BBQ Journal: rib cook off

With some extra time on my hands this summer, I have decided to enhance my barbeque and cooking skills. As part of this adventure Rebecca has been encouraging to keep a BBQ Journal about my cooking transformation. I have three entries to catch up on. So, if these are good, all the credit goes to my writing. If they are bad, then talk to Rebecca...

Sunday, June 12 — The First Annual Crossroads Rib Cook Off. The one church event I was looking forward to the most this summer was my last at CBC. Simply put, this was a pool party for the whole church with a pile of baby back ribs for everyone to eat.

The event was shaping up to be an epic battle between the Seasoned Veteran (Reynolds Stewart), the Rough Neck (Tim Martin), the Rookie (Jordan Jensen), and the Ryno (me). I was pretty excited about the whole thing, until it became my last Sunday at CBC. We had all planned to skip second service to prep our meat and get it on the grill. I was not going to be able to make it in time to prep and cook. It seemed like a lost cause.

Luckily Jordan proposed teaming up. The Paterson rub and sauce, with some Jensen flair. Jordan set us up with indirect grilling over mesquite charcoal and whiskey soaked hickory chips. The setup was sweet! We definitely nurtured the ribs with rub, smoke, sauce, and a lot of love. When done we had a great set of ribs. With a rich hickory aroma, a sweet outer taste, and final kick of hot from the inside, they were spectacular.

Unfortunately, the judges didn't agree. We came in third of three. Tim took first with a ton of brown sugar, Jack Daniel's, and some spices (he has a similar smoking setup). Reynolds kept his sauce more under wraps, but had a classic BBQ ribs flavor. Apparently the hot kick from our ribs was too much for the judges.

I proposed a more elaborate scoring method for next year (even though its likely I won't be there next year)... I guess you could say I was a poor loser.

BBQ Lesson 1: In competition, a whole bag of brown sugar with a whole bottle of Jack Daniel's wins every time.
BBQ Lesson 2: In competition, cook to enjoy & eat to win.
BBQ Lesson 3: In competition, sweet beats the heat. (courtesy of Andrew Jensen)