Figuring out what you need ahead of time and what tips and tricks you can use are a great time saver. Setting up your site is an important part of the whole process.  Each of these sites has helped me a lot.

Here are some great tips and checklists to make your life easier:

Virginia Pirates Website

*Getting Started

*Tips

*Timelines

*Checklists

Smoking Guns Website

*Competition Checklists

BBQ-Brethren Website

Excellent resource for tips on all things competition and backyard BBQ.

The Pickled Pig Forum

*Excellent resource for competition and backyard BBQ.

This is a great deal and a good place to eat. Was in there for lunch earlier this week and saw their Fathers Day special posted:

Big Chris fathers day special folks.. Two full racks, large fries, and a large caesar salad for $35.00.. Dont make dad cook on his day, take it home and tell him that YOU MADE IT..

Location:

110 Anne st. South

Barrie, ON

Phone:

705-721-7427

Sometimes you just wish you could be in two places at once………….

If I wasn’t already booked for a competition I would be going to this next weekend. Rob “Rub” Bagby is a top notch competitor and an all around really great guy with a proven track record for getting terrific results!!

I have heard many extol the virtues of this class after taking it. I sure wish I could have made it down for his excellent BBQ Cooking Class.

You can also find Swamp Boys on Facebook and also you can catch up with them on their BLOG and Website

Finally. A new BBQ restaurant has opened in Barrie. I was looking forward to the opening of Big Chris’s Smokehouse since the last BBQ restaurant in Barrie –  Mike Love’s BBQ closed in 2008.

Big Chris’s has been open for less than 48 hours but I could not resist popping in to try some of their BBQ.

I asked what type of equipment they use and was told it is an electric Cookshack smoker with apple and hickory chips.

I ordered their half rack of ribs ($12.95) and their half bun Pulled Pork Sandwich ($5.50) both came with sides of beans coleslaw and fries.  I got both of these orders to go.

Ill start with their ribs. Currently they have only one sauce and they will be introducing more (Mustard, Texas spicy etc) in the future.

The half rack is generously portioned.  Very meaty rack.  The ribs did not fall off the bone and were cooked in my opinion properly. They had really good texture. The sauce was not overly sweet. Nice balance overall.  It was a decent rack of ribs with a very noticeable smoke taste.

Now something I wasn’t expecting was the goodness of the fries. It is really hard to get good fries. This place does them really well. While I personally prefer hushpuppies with my BBQ these fries are beautifully crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. They remind me of old school fish and chip fries. Get some.

Next up would be my least favorite part of the meal – the beans. Seriously I expected much much better. They are not memorable. The texture is really mushy and bland. Theres just nothing there that would make you want their beans again. They could improve these greatly.   A little onion a little spice and a better bean would go a long way on improving them. Truly they tasted like a can of Heinz beans dumped into a container.   Take a pass on these.

The coleslaw was really good. You may want to get seconds.  Super crunchy tart and sweet at the same time and a perfect match for my favorite part of the meal the pulled pork sammie.

Now this in my opinion would be worth the drive from Toronto to come to Barrie to eat lunch or dinner.  This sandwich alone would be worth it. More often than not in restaurants these days pulled pork is over cooked mushy as heck and blander than anything. This sandwich is none of those things.

This is a really awesome Pulled Pork Sammie.

This is goodness on a bun. Please note this sammie must have weighed well over a pound and this was their half bun. The texture is what got me. The texture was great. The flavors came through a little smoke and a little sweet and all pork goodness. The pork pieces still have definition. Wonderful flavorful definition. I would go back for another.  There are still a lot of other items I would like to try on their menu.

There are still lots of quirks to be figured out and I have no doubt they will get there. For me I would definitely recommend this place as a real contender for some of the best BBQ in Ontario.  One of the key things I noticed was what I saw from other people – a whole lot of empty plates and happy looking folks.

They are open 7 days a week 11-11pm

110 Anne St. South

Barrie Ontario

705-721-RIBS (7427)

If you love BBQ and want to compete this is a great way to start!!C’mon out !!

mmm…BBQ Amateur Series

Amateur events are only $50.00 to enter and they even provide the ribs! You just need to bring your BBQ and any other supplies you need for the day! Contact Strodes BBQ for more details!!

Gloucester May 28 – 30

Paris June 13

Brantford May 16

Chatham July 11

Listowel July 17

Lindsay July 17 – 18

St. Thomas October 9

Love seeing so many great audition tapes. I know some of these folks and I wish them all the best!!

