BBQ – Cole Pepper blogs

Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships Results – 2014

The awards for the 2014 Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships were moved into the Bud Light Party Zone. (photo by Angelo Hernandez)

Here are the final results for the Pro and Backyard divisions of the 2014 Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships.

Note that in the Backyard Division, we have a “one trophy maximum” meaning that some teams who scored higher in some categories, did not win trophies. The winners are noted in bold. Additionally, where there are ties in scores, a tie breaking procedure was used. The exception was in Pro Ribs, where each team had identical scores.

BACKYARD DIVISION PRO DIVISION

Overall	Team	Points	Overall	Team	Points
1	JAMS BBQ	523.6	1	Two Smokin White Boys	514.8
2	Just Pig Out BBQ	509.0	2	Smokin’ Your Butt	511.8
3	KCI Savannah BBQ	506.9	3	BBQ JAX	511.8
4	BluesyQ	501.0	4	Fire Pit	504.6
5	Palm Valley BBQ	498.0	5	Team Two Eggheads	504.6
6	Serial Smokers	495.7	6	Tortoise Q	499.8
7	Hillbilly Bones Bar-B-Que	494.0	7	Goodfellas Bbq	499.2
8	Smoke-R-Done BBQ	492.0	8	Big Bad Barbecue	496.2
9	Back 9 Q Crew	487.5	9	Boston’s Butt	487.2
10	NAIOP #1	483.3	10	Klear Lake BBQ	337.8
11	Blue Wave Cookers	480.7
12	NAIOP #2	480.5
13	Smokin’ Barrels	480.4	Chicken	Team	Points
14	Smitty’s Smokestack	475.2	1	BBQ JAX	172.2
15	Wild hog	472.4	2	Two Smokin White Boys	168.6
16	B&Bs Que	471.5	3	Team Two Eggheads	168.0
17	Hogg Father’s	468.1	3	Fire Pit	168.0
18	Swine One One	467.5	5	Tortoise Q	167.4
19	WarPigs BBQ	463.8	5	Boston’s Butt	167.4
20	Elkins Not So Famous BBQ Team	462.9	7	Goodfellas Bbq	165.6
21	Roasted and Toasted	460.4	7	Smokin’ Your Butt	165.6
22	Miller Genuine BBQ	459.7	9	Big Bad Barbecue	164.4
23	Let’s Smoke Out BBQ	459.5		Klear Lake BBQ
24	All American Grill, BBQ & Football	455.1
25	Bug’s n Butt’s	453.1	Ribs	Team	Points
26	2 Red Heads	452.9	1	Smokin’ Your Butt	175.8
27	JDG BBQ	451.9	1	Two Smokin White Boys	175.8
28	STATE BOYS 3AM BAR B Q	451.3	3	BBQ JAX	170.4
29	Mr. Pee Wee’s Smokin Hot BBQ	451.1	4	Tortoise Q	168.6
30	Smoke This	448.7	5	Goodfellas Bbq	168.0
31	FIS	445.1	6	Big Bad Barbecue	167.4
32	Smoker and the Bandits	442.1	6	Team Two Eggheads	167.4
33	Underage Smokers	433.2	8	Fire Pit	166.8
34	Backyard Brother’s BBQ	428.6	9	Klear Lake BBQ	165.6
35	Interrail Smoke Signals	332.4	10	Boston’s Butt	157.8
Chicken	Team	Points	Pork	Team	Points
1	Smoke-R-Done BBQ	174.5	1	Klear Lake BBQ	172.2
2	JAMS BBQ	174.0	2	Two Smokin White Boys	170.4
3	Serial Smokers	172.7	2	Smokin’ Your Butt	170.4
4	Just Pig Out BBQ	171.0	4	Fire Pit	169.8
5	KCI Savannah BBQ	168.4	5	Team Two Eggheads	169.2
6	Hillbilly Bones Bar-B-Que	165.9	5	BBQ JAX	169.2
7	Let’s Smoke Out BBQ	165.5	7	Goodfellas Bbq	165.6
8	FIS	165.0	8	Big Bad Barbecue	164.4
