The local Coffey County newspaper ran this picture and an article on the front page of Monday’s news paper.  This was after Andy and I won Grand Champion at the 4th Annual Wild Blue BBQ contest.

I get asked a lot if we use Yardbird on other categories besides chicken. The answer is, “Everything but brisket.” IMHO, Yardbird is by far best on Pork Butt/Shoulder. We admit that the product was named too early. It was our initial chicken rub. It wasn’t until we started selling it that we tried it on anything else. DUH!!!

Here’s a picture of our first place ribs this weekend with Yardird Rub and Blues Hog sauce.  Ignoring the black spot, I’d kill for ribs that look this good each week.

My ribs are rubbed the night before I plan to cook them for a contest. They usually get rubbed down before I go to bed. Mostly around 11p-12a. My ribs go on at 8a. They NEVER turn out “hammy” or taste cured with that length of time. However, I got my ribs prepped at 10am at a contest once. Two of the three ribs definitely tasted cured. Learned my lesson not to depart from my process. The cause of “hammy” or cured tasting ribs is the presence of salt in the rub. Don’t be afraid of salt in rubs. It can be your best friend just as sugar can be. I’m convinced that judges taste salt as “flavor”. But if you don’t respect the salt and either watch your amounts or rub times, it can be your enemy. For ribs, our rub seems to be fine overnight, but I wouldn’t push it past 10-12 hours.

Hope this helps those of you using our product and trying to find your own signature flavor profile.  Don’t be afraid to mix rubs or sauces as well.  Another rub can change your color and definitely change your flavor. The same is true with sauces.

Wild Blue BBQ - 35 teams

Overall: 1st - Grand Champion

Chicken: 2nd
Ribs: 1st
Pork: 5th
Brisket: 8th
Sausage: 2nd
Chiefs Choice: 1st

This was another contest with my good friend Andy Groneman.  This is the fourth contest Andy and I have cooked together this year.  It is our second Grand Championship this year and our first ever in Kansas.  Since we have already qualified for the 2008 American Royal Invitational and 2009 Great American BBQ, the most important thing this win provides us is one more draw opportunity for the Jack Daniels Invitational in Lynchburg, TN.  As it stands, we have two draws in Missouri for our 2007 Kearney win and 2008 Pleasant Hill win.  We now have a draw in Kansas.  The Jack Daniels draw for the invitational is the first week of September.  We have all fingers and toes crossed.  There are a lot of teams hoping for the lone invitation from both Kansas and Missouri.  It is safe to say that 25+ teams are hoping for the spot from each state.

This is where it all started in 2001, Alma, Missouri. This was the first ever contest for Randy and I. We’ve been coming back ever since to support this tiny, non-sanctioned contest. We’ve been there when it was 104 degrees and when it rained the entire contest. In the beginning there have been as many as 14 teams, then seven teams for a few years, but the last five or six years have seen only five teams each year. Hopefully, we can get more teams to come and grow this little contest. The contest is always the Saturday of 4th of July weekend and is part of the Alma Independence Day festivities. They have some of the best fireworks displays around.

Overall: Grand Champion

Ribs: 1st
Brisket: 1st
Chicken: 2nd
Beans: 2nd
Bratwurst: 2nd

One of our pictures from the Great American BBQ is prominently placed on the Cookshack Winners Circle.  Cookshack is the maker of the Fast Eddy series of cookers.  We have two Fast Eddy 100 models on the back of my trailer.  We’ve been using a Fast Eddy (FEC-100) since June of 2007.

225 Teams

9th Overall
1st Pork
11th Brisket

The second round of the Great American BBQ weekend ran like a well oiled watch.  Randy and I were working hand and glove together.  Cookers ran well.  Timing worked out perfectly on everything. We were happier with our Open entries than we were with our Invitational entries.  No matter how we finished, we had a great time.  The judges kind to us as well.
First place in pork among 225 of some of the best teams in the country was awesome.

Next step for Randy and I is our 5th appearance at the World Pork Expo next week.

61 Teams

6th Overall
4th Pork
11th Chicken
18th Brisket

This was our first ever invitational competition. The Great American Invitational consists of teams who have won qualifying contests in the prior year. Qualifying contests are those with a governor’s proclamation of a state championship and have at least 15 teams if a first year contest or 25 teams if not a first year contest. Our qualifying win was the Jesse James contest in Kearney, MO last fall.

As our first invitational against some of the very best teams in the country, we were extremely thrilled to have done so well. This was the first time that Randy and I have had a chance to cook a contest together in 2008. We immediately moved on to contest number two: the Great American BBQ Open contest. With the pressure off having already received a call and a top ten overall finish for the weekend, we looked forward to a more relaxing Open contest.

52 Teams

2nd Overall - Reserve Grand Champion

8th Sausage
8th Chicken
5th Ribs
1st Pork

Again cooking with my friend Andy Groneman, we were able to hoist some hardware at our second competition of the year.  We were pleased with all of our entries and, thankfully, so were the judges.  Grand champion was our friend Rod Gray of Pellet Envy.

52 Teams

1st Overall

2nd - Chicken
4th - Ribs
2nd - Pork
6th - Brisket

This was the first contest of the 2008 season, and what a way to start. We were cooking with the new BBQ trailer that had only been in our possession for 6 days. As someone said, a great way to christen the new BBQ rig.

My good friend, Andy Groneman joined me for this contest. It was my second Grand Championship and Andy’s first. It was the first time that I’ve had top 10 calls across all four categories in a single contest. It was an amazing feeling for both of us.

Our son, Michael embarks on his first BBQ competition on April 4.  He’ll enter chicken wings and a hamburger.  My wife and I thought it would be fun for our boys to have their own logo.  This was done by Patrick at www.BBQLogos.com.