DISASTER!.... UPDATE: Long Island judging Class. Need some help.

[Bill-Chicago]

Sorry Phil

I just called you

brain cramp mod

Good luck tomorrow

PS, Over salt one entry. That helped Greg and I.

Mike Lake, KCBS board member said "maybe he's trying a new rub" or something

again, good luck

 

[BBQchef33]

The Biggest flop ever.

This is long guys, I been typing it in pieces for 2 days in between doing other stuff, so I may seem a bit babbling, but its just piecemeal typing.. go get a beer or cup of coffee. If anything, this is an entry for BBQs most embarrassing moments.

******************************************

Well, cooked for the judging class yesterday. and what a complete and total embarrassment.. . I spent today licking my wounds, and cleaning my yard, which looked like a BBQ Battlefield.. and mumbling to myself..

Heres the lessons I am about to elaborate on.

1- Never count on making competition quality for 600 people.
2- Don’t even count on good backyard quality :redface:
3- Always talk to organizers directly to get details of expectations
4- Leave the grease drains open during huge cooks :x
5- Don’t try cook for 300lb s of meat in less than 20 hours unless u have a southern pride, or a 20x30 foot pit.
6- Coolers mixed with thermal loads are also knows as ovens. :eusa_clap
7- Loading and managing mass quantities of food in small pits takes time, which needs to be included in estimates. :lol:
8- Would be judges at classes are either REAL polite, or have no clue what bad BBQ is.

Final tally was 55 new judges, and 330 lbs of meat. When I took the gig, it was for 30 people. Thats probably about as big as I can do in one day. Now, 330lbs of meat, based on what you guys say of catering rules, at 8 ounces of meat per person, what I cooked would feed 600?

While planning, my intention was to make competition quality Q for 50 judges.. then when I saw the AMOUNT of meat, I figures its more realistic to shoot for backyard quality, and by the time I was 12 hours in, I was shooting for anything edible.

Biggest problem, I AM NOT equipped to cook 330lbs of meat in under 24 hours. The BYC AND MOAB was packed to the gills. We should have used the smokey mountain for the briskets or butts, but those got wrecked AFTER being pulled from the pit. So they probably wouldn’t have made it regardless. Details to follow.

Heres the biggest thing I learned… The thermal load created and retained by 7 butts, 7 briskets and 24 racks of ribs put inside of a 150qt Igloo cooler, and covered with a blanket is enough to maintain 190 degrees for at least 12 hours probably 16-18. The TOP brisket was at 190 10 hours after it was removed form the pit, at 182 degrees. When we opened the cooler and removed the top blanket I was hit by a blast of heat like opening a pizza oven. First thought, Oh good, its still hot.. Well that was a farkin mistake. Details to follow.

Another thing learned.. a grease fire in an upright pit, can cause serious damage to briskets 5 shelves above the fires and incinerate 24 rack of ribs in the lower shelves in under 20 seconds. And I mean incinerate, as in charred remains of what barely resembles babybacks.

I started cooking at 8am Friday. Butts and Briskets were all in by 11, butts in the BYC, briskets in the top of the MOAB. BQ showed up around 2 and stripped and rubbed the ribs, sledneck came around 7. The plan early on was to shrink the briskets and/or butts so they will all fit in the WSMs and my kitchen oven to finish after being foiled.. that way we have room to do the ribs later that night, then sleep some and get up to do the chicken.

At around 8, the briskets shrunk enuf to fit on 2 shelves in MOAB so we put the ribs on the empty shelves. So at that point, MOAB had 24 racks of ribs and 7 briskets.

Insert here where someone add logs to the the fire then sprays the Ribs. :twisted:

Another thing WE learned…MOAB has a shallow grease capacity. The opening on the bottom of the pipe leading into the firebox is only about an inch from the bottom. There was so much food in the chamber, that I should have left the drain opened. The bottom of the pit filled up quickly with grease and made for an easy grease fire. We discovered that while spraying the ribs. Some spray hit the grease and splattered, igniting a grease fire that looked like Armageddon. Without going into details…. The fire incinerated the ribs to the point of throwing out 3-4 racks, and the others were pretty destroyed. It was dark out and the halogens didn’t show really how bad they were. We foiled them and coolered them shortly after. But the next morning, when we opened them at the class, not one rack had edible ribs at the ends, and in the class some of the ribs were so burnt they could not be eaten. So, the ribs were a complete embarrassment. We had to bring something, but I would have been better off getting a batch of ribs from Costco. We explained the grease fire to the reps and they included the good, they bad and ugly in the class under the “POOPIE happens” category. Amazingly, the ribs average 7-9 in the class… with some 4’s. INMO, they were all garbage and if it was up to me, I would have thrown them out.

Anyway, Butts stalled at 150-160 for over 3 hours. They were bone-in, which I never did.. so I just figured timing was off.

When the butts and briskets reached the 180’s, the probe test says they were pretty tender, so I pulled them figuring they’ll have some time in the cooler anyway. Same with briskets.. I pulled them all in the low 180’s and they were feeling almost tender. So all butts and briskets were coolered by 1AM.