8	Palm Valley BBQ	165.0	9	Tortoise Q	163.8
10	Elkins Not So Famous BBQ Team 3	162.5	10	Boston’s Butt	162.0
11	B&Bs Que	162.0
11	BluesyQ	162.0
13	NAIOP #2	161.0
14	Roasted and Toasted	159.5
15	Mr. Pee Wee’s Smokin Hot BBQ	159.0
16	Hogg Father’s	158.5
17	Smitty’s Smokestack	157.0
18	NAIOP #1	156.0
19	STATE BOYS 3AM BAR B Q	155.0
20	Back 9 Q Crew	153.5
21	Smokin’ Barrels	152.6
21	Bug’s n Butt’s	152.6
23	2 Red Heads	151.8
24	Wild hog	150.9
25	WarPigs BBQ	149.1
25	Blue Wave Cookers	149.1
27	Underage Smokers	149.0
28	Miller Genuine BBQ	148.8
29	Smoke This	147.0
30	Smoker and the Bandits	144.0
31	Swine One One	142.7
32	Backyard Brother’s BBQ	142.5
33	All American Grill, BBQ & Football	136.5
34	JDG BBQ	134.5
Ribs	Team	Points
1	JAMS BBQ	173.1
2	KCI Savannah BBQ	171.0
3	Back 9 Q Crew	170.5
4	Smitty’s Smokestack	170.0
5	Serial Smokers	169.0
6	Smokin’ Barrels	167.0
6	BluesyQ	167.0
6	Just Pig Out BBQ	167.0
9	NAIOP #2	166.5
10	Swine One One	166.2
11	Hillbilly Bones Bar-B-Que	165.5
11	B&Bs Que	165.5
13	NAIOP #1	163.5
13	Let’s Smoke Out BBQ	163.5
15	All American Grill, BBQ & Football	162.6
16	Interrail Smoke Signals	162.4
17	Blue Wave Cookers	161.0
17	JDG BBQ	161.0
19	Bug’s n Butt’s	160.5
20	Smoke This	159.0
21	Palm Valley BBQ	158.0
22	Miller Genuine BBQ	154.5
23	Smoke-R-Done BBQ	153.0
24	Wild hog	152.5
25	STATE BOYS 3AM BAR B Q	151.8
26	Hogg Father’s	151.5
27	Elkins Not So Famous BBQ Team 3	150.9
28	Smoker and the Bandits	148.5
29	WarPigs BBQ	147.5
30	Underage Smokers	145.2
31	Roasted and Toasted	144.9
32	2 Red Heads	143.1
33	Backyard Brother’s BBQ	142.7
34	Mr. Pee Wee’s Smokin Hot BBQ	137.6
35	FIS	133.5
Pork	Team	Points
1	JAMS BBQ	176.5
2	Palm Valley BBQ	175.0
3	BluesyQ	172.0
4	Just Pig Out BBQ	171.0
5	Blue Wave Cookers	170.6
6	Interrail Smoke Signals	170.0
7	Wild hog	169.0
8	KCI Savannah BBQ	167.5
9	WarPigs BBQ	167.1
10	Smoke-R-Done BBQ	164.5
11	NAIOP #1	163.8
12	Back 9 Q Crew	163.5
13	Hillbilly Bones Bar-B-Que	162.6
14	Smokin’ Barrels	160.8
15	Swine One One	158.6
16	Hogg Father’s	158.1
17	2 Red Heads	158.0
18	Miller Genuine BBQ	156.4
18	JDG BBQ	156.4
20	All American Grill, BBQ & Football	156.0
20	Roasted and Toasted	156.0
22	Mr. Pee Wee’s Smokin Hot BBQ	154.5
23	Serial Smokers	154.0
24	NAIOP #2	153.0
25	Smoker and the Bandits	149.6
26	Elkins Not So Famous BBQ Team 3	149.5
27	Smitty’s Smokestack	148.2
28	FIS	146.6
29	STATE BOYS 3AM BAR B Q	144.5
30	B&Bs Que	144.0
31	Backyard Brother’s BBQ	143.4
32	Smoke This	142.7
33	Bug’s n Butt’s	140.0
34	Underage Smokers	139.0
35	Let’s Smoke Out BBQ	130.5

How to Make Competition BBQ Chicken

by Cole Pepper
April 12, 2014

Chicken is the first category that will be judged in the Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships. Here are a few tips that I have acquired that can help you make great competition-style chicken in your backyard.

