Ribs & Bibs BBQ Competition Results / Year 2009

The competition BBQ team from Old Dave's Po-Farm (Ribs & Bibs Cooking Team) had a wonderful year. We competed in five Midwest states and covered about 4500 total miles on the Kansas City Barbecue Society trail in 2009.

The team competed in 13 contests was fortunate enough to win two state Grand Championships during the contest year. Out of the 4679 different teams that competed in the US in 2009 on the KCBS trail, only 29 of these teams won more contests than the two contests that Ribs & Bibs won during the year. We also had several other good finishes through out the contest year so it was a very good year for the Ribs & Bibs Cooking Team.



This picture shows Ribs & Bibs win at the "Wabash Ribberfest Barbeque Championship" in Mount Carmel, Illinois in September. The Gentleman on my far right in the blue shirt is Paul Everman who co-cooked the event with me this year.



We were lucky enough to get all four of our competitive meats in the top ten and did receive some nice trophys and a ribbon along with a little cash.

Ribs & Bibs Cooking Team consists of myself and usually one other member per cooking event. I am really blessed with some great co-cooks, friends, and of course my bride Janet who has put up with me for 44 years. There is no way I could do these events without all the wonderful support I received through out the year from these people. I just can't thank them enough for their help with this crazy hobby of BBQ competition cooking.

Steve Creech

Steve is from Columbus, Indiana and was a co-cook with the team during the year. He and Linda call their cooking team ZZ-Que and also compete on the KCBS trail during the year. Steve is great help and a pleasure to cook with. My friend, I sure appreciated the help this year.

Jeff Toler

Jeff is from the Westfield / Carmel area on the North side of Indy and co-cooked the Madison, Indiana event with me this year. Jeff with his wife Teri and family compete as Snake Pit BBQ. Jeff is a blast to cook with and is great with the preparation of our turn-in boxes. Thanks much...my buddy.

Paul Everman

Paul is from Versailes, Indiana and has co-cooked with the Ribs & Bibs team for a couple of years when he is not competing with his own team. Paul and his good friend Pat compete as Hickory Flats BBQ. It is sure nice when he cooks with Ribs & Bibs as he is just too tough to beat cooking with his own team! Paul is a great cook and a joy to cook with as he is always one step ahead of this old fat man and sure keeps me on my game. What can I say Paul...Many Thanks!!!

Mike Zinkan

Mike is from Sheridan, Indiana and is a long time friend. He has co-cooked with me longer than any other cook and claims to be the Indiana State Micro-Wave Champion. At least, that is what he put on his resume. Mike is a great friend and keeps me in my place. Just couldn't find a nicer, easy going, and more liked fellow to cook with at the events. Mike is more than a co-cook, he is a life time friend. Thank you for putting up with me all these years and all the help with this crazy hobby.

I sure hope my co-cooks can find the time again next year to cook with the team again as this old fat man couldn't do it without the great help.

We had several friends and guests visit with us during the cooking year and also had two KCBS judges cook with the team early in the year to earn their Master Judge certification.

I know many folks visit this blog from all over the world and don't have the foggiest idea of how the KCBS barbeque contests work so I will try to give a brief discription of how they work and some information on the rules.

Most contests in our area will have about 25 to 60 cooking teams. They will usually compete for a prize fund of about $3000 to about $12,000 dollars. We cook chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder or pork butts, and beef brisket in these competitions. Our food is judged on Presentation, Tenderness & Texture, and Taste. We must turn in at least 6 samples of each meat and it will be judged by 6 judges. This means that all 4 of the meats will be judged by 24 judges. The judges will give out a score which is assigned to a point system and the winner in each class of meats will have the highest score with the judges. The overall score which determines the Grand Champion is the total score from all 4 meats.

We usually start prepping our meat after it is inspected on Friday morning and have it ready for the cooker in the evening. We cook 14 pieces of chicken, 3 slabs of pork ribs, 2 pork butts, and 2 brisket or brisket flats. We like to get the butts and brisket on the cooker by about 8:00pm on Friday evening as they cook overnight. We start both the ribs and chicken on Saturday morning. The turn in time is chicken at 12:00, ribs at 12:30pm, pork at 1:00pm, and brisket at 1:30pm on Saturday.

