Well, it seemed like there was some interest in following along with us this year, so I’m going to start this post and add to it as we go through the season.

To start, a little background on the team. There’s 5 of us - myself, my wife, and 3 other guys - who all were athletes at various levels when we were younger. As we got older and fatter, playing soccer, basketball and football were becoming less of a possibility at a competitive level, and were looking for an outlet for that competitive spirit.

So, in 2012, we signed up to compete in the American Royal World Series of BBQ. This is the largest BBQ competition in the world, drawing teams from Europe, Asia, and all over North America to compete here in KC for a world championship. We didn’t think we’d do anything like win that our first time out, and we were excited to have a weekend with the boys (plus my wife) and hang out and have some beers while making food.

Well, we didn’t win. We didn’t come close. But we did beat 20% of the field and had an absolute blast doing it. We decided to keep going forward and do a few more of these the next year.

Fast forward to today, and we have evolved. We realized there’s a lot cheaper ways to drink beer with your friends, and that if we wanted to keep doing these things we needed to get serious about it, or quit. We chose to get serious. We have been that way for about 3 years now, and we finished last year ranked 24th overall in the world, and 8th in pork, and in the top 20 in brisket and ribs, and top 50 in chicken #frickenchicken

So I’ll be chronicling our adventures this year, which already is promising to be interesting. I did a steak contest last weekend, and we have our first BBQ comp this weekend, and a double the weekend after. After that the next 5 we were scheduled to do have either moved their date, or postponed still due to the pandemic (no comment). I wonder if some of them are looking for a reason to not do it, but I also know that a lot of these are put on by either non-profits or city parks departments, etc, and none of them can really afford the bad press that comes with holding a food contest during a pandemic and then people potentially getting sick. Plus, many rely on the public turnout to turn a profit, so I get it.

In the next post, I will recap the steak contest I cooked last weekend, including some pics. Thank you to everyone who reads a follows along, and if you want to hit us up on the socials we are @meatrushmorebbq on everything, but mainly Facebook and Instagram.

Last weekend the American Royal put on their first ever Backyard BBQ competition, and steak cookoff. Backyard competitions are typically 2 meat affairs (chicken and ribs), and are a great way for people to get their feet wet in competition bbq without feeling like they are going up against the “big boys.” We do not qualify for a backyard contest, as we’ve done too many of the “master series” or “pro” competitions, and won too much. However, the steak contest was open to all, so I paid the entry fee and went down to Hale Arena in KC to cook some steak, and try and win some cash.

Cooked the steaks on my PK Grills TX, with Grill Grates over Royal Oak briquettes (we always use RO charcoal, it’s my favorite charcoal - and I’ve tried a lot of them). Steak contests are nice, because the meat is provided, it’s a short, one day cook, and who doesn’t want to eat some steak? Usually, the steak you’re given is a ribeye, and you draw for what order you pick your steaks in. It then works as a snake draft, so if you get the first pick, you get the last pick for your second steak. Right in the middle is generally where you want to be. You can get a pretty good steak the first time, and they’re not all picked over the second.

I got the final pick in the first round, which means I got back to back picks. Instead of ribeyes, these were strip steaks. I’m not going lie - I don’t really eat strip steaks. I rarely go out for steaks, and if I’m cooking one at home, I’m not going to let the $3 or whatever a ribeye might cost more than a strip deter me from buying what I really want. It had been years since I cooked a strip. I wasn’t super confident in what I was going to do, but I put a plan together.

I got some of the exterior fat trimmed off, and got it into a shape I thought would cook more evenly. I then whipped up a marinade with Beef Consume, some spices, and a tenderizer and let that set for a bit. I then rubbed it, and got the fire going.

Cooked the first, practice steak, and overshot the doneness just a tad after carryover, so I backed it down a couple degrees in order to keep it more moist and tender.

Then it was boxing time. This is where my wife is Queen. She sees things that I just never pick up on and is able to make those adjustments to make sure that we are presenting the best looking entry we can.

AND…off to turn ins

Then we got to relax and wait for awards. Ended up taking home 3rd place, which I was happy with. I didn’t feel as comfortable with the strip as I would have been a ribeye, and I don’t think I nailed tenderness. The judges mostly agreed giving me good, but not great scores in tenderness though they all really liked the taste and appearance.

Next up is BBQ in Olathe KS this weekend!

Emptied my shopping cart during the livestream yesterday. So awesome that it came today with the free shipping!

Wish I could double like the blue hats…congrats to all, and thank you for making this such a welcoming place. In January I had decided I wanted to learn sausage making so that I had something to do with my trimmings. I found this site through some of the YouTube videos, and I started reading, trying to make sense of it all. You have all helped me learn so much. Now, my wife would like it if you didn’t convince me to spend so much money, but - I also know she secretly likes it when she gets to eat!