Remove the skin and trim fat from it. Chicken skin has fat on the underside. You want to carefully slice that away.
Brine thighs for around 2 hours (I like to use a traditional, all natural lemonade or apple juice as a base for the brine)
Season or dust thighs (I prefer a combination of garlic powder and lemon pepper with salt)
Replace skin by wrapping around thighs
Smoke with a baste. I like to use a BBQ sauce that is diluted with lemon juice early, then a pure BBQ sauce layer in the final couple of minutes…you don’t want to over-caramelize the sauce on the chicken. I also like to use a mix of hickory with apple or cherry wood.

I went on Channel 4 to talk about the technique and the Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships:

Here’s a photo of the thighs I smoked:

Here are three thighs that were made using the technique mentioned above.

Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships Are April 19

The 6th annual Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships are Saturday, April 19th at EverBank Field. The event is a fundraiser for the Glyn Cook Memorial Scholarship for Daniel Kids. You can purchase tickets in advance and save if you order online here:

https://www.danielkids.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=472

Here’s the Radio Spot for the event:

Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships

2014 Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships are Coming

The 2014 Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships are April 19th at EverBank Field. Again this year, the event serves as a fundraiser for the Glyn Cook Memorial Scholarship for Daniel kids.

Click here for ticket information

Click here to sign up as a BBQ team

6th Annual Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships Are Coming

VIPs will be able to access the Bud Zone during the 2014 Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships, April 19th at EverBank Field. The event is a fundraiser for the Glyn Cook Memorial Scholarship for Daniel kids.

by Cole Pepper
January 16, 2014

Last night we held our first planning meeting for the 2014 Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships. I love this time of year! One of the things I’m most proud of is that our committee does a great job of working to improve the event every year.

Basically, we believe in continuous process improvement.

Here’s a sneak peak at one of the improvements we’re working on for the April 19th event.

VIP Package – Because of construction of the new scoreboards at EverBank Field, we had to get creative with use of space, especially with our judging and scoring area. So we’re looking at utilizing the Bud Zone for our judges and scoring area. Of course, that also means that we have a lot more room to use. So we’re creating a VIP package for up to 250 people. Here’s how it will work. Each package consists of four tickets to the event, four Bud Zone passes, a parking pass (and maybe a free drink…working on this).

VIPs will be able to get out of the sun and into the Bud Zone, plus they’ll have the chance to sample from our Smoke Ring of Honor, our past winners of the event. We may also have some acoustic music and TVs on, plus a private bar. These packages are $100 each and are limited to the first 60 packages. If you want to be placed on the VIP waiting list to be contacted before the VIP packages go on sale to the public, email us (info@jaxbbqchampionships.com) and we’ll let you know in advance.

Some other dates you may want to know about:

Team Registration dates

Teams who competed last year: February 20, 2014
Teams who competed in the Florida/Georgia Block Party or on the waiting list: March 3, 2014
Public Registration: March 10, 2014

General Admission Tickets go on sale: March 24

Ticket Pricing:

VIP Packages $100 for 4 VIP tickets and a parking pass

General Admission: $20 at the gate on the day of the event, $16.50 when purchased online in advance of the event. 10 pack of tickets for $150.

Florida-Georgia Weekend Block Party features BBQ contest, more

by Cole Pepper
October 17, 2013

For the third year in a row, I’m partnering with the folks at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena (SMG and Savor) to create the Florida-Georgia Weekend Block Party. This year, the festivities have expanded. This is a great, family friendly event that offers visitors to Jacksonville and residents a chance to kick-off the Florida-Georgia Weekend on Friday, November 1.

