Quick Update

I have been working hard for the past several weeks on a totally revamped, professional website. Like most things, it has taken longer than I originally planned to get finished, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

With the new website will come a new url. Look for us early next week at www.bigtzbbq.com. Thanks for all your support!

Banquet Season

The winter seems to be a good month to have banquets celebrating the past year in BBQ. Big T'z Q Cru was busy attending two of them: the KCBS Annual Banquet, and the Iowa BBQ Society Annual Banquet.

Earlier in the month was the KCBS Annual Banquet, held in Philadelphia. Sonya and I flew out there to enjoy the sights and foods of the City of Brotherly Love, and also to meet more of the people that are a part of this great organization.

This is also the time they give out awards for Team of the Year. For every contest a team attends, they receive points based on how well they placed in each category and overall. In addition they receive bonus points equal to the number of teams that competed in the contest (capped at 100). For instance, if a team wins first overall in a contest where there is 45 teams, they receive 250 for the first place finish as well as 45 bonus points, for a total of 295 points. 2nd place at the same contest receives 225 points, and so on. Each category: chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket are computed the same way.

At the end of the season they tally up all the points for only your top ten contests. The team with the highest overall score is crowned Team of the Year. This year just happened to be the year our mentor and friend, Rod Gray along with his wife Sheri were given this huge honor. There are over 4000 registered teams in KCBS, so I am sure that you can guess what an achievement it is to be ranked as the best of them.

At the awards ceremony we were surprised to find that they give awards to the top 20 teams in all categories. Before we got there we heard they gave awards to the top 25 overall and to the top 10 in each category. Considering we were 19th in the nation in brisket, we were trhilled to hear our name called at the banquet and walk up to receive our award. I think I had a "perma-smile" for at least twenty minutes after that moment. However, nothing topped being there to see Rod and Sheri receive their award for Team of the Year. They are great people and deserve every ounce of recognition they get. Way to go team Pellet Envy!

Another highlight of the evening was being invited to the Presidential Suite (The room of KCBS President, Mike Lake and his wife Teresa) after the awards banquet and celebrating with everyone there. It was there that we got to meet Carolyn Wells, who is the founder of KCBS. To me, that was an incredible honor. We also got to get our picture taken with the now famous Tuffy Stone of Cool Smoke. He is one of the pitmasters that was chosen to be on the inaugural season of TLC's "BBQ Pitmasters", and for good reason. First and foremost, he is an incredible cook. A classically-trained chef, he received the honor of KCBS Team of the Year in 2007. Second, he has a personality that goes for miles. We had the opportunity to spend some time with him and his wife earlier in the weekend and just had a delightful evening listening to all their stories!

Overall, it was a very memorable weekend. We met tons of people in the organization and had several great experiences. We look forward to the 25th Anniversary Banquet in Kansas City next year!

The second banquet was the Iowa BBQ Society Annual Banquet. Just like KCBS it is here that the Society gives out awards for Iowa Team of the Year. Unlike KCBS, the rankings are calculated differently.

At every KCBS contest the judges give each team's entry a score between 1 and 9 for each of three categories, Appearance, Taste, and Tenderness. The scores are tallied from each judge and aggregated to determine the winner. The overall winner of a contest is the team with the best cumulative score of all four categories.

The Iowa BBQ Society averages a team's best four contest scores from each category and overall. The team with the highest four contest category score wins the category, and the teams with the highest four contest overall score wins Team of the year. Of course only contests within the State of Iowa qualify and the team must be a member of the Iowa BBQ Society to be eligible.

This year we were fortunate enough receive the honor of Iowa Team of the Year. In addition, we were Team of the Year in Chicken, and Reserve Team of the Year in Pork and Brisket. For our award we received a signed certificate from the Governor, and monetary award.

In addition to the honor we received for Team of the Year, we were able to catch up with many of our Iowa BBQ friends for the first time in several months. We were also treated to one of the best banquet spreads I have ever had compliments of Iowa Smokey D's/Absolute Flavors Catering. There was an amazing variety of foods to suit everyone's palate. I found myself going back to the table several times to try different things and get more ham balls. Thanks to Shad Kirton, Darren Warth and company for that amazing meal!

It was a fantastic, albeit short, evening. We look forward to seeing everyone there on the BBQ trail this upcoming season!

Catching Up

First of all, I would like to apologize to everyone (I know there are at least a few readers out there) for the lengthy hiatus I have been on with this blog. This has been due to several factors. 1) Sonya and I moved in to our first home in late September 2)The last leg of the bbq season was extremely fun yet extremely tiring and 3) Sonya and I found out we are expecting our first child in June. :-) Okay 5) Laziness/forgetfulness. This year I have set my mind to do weekly updates, so please check back early and often. If I miss a week, feel free to contact me and give me grief about it.

