chicken.
3. Backdraft Rub – Spicy rub with great flavor…brisket and chicken wings.

All 3 rubs were amazing. The flavors are more bold than anything else I have in my pantry…possibly competition worthy?

Moreover, Mike and Chris are passionate about giving back to those who risk their lives or have given the ultimate sacrifice on the job to protect others. Proceeds from purchases of Code 3 Spices go to Military and first responder causes.

The results? I have used all 3 rubs extensively and have prepared Q for others who salivated over every bite they took. I highly recommend these rubs and knowing that my purchase will go to a great cause is a win win situation.

To purchase your set of Code 3 Spices, check out www.code3spices.com

Smoked sausage gyro with Rescue rub

Bacon weave pork loin with Backdraft rub

At the first GrillinFools Backyard Bash, my first BBQ comp, I sucked. Initially, my ribs and pork steaks placed outside of getting a call and I finished 2nd to last in the appetizer category…horrible! However, scoring errors were fixed to move me up a bit. I returned this year with more experience and higher expectations.

Sadly, I sucked again

3rd Annual GrillinFools Backyard Barbecue Bash at Fireside Hearth & Home

• Overall – 21st (out of 25 teams)
• Chicken – 24th
• Mystery Meat (Tri Tip) – 10th
• Ribs – 6th

No big deal, I was here for a much bigger purpose…raising money for the Wounded Warrior Project. And a big success it was, raising $3,000 for veterans and their loved ones.

I was also really happy to see many of my BBQ buddies do well at this event. Big Al Bowman (Canadian Bakin’ BBQ Team) and Bill Grenko (Lock, Stock and Two Smokin’ Barrel’s BBQ Team) were winners at the Bash…Bill took GC!

Bill and Don talking Q

Al is schmoozing with the customers

Even more, I met lots of great guys and we talked about our passion for BBQ. Namely, my neighbors across from me…Mike and Chris (Smoke n’ Siren’s BBQ Team). We swapped samples and I immediately took a liking to their tri tip (the mystery meat). Sure enough, they took first place. Great job!

John (Simpson BBQ) had his competition BBQ cherry popped at this comp. Even though he came in DAL (dead ass last), he had the most fun out of anyone…and he made a hell of a bloody mary. I showed him the ropes and offered help, but he was on his own for turn ins. I hope my advise didn’t contribute to his performance.

John and his epic bloody mary’s

The Original GrillinFool, Scott Thomas

There were others who made this contest fun to be at, but the day went to Scott Thomas (GrillinFools). His passion to put the backyard back into BBQ has been refreshing to BBQ enthusiasts who are intimidated by custom built smoker trailers. No one has done it quite like Scott, 25 teams for an unsanctioned event is outstanding and despite the limiting factors to compete.

Honorable mention goes to Ken Moss (Fireside Hearth & Home). The guy just works hard all the damn time and he was a very gracious host. If you are ever in the market for a Big Green Egg smoker grill…see Ken, he’ll hook you up.