Meat, Inc. just finished attending Stagecoach 2010 - California State BBQ Championship in Indio, CA.
At this event the team consisted of Aaron, Noe, Joe, Dean, and joining for the first time, Colin, Strawberry, Josh, Doug, and Doug's Dad (Mike). We also had a bunch of our local friends hang out that were attending the music festival.
Dean in his ass-less chaps and the chair he held down all weekend!
This event was held at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival venue on the Indio, CA Polo Grounds. It was a three day event with live C & W music acts on Saturday and Sunday. The last figure I heard was 65,000 people per day attended!
You can always find Meat, Inc. flying the "Don't Tread On Me" Flag. You can't miss it!
Initially this was supposed to be a dual KCBS Sanctioned event but one of the contests was dropped and the Saturday contest was converted into a Kingsford Challenge event for Babyback Ribs and Spare Ribs. Sunday was a full KCBS event and State Championship.
Noe is sampling a Bloody Mary as he sets up camp.
We arrived on Friday afternoon and set up the trailer, BBQ's, and the site. All the BBQ teams were placed off the main area but within 100 yards of a secondary stage. We walked around on Friday night and realized how huge the place was. We got in a round of poker, had two or three beers, a few cool and delicious, and a cocktail or two.
Colin - the current President of Cool and Delicious prepping meat with Josh and Noe.
This was also a vending event so we got to sell our BBQ to the crowd. The really cool thing was we were not limited to the standard 4 KCBS meats during the vending. Meat, Inc. was prepared to vend our secret weapon - Atomic Buffalo Turds (ABT's). We brought 9 lbs of Jalapenos to make the ABT's and were hopeful we would sell out - along with the 150lbs of various pork, brisket, ribs, and chicken we also brought.
Colin getting some tips on how to prep pork butts from Aaron.
Saturday started up as usual with Noe's world famous 14 ingredient Bloody Mary's and the return of the smoked quiche. We smoked the ribs on the BBQ and at 11am turned in Babyback (sic) Ribs and at 1130 turned in Spare Ribs. We ended up taking 3rd place in Babyback and 15th in Spares closing us out for the day in 10th place overall in the Kingsford Challenge. The second part of the days events was the Best Booth Challenge. We decided to put on a History of BBQ display with 4 stations outlining the progression of BBQ and Smoking meats from the early 1500's to the modern day. The criteria included crowd interaction so we felt confident on our chances. We have no problem interacting with the crowd!
Smoked Quiche!Vending day on Saturday was challenging. We use Traeger Pellet BBQs that require power. We lost power three times in the middle of the vending hours. This put a serious damper on our ability to cook our ABT's. Even with the power going out we sold out of ABT's by 3pm and all 150lbs of meat by 3:45 - right before the cut off of 4pm. We decided that since we blew through the ABT's AND we were out of meat, it was time for a trip into town. We purchased 20lbs of jalapenos - every single one they had at Smart & Final - along with another 100lbs of meats. We still had another 100lbs of meat left for our KCBS competition on Sunday. We scooted back and started prepping our meats for Sunday. At midnight we fired up the grills and started the brisket and pork butts.
Briskets are ON!
Sunday morning came way too early but we started the day off right with Bloody Mary's and another round of Carne Asada Chowder - and another standing ovation for this breakfast icon and now classic. We had all the teams within 30' "wandering" over to try some.
Assembly line of men - and Strawberry - making Atomic Buffalo Turds - Jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and hard salami, then wrapped in maple bacon and smoked for 1 1/2 hours. Absolutely fantastic - and fat free! These guys stuffed 20lbs of jalapenos in under 45 minutes. It took the crowd 1 1/2 hours to eat them.
We got all the meats turned in without too much drama and Day 2 of vending commenced. The power and the grills stayed up this time and we went through 20lbs of ABT's within 1 hour and 45 minutes. It also helped that the local paper featured a picture of our team and the headline screamed out Buffalo Turds. We also sold out all of the rest of the 200lbs of meat by 3pm. It was awesome!
Here's a link to the local newspaper featuring our Team and our revered ABT's:
Dean and his trusty side kick Strawberry. Strawberry's name was changed to Tinkerbell after he posed for these pictures. We attempted to trade Tinkerbell for 3 beers and a 1/2 lb of bacon but had zero takers.
Kelly - the KCBS Rep making sure Meat, Inc. was following all the rules. Let's just say we passed but I don't think he looked very hard.
Award Time! Meat, Inc. did very well in the final results racking up a 15th in Brisket, 11th in Pork Butt, 8th in Ribs, and a very satisfying 2nd in Chicken! This was enough for a fat 8th Place overall in the comp. We also pulled in a 5th in the Best Booth Competition.
As of this posting, Meat, Inc. is currently ranked 1st in Chicken and 4th overall - IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA!!!! Official results are found here:
15th Place Brisket!
11th place Pork!
8th Place Ribs!
2nd Place Chicken!
No comments:
Post a Comment