Woke up at 530 to do about 250-300 pieces of chicken. I was going to cook them in high heat, so I figured(incorrectly) that chicken will take 45 minutes to an hour. So, up at 5:30, Pits ready at 6:00 and chicken is cooked by 7-7:30 right.. WRONG.. I was by myself, and I did not take into account LOADING of 300 pieces of chicken, or managing them in 2 pits. Loading alone took almost 45 minutes, then managing, going back and forth between pits, and MOAB being vertical, has slide out shelves which isn’t exactly time efficient. Chicken was done at 8:30. Unfortunately, that was the only stuff that was even decent.

When we got to the class, opening up the cooler was like opening a pizza oven. We got hit with a blast of heat and thought “oh good, they are still hot”.. right?? WRONG!! I left the instant reading the top Brisket. It read 190. Interesting since they came out in the low 180’s and its been 10 hours since then. We took the briskets out to let cool a little while we prepped the other stuff. The pork butts were nothing above OK, some pretty good, but dry. The thing is, in the class, there is NO recovery, NO fixing, NO real seasoning, No nothing. They pull, or slice, or chunk, may add a little sauce or rub and that’s it. It goes to the table. These were bone in, so inside had minimal rub, the pork was left to stand on its own, it wasn’t bad, but being they were bone in, the inside of the butts were just plain pork, minimal seasoning got inside, and none was added.

The briskets were another “oh POOPIE” moment. I knew I was in trouble when I opened the first one and inside the foil………DRY.. not a drop of juice or liquid. I know when I took them out Friday night, they were pouring liquid out of the foil, but the bottom of the cooler didn’t have that much in it.. they sat in that cooler and dehydrated….that much meat mass coming straight out of the pits actually deformed the inside of the cooler. The temps had to climb pretty high.. all the briskets dried out. And again, no attempts at recovery. No bath in beef broth, no saucing, no brushing, nothing.. Even a short sting in some beef base may re-hydrated them considering they were so dry, they may reabsorb a gallon or 2 per slice.

Surprisingly the butts and briskets did not get all 3-4s the way I would have judged them, but had mostly 6-7-8’s.. with a few 4, 5 or ’s. I did not look at all of the scoring, but those that I did I see, I found funny.. as Jerry asked who scored what, and the judges raised hands, my first reaction was, “are they nuts?”.. Even in ribs, I saw 2- 9’s… holy POOPIE, they must have gotten the only 2 edible ones from the center.

My biggest issue is that I hope those people don’t think that’s BBQ, in my eyes it was garbage. I got people coming over at the end and saying it was pretty good, but I’m sure they were just being nice.

So, will I do it again?? .. yeah probably, this was a learning experience. I know what not to do and what to do next time.. Purple Turtle was there helping, and even they said no way should that be done alone.. Next time we will team up and I’ll do 2 and they do 2. It was not the amount of people, but the amount of grate space and the time frame that was the issue. I should have started on Wednesday, but didn’t get meat till Thursday afternoon.

So.. I move on, lick the wounds hang my tongs in shame and hope no one got sick. :frown:

 

[Sawdustguy]

I am truely sorry that I was not available this weekend. I feel badly that I was not available to help you this weekend. If this ever comes up again I would be happy to share the cooking with you. I could bring the Lang and we cook our tails off.

 

[BrooklynQ]

Phil - you're beating yourself up for no reason. With the exception of the incinderated ribs, everything else was fine. I've had worse at comps. I've had better too, but hell it was a lot of fun and ain't that the point?

remember - pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

 

[backyardchef]

Hey, at least it sounded like you were having fun when I was on the phone. What was in the rib rub again, BQ? :grin:

 

[BBQchef33]

Very funny.. next time i am throwing the curtain over you. :twisted:

Im not beating myself up.. But i am sharing all the gory details so we can all learn from this experience. There was alot of misconceptions, misjudgments and miscalcualtions cooking in this volume. Was it fun.. yeah we got to hang out and eat and hang out and eat.. and hang out... and eat.. but there was also 50 people judging the food. I think the biggest problem was the hold time. If I were to do it again next week, i would rethink the timing and make it so everything is coming out before the class.. start cooking at night not in the morning... or cooke earlier and refigerate and then reheat... but not have it sitting in a cooler for hours. Rob pointed something else out... the food did not get served until 1230-2:30, so some of that stuff was in there for 12-14 hours.

 

[BrooklynQ]

You ate that POOPIE?

 

[MrSmoker]

Thanks for sharing Phil,sounds like you worked you arse off.I'm sure this will help a lot of us in the future.Like Rob said don't beat your self up it's just another one of lifes learning experences.I learn some thing new every day and i'm older then dirt

 

[Trout_man22]

Phil, if it will make you feel any better I had food poisoning on Saturday. So I sure what ever you cook had to be better then what ever I ate:roll::roll::roll:.

BTW what you cooked is what they have every day at Famous Dave's :wink:

 

[BBQchef33]

ya know.. after looking at the pics, the more i think it was do-able, with only adjustment to timing. The butts were fine in the BYC.. and if they would have come out 2-3 hours before the class, and gone intoa seperate cooler, they would have been good.

