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.

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.

Jamie Geer Building Pits Again

Big news struck the BBQ world earlier this week when it was announced that Jamie Geer is back in business. If you are not familiar with Mr. Geer's pits, just let me tell you that they are a work of art. To my knowledge, there are less than 30 Geer pits that exist today and the majority of those are owned by some of the greatest competition bbq cooks out there. The news first broke on the Pellet Envy blog on Saturday.

To those of you that are saying, "well what's the big deal?" - let me give you a few comparisons of how big this really is. It would be like new episodes of Seinfeld airing or Joe Montana coming out of retirement. This is as big as if Chevrolet started making El Caminos again.


Just to give you a point of reference, Jamie Geer has not made pits since the price of gas was, as shown, $1.84. (click pic for a larger view)

What really makes these pits so great? Well, it is really hard to pinpoint one thing, but the craftsmanship is something that immediately stands out as each pit is individually handmade. The style is a very traditional offset cooker, but simplicity is sometimes the greatest thing. When one of these cookers pulls up at a contest, it is sure to turn some heads.



You want one? Well first you will have to get on the waiting list and then you will have to shell out the big bucks for one of these beauties. Maybe one day I will be fortunate enough to own a Geer pit. Until then, I will just have to marvel at the pits of others. I am putting myself on a waiting list to get on the waiting list.

Memorial Day Weekend - What Are You Cooking?

Post a comment below and let me know what you are cooking this Memorial Day Weekend.

To all the cooks participating in the The Great American Barbecue Festival, good luck and have fun.

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.

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.

Ulika 2.0 Debuts in Clarksville, TN

With the new Ulika setup (also referred to as Ulika 2.0), we headed to Clarksville last Friday morning. The forecast all week called for heavy downpours throughout most of the day and when we left the house, that forecast was holding true. Luckily, the rain subsided for about two hours just as we arrived, which was just enough time for us to get set up.

This was the first year for this event in Clarksville and it brought out some of the top teams from around the country. It was the first competition of the year for many of the local teams that we see at contests in this area, but some of the teams that compete in other areas of the country had already won contests this year.

To haul the Stumps, we rented an enclosed trailer. It was just a standard 12-foot trailer, but it served as a great shelter when the rain came back and was also used as a prep area. It is not as nice as what some teams have, but it is a big upgrade from Ulika 1.0.



Friday night, the butts and briskets went on and BP, Joe Baine and I hung out with our buddy Brockford Lee. We enjoyed a low county boil prepared by Wayne. Thanks Wayne. With little to do until Saturday morning, we went to bed early in order to get up early. This is one of the biggest advantages of Ulika 2.0. Sleep. I was able to get about 5-6 hours of sleep and awoke ready to prep the ribs and chicken and finish up the butts and briskets. One of the only things that went wrong this weekend was that I over cooked the pork a bit.

My wife came in on Saturday morning and did a wonderful job prepping our boxes. She is definitely one of our secret weapons. I never have to worry about a presentation score, because she can cover up any little flaw that I may have caused. Peter arrived on Saturday morning as well and brought back Brock as Joe's substitute to help out.



On to the awards. There was a nice pavilion at this event and they were very to-the-point when it came to announcing the winners. Chicken was first up. When they called out Ulika for first place, I just couldn't believe it. My first big goal for Ulika was to win a category and we had just accomplished that in a stacked field of cookers. It was such a great feeling. Our chicken scored a 175 which is just 5 points away from a perfect score! Ribs and pork were announced with no calls to the stage for Ulika, leaving brisket last. I felt really good about our brisket and felt that it was top 10 material - and we ended up taking third place (our highest brisket finish). Lastly, they began to call out the top 10 overall finishes. Receiving these 2 top 3 calls, I felt that we had a good chance of being in the top 10. However, when they got past 5th place overall, I figured that we must have bombed in pork or ribs or both. Just as I was saying that, we got called for 3rd place. We were overwhelmed to say the least. We have worked very hard to get to this point and we know that we still have a long way to go, but it was a very exciting finish.



Over the weekend, we also made a new friend. If you're a reader of this blog, you may have read about Blues Hog BBQ Sauce. Well, the man behind the sauce, Bill Arnold, was cooking right next to us. As Bill started to set up, we realized who he was and introduced ourselves. Bill cooks by himself (with his 3 daughters) and has won many awards for his cooking and his sauce. Check out his website:
Blues Hog BBQ

Bill is one of the greatest characters that we have met on the BBQ trail, and I hope to run into him again sometime soon. He even gave us the prototype for his new Raspberry Chipotle Sauce.

For a first year contest, the folks in Clarksville did a great job. Once again, Ron Harwell came through strong and lived up to the title of greatest rep in the south (and favorite rep of Ulika).

Adding to the success of Ulika 2.0, we finally finished a contest in the black.

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...

"Let's Smoke Some Butts, C'mon"

Hello Monkeys. This week's jam comes courtesy of those 90's kings of indie rock, Pavement.

Same Way of Saying was a tossed-off demo from the sessions for their masterpiece, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain. However, it did get released to the people on the album's reissue in '05, which is a two disc affair with loads of demos and b-sides.

The reason for including this tune is the phrase in the first chorus, "Let's smoke some butts, Steve/Let's smoke some butts, c'mon..." Now given the band's slacker image and Northern California/NYC roots, I honestly doubt Stephen Malkmus is singing of the joys of dropping a big ole' pork shoulder onto the Stumps cooker, but does it really matter? For me it always reminds me of that inaugural Ulika season of BBQ competition. Good times, indeed. Here's to the '08 season!

Oh and for the easily offended, please note that there's an F-bomb dropped here or there in the tune.

Pavement - Same Way of Saying

ps I used to own that Pavement shirt pictured above in 9th grade. However, my bitchy English teacher, Ms. Jones, made me wear it inside out, given the fact that it kinda looks like boobs. I guess it does, but that's besides the point. She also made my friend Adam Fargason ditch a Sex Pistols "Never Mind the Bullocks" t-shirt stating, "I've been to England several times; I know what that means." What can you say? Just good ole' Alabama public schools.

Once More with the Chicken

With my chicken not being up to standards last week, I decided that I needed a little more practice before our first competition. This time, my chicken turned out great. I was able to get more flavor with a little more seasoning applied and I gave it more time to set in on the chicken. The thighs were tender and very juicy, and I was pleased to get a better smoke flavor too.



I'll spend the rest of the week packing up for the first competition of the season this weekend in Clarksville.

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