High on the Hog Results

Here are the quick results from High on the Hog in Winchester, TN:

Chicken: 4th
Ribs: 16th
Pork:12th
Brisket: 24th
Overall: 10th out of 47 teams

Big congrats to Kevin of The EGGseQuetive Council for taking home the Grand and Dan of Long Dawgs for winning reserve. Also Billy "DoRag" Carroll had a strong 3rd place finish.

Stay tuned for a full report later this week.

Ulika BBQ Update: New Logo

We are going into our 5th season of competition bbq and we felt that it was time for a new logo. We wanted to have something that branded us more as a competition bbq team. The Mrs. did her magic and we present to you this:

Winchester Recap

On Thursday (April 16th), we packed up and headed to our favorite contest, Winchester's High on the Hog. It was a clear, cool night and the forecast called for sunny skies all weekend. This is only worth mentioning because it was the first time in the contest's 22 year history that the weatherman called for a rain-free weekend.

There are a few things that make this contest special to us. This was the very first contest for the Ulika BBQ team back in 2006. Also, I was born in Winchester and my grandmother lives about .25 miles from the park. Then there is BP's lake house that makes the trip all that much better. This weekend, we also had some friends from Atlanta visiting with us. All these factors on top of a top notch group of contest organizers and reps made for a great weekend. If you ever have the chance to cook in this event, take it!

We arrived around 9:00pm on Thursday night and parked in a new spot which was right next to the turn in area and a stones throw from the stage. One of the nice aspects of the Winchester contest is the 30 x 30 cook site and the large open area in front of our cook site. Once the trailer was setup, I worked on trimming the chicken while Peter and Natalina went fishing across the park in Tims Ford lake. BP soon arrived with the couch and we headed over to his lake house to get some sleep.



Friday morning, I headed back over to the park and got my meat inspected and began to prep everything. The park quickly began to fill up as the morning wore on, and we were glad to be setup next to our friends from Smoke Me Tender and new friend, Pete Moon of Bean Bandits. Saturday, we enjoyed the beautiful day as we hung out with our bbq friends.



We participated in the sausage ancillary this year so Friday afternoon we started prepping for our spicy pepper cheese dip with sausage and homemade tortilla chips. Peter manned the fryer and turned out some tasty chips. The Mrs. and BP made up the cheese dip while I smoked the sausage on the Egg. I thought it tasted pretty good and I liked the presentation. After it was turned in, I made the comment that it tasted like 5th place, and it turned out that I had some pretty good taste buds.










Jay finished off the cheese dip


On Friday night, Paul Hood from BigBriq.com had us over for some Ultimate Hoagies. These bad boys consist of thinly sliced beef tenderloin on a hoagie roll with stone ground mustard, horseradish, and Wickles. For those of you that have never had Wickles, I highly recommend them. They are sweet pickles with some garlic and red pepper to provide some heat. Mmmm.



After the butts and briskets went on, we took a stroll around the fair. While I have no interest in the rides or the games, there is some great people watching to be had. Some of our favorite things about the fair:

• Attitude shirts (especially on small children)
• Rides that are licensed in West Virgina
• Live animal prizes
• Funnel Cakes and deep fried candy bars
• Couples with matching outfits
• Mouse roulette
• Oval basketball goals
• Meth head carnies

live bunnies


Did I win a girl or a boy?

Saturday morning started off with a couple of cups of coffee provided by P.S.I.P. and then I was ready to roll. Everything seemed to go just fine Saturday morning throughout turn-ins. We did kick off the morning with a 10:30 shot from the Jack Daniels Clonesicle I had made. Alan provided a toast and everyone enjoyed the smooth flavor of Tennessee Whiskey.





We got everything turned in OK on Saturday and felt pretty good about everything. I especially liked our brisket. I thought it was one of the best that we had ever turned in, but the judges apparently had a different opinion. I should have known not to mention any kind of brisket streak. In Clarksville, our chicken tanked us and in Winchester it was our ribs (40th place). We were thrilled to get a call for our pork - and to hear your name called among such an outstanding field of competitors is great. One of these days, we will get it all together in one contest. The most important thing is that we had fun and got to visit with several friends. The weather was perfect and it was another wonderful weekend in Winchester.

It was a somewhat emotional awards ceremony though as Mike Davis of Lotta Bull BBQ presented Linda Gould with a BBQ Hall of Fame plaque for her late husband, Fred Gould. Fred passed away in January 2008 and was named to the Hall of Fame later that year. It was a special moment to remember a great man who had been the contest organizer (among other things) in Winchester for several years.

