Buster Dog BBQ

This is as close to home as we get for a KCBS contest for the rest of the season. We will be in Ankeny, IA at the Sports Plex location. Next door to us will be the Ankeny Summerfest and will feature a beer garden and live bands.  Although we can’t get in until Friday for the BBQ, Thursday night the Rumbles are playing at the beer garden.  They played in Marhsalltown and were really good.  Looking forward to seeing them. Saturday morning a large parade runs along the area.

This contest definately has a little different feel to it.  Last year there were lots of little parties going on all night in the parking lot.  Not that I could hear them because the guy next to us had the loudest generator on the planet.  So I anticipate not getting much sleep and watching the drunk crowd.  A lot of the teams seemed like they only did a few contest a year.  Last year we had a little party Friday night and plan to do so again this year.

As far as the teams go I think this will be wide, wide open.  Most of the heavy hitters are heading to Shannon, IL for the Illinois State BBQ Championship.  Last year at this contest we finished 1st in chicken and 16th overall.  Based on last years scores, I think we can come close to the top if we can continue our ways.  We are scoring overall about 12 points higher this year than last for this contest.

What a weekend in Marshalltown, Iowa at the 10th Annual Iowa State BBQ Championship.  First off, hats of to Lew Miller, the organizer of the event.  The event was to be held at Riverview Park which is a pretty nice camp ground.  But with all the flooding the park was underwater.  So two weeks ago Lew went to plans B-Z and we ended up at the Iowa International Speedway.  No, not the one in Newton, the speedway I refer to is the go kart road coarse on the east end of town.  The ground was not real level and things were tight, but thanks to Lew’s effort everyone had power as Allient Energy wired the whole place with temporary power.

Friday got off to an ok start as teams started showing up.  Weather was good and people were getting in just fine.  David did the Kids Que which is a competition for kids 11-15.  He decided to make pizza.  While he was cooking, the local independent tv channel came up and interviewed him (then so did the cops in the picture). Kids Que turn in was 630 and awards at 7.  Just in time to be done by the start of the Iowa BBQ society party which happened to be right across from us.  Score.   Then abouy 630 storms started rolling in and by 7 in was pouring.  Well, the storms only lasted 30 min and the party was back on.  Kids Que awards were rescheduled to Saturday.  So we had a few brews at the party and went back to work.  I could usually do without the bands at these contest but The Rambles who played after the rain Friday night were a great band and I wish they would have played longer.

Ok, this contest showed that I can be pretty stupid.  First thing was the Boston Butts.  I always do bone in and just grabbed a package out of the freezer without really looking at them.  Well, they were boneless.  I don’t like to cook boneless because they just flop all over.   My first indication things weren’t going right is my brisket some how cooked really, really fast and decided it was done at 530 in the morning. Only about 4 hours ahead of schedule.  Never had that happen before.  The butts then got done about 8 which is still about an hour or two fast.  Not a great start so far.  Turkey was optional in this contest and I picked up the smallest turkey breast I could find.  When I was looking at it, it said 1.59lb. so I thought, shoot, I can cook this thing in about two hours.  Well, at 1120 (10 min before turn in) it was 40 degrees undercooked in the middle.  Yep.  1.59lb.  That would be $1.59 per pound, not weight.  We did have some areas that were done we did turn in.  My other dumb mistake was I put the ribs back on the cooker meat side up in the foil stage and not meat side done.  Never done that before and seeing the carmelization in the foil, I now know why you don’t put them in meat side up.  It was like caramel ribs.  All this and did i mention the wind is blowing like 40mph?

So awards time comes up and they call up all the kids to get their participation awards for the Kids Q.  Then they call desert  category.  We were thinking about doing this and decided not too.  Good thing as Ulcer Acres got a perfect 180 for a strawberry ice cream cheesecake.  Then turkey, no calls there.  Chicken category and we are 7th out of 62.  I was surprised because the chicken seemed a little spicier and it was darker on the skin then normal.  Our chicken score was the highest we ever received in that category.  We were shut out the rest.  But looking at the scores, our ribs missed the top 10 by 3 points.  Had I not done them wrong at the foil stage then who knows.  I will say presentation was great.  Dawn got some great parsley and the boxes looked first class.  The pictures are a little dark because she did them inside the trailer because the wind was just too much inside the prep area.

Speaking of wind. My 45 mile drive from Marshalltown took me almost 1 1/2 hours. That wind whipped my trailer around and more than once I thought I was going off the road. Dawn called a campground on the way but they were full so I just took my time on the secondary highways and got there when I did. The truck did a tremendous job hauling into the wind.

We will be in Marhshalltown this week at the 10th annual Iowa State BBQ Championship.  There are 65 teams competing from seven states.  Of course Quau and Smokey D’s will be there.  They are both on a roll and one of the two have finished first or second in the last three weeks.    What I noticed about this contest is some of the bigger players are not attending this year.  A lot more local teams on the list. I suppose gas prices is keeping some of them away.  One nice thing is Iowa is a BBQ hotbed and there are enough contest within three hours to satisfy most contestants.