These are some typical presentation boxes for the 4 meats.



Chicken Thighs



Pork Ribs



Pork Butt



Beef Brisket

About 2 hours after the last turn-in, they have the Awards Presentations at the events. If we are lucky, maybe we will get our names called a couple of times and might win a trophy or ribbon with a little cash.

We now have enough contests in our area that we can kind of pick and choose the ones we like as we only do about two events a month. We prefer contests where we can arrive on the Thursday before the event, and then stay over on Saturday evening, and then leave early on Sunday morning. We also prefer a reasonable entry fee of $225 or less and will pass on contests that we feel try to hold you up. Another nice feature that we look for is inside restrooms and showers or someplace close we can go to get a shower. We need a large cooking site for our toy hauler so that as well is important to the team. I guess that the perfect contest would be in a RV Park with all the amenities including sewage hook ups.

A typical KCBS contest in our area is getting expensive and the teams are very difficult to compete against with all the cooking schools out there at the present time. We are not usually very serious cooks and do this for fun but sure find it nice to hear our name called once in a while at these events.

Typical Contest Cost..

$225.00----- Entry Fee
125.00------ Contest Meat
100.00------ Fuel for Truck
25.00------- Food on Road
60.00------- About 14 Total Meals at Cooking Site for 2 Team Members
75.00------- Thursday or Friday evening Party--feed 20
50.00------- Beer and other Beverage
50.00------- All Cooking Supplies for Contest-Rubs, Sauces, etc
25.00------- Misc
-------

$735.00------Total per Event

Ribs & Bibs compete out of a small toy hauler as older folks do need their creature comforts!!



In 2009, we used both the Old School Fast Eddy Pellet Cooker and my pair of Backwoods Party Cookers for contest cooking. These are great contest cookers.





I did get a few pictures at some of the events this year and will share them with the people that read this blog.



Our cooking year started out wet!! As you can see, I am stuck in the mud before I even got backed into my site.



Some of these units needed a very serious wrecker to get them out.



This is Charles and Velma Krininger at the Fairbanks, Indiana contest. This couple cooked with the team to complete one of the requirements of becoming Master Judges. They just did it all!! From trimming up the meat, to the injection, rubs, sauces, wrapping, presentation, etc.. they were there 24/7 and did a great job with this contest cook. Really nice folks and a pleasure to cook with.



It can also be cold at the end of the year and this picture shows one of the teams co-cooks, Paul Everman, at the New Albany, Indiana event in October. His cooking partner, Pat, is in the background.



This is another gentleman that cooks with the team once in a while during the year. The picture shows Steve Creech with his better half Linda at an event in Southern Indiana late in the year.



This is a picture from our Grand Championship finish at New Albany, Indiana in October. The gentleman on my right and co-cook for the event is Mike Zinkan from Sheridan, Indiana.



This was a first year contest right on the bank of the Ohio river in New Albany, Indiana. Real nice setting for a contest. If you look close, you can see the river in the background.

We enjoy doing some kind of party either on Thursday or Friday evening at the cooking events. Some of the treats we have done in the past include pizza, jambalaya, several Mexican dishes, hot wings, hawg wings, and some other appetizers.

We are kinda known for our pizza and do this one often. Hickory Flats and Ribs & Bibs teamed up this year at the Madison, Indiana contest for a large pizza party.



We put some tables together for this event and the beautiful salad was made and brought to the party by Hoosier Crawdaddy's (Doug and Debbie Searcy).



Isn't that pretty...



This is a picture of Doug, Debbie, and Mom from the Hoosier Crawdaddy's cooking team.



My co-cook Jeff Tolar and Paul Everman made them up and I cooked them on the Backwoods Party cooker. At times, we had 4 pizzas in the cooker.





We also did some cajun pizza which is always a hit at these events.

Again, 2009 was a great year for Ribs & Bibs Cooking Team. Had a wonderful time getting to visit and compete against many great friends and also had the chance to meet many new friends and cooks and hope to do it again next year.

It's a great hobby but is expensive...but what isn't in this day and time??

Old Dave's Slyders

I am always looking for something unique to cook for friends and competitors on Thursday or Friday evening at a BBQ Contest. I think this one will be a winner. Much of the work can be done in advance to make it easier to prepare at a contest in the cooker. Everyone I know loves Slyders!!



