Improvisation: 3rd Annual Shenandoah Valley BBQ Fest!
Autumnfest is a great way to celebrate the approaching fall season in the Shenandoah Valley. The leaves on the trees are changing, and the forest is filled with ambers, golds, reds, and dusty greens. The clouds hang low over the mountains. Off in the distance, a few hot air balloons add a bit of whimsy to the skyline. It’ almost as if one could not ask for a better setting. Almost. It gets damn cold at 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning, even if you are huddled around an improvised fire pit made from bottom of a Weber Smoky Mountain.
Pitmaster Luke shouldered the set-up solo again, as Kim and Leigh Anne arrived on Fridayafternoon and evening, respectively. Forty teams circled the oval track of the Woodstock fairgrounds, and many of our new friends from this season were there. Most of us were closing the season.
Team Old Virginia Smoke would like to introduce our newest addition. A few weeks ago, we purchased a Backwoods Gator from our neighbors from the Richmond Recovery Fest cook. She’s the big dog on our porch, with real estate and heat output to spare. Of course, we brought our Backwoods Party, “Mountain Mama II,” and our original WSM gangsta, the Grillenium Falcon.
Having more than exceeded expectations with this first season, our team approach to this final comp was to stretch our wings and try a few new things. In addition to breaking in our Gator, we mixed some things up with our meat supplier, rubs, and sauces. We put some new steps in our timeline. While ribs remain an area for focused concentration during the off-season, this approach worked well for the three other meats. Our chicken process produced some amazingly succulent, flavorful thighs no matter what the immoral ingrates at table 5 said. Do not get us started on table 5. We are locked down and lasered in on pork and brisket. All in all, it is a nice way to tie up an inaugural season of competition BBQ. We were able to secure a 10th place overall, with a 9th place brisket. Third top 10 in a row.
We’d like to thank Uncle Dave with Pavone Brothers for driving down with us, and in general being there for pretty much anything we need. Such as coffee whilst freezing to death. As always, much love to JD’s Smokin Misfits, Hog-It-Up, Southern Maryland Smokers, Makin’ Bacon, Peppermonkey BBQ, Grand Slam BBQ, and Checkered Flag 500 for being great friends. It was great to meet Ash Kickers and That Guy BBQ. A special thanks to Kit Rudd from DeGuello BBQ for lending us a few secret ingredients when it turned out our larder was a little low. And congrats to Kit on the GC! But damn, that trophy was straight up creepy. El chupacabre.
See you ‘round the circuit next year, y’all.
Victory Lap: Smokin’ on the Track BBQ Festival
Nestled in the foothills of the mighty Shenandoah Mountains is a 3/8 mile oval track, home to Late Model, Bandolero, Mini Cups, and Sportsman racing. And for one weekend each year, it’s home to a KCBS BBQ competition, cornhole tournament, and classic car show.
We’ve never set up a cooksite in the middle of a racetrack before, but 2013 has been an all-around year for firsts. Pitmaster Luke did the heavy lifting on Friday, as non-BBQ realities infringed upon Kim and Leigh Anne’s time. (Editors note: Lucas set up the entire cooksite. Prepped all the meat. And drank beer and gin buckets with Mike Palmer. And hung out with the fine young man that runs Deguello BBQ, Senor Kit Rudd.) Upon our arrival on Friday night, we set to work, making up for lost time until the wee hours o’ the morn. Of course, with two sets of massive stadium lights glowing, it remained daylight-bright throughout the night.
Speaking of firsts, this event marked our initial entry into a People’s Choice category. OVS Auxilliary Members Drew Grossman and Arielle Deligdish came by to help serve two different kinds of pulled pork — one with Luke’s super-secret Carolina mustard sauce and one with our sweet red sauce. Drew and Arielle were busy as bees, and by our count handed out more than 800 samples over the course of a few hours. We didn’t get the nod for People’s Choice, but we saw a lot of smiling faces and repeat visitors rolling back for second, thirds, and fourths.
Despite the late arrival of 2/3 of the team, it was a pretty solid cook. The Backwoods and the Smoky Mountain Webers were in top form, and we often found ourselves ahead of schedule during that critical 2 and 1/2 window surrounding and encompassing turn-in time. With eight (count ’em E-I-G-H-T!) pork butts on the fire to accommodate our People’s Choice efforts, we were using up the majority of our available real estate. There was a little wheeling and dealing across the smokers to accommodate other meats at different times, but no major hurdles.
It is with great pride and happiness that we report the rib hurdle has been cleared. With some tinkering on process, we got ourselves a 3rd place call!!! And right after that, another 3rd place call for pork!!! It was good weekend for us and piggy products, no doubt about it. Our chicken did not do so good . . . and we have our theories about that. We’re still cooking the same chicken that got us top 10 calls, but table selection can be brutal (we have the numbers to support that position). Brisket got 12th, and we finished 6th overall. That’s our second top ten finish in a row, and a great way to begin winding down the season.
As you’ve noticed, we attract rain. Tear down of the site was absolutely punishing, and could not have been accomplished without the help of Casey and the rest of the Smokin’ at the Track team. We had a quick refresher of drink at the Hog It Up Hotel, and then hit the road. But not without taking the Tundra, strapped with a UHaul, around the track. It was comical when Leigh Anne passed me on the inside with a Prius on turn three. A good time witnessed by no one. Sometimes those are the best.