Fred was "an organizer, promoter, meat inspector, electrician, RV mechanic, Master Judge, Table Captain, Contest Rep, and the list goes on...he was, in fact, the 'get it done man' rain or shine."

Currently we don't have another contests scheduled, but we are looking at several possibilities. Stay tuned to the Ulika food blog for any updates.

High on the Hog 2009

This week Team Ulika will be headed to Winchester, TN to compete at High on the Hog. This is our favorite event of the season and we are really looking forward to returning. Check out last years coverage of the event and stay tuned for more on the 2009 HOTH.

Contest Review: Clarksville, TN Porkin' in the Park 2009

Last Friday, Team Ulika headed one hour north to Clarksville, Tennessee for the second annual Porkin' In The Park. This year the contest was being held in downtown Clarksville due to a tornado that wiped out the pavilion where the contest was held last year. Just like last year, Clarksville was our first event of the season and we were trying out some new equipment. Last year it was our new Stumps and this year we were debuting our new trailer. This off season we purchased a CM 16' v-nose trailer to haul all of our gear. It is very nice to have our own trailer because we can get loaded up throughout the week instead of getting everything together on Thursday night. We had enough time to get the sink mounted in the trailer, but there are still several "upgrades" that are going to be made as time and $$$ permit.



Holding a contest in a downtown area can sometime present some challenges. Particularly the parking situation. There was one main parking lot that several teams were setup in and other teams were scattered amongst the city streets. We arrived around 9 am and quickly backed into our spot. As we were setting up we couldn't help but notice a brand new Geer pit parked across from us, and we were quickly greeted by Walt and Teressa of Smokin' Scotsmen. They are from Michigan and had traveled to Hammond, LA the previous week to compete then decided to catch another competition before they headed home.



BP arrived shortly after the mrs. and I got parked and we unloaded the now infamous couch. That's right, we take a couch to the contest. We figure if we are going to be sitting around for a couple of days, why not be comfortable. I mean you can only sit in those camping chairs for so long. Once everything was in place I prepped the meats while BP and the mrs. walked around downtown Clarksville. The KCBS Great America BBQ Tour was in town, and Mike Peters was giving demonstrations throughout the weekend promoting the KCBS and its sponsors.





After a quick cooks meeting, we hung around waiting on the Low Country boil. Wayne from Bubba's Tennessee Smokers provided everything for the boil and it was a glorious feast. Shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes lined the tables for everyone to partake. Since the mrs. needed to catch up on the Friday night slice, we also took the opportunity to try a new pizza joint in Clarksville (check back Friday for more details on that).





Friday evening some friends Matt and Joel came up to take in the festivities. The previous week they cooked in their first KCBS backyard event in Auburn Alabama finishing 6th in ribs and 10th overall. As you can imagine, they caught the bug. They were a big help all weekend filling in for their cousins the Colvert brothers.



Friday night always gives us some down time to visit with friends and meeting new ones. We sampled some Apple Pie over at the DoRag camp, and we talked with Castaway Cookers (who were cooking in their first competition). I always try to talk with some of the teams that are doing their first competition, because if it weren't for other people helping me along I would have probably given up the competition bbq thing a long time ago. After roaming the grounds for a while I headed to the trailer to get some sleep. The air mattress and the space heater inside the trailer worked out great. I got up on Saturday morning and started to get everything in place to start the day. Luckily Teresa from the Smokin' Scotsman spotted me and realized I could use a nice hot cup of coffee. Then a few hours later The Scotsmen served up a nice breakfast which included biscuits and sausage gravy. These are some of the things that make it worth while traveling around to different contest.



Saturday morning started smoothly. The butts and briskets came off on schedule and Team Ulika didn't seem to miss at beat. We felt pretty good about everything we turned in and we did ok for the first contest of the year. Last year we received a first place call in the chicken category, but this year chicken ended up really hurting our overall score. After the fact, I realized there were some things I could have done better on my chicken. We did keep our steak alive in the brisket category getting our 6th consecutive call, placing 7th. Overall we finished 14th in a good crowd of cooks. Congrats to Smoky Mountain Smokers for their first place finish and to the Smokin' Scotsmen for their reserve championship. Also a big congrats goes out to DoRag for finishing in the Top 5. I have a feeling those guys are going to have a good year. Our next competition is quickly approaching as we head to our favorite spot, Winchester, TN. We have done well there the past couple of years and we hope to continue that this year. Congrats again to everyone who walked in Clarksville. Especially Swiggin Pig for the 1st place ribs and BigBriq for the first place brisket. We will see you all in Winchester.