Food Trucks will serve lunch in front of the Arena starting at 11am. Some of Jacksonville’s best known and celebrated food trucks will be on hand, showcasing their culinary skills. A portion of all food sales goes to support Daniel kids.

Turner Pest Control sponsors the Cornhole Tournament. You may sign up to compete online.

Live music from Ivey-West Band, Firewater Tent Revival, and Something Distant.

New this year, a flag football tournament at the Shipyards. Teams can sign up online as well via JaxScene.com

The 3rd annual Florida-Georgia Weekend Block Party BBQ contest will feature some of the best BBQ teams from the area competing for the Keith Hall Memorial Trophy and a spot in the Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships. Once again, team entry fees go to support Daniel kids. If you would like to compete in the event, you may sign up online, or want more information on the BBQ contest, you can find it here.

The evening culminates with the Cousin Catfish Pigskin Jamboree at the Shipyards with a concert from Corey Smith and Sister Hazel. Tickets for the concert are available online.

The Fruits of BBQ Contests

Four of this year’s Glyn Cook Memorial Scholarship winners (seated) along with the Glyn Cook Memorial Scholarship Executive Committee and Daniel staff.

by Cole Pepper
October 9, 2013

It is one of my favorite nights of the year. It’s the night when the countless hours of hard work, of all of the favors called in of the shameless promotion really pay off.

It’s the harvest of the fruits of the Jacksonville Backyard BBQ Championships and the Florida-Georgia Weekend Block Party BBQ contest.

Wednesday evening, for the fifth time, we presented the Glyn Cook Memorial Scholarship to college students who had once been homeless.

A little background for the initiated. In 2008, cancer took my father-in-law, Glyn Cook, at the age of 63. Not only was Glyn a rock of stability in a family full of women, but he was a great example for me and a former Chairman of the Board at Daniel. Daniel, as you may know, is Florida’s oldest child service agency and the oldest non-profit in Jacksonville. I’m honored to serve on the board now as the Vice Chairman.

After Glyn passed away, my wife and her sisters and mother and I decided to create a scholarship in Glyn’s memory for kids at Daniel. This, we thought, would help Daniel to continue to make a difference in the lives of kids in college and beyond. It’s the “teach a man to fish” principle.

One of Daniel’s flagship programs is called Project Prepare. Homeless teens, usually high school age, who cannot live at home for a variety of reasons, some as simple as an inability to coexist with a parent (usually in these cases, its a single parent) to abuse and abandonment and everything in between, are given a stable place to live. In addition to the housing, they are also taught life skills like time management, budgeting, cooking, cleaning, hygiene…the kind of things that most of us take for granted.

Now, I should state, that not every applicant automatically gets a scholarship. These must be earned. And after the kids earn the scholarship, we expect even more from them: community service, better grades, and most of all, to be a good example to other kids in their situation (of anybody else, for that matter).

So tonight, at the education center on the Daniel campus, we heard directly from four of our seven scholarship winners. One of the winners read comments from her sister, another winner in school in south Florida, and another sent a letter of thanks, ready by the program’s director Shelly Davalos (who fought back tears of pride as she read).

So where does barbecue come into play? Each year, the money made from those two barbecue contest goes to fund these scholarships. Each year, we’ve been able to give larger scholarships and make a bigger impact on the lives of these college students. So for those of you who have competed in, attended, judged, volunteered or aided in any way our efforts in the past five years, know that your efforts have made a difference in the lives of kids who at one time saw no future. For some, Daniel was there at such a crucial time that they admit that without finding Daniel, they would be in a dark place or even dead.

If you want to read more about Daniel’s programs and successes, you can check out the website (DanielKids.org) or follow Daniel kids on Facebook or @Danielkids on twitter. Or, just come out to the Florida-Georgia Weekend Block Party BBQ contest on Friday, November 1 around the arena.

Once again, thank you.