Same for the briskets in MOAB or a few WSM's. Reduce hold time to no more than 2-3 hours for 7 briskets.

ribs should have been done the day before and reheated. Fine for a judging class.

chicken, no change, except I'd have 2 people doing it.. or 3. it just would have been easier and mush faster. Biggest prob with chicken was managing that many pieces.

So.. as is in competitions, Timing was the key element.. and take it a little more seriously. I think i was cocky in that "I can do this easy" attitude.

Instead of hangin out an bullshitting all night.. Each of us should have taken one meat and babied it.. like me with butts and briskets, BQ with ribs( and no spray bottle) and Steve chicken.. or like purple turtle said.. 2 teams, each doing 2 meats..

and most important, take the spray bottle away from the man behind the curtain!! :twisted:

Heres some pics. The last pictures was of of Rob, the ribs and the spray bottle... if u look real close you can see the door of MOAB in the picture. :mrgreen:

 

[chad]

Phil, ya gotta remember that the goal for judging classes is to have meat for everyone - it doesn't have to be top notch - since they won't see all top notch when they get to a contest. Also, we are always our worst critics!

He, he, he!!! Yeah, doing several hundred pounds of butts and brisket is a hoot!! I've done brisket for 200-400 before...of course, mine was edible! :-D

Just when you think you've got all the cooker you'll ever need something like this happens. I'm looking around to borrow another cooker for the 250# (raw weight) of pork butt I'm doing in June!! :shock: :biggrin:

If the 330# was the brisket and pork then you had about 198# of finished meat - or, the way I figure, meat for about 500-600 people. Shrinkage, ya know?!!

Chicken parts are a real pain...I just did 128 pieces last week for a gig and it was a pain...some of it self inflicted since I didn't take my extension shelves for the rotiserrie!!

Call it a learning experience...and get one of the catering bros to help you out next time!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Something like this does make you appreciate the Southern Pride, Southern Yankee, etc. type of big cookers.

 

[LostNation]

Thanks Phil, I'm cooking for the judging class at Lake Placid on July 2nd. I think I'm going to cook the butts ( pulled, sliced, and chunked) and briskets ( sliced and burnt ends) the weekend before and vac-pack then freeze. The ribs I'll cook the day before and refrigerate then cook the chicken on site. Most I'll cook myself but have plenty of time to do it. I have some teammates to help do the boxes on the second. After reading your post it makes me wonder why I volunteered to cook the school.

 

[RichardF]

Is that a random duck in the picture or your pet duck? An entry for anything but?

 

[chad]

Is that a random duck in the picture or your pet duck? Any entry for anyting but?

That is the one and only Sir Shitsalot!:-D

 

[Sledneck]

Phil, it was not that bad. I didnt see anybody spit anything out! Only a handful might of known what real quality que is. Could of been alot worse, imagine everything got charred.That would be embarrassing. I would do it again, alway s good to learn

 

[BBQchef33]

Thanks Phil, I'm cooking for the judging class at Lake Placid on July 2nd. I think I'm going to cook the butts ( pulled, sliced, and chunked) and briskets ( sliced and burnt ends) the weekend before and vac-pack then freeze. The ribs I'll cook the day before and refrigerate then cook the chicken on site. Most I'll cook myself but have plenty of time to do it. I have some teammates to help do the boxes on the second. After reading your post it makes me wonder why I volunteered to cook the school.

Rich.. i would volunteer again, but make sur eim better prepared and informed. I wasnt aware of the requirment for different boxes until it was too late(burnt ends for briskets, chunked pork, sliced, etc..) I also didnt get the meat until Wednesday afternoon, so starting early wasnt an opttion either. next time, or if you were to ask me, I would say do it like you plan.. larger cuts cook, vacum pack and store them cold... Ribs the same the day before and chicken that morning or on site. The cooler is defiantely what ruined us.

 

[BobberQer]

lol No wonder ya didnt get mad when I said the ribs sucked!!!

 

[jrick33]

It's not that bad Phil....remeber, we are always our own toughest critic.
I had a good time, got to meet a few of the guys, eat sample some BBQ ( and since I am a rookie, I thought it was pretty good). My family also enjoyed what I brought home.
Now I can't wait until the bash, where the Q should be heavenly....

Also acquired a new found respect for stale sprinkles......

 

[BBQchef33]

JR... Your avatar still freaks me out.

Folks, JR was there to help out Smoker came by, Militant Squatter, BQ and my son james and Team Purple Turtle .. were all table captians.. we had a great time and alot of fun at the class. But JR.. that WAS NOT the good stuff... thats was a really bad example.. and Bob... you get an award just for being able to bite those ribs.. nevermind chewem.

 

[RichardF]

Phil - I'm sure you know the local Q-joints. Why not see if one of them would open early on a Saturday or Sunday morning and allow you to hold the class in their restaurant and cook on their smoker. you can pitch it to the restaurant as building community relations. They might have a cooking capacity issue, and they might not.