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Ulika Update

Our first contest of the year is quickly approaching. In just three weeks, we will be headed to Clarksville for the 2nd Annual Porkin' in the Park contest. This year, Ulika has added a new competition trailer. Last year we rented a trailer for all of our contests, but we are now the proud owners of a CM enclosed 16' v-nose trailer. The trailer should be delivered either later this week or early next week. Of course, I will post some pictures when the trailer arrives. Next week we will have a practice run on all of our competition meats. I have a few new twists with my ribs and pork which were the categories in which we placed the lowest in 2008. We are just hoping that the judges will still like what we do to our chicken and brisket. We are really looking forward to cooking again and seeing some folks we haven't seen in a while.

Ulika BBQ on Facebook

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Ulika BBQ Early Contest Schedule

With the BBQ season quickly approaching, the Ulika BBQ Team has set its early season schedule. We will be returning to the second annual Porkin' in the Park in downtown Clarksville on April 3-4. We are very excited to get the season going and looking forward to checking out the new downtown location for this event. Last years event was held in a park with a large pavilion that was destroyed by a tornado a few weeks after the event.

The Ulika BBQ team will also be returning to Winchester for High on the Hog set for April 17-18. This is our favorite event of the year and we are very excited to be heading down again this year. This was our first ever contest back in 2006, and it is hard to believe that we will be seasoned veterans heading into this one. Oh what we have learned in just 3 short years.

Hopefully we may see some of the Ulika faithful out at one of these great events, and stay tuned for additional contest dates to be added later.

Cookeville Recap

Team Ulika closed out the bbq season with a contest in Cookeville, TN. This was the 19th year for the event put on by former KCBS president, Tony Stone. Tony started this contest as a hamburger cookoff at Tennessee Tech. Now, 19 years later, it has developed into a very fine KCBS event that coincides with the city's Fall Fun Fest. The weekend festival featured bands**, inflatable games, local interest booths and craft vendors. There were the standard festival food vendors as well as an Indian food vendor which seemed strange in a small Tennessee town festival.

BP and I arrived on Friday morning and eased into our spot just north of the town square. The other teams were scattered about in a large parking lot and along the city streets. We were next to The Dead End Society, who had just received an invitation to The Jack. They won the Cookeville event last year and got drawn as a wild card. We also caught up with our friends at Team Bobby-Q. As they were visiting with us, I realized that I had not brought any lump charcoal for my BGE. Luckily, Bobby had packed an extra bag and they hooked me up big time! Bobby-Q had also just been invited to The Jack and we look forward to seeing them in Lynchburg later this fall.



Later in the evening we enjoyed some margaritas and food provided by Paul of BigBriq.com. Paul works in the liquid smoke business and as one of the factories is near Cookeville, he had several people out to enjoy some bbq and drinks. Paul also sells and markets some of the best charcoal around. His Big Briq charcoal is a lump briquette that burns clean and has no artificial binders. It is the prefect charcoal for my Stumps gravity feed smoker.

** Note: The only problem with having "slash" events (i.e. KCBS cookoff / fall fest) is the inevitable obstacle course through which one must maneuver in order to turn in the meat. During this Saturday's turn-in, BP (always the team walker) had to wade through an inflatable laser tag arena, a skate park and...a death metal band. Yes, death metal. Yes, at 12:00 in the afternoon. Yes, at a street festival in downtown Cookeville.



When the awards rolled around, we got calls in three of the four meat categories. We were most excited about our 7th place pork. We had not received a call in pork all year and it had been our strongest category in 2007. So, seventh place felt pretty good. Speaking of seventh place, that was our overall finish as well. We were very excited to finish in the top ten after not competing for two months. This was our last event of the year, and we are already making BIG plans for next year. I will post a season recap sometime soon.....

Cookeville Results

Here are the quick results from Cookeville.

Overall: 7th (26 teams)
Chicken: 10th
Ribs: 15th
Pork: 7th
Brisket: 6th

I will post a full review later.

Cookeville Cookoff

Team Ulika has entered the 19th Annual Cookeville Cookoff scheduled for September 5-6. This is the first year for Ulika to participate in this event, and we are really looking forward to competing again. The Cookeville contest is put on by former KCBS president Tony Stone, and takes place in the downtown square. This may be our last cook of the year due to some busy fall schedules, but we might squeeze another one in before '09.

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!