2009 Beef Fest Blues and BBQ

Last weekend, we competed in the 9th annual Flint Hills Beef Fest- Blues and BBQ, in Emporia, KS. There were 36 teams and the weather was perfect. We arrived at 9pm, which is about 4 hours behind schedule, but I was late last year and did pretty well. I think its actually good for me to show up late at Beef Fest because it minimizes the chances of me getting caught up with my old buddies in my hometown and a bunch of beer. On the way down, I found out that one of my friends who cooks on a local team in the contest had passed away the week before. Bruce Neill was 49 and we worked together at Neenan Co. He was a great guy and will be missed. We finally got set up and meat prepped by about 11:00pm. The teams are around this square, open area and in the middle, they set up a tent with a stage where the blues acts perform. Its a good Friday night atmosphere. Another bonus about that contest is that my friend Jim Callow lives across the street so once we put on our meat, Luke and I went over and slept in the AC at Jim's. 5 hours of sleep at a bbq contest is really good... Because I was late, I missed the cooks meeting, which isn't really a big yank since the rules are always the same....right. Well, the rules were the same, but the standard KCBS turn-in times had been pushed up one hour...now starting at 11...luckily my friend Greg from Ribs 4U mentioned it to me at about 7am...as I was going to put on my ribs as usual...so I was an hour late. I ended up finishing the ribs in the foil on a really hot green egg with direct heat-set to grill my tri-tip steak for misc beef...one slab was inedible and thrown away...the other slab I literally scraped char off the backside...painted with sauce and got 5th place in a tough field...go figure. My scores were all pretty good, 4th place chicken, 7th place pork (which was my only real disappointment b/c it was the best I've ever cooked) and 7th place brisket. In the extra categories, I received 6th place for sausage and 10th place misc beef. Overall, our ranking was 3rd, which is pretty good for our 2nd contest of the year...Bart Clarke-Twin Oaks was the winner and he is one of the best in the country.

This image is one of the judges leaving the tent with their little coolers full of leftovers...nothing like eating 3 or 4 or pounds of bbq and then wanting some to take home...the guy on the right is a real overachiever...two coolers