PODCAST: Cole and Sam Discuss Gabbert’s Toughness

We talk BBQ, quarterbacks and expectations for the season. What could be better?

Jacksonville Restaurant Adds Fulham Sandwich to Menu

by Cole Pepper

Ever since Shad Khan purchased Fulham FC of the English Premier League, sports fans in Jacksonville have begun jumping on the bandwagon. Jacksonville has, by proxy, adopted Fulham as the city’s favorite English soccer team.

And now, an Avondale restaurant is joining in.

Pine Grove Market and Deli (1511 Pinegrove Ave., Jacksonville, FL 32205) has rolled out a sandwich they’re calling “The Fulham.”

“We were already working on the sandwich, but we didn’t have a name for it,” said Ron Bajalia of Pinegrove. “My buddy came up with the name and it just works perfectly.”

The sandwich (shown above) consists of “homemade London Broil fresh from our butcher shop, with Gruyere cheese and a homemade horseradish cream on a pretzel roll!” according to Pinegrove’s facebook page and costs $10.

Everything was made from scratch for the sandwich, except the pretzel roll. It’s the only sandwich Pinegrove offers that uses the pretzel bun.

Reaction to the sandwich has been very good. They sold out on Friday.

Told about the sandwich, Jaguars owner Shad Khan laughed. “That’s awesome,” Khan exclaimed. “That’s a restaurant with a huge amount of foresight. I’d like to sample one of those.”

Lessons for Novice BBQers, Part 1

Gary Park (left) says temperature control is a simple, yet sometime troublesome obstacle for inexperienced teams.

by Cole Pepper

I’ve tapped into my network of BBQ chefs to ask them about some of the common mistakes that they made when just starting out cooking in competitions. If you are a novice contest cooker, some of this advice might help you avoid some of the pitfalls that can frustrate BBQ chefs as they hone their craft.

This is the first of a three part series. Today’s question:

What is the most common mistake that you see inexperienced BBQ teams make at contests?

“Overcooking the food,” says Paul Herring, captain of Big Bad BBQ. “I recommend an empty cooler to store cooked meat to keep it warm until turn in time.”

There are probably a dozen techniques to keep your entries at the proper temperature until turn in time. If you try to time it just right, you are asking for trouble. Some, like Paul recommend a cooler, others will utilize an insulated pizza bag and some will try to keep the entry warm wrapped in towels or other insulation. Experiment and see which works best. If you target 20-30 minutes before the start of turn in to have your meat off the heat, you have time to choose the best pieces and to arrange them in the turn-in box properly.

Gary Park, competitive barbecuer and owner of G’s Slow Smoked BBQ in Middleburg, FL preaches temperature control.

“I know it sounds like a simple tip, but I’ve seen many a team struggle with their temperatures going up and down through the whole cook,” Park said. “Practice cooking and practice more while cooking/smoking different meats, preferably the ones being used in a contest. Don’t wait until the week before a contest and start trying to figure out a particular grill/smoker! Be consistent!”

One competition chef who wished to remain anonymous warned against going overboard.

“Over spice, over sauce, over smoke. It’s a BBQ competition where the meat needs to do the talking. Every judge who is willing to take part in this competition is there because they love the meat flavor. How will anyone know what spice, sauce, smoke combination a group of judges will love?”

That’s a common theme. There is virtually no way to tell what the judges preference will be. Some prefer a little more spice, others like it sweeter. While judges are charged with trying to establish a consistent baseline from which to judge, one tip that can help is to see if the judges are largely older or younger. If the average age seems to be toward retirement age, tend toward the sweeter side. If the average age of judges is in the 40s, spicier can score well. This is only a rule of thumb.

Two words most commonly used by our panel? Practice and preparation.

“Plan your cook and practice it at least once before the contest to have your timing down,” said Brian Shell. “It is way different than doing it in YOUR backyard for family and friends.”

In all, though, keep it simple, says Palm Valley BBQ captain John Rowan.

“[Novice teams] make their recipes too complicated,” Rowan said. ”They try things they have never done before. Keep it simple because that is what BBQ is.”