First Annual Cookies Cookout Classic

What a great time we had a Cookies BBQ in Wall Lake Iowa. This was our first competition and had little to no clue what it was going to be like. The competition had 10 teams, many professionals. Food requiems were pork ribs, pork loin, sausage and beef. A winner for the top four categories and a grand champion based on points.

Preparation

Friday afternoon we loaded the large and small egg. Wow. I need to come up with a good solution to get the large in and out of my truck easier than lifting it. It is about 140 pounds. We wheeled it into the kitchen then I carried it through the garage and into the truck. The small was no problem. It took as about four hours to get everything ready to go and the only thing we forgot was a baster for sauce. Not too bad. We got almost all of our meat the night before.

ps. Thanks to Smoking Guns BBQ for their checklist.

Wall Lake - Fri Night

Small town in northwest Iowa. Lots of popcorn farms around. We pulled into Cookies a little after seven and missed the dinner they had for the cooks. They did manage to find a rack and a half of ribs for us and some beans. Let me say this. Speed, the guy who owns Cookies, and his staff are some of the most friendly people I have met. When they talk about good people from Iowa he is on the list.

We got out spot and got everything unloaded. By then it was close to 9pm. I was a little surprised as there were only four teams spending the night. Probably because this was a non sanctioned KCBS event and the ribs were the only thing that really required any amount of length for cooking. About five hours or so.

I was kind of expecting sitting out and drinking beer most of the night but the other teams retired early so I decided to get a couple hours sleep prior to starting the egg. Additionally it was very windy and chilly.

Competition Day

The contest called for a meat item so I chose to do a brisket because that is required in KCBS sanctioning. I wanted to practice and see where I am with my brisket compared to others. So I started my egg around 1am and go the brisket on there along with a pork butt. I was hoping to submit a pork butt. The contest called for pork loin but I was hoping in he scheme of things I could ge away with the butt. No luck. I used it as samples for visitors who stopped by.

By 6am teams were starting to fire up their cookers. So here I am with my green eggs (large and small) and these guys have big ole Horizon Smokers that you haul behind your truck. A couple teams had 20ft long trailers that were a traveling kitchen with build in grills, rotisseries, etc. I felt a little intimated especially since some of these teams are award winning and have won on much higher stages then this.

About 7 am I moved the pork butt to the small and put three racks of baby backs on the large. Brisket was still going.

10am I pulled the ribs to foil them and put the brisket in foil and into a cooler wrapped in towels to hold the heat.

Now the crunch time. Starting at noon and every 30 minutes for the next two hours a food has to be turned in to judging. By 11:30ish my ribs were falling off the bone. At this time I realized I had forgot a basting brush and had to use a butter knife to coat my ribs then I used a paper towel to spread around.

We cut up all three racks and picked and chose until we found six good ones to turn in. Turn in requirements are six identify able pieces in a 9 x 9 styrofoam container.

We found our ribs and Dawn did the garnish and ran them to the judges with about 4 min left. Next was the pork loin.

Ok, pork loin to me is something I don't normally cook. I did half of it whole like a roast and cut six chops off of it. Both on the small egg. I was starting to worry because it was about 12:10 and I was about 5 degrees short of temp. Also, the chops were done but probably a little thin and dry so I quickly sauced up the loin to add a little color. Got it pulled and sliced and barely turned in on time.

Now a few minutes to rest because the brisket was done. We just had to slice it and find six pieces. It is now almost 1pm. Brisket makes it in time.

Finally, it's just down to sausage. I threw two packs of Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage on the large right after the ribs came off. I rolled them in some rub and hoped for the best. The fatties came down to the last five minutes. I don't know if it was a stroke of luck or me just being so brilliant I didn't realize it but I had diagonal grid marks on the fatties so I cut them that way.

Whew. Now we were done and felt relieved. While we were waiting on judging we cleaned up and I discussed technique with some judges who were there just for fun and had them sample some of my food. The said I was close to where I needed to be, told me what to do and were the most helpful.

Buster and Casey took care of clean up.

Awards Ceremony

So here were are. Waiting for the awards. You know when teams have special shirts for awards they are good. All we had was iron ons we did at home on some t shirts from Wal-Mart.

When they called the ribs and we were not in the top four I thought, well, the competition was stiff. I started thinking of what we could have done different.

Then they moved to pork loin. Again, I had basically thrown sauce on at the end and rushed to get it cut and out. I had tried one of the other guys's pork loin and thought mine was better. His name is called for fourth. Again, I am thinking ok here we go. All the pros are going to be next. They call third place. Sure enough, a pro. Then they call my name. Wow. Are you freaking serious? I have only cooked two pork loins on the egg and stuffed them both times. I was ecstatic. Click here to see the plaque

Next was the beef. I was the only one who did a brisket so given the cut of meat I guess I was not too surprised I did not get anything here. One guy did a prime rib. Hard to compete against that.

Finally, sausage. I am thinking, oh well, at least I can go home a winner. My sausage again was just Jimmy Dean in butt rub. The guy next to me had a custom blend from his butcher and the pros had all kinds of stuff. So here we go with the pros getting their name called. And second place sausage goes to Rodney Anderson. Wow. Two of four categories finishing second. Click here to see the plaque

Finally the grand champion goes to a company that raises and sells their own meat as well as catering. Only 20 points separated first to last. Not bad.

Overall

As I walked out of the award ceremony I couldn't help think about my dad and him watching down on us and perhaps helping out. I so wish he was around to share in this. I had no expectations going in. I just wanted to see what the competition was like and what I still need to figure out. Everything else was just a bonus.

I also want to thank Dawn and David. They were a big help. Dawn did all the plating and running to the judges. Plus she helped me throughout the night as I was pretty tired.

This was such a fun time, we learned so much and we can't wait for the next one.