There are a couple of my homemade cheeseburger slyders and one hamburger slyder on the plate.

I grew up eating these sandwiches on a Friday evenings after the ballgames and at that time, they were $.12 cents each. As a young man, I could put away about 12 of these in one meal.

All right, lets make slyders...



There are several things you can use for buns and I am lucky in that our local Kroger carries the very small Lewis Bake Shop sheet buns which come 24 per package and measure 3" X 3" which is the perfect size for a slyder. If you can't find something like that, you can use the small yeast rolls or maybe hotdog buns that you could cut in half or thirds.

The pickles need to be the very small and thin hamburger type dill pickles for best results.

Ingredients for 12 sandwiches

1 lb. ground beef
1 jar Gerbers beef baby food 2.5oz
2/3 cup of low sodium beef broth
1-1/2 cups of chopped dehydrated onions
3 cups of hot water
12 buns or rolls of some type
12 thin sliced dill pickles
Salt and Pepper at table
Condiments of your choice

Instructions for making the patties

Mix the hamburger, baby food, and the low sodium beef broth in a bowl with your hands.

Line a medium sized baking sheet (about 10X15") with plastic wrap. Place the meat on the sheet and spread it out with your hands or a spatula until it is fairly thin and then cover it with another sheet of plastic wrap and use a rolling pin to spread it out to the final size which will be slightly less than the full size of the sheet. Carefully remove the top sheet of the plastic wrap and score the flattened meat in about 3-1/4 to 3-1/2" squares all the way to the pan and then cover the meat back up with the plastic wrap. It now goes into the freezer to be frozen solid.



This is what it looks like just coming out of the freezer. You can see the way the meat has been scored and it will now just break off into the 12 pieces and be ready for the next step.



This is another picture of the meat just before I broke it up for the slyders and placed it back into the freezer until I was ready to do my sandwiches.

On cooking day, I fired up the smoker and brought it up to about 350 degrees. Using pecan for smoke.



The next step is to place the onions in a bowl and then add the water to get them ready for the cook. It will take about 15 minutes.

I wanted the buns steamed so I made up a pan for this.



I put a little water in this pan and then added a rack to the top of the pan.



I placed the buns on the rack and then covered the pan with another pan.



I then lined a larger cookie sheet with foil to make for an easy clean-up and then spread the wet onions out on the sheet.



The pan is ready for the frozen slyders.



I got the frozen meat out of the freezer and placed it on the onions.



I put the bun pan on about 30 minutes before I placed the slyders on the smoker to give the buns time to steam a little. I then placed the slyders on the smoker for a short cook of about 15-18 minutes although I didn't time it.



This shows them on the smoker just before I pulled the pan off the cooker.



This picture show the slyders right out of the cooker and just before I got them ready for the table.



This picture shows me getting the patties on the steamed buns and then adding the pickle on top of the meat.



Man, don't them things look great!! And they do taste like the real thing.



I prefer a slice of American cheese on my slyders.

I know many folks won't have a smoker that will run at the higher temps but I am sure these slyders will do fine at a lower temp of say about 250 degrees but will take longer to get them done.

You can do them in your kitchen oven as well for the folks that don't have a suitable cooker or smoker.

15th Annual Redneck Barbecue--Sikeston, Missouri [Lambert's Cafe]

The date of this event was April the 10th and 11th and was to be our first contest of the year for 2009 and I spent about a week getting everything together again and loaded into the trailer for this event. Was still too cold to de-winterize the trailer so we will use it without the bathroom and the water service.

My co-cook for this event was Steve Creech (ZZ-Que BBQ) from Columbus, Indiana and he arrived early on Thursday morning and we got him all loaded up and we were on the road by about 8:00am for this 330 mile trip to Sikeston.

After a couple of stops, we got into Sikeston around 12:30pm their time and found the cooking site and asked some folks where to set up and was told by a couple of teams that it didn't make any difference so we just picked out a spot and got all set up for the event. The site was at the Sikeston Rodeo Grounds and they had great hookups with both water and electricity. With some weather coming, we decided to go out and pick up some new wiper blades for the truck and get a bite to eat. We then unhooked the truck and went back into town and found an Auto-Zone and got some new blades and Steve installed them on the truck. Now to find something to eat.