After cleaning up and loading up, we headed down to the awards ceremony, to await our fate. We ended up taking 2nd in both ribs and pork, each one within a point of a perfect score. We were hit pretty good on chicken and brisket though, and landed 19th out of 70 teams overall. When you’re competing in a field like this, the margins for error are tiny. We were only a couple scores outside of the top 10, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Up next we have a double this weekend, and it’s what we call a “rolling double” which means we’ll cook Saturday, clean up, and head to another contest to cook Sunday. It’s a ton of work, but we get a chance to take one day of PTO on friday and cook 2 contests, so we like to do them when we can.

Thanks for reading!

This didn’t suck

As someone new to this hobby, and new to Walton’s, I do hope that you keep your YouTube presence up, simply because that’s how I found you, and the quality of the videos and the information led me here, and, ultimately, to spending the first $300 of what I assume will be many hundreds of dollars with your store. Now that I’ve found you, that won’t change without YouTube, but I am sure there are many like me who have not found you who would be good customers out there lurking in YT land, maybe not even realizing they want to process meat yet.

We knew that we would finish high in the overall rankings, based on the 3 high calls. We didn’t know where our chicken landed though, and there was a team with 4 top 10s, as well as one with a 1st, 2nd, and 4th, so we weren’t sure where we would land, but figured top 5 for sure, and probably top 3. I figured 2nd or 3rd.

As they were reading off the top 10, they called our friend Bill our of Texas for 3rd (he had the 1,2,4), and I was prepared to get up to walk up for Reserve Grand Champion. However, they called the 4 call team…and then called us for overall Grand Champions.

A little bit of a Walton’s tie in here. Kelly, who won RGC (in the pic below in the cowboy hat) has a reputation for his sausage making. When I decided to get into it, the first thing I did was sign up for one of his sausage classes, and then started scouring the web and youtube. That’s when I came across Walton’s. I loved the YouTube videos, I had browsed the website, and I liked what I saw, but I hadn’t pulled the trigger on anything. During his class, he mentioned Walton’s as being a great resource for buying supplies, and how he orders from there frequently. That sealed it in my mind, which led me to this community, which led you to reading my ramblings. So, without this guy, I may not be here right now.

State Center, IA this weekend! Ready to get up there and do some cooking!

It’s always a good day when the UPS man brings a Walton’s box!

I’m a banker during the day. I manage a branch, and generally enjoy it. I’m not any good at playing politics, so that has hurt me in the past, but I do enjoy what I do, especially my interactions with small business owners and helping them achieve their dreams.

Here in about a month when the competition BBQ season is over, we’ve got a huge sausage party planned, lol. Going to have probably 200ish pounds of pork butts, and 100ish pounds of wagyu brisket trimmings to turn into summer sausage, brats, snack sticks, etc. Currently looking at the different seasonings to see what all we want to do.

Also, I’m thinking about buying some more beef to grind up. What is the best option for beef cuts when accounting for price and quality sausage?

Wow! I need a place like that!

bocephus It’s terrible. Actually, since they went to cooking their burgers at least somewhat to order, it’s gotten a little better, but overall, it’s bottom of the barrel. However, I would rather starve than eat Subway. I get nauseous just walking in that place.

Sorry, guys, but I’m going to McDonald’s over subway 100% of the time. Subway is disgusting. Now, goodcents? I’m in.

Those look amazing!

Jamieson22 said in What is the best wireless meat thermometer to purchase ?:

Agree on the Thermoworks. Can’t live without my Thermapens from them have teh Smoke remote therm. Accurate as can be and work perfectly!

Yep. I have 2 thermapens, a time stick, a smoke, and a dot. Great products.

As others have said, it should be the same amount of time, or very, very close. The exception would be when you start adding more and more and your airflow changing drastically. 2 butts shouldn’t cause this issue on anything but the smallest of Smokers though.

This sounds amazing. I love TriTips. Have a wagyu one in the freezer I may pull out and run this on.

I’ve wondered about buying less, but since they’re only $10 I figured I’ll just have a bunch, probably lose the last 2-300 and order more.

Ordering like 250 or 500 at a time would be nice, or hell, I could get by ordering 100. Not sure the cost savings would make it worth it though.

glen said in Meat Rushmore BBQ Competition BBQ thread:

Wow, good to hear from you again. Tell us more about that sausage!

Well, some really intelligent individual decided that it should be turned in immediately after dessert. The same judges judge all the sides, so that means that someone who just ate a bunch of cheesecake, banana pudding, etc, were now going to be eating sausage. We were discussing that during the day Friday, and decided we should go sweet with the sausage so that we aren’t shocking their taste buds. So we took our normal smoked sausage we use for vending and catering - it’s basically a polish fresh sausage that we hot smoke - took it out of the casings, made a fatty, and sweetened it up. It wasn’t what I would want, but I felt it was what the judges would be able to handle at that point.