Smokin Scotsmen!! FEAR THE KILT!!

Fire Fightin’ Cookin Crew ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap0va0O7r9M

Kentucky Smoke Squad



Team Unknown BBQ- Seriously funny video



Moe from Ponderosa BBQ~



Tarheel Smokers!!!


Southern Soul Barbecue Harrison Sapp



A Boy and his BBQ!

Well today has been a very exciting BBQ day!! I got to see the new Traeger 300 in person right after it was unloaded. It is even more impressive in person. Really solid design. I am looking forward to playing on one in the upcoming weeks.

Here are some pictures of the unit

As soon as I get the spec sheet I will update this post!

Whiskeybent BBQ

And here is the new Banner AD for BBQ Pitmasters

New Cookbook that is available this month on Amazon.I was asked a while back to submit some recipes for the upcoming KCBS cookbook 25th Anniversary edition. I was surprised and delighted to receive my copy today. They included all of the recipes I submitted. These are truly some of my all time favorites.

About the authors of this latest KCBS Cookbook:

A charter member of KCBS and former three-term member of the Board of Directors, Ardie Davis founded the American Royal International BBQ Sauce, Rub, and Baste Contest and the Great American Barbecue Sauce, Baste, and Rub Contest. He is the author of five barbeque cookbooks.

Paul Kirk, a charter member of the KCBS and member of the Board of Directors, operates the Baron’s School of Pitmasters. The author of six barbeque cookbooks, he has won more than 475 cooking and barbequing awards, among them seven world championships, including the prestigious American Royal Open, the world’s largest barbeque contest.

Carolyn Wells and her late husband, Gary, were two of the original founders of the Kansas City Barbeque Society. Carolyn is the Executive Director and continues to dedicate her time as an ambassador for the KCBS and for barbeque itself.

The book is chock full of recipes (over 200) from lots of terrific teams and backyard cooks. I had to laugh at page 209 title page Cross Dressing at BBQ & Chili Events. So funny. I won’t ruin the surprise by posting it here but don’t miss that page. Also a fav recipe of mine from a friend Paul Seabrook is featured on page 17 . There are so many interesting and varied recipes throughout this book. It will be fun to experiment with some of them.

At the front of the book there is also a section on the KCBS 4 meats for competition making this an ideal book for any starter team as well.

Lots of fun and loaded up with contributions from so many this makes an ideal BBQ book purchase or gift for any on your list.

DIG IN!!!

As I am prepping for the 2010 season to begin I have to start with where we really needed to improve from 2009. For the last years season I was really happy with our pork. Everything else needs a lot more work. Especially brisket. I have struggled with brisket. Brisket is my challenge above all challenges. Overall for the year we came in 241 out of 4716 on the Pickled Pig Rankings. I am proud and challenged by those results. Just shy of being in the top 5% overall we came in:

• 173 out of 4716  Pork
• 267 out of 4716 Chicken
• 331 out of 4716 Ribs
• 580 out of 4716 Brisket

For these rankings we had 6 competitions that were included:

We did however compete in additional competitions for the 2009 as well that were not included in those rankings:

Canada Southern BBQ Championships
Grand Champion

1st — Pork; 2nd — Ribs; 3rd — Brisket; 3rd —Chicken 1st—Anything  But

_____________

“Smoke on the Water Barbecue Competition Saskatchewan”
Reserve Grand Champion

1st — Pork; 2nd — Ribs; 4th — Brisket; 4th—Chicken 1st—Anything But

_____________

Canadian Pork BBQ Championships
Reserve Grand Champion

2nd—Chicken; 2nd — Pork; 4th — Brisket; 4th — Ribs

_____________

National BBQ Festival “Best of the Best”

Invitational BBQ Cook-off
4th Overall

7th — Pork Shoulder; 6th — Chicken;

_____________

National BBQ Festival “Best of the Best”
Open BBQ Cook-off

13th Overall

9th — Ribs
_____________

BBQ on the Bow Calgary Alberta

4th Overall

1st — Brisket; 3rd — Ribs

______________

Crazy Canuck BBQ Championships Toronto Ontario

4th Overall

3rd—Chicken; 3rd — Pork; 4th — Ribs; 6th — Brisket

Overall we made improvements to our overall BBQ in my opinion. I am hoping to be able to attend more competitions this year however my schedule may have some interesting diversions this year. I can’t share them yet but I am really excited for 2010 overall. I have a lot of practice and work to do. LOL