Lawrenceburg Recap

This last weekend we participated in the AT&T State Championship Cook-off in Lawrenceburg, TN. This event has now become one of our favorite places to cook. We were able to get a nice shaded spot underneath a pavilion that made the 90 degree heat bearable. Peter and I arrived at the site on Friday morning, got the trailer parked and prepped our big meats. Once everything was setup, I wondered around the grounds until the cooks meeting.



Soon after the meeting was over we put on our butts and brisket for the overnight cook. In years past this would have been a start to a long night, but with the Stumps, we just let it roll as we sat back and relaxed. It had been a while since I cooked on the Egg, so I grilled a whole tri-tip for BP, Peter and I to enjoy for dinner. Later on I caught some sleep on our now infamous couch. That's right, we take a full size couch to competitions. It is something that BP started at our home town contest in Nashville last year, and he has been bringing it ever since. It is sure to get plenty of comments at every contest we attend.

The morning started out great and we were not rushed at all getting our boxes together. This was probably the smoothest turn in that we have ever had. I think that we have finally developed a system that works and it made for lower stress levels at our site. Once everything was turned in, we packed up and awaited the awards ceremony.



For the second contest in a row our brisket took fourth place. That makes four calls in four contests for our brisket this year. However, we are still chasing that first place brisket. Now if I could just get that consistent in the other categories we would be doing pretty good.

The biggest surprise of the awards was that we won the sauce category. Normally the only ancillary that we compete in is dessert, but when they were delivering our turn-in, boxes Tana Shupe gave me a sauce cup. I said, "well I guess I will turn in a sauce since you gave me a cup." I didn't think too much about it until about an hour before the sauce turn in. I just got in the trailer and made up a little concoction. I added a little of this and a little of that until I thought it tasted pretty good. We turned it in and proceeded to joke about how it would be funny if we won the sauce category. Well we won.



Overall we finished 21 out of 43 teams. It is not where we wanted to be, but at least it was an improvement from Pulaski. We had a great time in Lawrenceburg and got to meet some new people. I was especially glad to meet Rub from Swamp Boys. Rub is a fellow Stumper and is actually a Stumps dealer in Florida. He also knows a thing or two about cooking...he is currently the number one team in the Florida Barbecue Association. Congrats on the third place finish, Rub (1st place chicken and 1st place brisket). We also met Kevin from The EGGseQuetive Council. This is Kevin's first year competing on his own and had a strong fourth place finish with a 1st place pork. To no ones surprise, Byron Chism of Buttrub.com and Mike Davis of Lotta Bull took first and second overall.

Well, now that the heat of the summer is upon us, we are taking a couple of months off. Our next scheduled competition is September 5-6 in Cookeville, TN. I am going to be judging the Lebanon, TN contest in August and I feel that should give me a little more insight to the other side of the table.

Update: New Ulika Member

I have recently had my hands full and have not been able to update the blog as frequently...

The newest Ulika team member has arrived and we are very excited. John Joseph Marlow was born on June 5th at 12:40 pm and weighed in at 9 pounds and 1 ounce. He may be a few years away from tending the smoker, but he will start out with his own bbq set first. This week, I'll begin introducing him to the art of bbq as we have a "stock the freezer" cook on Tuesday.

Ulika to compete in the AT&T Tennessee State Championship in Lawrenceburg

Ulika is now signed up for the 2008 AT&T Tennessee State Championship BBQ Cook-Off June 27th and 28th in Lawrenceburg, TN. This will be our second year to compete at this event, and we are really looking froward to it.

SunDrop BBQ Cookoff - Pulaski, TN

Pulaski was not kind to Ulika last year. We were coming off of a strong performance in Winchester and got highly disappointed when the awards rolled around. Well, this year was no different. Coming off of strong finishes in both Clarksville and Winchester, we did not fare so well in Pulaski.



For the second year in a row, our pork finished D.A.L. (dead ass last). We felt like it was probably the best pork we had turned in all year, but the judges did not agree. Our chicken and ribs did not do much better. We have been doing pretty well with chicken this year and while it may not have been our best effort, it was still pretty solid. The strongest aspect of our chicken has been tenderness and that was what ended up hurting us. As for the ribs, I just never know with the ribs. It is the one category that I can just not figure out. In KCBS competitions, they tell you that a fall off the bone rib is overcooked. What you look for in a perfectly cooked rib is to bite into the rib and pull away without pulling all the meat off the bone. The couple of times that we have been able to accomplish that, the judges still kill us on tenderness. I just can't seem to get a 9 on tenderness for ribs to save my life. Maybe I should just start boiling the ribs.