We want to give much love to our friends at Hog-It-Up BBQ, Southern Maryland Smokers (watch the video of Mike Palmer testing the track on our Facebook page), JD’s Smokin Misfits, Mr. Pappalardo of Grand Slam BBQ, the fine people at Late Empire BBQ, and new friends at Pop Pop’s Chicken and Pig for an awesome weekend. Congrats to to Kit @ Deguello on their GC. And again, a huge thanks to Drew and Arielle for helping out this weekend.
BBQ Jamboree Wrap
What a great event! The facility at the Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair was fantastic. Nice and flat…great times.
We got there on Thursday and got all set up. In about an hour and a half. That’s lightning! We got everything set up, started up on some beers and were about to call it a night when we gott approached by Mike (im terrible with names) of Southern Maryland Smokers. The following happened…
Mike: I saw guitars down here. Where are they?
Lucas: We put them away. Probably done for the night.
Mike: Nope. Get those guitars out, grab some beers and come down here and play guitar for some of the best teams in BBQ
So, we did.
A little impromptu concert for some of the best BBQ teams on the east coast by Sweet Tea Blues! It was pretty awesome…lots of good conversation…some good guitar playing, mostly by Leigh Anne, who ripped out a Charlie Daniels song from memory…(In my defense, i haven’t touched a guitar in a while in getting ready for BBQ) Got to hang out with the good people from Hog-IT-Up BBQ, Dizzy Pig, CHIX, SWINE and BOVINE, JD’s Smokin’ Misfits, Southern Maryland Smoker, Serial Griller, Deguello BBQ, and I’m sure others that we are missing. Lots of new friends!
And lots and lots of moonshine.
Friday morning was a bit of a blur…the lawn mower was blowing grass into my face through the tent at around 8 a.m. The girls showed up, and we started getting to work on our boxes and meat prep. We were constantly entertained by our man Smooth next door. Constant entertainment.
Girls getting at it.
The girls left around 9 p.m. I hung out with Smooth and JJ for a bit before deciding to try and get some shut eye. So I hit the tent around 10:30.
Next thing I know, Smooth is kicking me through the tent….”Lukie…shit’s about to get real out here!”
I pop up, get out, and start getting everything ready for a thunderstorm. It was crazy for a few minutes, but everything held up pretty well. So…back to bullshittin with Smooth and such. At 12, I decide to try again to get some sleep. Zip up the tent. Then WHOOSH. Another rain storm. Get back up…back out. Smooth grabs me by the shirt and says, “Listen mf’er…you aint going back in that tent. Every time you do it rains!”
So…up all night with Smooth. I do not know where he gets his energy from.
The Smootherine
I take care of everything cooking wise. The girls show up, I go grab a shower…and then we get after it.
In terms of the cook, everything pretty much went as expected. We learned a ton and will be even more on top of our game next time. But, one thing to note….Kim and Leigh Anne worked their butts off, and they are precise. I wouldnt trade them for anything.
For our first comp, we did pretty good. 12 in chicken, 24 in ribs, 35 in pork and 34 in Brisket. Definitely ok, but definitely room for improvement.
Best Team in BBQ
It was a great event and we met some great people. Cant wait to do it again!
Out of the Flame and Into the Fire
Old Virginia Smoke is slated to open its competitive BBQ slate this year on May 11, 2012, at the BBQ Jamboree in Fredericksburg, VA.
Also slated to be there is the hit cable television show BBQ Pitmasters. Read more here.
Turns out they’ll be filming footage for a future show on the competition. So we’ll need to bring our A game to the mix right out of the box.
We picked this event because its close and last year had 27 teams. I have a feeling it’s going to be a lot bigger this year!
Lots more coming as the event gets closer.
Dreams, coming true
Well well. Thank you for stopping by and checking out a dream of mine that has come to reality.
The truth is that I wanted a barbecue team before I even knew. I started cooking Que around 7-8 years ago. Rub some meat. Plug the smoker in. Wait 9 hours. Consume. And that was working great. But there was always something more. Something new to try.
One day my wife came home from her job saying that she had a coworker who’s husband had a competitive BBQ team, and that they were looking for someone. I jumped at the chance. I arranged to have lunch with Kirk and started reading everything that I could about competitive BBQ and how it works.
There was a large problem. I had never cooked on charcoal before.
And I mean never. We grew up with gas grills. I was on my second electric smoker. Sure, people had criticized. But I was making good meat. I didn’t see the need for the mess.
I figured I had to tell Kirk about this during our meeting and I wanted to demonstrate my commitment to doing it. So on the day of our meeting, I purchased and picked up my Weber Smokey Mountain on my way. We talked, and I explained how I had never cooked with charcoal, but told him I was committed to doing so. Then I showed him what I had bought.
What happened then was a complete love affair with charcoal.
(Sidenote – I have not become a BBQ snob. Cook it however you want. Electric…gas…wood…charcoal…pellet. As long as it is outside and flavors the meat…yum. I am, however, a liquid smoke snob.)
At Kirk’s, Eric’s, Michael’s and Dwayne’s sides, I cooked for two years. Learning the ins and outs of competitive barbecue. Yet the feeling kept growing that I wanted to do it myself. Which leads us to this winter…
During a day of band practice with Leigh Anne, we were shooting the stuff about BBQ and things, and both Leigh Anne and Kim said, “You really ought to start your own team. See how good you are…”
So I thought about it for a month and decided, why the hell not. Then the wife gave me some resources to begin the journey, and here we are. 2.5 months away from our first competition.
It wouldn’t be possible without the support of my family and friends, particularly James, Leigh Anne, my brother MJD for creating this fabulous site, and of course the biggest teammate and cheerleader, my wife Kim. Barbecue has already brought us closer together.
Which is what barbecue is all about.