Evil Genius

Details of all cooking events,please add details of any events you are aware of that may have been missed

Evil Genius

Postby gazz_46 » 26 Mar 2014, 11:40

Don't shoot, just a bit of fun


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Re: Evil Genius

Postby Toby » 26 Mar 2014, 11:53

Looking forward to you proving the claims :D
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Re: Evil Genius

Postby gazz_46 » 26 Mar 2014, 11:59

Errrrr....do you have trophies for last in every category? :lol:

Like I said just a lil bit of fun
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Re: Evil Genius

Postby Eddie » 26 Mar 2014, 12:49

gazz_46 wrote:Errrrr....do you have trophies for last in every category? :lol:

Like I said just a lil bit of fun

Maybe Toby can get a woodern spoon with "Dead ass last" on it just as a bit of fun. I think I might be fighting you for that. :D
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Re: Evil Genius

Postby gazz_46 » 26 Mar 2014, 23:20

C'mon Ed... Seem to remember you placed at guy fawking hot & fast? My aim is to get 4 catagories in on time....edible entries would be nice but just wanna be able to turn in on time to start with!
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Re: Evil Genius

Postby keith157 » 27 Mar 2014, 06:59

gazz_46 wrote:C'mon Ed... Seem to remember you placed at guy gawking hot & fast? My aim is to get 4 catagories in on time....edible entries would be nice but just wanna be able to turn in on time to start with!


Yep I second the edible entries comment ;)
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Re: Evil Genius

Postby chokethechicken » 27 Mar 2014, 07:28

Lol, Gaz. Great video.
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Re: Evil Genius

Postby gazz_46 » 07 May 2014, 07:46

Competition report "Mayhem In May"

Arrived at the British BBQ Society headquarters in Tongham around 5pm Friday and proceeded to set up alongside other grassroots teams. We had a nice corner pitch with lots of space. Considering we had never erected the new gazebo fully before it went together quickly proving to be a great size and sturdy, managing to hold all our kit inside comfortably and with enough room to spare.

Electrical hook up for lights etc was a little temperamental with the mains circuits tripping which involved our host Toby having to call in electricians early Saturday morning but was sorted quickly remaining constant thereafter, we did however have to turn off the hot water urn as it was drawing too much current no great loss as he has hot running water available in the barn areas where there is a fully featured commercial kitchen. Bbbqs headquarters have the best setup ever and needs to be seen to be believed...

Saturday we had the compulsory "anything butt" round which needed to be turned in by 16:00 this was to be my team mate Gareth's baby, for this he chose smoked curried goat. After set up Friday Gareth mixed his rub of Jamaican style spices and applied liberally to be marinated overnight.

We started his wsm around 8am and smoked the goat shoulder with oak for 5 hrs then prepped the stock and vegetables and transferred the meat to "lil' Henry" the Evil Doctors Landman charcoal curry cooker where it stayed for a couple more hours finishing.

Shortly before turn in we realised there are no turn in boxes for this round and could present anyway we choose, oops hadn't figured on taking bowls or plates... A quick scan/ panic ensued but we came thru with four small stainless mixing bowls and the plates from a picnic hamper we took for our lunches...phew
As an accompaniment he did wild grain rice & mini naan bread, this along with the goat turned out great with fanatastic flavour all of which was turned in on time. Team Evil was go, we were now competing!
We were not to find out how it did until the master presentation ceremony Sunday after the main comp but we were sure we had a winner.

Saturday was the busiest day for us, aswell as the curry goat we attended the grassroots trimming and cooking class 10:00 run by Toby for new teams outlining wot to expect during the weekend, trimming and rubbing of meats (phnarrrr) and how to prepare for turn in. A time well spent as he went thru do's and donts with hints and tips on cooking and flavour profiles.

This then led to the main comp prep, we cooked two sets of everything and were to choose the best of the bunch for turn in I had already part prepped a brisket and pork butt I had obtained from the good gents at Turner & George in London but still had the ribs and chicken thighs to prep. Gareth was to prep and trim the four meat categories provided and included in the grassroots team entry by Toby.

We were now a little behind schedule but got the big meats trimmed injected and rubbed in good order then placed them in the cooler to marinate.

Saturday night around 20:00 we lit Gareth's wsm again and Dr. Evils THÜROS cabinet smoker , Gareth was running BBQ guru pit fan but the doc was going naturally aspirated both sets of brisket and pork butt went in about nine and we felt we could relax a little although we still had ribs and chicken to prep for the morning.

All this time we were working our other team mates hard Barry my bestest mate in the whole wide world and Mrs. Evil Gill were invaluable and deserve our thanks, helping with set up, prepping, organisation, turn ins the lot... Thank you both.
Around 03:00 Sunday morning the big meats in the cabinet smoker were approaching foil temp and were duly wrapped with a au jus and placed back on. Gareth's wsm was chugging away nicely but his meats were running around an hour behind and again we're foiled and placed back on without issue when required. All we needed to do then was monitor the temps and pull at the required temps or texture.

