Category: Competition

After spending the weekend looking at events in the region I’ve finally narrowed it down to a (semi) workable competition schedule.  A few may come and go, but for now this looks to be our route to 7 wins this year. As competitions and other events are confirmed they will be loaded to the calendar page.  Hope to see a few of our readers on the BBQ trail in 2012.

Competitions for 2012

April

20-21 Pork in the Park Salisbury, MD

27-29 Hog Fest in Historic Edenton I & II Edenton, NC

May

04-05 Naptown barBAYq Annapolis, MD

18-19 Middletown BBQ Cook-Off Middletown, DE

June

01-02 Beltway BBQ Showdown Upper Marlboro, MD (tentative)

15-16 Central MD Swinetastic BBQ Festival Frederick, MD

29-30 Covington Cork and Pork Festival Covington, VA (tentative)

July

27-28 Bluemont BBQ Bash & Blackberry Bonanza Bluemont, VA

August

10-11 MD State BBQ Bash Bel Air , MD (tentative)

17-19 Mountain Maryland Barbeque Cumberland, MD

September

07-08 Sam’s Club National BBQ Tour Laurel, MD

14-15 Sam’s Club National BBQ Tour (Regional) Chesapeake, VA (hopefully!)

October

05-06 Keystone Classic Barbeque Harrisburg, PA

12-13 Sam’s Club National BBQ Tour National Championship Bentonville, AR (with luck!)

26-27 Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue Lynchburg, TN (hopefully!)

Where to begin? 2011 started slow but somehow I ended up cooking the last 14 weekends either as Aporkalypse Now or with friends. Some of the highlights:

• Winning the Bel-Air competition as part of Jack’s Old South
• Following up  with a 3rd place finish as the lead cook for Back Porch BBQ at The New Holland Summerfest
• Winning Smokin on the Bay in Deale MD, again as part of Jack’s Old South
• Teaming up with sometimes Aporkalypse Now teammate Dale to take the Grand at Shrewsburry, PA
• Getting 4 calls at Raystown PA to take Reserve Grand Champion
• Going to the Royal as part of Jack’s Old South
• Winning the Grand Championship at Harrisburg, PA
• Going to the Jack Daniels Invitational as part of Jack’s Old South

It’s been an interesting 1st full year as a BBQ team, many lessons have been learned as well as mental plans made for 2012.

Wusthof has the brisket slicer in full production (watch this space to order) and first customer ship is estimated around the 10th of December. Two other knives have been developed and we’ll be bringing up the online store shortly to facilitate acquiring these plus some other items I’ve found useful on the BBQ trail (not to mention Aporkalypse Now wearables !)

 

 

This past weekend I was invited to cook with Myron Mixon’s team Jack’s Old South (including sometimes Aporkalypse Now team member Dale)  at the DC BBQ battle. It’s an interesting sight to see BBQ teams lined up on Pennsylvania Avenue with the Capital Dome in the background.

With the scrapping of the  Memphis in May portion of the event this year (it’s to return next year) they opted to stretch the KCBS portion out over two days with chicken and brisket turned in on Saturday evening and Ribs and pork turned in on Sunday. An odd schedule to be sure.

Anyway we came, we saw, we cooked on one of the best June weekends in DC in several years, finishing 3rd in Chicken, 9th in Ribs, 5th in pork and 9th in brisket for 4th overall. Not a bad cook.  No discussion on scoring would be complete without a huge shout out and congratulations to our friends at  Pork Barrel BBQ who won their first Grand Championship in their home town. Way to go Heath, Brett & crew!

A note on Myron
Myron Mixon has more or less become the face of BBQ with the success of the BBQ Pitmasters show last year on TLC coupled with his long track record of wins in both KCBS and MIM competitions.  Myron also has a reputation as a bit of a jerk based on the villain edit that he got on season one of BBQ Pitmasters. Let me tell you first hand, it was just that – an edit. Myron not only cooked this event at the last minute, but he also met and interacted with fans, posed for pictures  and graciously signed books for people all weekend. I never once saw him refuse anyone.

Anyway, I picked up a ton of tips from Myron (that people will be seeing at Bluemont) and had a blast as one of Myron’s merry minions; although as good as the event was I suspect that next year we’ll be facing off instead of cooking together.

It was quite a weekend between work slowing down my arrival, traffic, and of course the winds blowing through the fairgrounds at 40mph plus. After all that, we managed to come back from a disappointing 92nd place finish in Chicken to win 1st in Ribs against a very strong field of 116 teams.  We then returned to mediocrity by finishing 52nd in Pork and 39th in Brisket for a 40th place finish overall.