Oklahoma Joe's World Brisket Open

Another high lite of my trip to the GAB was the opportunity of judging the Oklahoma Joe's World Brisket Open. The contest consist of 2 rounds. Teams can enter as many briskets as they like (@ $100 a piece) The team has to cook an entire packer brisket (flat & point) which is tagged by an official. The cooks submit slices only in a box with no garnish. Tin foil can be used under the slices or to wrap them . In the first round 87 entries were submitted and judged. After the 1st round of judging is over , the top ten highest scoring entries move on to the 2nd round. The 10 teams then get notified and they have to submit an additional entry to be judges from the exact same brisket that made it to the top ten. Basically the team has to hold the same brisket for 2 hours after the first entry and make sure it doesn't dry out to be judged again. I judged the 2nd round, the finals, the 10 best briskets. I was really looking forward to it, as a judge you taste good and bad food but now I had the opportunity to judge the best. I will admit this, two of the entries were outstanding , 7 of them were good and one of them was doused with so much Worcestershire sauce that it made me cringe as I ate it. Overall it was a great experience and was glad I was a part of it.

The GAB

Competing at the GAB this past weekend was a blast. First off I would like to thank Andy and Kim Groneman for letting us use their gear and site to cook the Invitational. When we typically compete our setup is 2 ez up canopies , a few tables and a couple of WSM' s and whatever else I can squeeze in my van. In KC we had the luxury of cooking on a couple of pellet cookers and the use of a big ole toy hauler, we were spoiled rotten by them and competing will never be the same for us ever again!. Besides the awesome setup we were also in party central. I am not sure how they do it but besides setting up and cooking two contests in the same weekend they also manage to host a very large dinner get together with lots of great food, great folks and more beer and more adult beverages than I could count on both Fri and Saturday nights.Andy and Kim are very special people and I feel truly blessed to have friends like them. THANK YOU!

The GAB is a very large contest compared to the one's we do here on the East Coast . The competition was held at the Wyandotte County Park at Capitol Federal Park @ Sandstone in Bonner Springs, KS. It is a very family friendly event that hosts an Invitational Contest(44teams) , Open contest(163 teams) the Oklahama Joes World Brisket Open(87 teams) as well as Kids Que, an apps, wraps, wings contest, as well as contests for sauce, rubs, bastes, side dishes and deserts. The team sites are set in very large parking lot. The only downside to the location that I could see was the parking lot, it was very sloped and basically a a big hill . The teams seamed to overcome it with quite a bit of leveling of trailers and cookers. Like many other cooks I would prefer to compete in a grass field, with exception of a rainy contest weekend in which case blacktop is your friend.

I went in to this contest the intent of having fun cooking with my son. I wont lie, the competitor in me would of liked much better results. They call and give out ribbons and money to 20th place in each category. The only call we had was for 18th place in pork. With the caliber of teams that were there I will take it!. I have to admit it was great hearing our name called at all considering I was not happy with any of my entries (except chicken which as usual was my nemesis) I did not get another 13th in chicken but it place 39th, which of course is divisible by 13. Anywho I am not using it as an excuse, but with my recent Achilles tendon injury/surgery by the morning of turn in my ankle was so sore that I could barely stand up and was not really able to perform. I am very thankful that my teammate,co-pit master and son Steven saved my ass as usual and did an awesome job. I am really proud of him and fear the day when he leaves me and starts to cook on his own against me, watch out BBQ world!