What:

2nd Annual Harry Soo Backyard Contest. This will be a Volunteer-led event by Slap Yo Daddy BBQ and Desperado BBQ to bring the City of Anaheim Together with acts of Kindness with the Love of BBQ & Brew

Fun, practice and learning about competition BBQ whole day on Saturday where you cook and submit chicken, ribs, and tri tip for judging by Certified BBQ Judges (CBJs)

Very informal competition where the main purpose is for novices to get a chance to get the feeling of a “real” competition

Live judging in front of Certified Barbecue Judges

Experienced teams will be there to help and offer advice

When: June 20, 2015 – Saturday morning 6 am to 3 pm

Where: West Center Street Promenade, Anaheim, CA

Websites: 

https://www.facebook.com/QingandBrewing

https://www.crowdrise.com/qingandbrewingbbqcompetitioninanaheim/fundraiser/harrysoo

Sorry we are full as all 25 spots are taken.

Entry Fee $100.00 per team (most teams are 2-3 persons); more than that, it’s difficult for the team to focus on the contest cooking timeline. Friends and family are welcome to visit you as it’s open to the public. Please refrain from being distracted by trying to cook and entertain your friends and family as you’re there to gain experience as a competitor. The goal is not to prove that you can pull off a successful barbecue party for the masses. If you bring little ones, be mindful of the hot pits, hot coals, and sharp cooking knives as safety is paramount.  We will have several veteran teams who have volunteered to mentor the new teams.  Harry will assign mentor(s) to your team on the morning of the cook.

NOTE: The cost does NOT include any meat. Each team is responsible for bringing their own contest meat and cooking supplies. You will need a mandatory fire extinguisher. See Contest Check List and Sources. We will have some costs in this event – trash dumpster rental, gift bag items, napkins, boxes, water, trophies, prizes, etc. We’d like to be able to cover these as part of doing this event and not have to look elsewhere for funding.

Fun, practice and learning about competition BBQ whole day on Saturday where you cook and submit chicken, ribs, and tri tip for judging by Certified BBQ Judges (CBJs)

What is a “Backyard Event?”

It is a very informal competition where the main purpose is for novices to get a chance to get the feeling of what a “real” competition would be like without the expense/entry fee or pressure of a “real” competition. In a normal KCBS, PNWBA or IBCA event, a team would arrive at the event on a Friday afternoon, set up, start prepping their meats and start cooking the brisket and pork butt sometime on Friday night/early Saturday morning.

To make this cookoff more newbie friendly, we’ve eliminated the overnight cook so new pitmasters can focus on three meats that can be cooked within a Saturday morning window. In the backyard event, more experienced teams also have the chance to help less experienced teams and offer some advice (only if requested!!).

Harry will show how to prep a box (SYD Lazyman Box Technique) and other presentation issues which may be something of a puzzle to anyone who has never entered a contest before. Novices also get a chance to practice timing, get a feel for the “pressure” of having to turn in product during a specific time frame, and get a feel for the type of equipment and additional food items (i.e. apple juice, brown sugar, honey) that they might need to bring to a “real” competition.

Unlike double-blind silent judging at a sanctioned contest, our CBJs will be openly discussing your entries aloud with you and the other teams, which allows the judges to offer comments about the product judged (i.e. too salty, too spicy, over/undercooked, etc.) as well as numeric scores. This helps the judges clarify and articulate their standards while providing valuable feedback to the cooks. Don’t attend if you have thin skin – you come to this to hear others opinions and that’s what you will get.

We do use KCBS-style scoring, so again, novices can get a good idea of what a competition would be like — especially with so many CBJ’s showing up to judge! Finally, one of the main purposes of the gathering is friendship and fun and sharing some Q with others who enjoy doing what we do. Each team is asked to cook a bit more than what is necessary for the 6 piece turn-in box. After the competition is over, we all share our BBQ and get to taste and compare and joke with each other about how the cook went! Kidding aside, this is an invaluable aspect of learning as you’ll get a good idea of what flavor profiles judges are looking for in contests.

How you can help?

—
THE DETAILS – What are we cooking?

You may pick as few as one, two, or three meats – chicken, pork ribs, and/or tri tip. You arrive to set up early on Saturday around 5:30 am.  Electricity will NOT be provided but you are encouraged to use your own generators and/or batteries.

All meat must not be seasoned, marinated, rubbed, injected, etc. You can trim your meat at home or have your butcher do it before you arrive.  All meat will be inspected like in a real contest and all cooking MUST be done on site! Your meat must be properly refrigerated and safely handled.

Gas grills or electric smokers are not allowed. You can use pellet smokers like the Green Mountain, Traeger, and such. Remember that you need a portable generator to run a pellet smoker.  Be mindful that so long as the fuel is not gas or heat is by electric, you are OK.

How will this work?

It is STRONGLY recommended that ALL team members stay in the judging area as long as possible to gain the most insight as to what the judges think, not just during your teams turn in. Turn in times will be assigned so as to maximize this exposure. The thing that’s most important at this contest is the feedback the judges provide to the cooks. This comes at a sacrifice of maintaining any semblance of standard turn-in times; it’s just not possible to do both at the same time. Once you have your taste and tenderness formulas down, you can practice your timing at home, with your own clock, even for all the 4 meats in a regular contest. That said, we still want to impress upon the cooks that timing IS very important, and given this, we’ve come up with a turn-in schedule that provides 7-8 minutes per team to be judged (which we’ve seen is a good number). Since not all teams will be cooking all meats, the judges will get some breaks and will have the option to get up and have someone take over nearly anytime.

Event Timeline

–5:30 am – Team Check-in

–7:00 am – Cooks Meeting

–7:45 am – Harry’s Turn-in Box Class

–10:00 am – Judges Check-in

–10:15 am – Judges Meeting

– 11:00 am – Public Tasting begins

–11 am -12:00 pm – Tri Tip

–12:15 – 1:15 pm – Chicken

–1:30 – 2:30 pm – Pork Ribs

–4:30-ish – Awards

– 5:00 pm – Public tasting ends

Team Mentors/Coaches (assigned to teams to advise but not cook; ambassadors to general public)

Teams  – Sorry are we full as all 25 spots are taken. 

Team turn-in schedule (10 mins per team X 4 tables of judges)

Judges (All Certified BBQ Judges minus Guest Judges) (Judges Application Form)

Results

Chicken

Pork Ribs

Tri-Tip