Sikeston has a very famous cafe called Lambert's and is the home of the "Throwed Rolls" which has been seen many times on the Travel and Food channels and is a great adventure in itself. It was established in 1942 in Sikeston and they now have two other locations with one in Foley, Alabama and the other in Ozark, Missouri. Now, this old fellow doesn't wait well but the time was right between lunch and supper so we drove out to the place to see if we could get in without a wait and we did but it was still about full even at this time.

I really wasn't real hungry but I did want to order a whole meal so we could be sure to experience Ole Norm's Pass-Arounds and of course the "Throwed Rolls" and it came down to two great looking meals on the menu. The full one pound "Rooster" cut Chicken Fried Steak or the big 14 oz Real Country Ham meal. Tough choice!!! Anyway, I went with the Country Ham and for my two sides, did the mashed potatoes with white gravy and the cole slaw. My drink was to be unsweetend tea.

Bout this time, one of the kids came around with the first round of Ole Norm Pass-arounds and it was a pot of deep fried okra! The young lad kinda looked at us like we were some kind of out of towners as we didn't know what to do as we didn't have any plates or silverware on the table yet as we had just ordered. He told us to get some paper towels or napkins down on the table and he just poured out about a pound of the golded brown deep fried treat. Now, this old farmboy was in Heaven as I sure love this Southern treat and I just sat there and with some good hot sauce proceded to do some damage to that big pile of okra. Someone then hollered "Throwed Rolls" and I looked up and a young fellow just tossed one to me and those things are a big as softballs. Applied about a stick of butter to the roll and now it was really getting good. We just sat there and feasted on these two items and along with our tea which was served in quart mugs, just about made ourselves sick!

About 20 minutes later, our meal arrived. The ham was served sizzeling hot in a large stainless steel skillet that the meat was cooked in and the veggies were in bowls and also inside the skillet as well. Very nice presentation! Bout this time, here come all the rest of the kids with the Pass-Arounds. First was a large skillet of fried potatoes with just a hint of onion flavor and of course, I got a big helping. Next girl had a pot of black eyed peas, then a pot of macaroni and tomtoes arrrived, then more okra, next came a girl with a bucket of sorghum for the rolls. And then, some more throwed rolls and this just continued on throughout the meal. Those kids just forced all this food on this old fat man and I really loved it. The Country Ham was the real thing and must have been aged at least 12-14 months and was the very best I have ever eaten in a restaurant. All the sides and Pass-Arounds were great and the meal was as good as can be found anywhere and was resonably priced. We both had to get a 9X9 to-go box and load up what we couldn't eat and believe me, it was about as much as was served in the first place and sure made for a great breakfast and lunch on the next day at the contest.

Friends, I just can not say enough good about this place and I just can't wait until next year when I can take on that "Rooster" cut full pound of the Chicken Fried Steak. For me, the restaurant itself was worth the trip to this contest. I will remember to take my camera next year!

Arrived back at the contest site and one of the organizers told us that we were parked in the wrong spot. Now that didn't go over very well with me after spending about 90 minutes getting all set up and I squalled and griped for about 30 minutes as I couldn't see any difference in the size of the sites. The lady couldn't give me a good answer on why I couldn't stay where I was parked and forced us to load up and move to another site. The J-Mack team had arrived and they helped up move and get setup on another site and I sure thanked them for that help. I was a heart attack looking for a place to happen after that huge meal at Lambert's and sure didn't need all that hassle after my meal. Hell, I needed a nap!

Anyway, we got all setup again and checked the tv for the weather and it looked pretty bad for the evening. It just looked like waves of bad weather coming so we did get the truck all hitched up again and got everything stowed away as the storm and winds were coming. I was very tired and went to bed early and then the first round of weather hit at about 12:30am and the wind just bounced and tossed the trailer up and down and the rain came down in sheets. There were many 55 gallon trash barrels around the campground and they were blowing all around the site and banging up against the truck and trailer. I had the tv on and could see the mess we were in and it didn't look good. There were all kinds of tornado and storm warnings out and they were reporting some deaths just West of our location in Arkansas so it was a bad storm. We made it thru the first round ok and still had electricity so I figured I would be up all night so I made a pot of coffee and then checked outside to see the damage. Real good thing that there were not many teams at the contest yet as I am sure there would have been some considerable damage. Well, the porto-pots were blown over and the trash barrels were all over the place but that was all the damage I coud see in the dark. Kinda surprised me that my cooker hadn't been blown over. Anyway, we had about 3 more waves of weather come thru before morning but none as bad as the first wave and we did survive the mess without any damage.