When probe tender we pulled them and vented for 20 mins to stop the cooking process then re wrapped and placed in the now hot cambro to rest.

Moving on to the ribs which needed to go on 07:45 and the chicken aprox 09:45, all this without the aid of sleep myself and Gareth both maintained vigil at the smokers all night and were a little worse for the experience but had the comfort of a chimney starter full of lit coals and a little dram of Jim Beams finest. Daytime sun was found in abundance but the night time temps dropped to roughly freezing both nights..... It were fricken cold!

1st to turn in was chicken at 12:00 these slowly came up to temp and we struggled to find 6 consistent thighs, we had gotten a little lazy with prep because we were tired and it showed however the texture and taste were great so these were duly sauced we were pushed for time tho and did not have time to put back in the smoker to set the sauce.....doh this was to set the scene for the day always seeming to be playing catch up.

Ribs were next to be turned in at 12:30 these were smoked for 3hrs then foiled with secret blends and put back on to finish but came out way too dark and soft proving almost impossible to cut, I even contemplated not turning in but figured we had to make do with wot we had and a zero score was out of the question.

Pork was next at 13:00 and had given us no trouble at all with good color, bark and texture. This was pulled into large sized chunks or muscle groups and again sauced prior to turn in, we felt confident this was one that couldn't loose.
Last but by no means least came brisket at 13:30 this was sliced and sauced but again we had difficulty matching slices.
It was all over by 14:10 we just needed to wait for the judges to announce to the world that we were the new sensation....lol

A group hug and a celebratory tiple later and I was a little emotional... You see, my aim for this 1st ever comp was to get all the entries in on time, have fun, enjoy it all and learn for next time........Job done!

The judging came to an end and results were in, all the teams were called to the big top marque and we sat patiently waiting I knew the entries were not quite wot I envisioned and were down on usual results but had never cooked all four categories in one go before as a back yard cook but still wanted to hear us called... If only for the shear effort we had all put in.

It wasn't to be, we didn't get a call the results showed us as finishing 17th overall with a best of 7th place in brisket.....7th!

Seventh in this competition with the likes of Jedi Swine Tricks BBQ who took Grand Champion, Bunch of Swines who took Reserve GC, Invicta BBQ, Hammer & Tongs to name but a few of the big hitters was a massive result and something to be very proud of I'm welling up as I type....

Thanks again to Team Evil, couldn't have done it without you!

Thanks again to Toby and all his team for making us welcome and Ed Tory for the hugs.

See y'all next time for more of the same.
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Re: Evil Genius

Postby gazz_46 » 28 May 2014, 21:39

Round #2 Report "Drum & Baste"...its a long one!

It was a lonely start to the competition, Mrs Evil was working and couldn’t make it to Tongham until Saturday night, Bazz was busy at work too and Grumpy man had a crisis at home which meant yours truly had to do the meat prep Thursday night then try and get some kip (no chance....nerves) gather the not insubstantial kit we have and load it all solo Friday....gulp!

Having learned from our 1st comp i managed to cut down on some of the stuff we had hoping to just take essentials, anyhow this took quite a bit of reorganisation and time was pressing. Had to get a hire van for this trip which i collected at 12:00 then began the long and torturous job of loading.... that was some ask but by 17:00 had just about broken the (my) back of it.

Grumpy man arrived around 17:30 and off we set, wasn’t looking forward to unloading at the other end but hey ho....gotta be done, we arrived in Surrey very late due to traffic and an accident on the M25 (god bless the M25) but surprise, surprise Bazz had made his way down to the comp after work to help unload and set up (love ya Bazza).
Set up of the camp kitchen went ok but it was getting dark, time to put up the tent.... Oopps this was a new bigger tent that i had insisted on due to my bad back and hurriedly purchased but never previously erected. Damn it was getting dark, where does this pole go......what pole i cant see it, its the yellow marked one etc. It was farcical really but Bazz and grumpy man pulled thru while i faffed around like a girl.

We were fully erect (Phnarr......) by about 22:30 and had missed out on going to the pub with Toby and the other competitors however we felt glad when they returned very much the worse for wear..... there had been much celebrating of the British Bulldog Teams massive result in Memphis!

Bazz made his way home for the night & me and grumpy made our way to the big top to chill, imbibe and chat with our friends from “Taking the brisket” a team from Wales before retiring for the night..... oh dear mucho shots were to be had, someone in their infinite wisdom had opened 3x bottles of the strong stuff and it all got a bit messy
.
I retired to bed in my spacious new accommodation at 02:30 and heard the grumpster fighting his way into his tent about 15 mins later it was now pershishing down and remained so throughout the night, dammit. I held onto as much liquor as i could until around 06:00 when my kidneys insisted i make the trip across the field to the toilets. I’d not partaken of that much but did feel pretty rough, i felt substantially better when i saw the grumpster later on who’d had more than a few lol.

