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Barbecue Tricks

BBQ Tips and Tricks

Archives for June 2013

June 23, 2013 Competitions

Rib Cook Off

rib cook offRib cook offs are plentiful during the summer months.  There’s not a big thrteshold to entry.  Pay the fee and cook.  However if you REALLY want to have a chance at winning a Rib Cook off you need to know how to correctly present your ribs to the panel of judges to insure a top score on appearance.

Rib Cook offs usually are judged by the categories taste, tenderness and appearance.  Taste is the the toughest to nail.  Tenderness can be perfected with a disciplined and scientific approach to the cook.  The judges want the bite to come off the bone clean with a gentle tug and have the bone quickly turn white underneath leaving a perfect half circle bite mark (not fall off the bone as most people think).

The appearance criteria and rules differ with different sanctioning organizations (in KBCS you can us garnish – others do not allow).

The weekly podcast http://GrateTV.com took a deep dive into boxing BBQ ribs for the perfect Appearance score and Jack Waiboer walked us through the method to his Rib cook off madness.

“Appearance is the easiest category to get right,” he says and shows us a real KCBS box at a competition at Sams Club in South Carolina.

Also remember you can’t mark the box in any way.  You are not allowed any pooling of sauce and please make sure there are no hairs in the box.  Even basting brush hairs will kill your appearance score at a rib cook off.

Other common mistakes include late turn in (submitting your rib box after your allowed time) and not including enough samples for each of the judges on a table.  Waiboer talks about six or eight in this video. Your specific contest will tell you an exact number of judges you’ll need to feed.  Just one bone short will knock you out of the running to win.

Remember for appearance judging the taste of the ribs makes no difference to your score.  Too many times a great tasting submission will lose a competition due to just being dumped in the box.   It happens in almost every professional judged rib cook off.

Waiboer also says one barbecue trick to help see any imperfection in the final minutes is to take a close up photo of the box and  scan it for something you may have missed.  It helps take a step back from the table and also serves as a nice piece of research history when reviewing scores or planning your next competition.

Taste and tenderness can be perfected over time but appearance is something you can nail down in your first rib cook off or competition.  Watch the video and tell us in the comments if you have a trick to winning a rib cook off.

 

June 18, 2013 Featured

Bessinger’s BBQ – South Carolina

bessinger's BBQLately I’ve been documenting a few BBQ  journey’s and South Carolina joints.   Here’s a quick look at Bessinger’s BBQ in Charleston, SC.

The Bessinger’s story is well known in South Carolina starting over 50 years ago when legacy beganmore than half a century ago when Joseph (Big Joe is one of the retaurant’s special sandwiches) Bessinger who is the father of owner Thomas Bessinger, opened his 1st joint in Holly Hill, S.C. back in 1946.

Once he became a teenager he worked athis dad’s place called Eat at Joe’s, which sat on the main highway connecting Orangeburg and Charleston.  He after school time cooking and prepping tasty barbeque sandwiches, and learning the family’s secret recipes, which he would later reintroduce when opening his own restaurant.

Take a look at Bessinger’s on Savannah Highway in Charleston at 1602 Savannah Hwy  Charleston, SC 29407 or call them at
(843) 556-1354.

If you go make sure to try the authentic Carolina Mustard sauce (some could argue they invented it) and have a giant onion ring for me.

Had better?  Comment below.

June 16, 2013 Featured

Watermelon Keg

watermelon coxktail recipeTime for a cool summertime beverage.  This one is cool and ice cold delivered in a chilled watermelon keg!  It’s a cocktail recipe that can be served spiked or not and we make it a bit more special by tapping the keg with an affordable spigot from our local home brew craft shop.

More on this cocktail recipe at our podcast site http://gratetv.com/cocktail-recipe-watermelon-keg/

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Hey Y'all... Thanks for stopping by. I'm Bill West. I blog about BBQ and occasionally country music. When it comes to BBQ I try to find solid time saving tips and tricks to make the grilling life a bit easier. It's life hacking for the backyard cooker. Read More…

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