The bright spot of the weekend was our brisket. We took fourth place in brisket and we have been in the top 10 for brisket in all of our contests this year. We also received a nice trophy with a SunDrop bottle. If you are not aware, SunDrop is the official drink of team Ulika. so, a trophy with a SunDrop bottle is a very cool prize for us. If you are a SunDrop drinker, you also know that the bottles are much more preferable over the cans. The glass bottles have real flakes of citrus that make it a more enjoyable experience. Now, all I have to do is keep Peter from drinking the trophy.



All in all, we still enjoyed the weekend. We were setup right next to our friends from Pig Smokers in Paradise and High on the Hawg (congrats on their 1st place ribs). We also got to meet the guys from The Thrillerz on the Grillerz. Ben and Joe also got to meet the Pig from Piggly Wiggly.





Now team Ulika will be taking a hiatus while we await the arrival of the newest team member, JoJo Marlow. Our next competition is scheduled for June 27-28 in Lawrenceburg, TN.

Pulaski Results

4th Place Brisket

Yes the brisket is the only thing worth mentioning at this point, but I will have a full report later this week.

Congrats to Jiggy Piggy for their Grand.

Agave Pictures

Here are some pictures from the cook at Agave on Sunday. A big thanks to Cullen and the Agave staff for having us out - they sure know how to throw a party. Our bbq festivities did have to follow the midget wrestling that was on Saturday night (how can you compete with that?).

Peter made his famous peppers. Peter is in fact the king of peppers. We estimate that Peter has made more than 1,000 peppers in his short pepper making career.


Peppers being stuffed with cheese.


Peter checking on the peppers


The finished peppers - stuffed with pepper jack and shrimp then wrapped in bacon


The finished ribs

I was really happy with how the ribs came out. I had never cooked a rack of ribs on a Weber Kettle before and they turned out alright. The Weber was also pretty low maintenance. With the Big Briq charcoal that I was using, I only had to add some coals one time during a four hour cook. Oh yeah, and I guess we won the "competition". We beat out two other teams in our first ever overall victory!

Ulika BBQ to Cook at Agave in Nashville

On Sunday May 4th, Ulika will be making a special appearance at Agave Tequila Lounge in Nashville. As part of a four day Cinco de Mayo celebration, Agave will be holding a ribs and chicken cookoff. I know that I said I would never cook in an unsanctioned event again, but this "contest" is a little different. First, there will only be two or three other people "competing" - so I like our chances. Second, I'm not sure if you could really consider this a contest since there are no prizes, no awards, and no judges (well 5-6 random people may or may not select a peoples' choice winner). No, this "contest" is more for fun. Honorary Ulika member Cullen Wyatt helps run Agave and he asked us to come down and participate. So when the opportunity came up, I decided that it would be more fun to handicap ourselves by cooking old school only - on Weber Kettles.

Come out to Agave on Sunday. I am sure Cullen and the gang will be serving it up real nice all day long. Agave is located at 118 12th Ave S, Nashville, TN.

Winchester 2008 Report

The 21st Annual High On The Hog Tennessee State BBQ Championship
Winchester City Park, Franklin County, Tennessee
April 18-19, 2008

This was the third year for Ulika to head into Winchester, the home of the team's competitive debut in 2006. Always a favorite and nostalgic event for the team, High on the Hog regularly brings out some the country's best competitors. With the loss of Fred Gould (the much loved and highly respected original Winchester contest rep), there was certainly sadness around the event, but there was also great excitement as the field was stacked with 52 teams ready to compete in the traditional four meat categories along with the "Creative Sausage" (sponsored by Wampler's), "Anything But" and Dessert ancillaries.

High on the Hog is a larger scale event as it includes a Kids-Q competition (watch for future Jr. Ulika domination), a live band on Friday night (watch for a full report from BP), a field of local vendors and a full scale carnival complete with midway games, rides and the all important carnival food. This year, the weather was much better than it had been in years past as a few brief hours of rain on Friday night were nothing compared to the biblical downpour that took place for three days straight in 2006. It was mostly sunny and warm with a little wind, and all in all a nice weekend.

Ulika was thrilled to receive its highest number of stage calls this year, taking 5th Place in Chicken, 9th Place in Ribs, 7th Place in Brisket and 7th Place Overall.

Congratulations to Grand Champion Bareknuckles BBQ and Reserve Grand Champion Team Bobby-Q! Visit the KCBS High on the Hog Event Page to view the full results.


Winchester 2008: Ron Harwell visits the Ulika tent to check out the Stumps.


finishing the chicken


sampling pork pieces


pulled pork


the "Sea Ray" pirate ship ride


the spinner


the ferris wheel


Despite the ever-attentive ride operators and that comforting accreditation by the West Virginia board of amusement and thrill rides, team Ulika members chose not to ride any of the attractions.


Congrats to Team Bobby-Q on Reserve Grand!


Congratulations to Wade and the Scenic City Smokers on that first place finish in pork! What a way to debut!


