Competition BBQ Secrets

Archive for March, 2010

Bill,
I recently purchased a lang 108 and have used it twice. I have a mobile BBQ unit.
I am using the maverick that you sell and have found that the temp. on the grill grate is about 50 degree hotter than the therm. on the lang, is this normal or will it even out with more use?
Also do you know anything about cooking hot and fast for butts and ribs i.e. temps and times?
I had made a reverse flow smoker out of a 275 gal. fuel oil tank and it worked great as far as therm. temps on the lid and the like, but since using the maverick I am a little confused about which one I should follow, can you give me some guidance?
I am going to be open every day and am doing it by myself and need some advice.

“Make yourselves sheep & the wolves will eat you.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 RICK

Bill,

I purchased the Competition BBW ebook and have begun reading it.  I see that you only discuss cooking chicken thighs and I’m looking for information on cooking half chickens.  I plan to compete in IBCA events that always seem to include half chickens as one of the meats to be cooked.  Any information about this you could direct me to would be appreciated. 

Thanks.
John

Good afternoon Bill,

 I have been trying different rubs from your book on my spare ribs and they are all great.  But what I really wanted to know is which rub and sauce do you use for your competition?  Your tips have been very helpful and it seems that I just keep getting better and better with each time I smoke.  I also wanted to get your thoughts on using pellet smokers and which brand.  I have been using a King Fisher Kooker rotisserie smoker but it requires a lot of my attention to keep the temperature dialed in.  The pellet cookers just seem so much easier.

 Thanks again for all the good reading and tips.

 Gregg

Bill—You’re right on about the value of your info. I have to keep reprinting the relevant pages from your cookbook as I refer to them so much they wind up covered in sauce all the time. I love Smoke’n’Spice but they’re pretty useless when it comes to important details.

As far as knowing what good Q is, one of the crowning days for me was when we went out of our way to visit “Smoque” a BBQ joint in Chicago that had been on the Food Network. When we received our sampler plates my wife and daughter dug into the pulled pork and said “what’s the big deal, it’s just like yours!” Of course now I want to be better than that, but it was a nice warm feeling.

Keep up the good work and I particularly look forward to your ‘slow’ brisket & ‘slow’ pork videos. I’ve also been experimenting with combining the smoker with my other favorite food system, sous-vide (I half-heartedly keep a blog on it at http://www.sousvide.org/). The combo of the low, slow, wet cooking sous vide provides with the bark & bite of smoke can be pretty awesome. Just have to get the details right 

Regards—David

Bill, at your recommendation, I bought a Trager BBQ like the one you say you use in competition. It works and cooks great but I don’t think it imparts near the smoke flavor of my other smoker. Any wood pellet type impart more smoke flavor that another. Are you still using the Trager in competition? Even long smoking doesn’t give enough smoke flavor. Let me know.  Thanks  Jim

re: In reference to April’s newsletter about Learning BBQ – http://www.bbqsuccess.com/learning-barbecue/

You are right!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been at this for about one to two years and can’t seem to get consistency. I must have read your book 50 times. I end up drifting to some other place to find answers and end up with crappppp. The first time I followed your book the ribs were outstanding. Then I decided to strive for something better still not knowing the competition.  I bought a smoker and use local apple wood which has a great taste. I still have a problem with technique. This is what you said in the beginning. Don’t worry about sauces but get the process down first. I have changed to a full would burning barbeque. Do you have any suggestions for me? My neighborhood is waiting for us to open a barbeque restaurant but I will not not until we have consistency.
Thanks
john

Hey Bill. Congrats on your students in the contest they have done.I am not surprised. So when will you compete in your first contest.Thanks again for the awsome progam.  Darrin in NC

Bill:

I tried this rubbery chicken recipe on the Big Green Egg 3 times and could not get it to work very well. I think that one problem is that the BGE has such good heat retention, trying to get the temp to lower quickly I let my fire go out. Everything else in your book works great on the BGE and has improved everything that I cook. I have gotten great comments on the brisket that I fix now even from people that say that they don’t really care for brisket. Thanks for a great book.   

I work for the University of Georgia Food service as a Facilities Manager. I was wondering if we could get your help choosing a smoker for one of our dinning halls. Bolton Dinning Commons wants to add a new concept; they want to serve slow cooked/smoked butts, brisket, ribs and more. We are looking for a cooker that has around a 300# capacity and does not have to be consistently monitored. They have been looking on the internet and found the Fast Eddies by Cook Shack model FEC300. I am sure that what ever we pick it will have to be NSF approved. I just thought that you have probably seen and used many different cookers and thought that maybe you could steer us in the right direction. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sammy