Rick Jones
TVWBB Fan
I took the Paul Kirk class given in Pasadena, California on February 9th, and since there's been a lot of discussion re: the relative merit's of taking one of Paul's classes, I thought I'd post a general class description and a few thoughts while their still fresh on my mind.
The class begins at 7:00 a.m., and the first thing done is everyone fires up their cookers so they'll be ready when we put on the first meat to be cooked, which was brisket (flats only due to time constraints). There was everything from gigantic Klose pits to Weber kettles there, and I counted 15 Bullets (including mine).
When the class began, we were broken up into 2-person teams. Paul had made up a brisket rub and a pork butt rub the night before, and gave a small bag full to each team. He showed us how to separate the brisket point from the flat, and each team was then given a brisket to carve, season, and put on the grill.
Pork Butt was next, and after demonstrating how to trim the fat off of one, each team again was given one to work on. A similar demonstration on butterflying a chicken was given later on, and again each team got to work on a bird after that.
Paul then gave an informative lecture on assembling rubs, which each team was then required to do prior to putting chicken and ribs on to smoke. The ribs were baby backs which had already been skinned (Paul definitely removes the membrane), although it was my impression that at some classes they use spares and let the students remove the membrane.
Paul then made (and gave a bunch of tips on making) a pile of sausage, and each team took some and put it on their smokers. This was done just for fun and wasn't judged later.
Around 3:30 we began judging chicken. I won't go into a bunch of detail about the judging process, but it was a great experience to see how it works.
Prior to each meat we judged, Paul showed us how he sliced and presented each one.
The rest of the day was spent presenting and judging the other three meats we had all cooked. My team got a 6th place out of 21 teams in Pork Butt, which wasn't bad for a pair of first timers. Our chicken was a disaster (our rub was too salty), our brisket dried out, and although I loved our ribs we didn't place in that category. When I asked Paul about our brisket, which was dry even though it only got to 175 deg., he said, "Sometimes there's just no moisture to keep in them." He also suggested cooking them at a slightly higher temperature in order to seal in the juices.
In between all of the class items I mention above, Paul took a lot of time to just answer general BBQ and competition questions, and that may have been the most valuable part of the class.
I would say that anyone who has the chance should definitely take this class. It is, as has been said here before, a way to get years of experience in 12 hours. Even though I felt pretty good about my ability to produce good barbecue before taking this class, I now feel I could now confidently cook for a large group and even compete without feeling intimidated.
Rick Jones
The class begins at 7:00 a.m., and the first thing done is everyone fires up their cookers so they'll be ready when we put on the first meat to be cooked, which was brisket (flats only due to time constraints). There was everything from gigantic Klose pits to Weber kettles there, and I counted 15 Bullets (including mine).
When the class began, we were broken up into 2-person teams. Paul had made up a brisket rub and a pork butt rub the night before, and gave a small bag full to each team. He showed us how to separate the brisket point from the flat, and each team was then given a brisket to carve, season, and put on the grill.
Pork Butt was next, and after demonstrating how to trim the fat off of one, each team again was given one to work on. A similar demonstration on butterflying a chicken was given later on, and again each team got to work on a bird after that.
Paul then gave an informative lecture on assembling rubs, which each team was then required to do prior to putting chicken and ribs on to smoke. The ribs were baby backs which had already been skinned (Paul definitely removes the membrane), although it was my impression that at some classes they use spares and let the students remove the membrane.
Paul then made (and gave a bunch of tips on making) a pile of sausage, and each team took some and put it on their smokers. This was done just for fun and wasn't judged later.
Around 3:30 we began judging chicken. I won't go into a bunch of detail about the judging process, but it was a great experience to see how it works.
Prior to each meat we judged, Paul showed us how he sliced and presented each one.
The rest of the day was spent presenting and judging the other three meats we had all cooked. My team got a 6th place out of 21 teams in Pork Butt, which wasn't bad for a pair of first timers. Our chicken was a disaster (our rub was too salty), our brisket dried out, and although I loved our ribs we didn't place in that category. When I asked Paul about our brisket, which was dry even though it only got to 175 deg., he said, "Sometimes there's just no moisture to keep in them." He also suggested cooking them at a slightly higher temperature in order to seal in the juices.
In between all of the class items I mention above, Paul took a lot of time to just answer general BBQ and competition questions, and that may have been the most valuable part of the class.
I would say that anyone who has the chance should definitely take this class. It is, as has been said here before, a way to get years of experience in 12 hours. Even though I felt pretty good about my ability to produce good barbecue before taking this class, I now feel I could now confidently cook for a large group and even compete without feeling intimidated.
Rick Jones