08:00 It was time to get going the “Anything Butt” round was to be presented at 16:00 we still needed to finish set up and prep the 2nd four comp meats we picked up from Toby, then there was the drum part of the weekend......... we were supposed to build a Big Poppa UDS to take home with us and was included as an option on the entry fee, an absolute bargain and the king of drum smokers.

Organisationally we had learned from our 1st comp and were a little more relaxed but there was no way we were gonna get to build the UDS and present our entry so the decision was taken with Toby’s consent that we would take the UDS kit home to build (bonus, coz i am so flippen anal i was gonna have to strip it again to paint anyhow)

For this round i had chosen 3x Poisson to smoke and had prepared a home made bbq sauce a clone of a well known brand, long story shorter we got it on late and it was barely cooked by hand -in...Doh! it was safe so it was sauced and sent but not really acceptable, the judges did their best to taste it but were rightly cautious......suffice to say we came nowhere and they didn’t like the sauce.

On to the big 4, injected rubbed and ready we actually caught a break and had the smokers going and the meats on early, time to relax. Taking onboard feedback from round 1 i had made some adjustments to flavours, temps & timings but still had no idea how it was gonna go.........Badly was the answer!

Everything was running like clockwork, a set of meats in the Thuros cabinet and another in Bert (my wsm) for direct comparison and an insurance policy should anything go wrong.......... it did!

Both smokers had been chugging away nicely at 250F for around 5-6 hours when it came time to spritz. I sprayed the meats with a mix of water and apple juice every half hour for two hours when all of a sudden and for no fricken reason the BBQ Guru system on Bert had a hissy fit, there are no words to describe what happened or how other than to say it went completely “Tonto” and nothing i could do or did would rectify it............. temps were all over the place feckit! I tried new probes, batteries and resetting several times over the course of the next few hours but to no avail..........i was resigned to losing the lot. Then i chanced upon a solution, not by design but by sheer luck i moved the pit probe about six inches and to my surprise it settled down....WTF?

Temps stabilised and all was good in the world again however due to the time taken to resolve Berts woes we had lost temp on both smokers and that didn’t make for a happy Dr. I can tell ya the briskets and butts were still in foil and stalling like crazy when the chicken and ribs had to go in, we were playing catch up again.

Chicken thigh turn-in came and went without drama but i wasn’t entirely happy with them the ribs on the other hand had gone much better and looked killer, i was over the moon with them and felt sure we would get a call. Pork was next and didn’t go to plan, i messed up the presentation and had to have a 2nd go at loading the box, tempers were frayed..... well in truth i cracked under the self imposed pressure and shouted at Mrs. Evil who was trying to be positive (sorry Gill) but made the best of it and turned it in feeling pretty shitty, not much hope of a call.

Briskets didn’t come out too well either and took a lot of trimming i thought these were a step backwards but it was all done now. I was inconsolable feeling the only chance we had was ribs, another comp done it was time for a beer and chill.

The time came for the prize giving ceremony and i wasn’t that happy to go if I’m honest, i hadn’t slept i had major pain all weekend and felt with the exception of ribs i hadn’t improved on our 1st comp.

I manned up thanked the team and sat down to applaud the winners....

Chicken.... No call
Ribs...........Nothing....... but they were the best i had ever cooked!
Pork...........2nd place Dr. Evil....

“what did he say?”

“2nd.....No fuffing way!” were my exact words, we all looked at each other in disbelief but it was true Toby had called us was looking our way with a trophy in his hands and said he expected to see more of us in the future!

I cracked just managing to hold it together hoping no one would notice i was on the edge of tears(Gill noticed) We graciously accepted our trophy and posed for the team photo and sat back down still in disbelief. We looked like a bunch of rabbits caught in headlights I couldn’t speak it was all too much.
Brisket came and went without a call, that was it but we were on cloud nine anyhow.

Steve “Jedi Swine Tricks” was awarded Reserve Grand Champion

Ed & Emma “Bunch Of Swines” were hailed as Grand Champions

Bazz then went to get the score cards, shock and yet more horror we were listed as 3rd placed overall...!!
Must be some mistake... nope...by this time i had prolapsed, there are no words except to say im a dick!

Checking our scores we had improved dramatically in all four categories and yet i felt it had gone so badly..........
what the hell do i know.

Its tuff this competition lark, thank you Team Evil
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Re: Evil Genius

Postby Artust » 28 May 2014, 22:33

Great write up Gaz and a nice insight into the good and bad bits of competition BBQ. Sure the results will continue to improve and hope I can make it along to help/spectate in the future.
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