Stress free...


 
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Dennis Cramer

TVWBB Member
Last week I wrote about a small neighborhood ribfest we were doing this past Saturday and was asking for advice. We had five competitors only due to the rain but had a great time.

I prepared my babybacks using a slightly modified BRITU rub and used my WSM. Others used gas grills, electric smokers and even an Oklahoma Joe smoker.

At 10:30am I put my ribs on and maintained a temp between 210 and 240 for 2.5 hours. I then foiled for 1.5 hours with a apple/grape juice mixture. For the final hour I removed from foil and smoked with my sauce. The ribs turned out tender, juicy and tangy.

My sauce was Sweet Baby Ray's with a jar of apple jelly and a half jar of apricot preserves simmered along with some rub mixed in.

The guy with the the big honkin' Oklahoma Joe arrived later than he should have and had a difficult time maintaining heat. He put pork butts and chickens in along with his ribs and he could never stabilize his temps. Needless to say his ribs were quite chewy. As a hobby he has makes and sells his BBQ sauce to local stores. I've seen them in our store but never purchased them. THey;re actually quite good and he even gave me two jars. I didn't even ask and he wants to give me the recipe.

Anyways, I scored a 26 out of 30 and won the competition. Got some cash back and a cool trophy. Most of all I had a GREAT time and got the opprotunity to have others try my ribs.

Next year we plan on advertising it more to our communtiy and expect/hope to have 15 competitors.
 
FANTASTIC

When I told you to relax and enjoy, I did not don't take it seriously and don't work to do a good job. Anything worth doing is worth doing well (Can you tell I am a retired High School Teacher and am used to trying to motivate my kids?
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Sounds like our friend with the OKJ had too much of a relax and enjoy attitude - and it bit him on the a$$
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Any chance of you guys becoming KCBS certified?
 
Thanks for the kind words and the advice given. It really was a lot of fun.

We had three judges - two were residents and one was a culinary arts chef at our local junior college. He was more of a pastry chef but it still was cool to have a chef there.

I went up to the judging table after all the scoring was done and noticed something cool - ALL my ribs from my box were completely gone. Mr. Oklahoma Joe's were practically all still there.

I spoke to the judges and asked how they liked everything in general. They like fall off the bone tender, they didn't consider the ones where the guy likes to "cook them like steaks for 40 minutes over an open flame" and they didn't consider Oklahoma Joe's either. Oklahoma Joe didn't slice his ribs separately so the judges couldn't pull them apart because they were undercooked and so chewy.

I'll look into the possiblity of being KCBS certified next year. We do want to make sure we keep it simple for everyone.

Anyways, while it was a small victory amongst a few competitors it still was a blast and it gives me bragging rights for a year. I really can see how exhilirating it must be for those serious guys who travel around and enter competitions.

Dennis
 
It sounds like your event was fun. Keep it small and stress free. You do not need to be KCBS certified to have fun.
 
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