Just to catch everyone up since our last post I will do a brief synopsis from my last post:

Right after the River City Roundup in Omaha we were off to Kansas City the next week to compete in our first American Royal Invitational/Open. For those of you who don't know, this is heralded as the "World Series of BBQ", and for good reason. We arrived Thursday and spent the next 4 days mixing in equal parts of play and cooking our butts off. Come Sunday afternoon, we could barely see straight we were so tired.

Here are some highlights of the experience:
1)Smack Talk back and forth with Mark Grieco from Four Men and a Pig (last year's Royal Open winner).
2)Becoming friends with the British BBQ Society team who came all the way from England to compete
3)Watching our friend Todd Johns from Pork Pullin' Plowboys win the Invitational
4)Watching our friends Bob and Don Denner from Boondoggle BBQ win their first Grand Championship at the American Royal Open
5)Celebrating with Bob and Don and the rest of the Iowa regional friends Sunday night

We heard our name called four times. We placed 10th in Chicken, 5th in Pork and 12th Overall at the Invitational (against 118 Grand Champions). We were 14th Overall at the Open (470+ teams). Additionally we were one of only a handful of teams to place in the top twenty overall at both the Invite and Open. For our first year, we were thrilled with those results.

Unfortunately, we did not get selected to go to the Jack Daniel's World Championship. Instead we took our new camper and headed to Chicagoland for the Libertyville Barn Burner BBQ to finish out our season. We ended up having one of the most successful events of 2009 finishing 1st in Chicken, 2nd in Ribs, 3rd in Pork, and 2nd in Brisket. We won Grand Champion by a margin in excess of 23 points. The long drive home was surprising short as we relished in a fantastic end to the 2009 season.

In the off season we have been busy breaking in our new cookers and getting comfortable using them. We have also been working on getting more consistent with our ribs. We are looking forward to seeing how/if they have improved as we head down to Central Kansas next weekend for the Kansas Winter Q in Great Bend. Hopefully we can pick up right where we left off in 2009!

River City Rager

This past weekend Big T'z decided it would be best to get back in to the swing of things and attended the Ak Sar Ben's River City Roundup competition held at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska. This was also the maiden voyage of the Hobbi Toy Hauler we bought off of our friend Ray Ringgenberg, aka BBQ Mayor. Given that Sonya or I have never towed anything and know absolutely nothing about campers, this was the beginning of a new adventure for us one that we have met with both excitement and trepidation.

This event is organized by fellow BBQ Brethren Tom and Char Manhart, and boy did they roll out the red carpet for the cooks! Knowing myself well enough to know that there was no way I could back in a huge camper in to a 20'x30' spot, I left home early hoping to get there before any of my neighbors. Unfortunately I did not take in to account how much longer it would take me to get there due to the huge chunk of fiberglass and metal I was hauling so I got there an hour later than normal and most of my neighbors had already arrived. Within seconds Tom was there in his golf cart to help me in to my spot. Even with the help though I quickly had messed things up so bad I needed an extra hand. Fortunately Mike from Spank and the Meat Mafia was close by to take over. Seeing the look of complete fear and embarrassment on my face with barely a word he hopped in my Suburban and whipped it in to what at the time seemed like a cigar box of a spot. Thanks Mike!! In addition to helping me to my spot, Tom and Char were by my spot what seemed like every twenty minutes. I felt bad I wasn't making trash fast enough for them to haul away.

I signed up to do the People's Choice because 1) It was for charity and 2) I like getting the public more involved in the cooking process, by serving them tasty morsels of my wares in my mind competition bbq becomes more of a spectator sport. That started at 6 pm on Friday. Since the rest of the Cru wasn't going to be there until 9, I was all by myself serving up samples to a hungry crowd. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed it. It is always fun to hear "Daaaayyumm that is some good bbq!" from a complete stranger!

It rained Friday night, so it was a blessing to have the camper to stay warm and dry. We definitely got the best night's sleep of any competition I have been to, so whatever worries I or Cru may had about getting camper were completely thrown out the window that night.

I also thought it would be a good idea to cook sausage for this competition. The turn-in for sausage was at 11, while everything else started at noon, so I had to quickly draw up a whole new game plan to make sure everything went according to plan.

Even though things were tight due to the sausage competition we still found time to do not one, but two good luck shots. The first was an "Iowa teams only" shot hosted by Buster Dog BBQ (who just so happened to get their first GC the weekend before in Marshall, MN)at 9:30, and the second was hosted by Four Legs Up BBQ (who just so happens to be the reigning Jack Daniels World Champion) at 11:30. Thanks to both teams for their hospitality.

Whatever good luck we earned from doing those shots did something to help as Big T'z Q Cru walked away on Saturday with their second Reserve Grand Championship of the year. Additionally, we placed 9th in Chicken, 4th in Pork and 1st in Brisket out of 46 teams.

The great part about doing so well was that whenever our name was called we got to go up and get a picture taken with the Rodeo Queens. They also gave great trophies! For reserve grand we received a real-life branding iron. I am still trying to figure out if there is a way I can put it to good use, but for some reason whever I pick it up my cat runs and hides.