We're pleased to own our first HOTH cutting board - a few particular Ulika team members have coveted these for three years now.

High on the Hog Results

We had a great time in Winchester this weekend. Here are the results.

Chicken - 5th
Ribs - 9th
Pork - 36th
Brisket - 7th

Overall - 7th out of 52 teams

Congrats to all those that got calls.

I will post some pictures later.

Porkin' in the Park Results

Ulika had a big weekend in Clarksville at the first annual Porkin' in the Park BBQ Competition. We had our best competition to date receiving 1st place in Chicken and 3rd place in Brisket. This was our highest brisket finish while the 1st place finish in chicken was the first category win for Ulika. To top it all off, we finished the weekend 3rd place overall! This is Ulika's highest finish in any contest.

Congrats to Cool Smoke and Learn2Q for taking Grand and Reserve Grand! This was a very tough field of competitors and we met a lot of great people.

Link to the Full Results

Check back for a more detailed recap of the weekend...

Ulika Weekend Action

This past weekend was a trial run for a contest that we have in two weeks. It has been six months since our last competition and we needed to knock the rust off. I also needed to get the timing down with the Stumps and the Egg.

Surprisingly, I had no problems with my timing, but I was really off on my chicken and I will probably need to practice some more chicken before Clarksville rolls around. Focusing on the other meats this off-season has caused my chicken to slip a little. However, I should be able to hone in my chicken technique with two weeks left. I was pleased with how the pork turned out and the ribs and brisket were on par. I will need to kick it up a notch or two in Clarksville to get a call in any of the categories. We are really looking forward to getting back on the competition trail and seeing some familiar faces.









Kind of as an "anything butt" on Friday night, friends Patrick, Sarah and baby Jack stopped by to stir up some stir fry on the Egg. Patrick is an Iron Chef of sorts, and stir fry is one of his specialties. He brought over the wok and we fired up the Egg for a molten hot cooking surface. Our stir fry dish consisted of bok choy, mung bean sprouts, cabbage, shallots, broccoli, carrots, ginger, garlic and scallion for garnish. For our protein, we went with chicken and pork medallions that were tossed in some secret Asian sauces (which he left in my refrigerator...not so secret anymore!). Our starch choices were white rice, fried rice, and lo mein noodles. Check out the Gilliam blog for their side of the story.

Iron Chef Patrick Gilliam cooks up some stir fry as Deezy eagerly awaits

My wife also took the opportunity to practice some dessert entries. On Friday night we were treated to a Bananas Foster. This dish was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and while it was more than excellent, we decided that it wouldn't work with the time delays in a contest setting as the dish would be a puddle of cream by the time it reached the judges. On Saturday, the traditional dessert turn-in time was met with some Banana Pudding. In the south, you will often find this pudding as a primary dessert at bbq restaurants. Its smooth texture with the crunch of the Nilla Wafers makes for a perfect complement to the bbq meats. Sarah snapped a few pictures of the Bananas Foster prep, but by the time we reached for the camera on Saturday, the only pudding image that would have been left was that of Deezy licking the bowl.

When Sunday rolled around, I combined the best of both worlds and made brisket fried rice. It was absolutely fabulous. I have determined that brisket is the most versatile of the four competition meats (considering chicken is limited to the thighs). Brisket works great with eggs, in a taco, with fried rice, on pizza, in beans, with cheese and peppers on a hoagie, and in many more applications.

Ulika Website Update

Thanks to my wonderful wife, the Ulika website has now been updated.

www.ulikabbq.com

U-li-ka What's in a name?

ULIKA
pronounced yoo 'lie kuh

I am asked "Where did the name Ulika come from?" or "What does Ulika mean?" fairly regularly. Just as regularly, I hear the name mispronounced. When we took 8th place in chicken at the Nashville competition, the lady announcing the awards called us You-Lick-Uhh. Everyone got a nice little laugh, but we were the ones really laughing. For some reason, we had a feeling that day that we were going to get a call...and that the person doing the awards would jack up our name.

The name was inspired by the U-LI-KA Paramount Cleaners in Knoxville. I would always drive by the location on North Broadway as I headed to team member Peter Swanson's house. There was just something about the U-LI-KA Cleaners that was always funny to me. This place was next to a crack house hotel and was a shady establishment at best. For whatever reason, the name just stuck with me and I have been using it ever since.

I started out using Ulika as a screen name and I was always trying to get my friends to name their various bands Ulika. None of my friends went with the name, instead going with the Sneaky Eaters, My Tyger or Girls and Boys. When it was officially my time to name something, it was a no brainier.

The name is just great. How many other teams have a name with so much meaning and functionality? Our team name is not only statement, but also a question. As a declarative statement, I might say to my wife, "ULIKA my ribs," because she does indeed like my ribs very much. To someone new, I might ask "ULIKA barbecue?" or more directly, "ULIKA my barbecue?" when we meet.