Friday night at the contest is the kid’s Q.  Not sure what David is going to make.  There is also an Iowa BBQ Society party that night which should be a lot of fun.

Got back from State Center kind of late so I did not have time to update the blog when I got home.  Anyway here are the highlights.

Got there Friday morning about 930 and got setup.  Got our same spot as last year and it worked out perfect.  We were right across from Iowa’s Smokey D’s and Racoon Flats.  I like be by Darren. He is one of the best BBQ cooks in the country and very down to earth.

Friday after we setup we went to a locker in State Center that I was able to get some great deals on for some ribs and pork butts.  I got two cases to finish out the year.  The ribs all looked great as did the pork.  Friday night back up at State Center, 900lbs of ribs were given to teams to handout to the public.  We had four or five bones from a few teams.  They were not bad but none of them did like competition turn in ribs either.  Got everything on Friday nigtht and headed to bed wth the Guru’s in charge.

Saturday we got up and got everythining going about 530-600.  Everything was right on schedule.  At 922am we did the morning shot.  This is a tradition called a clone cycle.  You put a bottle of Gentelman Jack in an 5 gal bucket and fill with water and freeze.  It was smooth.  Soon after that Darren offered me a bloody mary.  Man, best I ever had.

Back to work as we got close to turn ins.  The chicken tasted good but the skin was a little rubbery.  I think it was because I did a lot of extra chicken and the marinade kept the skin too moist.  The ribs were pretty good.  I used a few racks from earlier this year that I used in Council Bluffs. I was so mad with those because they had a bone in the middle of the rack that was not visible.  Not these.  They were all good and looked great.  Really not a bad rack from the group.  The pork was pretty good.  Not much more to say.  And finally the brisket which was really sad in my book.  I bought it at Sam’s Club and it looked pretty good.  Well, it was horrible.  There was so much fat you couldn’t see from the package.  By the time I had it trimmed it was all wavey and looked like a fish cutout.  I was very embarrased by the end result.  Not the standard brisket I had been using this year because I only have three of them left. We also did the desert category.  To make it quick we did banana’s foster.  Just a couple scoops of vanilla, some sauce, pecan pieces and caramel.

Saturday we also had a lot of family come over.  For some of them it was their first visit to Buster Dog BBQ’s mobile meat wagon.  The food went fast and what was left over I vaccum packed and sent home with everybody.  I sure do like it when visitors come by and hang out.  When I say vistors I will preface that by saying people I know.  One of the things with State Center is they want you to give samples to the public.  Well, at 1030 I had a lady come back and rudely ask where the samples are and another saying what, no samples?  I said last night there were 900 pounds of ribs, did you stop by then?  I don’t think the people know the effort and cost that goes into these contest and feel you owe it to them to give them food.

So overall we finished 14th and got called for 8th in ribs and 4th in desert.  Darren from Smokey D’s won.  Good for him.  After the contest we stopped by Darryl’s Gun Shoppe. Darryl is a KCBS Rep.  He had a big party and fired off a canon and this mortor. 

BTW…All the photos in the gallery were taken by David.  What a great job.

I don’t usually get to thrilled over BBQ Logos.  Sure there are some good ones but not a ton of originality.  I do come across some that I think are great, like this one below.

Anyone notice the Power Rankings on the left?  I was relying on National BBQ Rankings but they are too out of date with updates and this widget from The Pickled Pig is very much up to date and is based on current year and not a 24 month revolving plan.  You have to finish in the top 10 of a category to get points.  First is 10 points, 10th is 1, etc.  With five contest in five weeks let’s hope these numbers jump up into the single and double digits.

Modern Marvels had a show about the Pig. Pretty interesting.

• Pork is safe to eat at 137 degrees
• For every pound of pork a pig has to eat 2.5 pounds of feed
• A pig produces 4.5 times more waste than a person
• Eldora Iowa is home to Internation Boar Semen

New location here.

This weekend (6/20) we head to State Center, IA.  Kind of the place were it all began.  Last year State Center was our first KCBS contest and we finished 2nd in Pork.  Overall we were 20th.  Boy, what a difference a year makes.  The one thing I will always remember about this contest was Rob from Munchin Hogs at the Hilton.  He was setup right across from us.  Last year he also won 7 grand championships which I think was most of anyone.  Anyway, that Friday night we cooked his dinner on the small egg (I only had large and small at the time) and he told me he could taste a little of the fuel.  Not lighter fluid because the egg doesn’t use it, but maybe a little too much charcoal taste.  Sure enough we finished 27th of 30 in chicken.  Since then I have only finished less than 20th once and in the top 10, 6 of 9 times

I have had this contest circled for a while. I really think Buster Dog BBQ has a great chance to finish very high.  I base this on our previous scores there and what we have been scoring lately.