After the last big wave went thru at around 4:30am, it was now just misting some light rain and I went out to do my morning walk. I got up to the far end of the campground to where the team of Florida Skin & Bones was set up and found a mess. This team had arrived early on Thursday as they were one of the teams that planned to vend at the contest and of course, they were all setup by Thursday afternoon and the storm had realy torn up their area. They had a large metal awning that had blown back over the top of their trailer and then about 60 more yards and over a fence and up against the side of a maintenance building on the golf course. Many other items had been upset and blown around their site, stuff broken, bent up, lost, and it was a real mess. Sure felt sorry for the team but they were taking it ok and laughing about the mess.

Anyway, it's Friday morning and time to start thinking about getting our meat prepped for the contest as we did want to do some visiting after this was done. Had several friends coming as this looked to be a good event. Around 8:00am, and after breakfast, the rain stopped long enough for us to get outside and prep our contest meat. Probably spent about two hours getting this chore done and just in time as it had started to rain again and now it was time to visit and chew the fat with our friends as they arrived and got their sites all setup for the contest. It looked like more rain was coming so we figured we had better enjoy it now as more was coming our way.

Got to visit with the Smokin' T's and also Bill Arnold of Blues Hog fame. Also said hi to Delta Smoke as I hadn't seen them since the Lebanon, Tn contest of last year. Did visit with a couple of new teams and got back with Bill Arnold as I needed a case of his sauce. I purchased a case of gallons with three gallons of the regular sauce and then one gallon of the Tenn Red sauce. That should hold me for the rest of the contest season with what I have at home. Steve purchased a case of pints as well.

I didn't get any pictures as the rest of the day was kinda nasty with off and on rain and some wind and cold and it just wasn't a very nice day.

About 4:00pm, Steve went to the cooks meeting and when he got back, we got ready to get started with the cook. Got the cooker set up to run off of the inverter and marine battery as I wasn't sure we would have electricity all night. Fired it up and brought it up to temp and loaded the first round of meat (pork butts) at about 6:00pm. We then loaded the briskets at about 8:15pm and we were set for about 5-1/2 hours before I needed to wrap the meat. I went to bed as I do like to get some sleep early into the contest. Steve came in later and went to bed as well as it is always a long night cooking a contest. We got thru the night in great shape as the weather started to lift and Saturday morning was dry and with some sun coming around a couple hours later in the morning. Turned out to be a nice day. Steve did a practice walk to the judging building which was a good distance from our site so he would know how long it would take to get our meat turned in and we just cooked and prepped all four of the meats and got them into the presentation boxes and all turned in by 1:30pm in the afternoon.

We then did what clean up work we could do as we planned to stay over on Saturday evening at the contest site so we couldn't load everything into the trailer until Sunday morning.

Cleaned up a little and caught a ride in a golf cart from the J-Mack team and went to the awards which were inside a nice building. The awards were around 3:00pm in the afternoon.

We ended up with the following awards:

Chicken...5th place...and nice plaque and some money
Ribs...11th place...nothing for this
Pork...9th place...ribbon
Brisket...7th place...ribbon

Overall...8th place



This was our chicken and our highest scoring box.

Was a very tight contest with the top 9 teams only separated by 13 points. I deserved the scores we got as I forgot a few steps with the first contest of the year. I have to be retrained each year and this takes a few contests to get going again!

The J-Mack team invited us down to their beautiful motorhome for a pizza party on this evening and even come and got us on the golf cart. I wasn't hungry as I had snacked all afternoon but old Steve had some pizza at the party. We didn't stay very long as I think we were both beat so we went back to the trailer and I went to bed.

Got an early start on Sunday morning and I got home about 12:30pm. Steve is about an hour away so he got home early in the afternoon as well.

Was a great contest and I will probably do this one again. Lambert's by itself was worth the trip!!