Payback My Chicken

Our chief cook has asked me to contribute a weekly song for your listening pleasure. I plan on posting songs that have something to do with food or eating or chewing or swallowing or perhaps throwing up, as this is in fact a food blog. However I make no promises as such is not a common theme for good songs. Hope you enjoy the hot jams!

This week's song is Chicken Payback by The Bees, a very cool band from the UK. Now I don't think this tune has anything to do with eating, but nonetheless it's a great dance number with the word chicken in the title that should get your feet moving. Hope you like it! I sure do.

Thursday's Music Selection

As the Ulika Food Blog grows, I am expanding the joyous offerings of this blog to our readers...the Ulika Food Blog will now feature a weekly music selection. Our resident DJ and Ulika team member Joe Baine Colvert will bring you Ulika Music Thursdays.

Food and music are so very interrelated - especially bbq and music. At most bbq contests, you will find some live music (usually not very good - but music nonetheless), and most bbq joints feature live music nights. Just about every bbq place in Texas also serves as a music venue. It's only appropriate for a food blog based in Music City to offer you some fresh tunes every week.

So, I hope you enjoy our new "Music Spotlight" every Thursday.

Getting Ready for the 2008 Competition Season

Today I received the entry form for High on the Hog in Winchester, TN. This is the sign that the competition season is truly upon us.

In the coming weeks team Ulika will be having a full on practice. This year will be completely different for us with our new cookers. As it stands right now, I plan on cooking my ribs, butts, and brisket on the Stumps (which by the way should be here any day now). For my competition chicken I am planning on using the Big Green Egg.

I will be posting pictures from the practice once it is complete. Just don't expect to get any competition secrets out of me.

Here are some pictures of all the competition items:

Chicken

Ribs

Pork

Brisket

KCBS Election and TOY Results

On Saturday night, the KCBS held their annual banquet at the Sheraton Sports Complex in Kansas City. While I did not attend the event, I can only imagine the sounds of Platinum Express strumming Mustang Sally as the crowd of cooks and other bbq enthusiasts sang along.

At this banquet, the KCBS Board of Directors Election results were announced as were the Team of the Year Results (T.O.Y) in each category as well as the overall team of the year. Congratulations to Tuffy Stone of Cool Smoke for being named KCBS T.O.Y.

KCBS T.O.Y Overall Results
Cool Smoke
Lotta Bull BBQ
4 Men & A Pig
Buttrub.com
Twin Oak Smokin' Crew
Pellet Envy
Quau
Great Grills O Fire
Smokin Triggers
Smoky Mountain Smokers

KCBS Team of The Year Chicken Results
Quau
Wild Bunch Butt Burners
Lotta Bull BBQ
4 Men & A Pig
Smokers Wild

KCBS Team of The Year Ribs Results
Pellet Envy
Learn2Q.com
4 Men & a Pig
Smokin Triggers
Prairie Oak Smokers

I have been fortunate enough to eat errrrr devourer both Pellet Envy and Smokin Triggers ribs.

KCBS Team of The Year Pork Results
Buttrub.com
Cool Smoke
4 Men & a Pig
Pellet Envy
Lotta Bull BBQ

In case you were wondering, Team Ulika finished with 9 points in the pork catagory. Sure it is noting to beat our chest about, but we did beat out some teams that competed in 3 to 4 times as many contest as we did. The reality is, if you don't compete in at least 15-20 contests, it is hard to really make a splash in the T.O.Y standings.

KCBS Team of The Year Brisket Results
Buttrub.com
Quau
4 Men & a Pig
Twin Oak Smokin Crew
Cool Smoke

This year the KCBS has instituted a new T.O.Y Points System. It will be interesting to see how this system will affect the standings.

2008 KCBS Board of Directors Election Results
Carol Whitebook
Rod Gray
Tana Shupe
Ed Roith

Congratulations to Rod Gray who received 42.33% of the votes.

Newest Ulika Team Member

We just found out that the newest Ulika Team member will be a boy. It makes the My First BBQ Set much more appropriate. There are also a few other toys that will be purchased over time.

Charlie Coal the Talking Grill
Standard Grill
The Gasser

Team Ulika in '08

In '08 Team Ulika is expecting its newest member to arrive around June. With this newest addition we will be taking a break to get the newest member up to speed on such things as fire control, meat tenderness, presentation, and other essential bbq knowledge. Once our new team member is up to speed on all things Ulika, we will resume our competitive bbq domination.

Team Ulika is currently looking at 3 contest before the big arrival in June.

April 4-5 Porkin' in the Park - Clarksville, TN
April 18-19 High on the Hog - Winchester, TN
May 2-3 Whistle Stop Festival - Huntsville, AL