It was also great because of how they called the top ten overall team and the result of that. First they randomly called all ten to come up in front. They then started at ten and each team was called until there were just the top two--Big T'z Q Cru and Iowa Outlaws BBQ. The Outlaws and captain Kyle have had their camp by us a couple of times this season, so we have got to know them fairly well. Most people might know them because they have the cleanest and classiest trailer/set up of perhaps any team on the circuit. I have also got to know Kyle well enough to know that he is a great guy and loves bbq and competing. In addition they are a fellow Iowa team and us Iowans stick together! Anyway, we got a front row seat to watch Kyle and his priceless reaction when he realized his team had just won their first Grand Championship! It was a moment Sonya and I will never forget. Congratulations to Iowa Outlaws BBQ for their great win!

This next weekend we head down to the "World Series of BBQ"--the American Royal for the biggest BBQ bash this team has ever experienced. There will be over 120 teams cooking in the Invitational(teams that have won a Gran Championship) and over 500 teams competing in the Open competition. Hope to see any and all of you down south!

The Newest Additions to the Cru

Last week I drove 7 hours to Kenosha, Wisconsin and 7 hours back in one day. I was able to watch the sunrise and sunset on the same trip. I was not traveling to a BBQ competition as one would expect, but to pick up the newest additions to the Cru, two new cookers. For those not familiar they are called Fast Eddy's Cookshack 100's (FEC100 for short). These two beauties will allow us to cook 200 lbs. of pork shoulder in one sitting, allowing us to do some small-scale vending and catering.

In addition to increasing our cooking capacity, these cookers are perhaps the most reputed on the competition bbq circuit, helping cooks to win countless awards. I believe this is due to two reasons:

One is their ease of use. Fast Eddy's Cookshacks are wood pellet fueled, using tiny woodpellets fed via hopper in to a firebox at a rate that carefully controls the cooking temperature. The rate at which the pellets are fed in to the firebox is controlled by a computer attached to the front of the hopper. This allows the cook to essentially plug in the unit, turn it on, fill it with meat and walk away.

Second is that they make a great product. In the bbq world you hear all the time "it is the cook not the cooker", and I fully agree with this statement. However, the level at which these cookers hold their temperatures thanks to the brains of the operation--the IQ4 controller, allows a cooker to achieve a level of consistency in their product that is second to none. In other words, it removes one variable from the cooking process allowing extra attention to be paid to all the other variables.

Additionally, compared to the other allowable forms of heat available to the contest cook, wood pellets offer a more efficient burn and produce less ash than charcoal or wood. This will not only save us money on fuel, but is a more "green" option of barbequeing.

Now don't expect to see Big T'z roll in to the American Royal in two weeks with these babies in tow. Even though they are incredibly easy to use, it will take time to fine tune and them to fine tune me before they are ready for competition. The plan is to practice with them over the offseason and see how I can fit them in to the process. I love my Weber Smokey Mountains and wont give them up easily, so as of right now I envision using both--exactly how is what needs to be figured out.

In the short term and no matter how they will fit in to our competition strategy we plan to use them for some small scale vending and catering. So if you are one of the people that has been waiting to get your hands on some of our barbeque, stay tuned in the coming weeks as we iron out the details on that.

The Blessed Tradition

Well today is the drawing for the Jack Daniels World BBQ Championship. It is the championship that all competition bbq cooks dream about when they begin this adventure. We are lucky enough to be in the draw and thus I am busy today sitting anxiously around my computer today to get any update of our fate.

Because of the brevity of the championship Jack Daniels has become closely intertwined with the culture of every bbq competition in the country. I know we for one ALWAYS have a spare bottle of it handy when we head out for a competition and many of year have participated in celebratory swigs with us this year.

This culture culminates in the ritual known as the 9:22 am shot. At every competition throughout the country while teams are hustling about trying to get their meats cooked in time for turn-ins, most everything stops for a few brief moments at 9:22 am and huddles around a designated team's spot for a shot of ice-cold Gentleman Jack. There is always a toast wishing everyone there good luck in the final crucial few hours of the competition. I do not know how this started, or who started it, but there is one man that is carrying the torch of this tradition more than anyone else in the bbq world—Randy Twyford, also known as “The Reverend”. I have personally been there for one of his toasts and it is quite a treat. In honor of this solemn day I thought I would share with everyone of video of this great tradition.



If you would like to get an idea of all the teams in the draw this year you can go here:

http://pelletenvy.blogspot.com/2009/08/are-you-in-draw-do-you-want-to-be.html

I will re-post on here the results of the draw when I know them. Good luck to all!

Life happens. I guess that is all I can say about being lax in updating this blog. If there are people out there that really look forward to reading this blog, I apologize.


The Up in Smoke BBQ Bash in Mason City Iowa was just that, a huge bash. The crowds were perhaps the biggest we have experienced to this date and we had a ton of fun. Ruth Miller really knows how to roll out the red carpet for the cooks, and she knows the art of Nordic Cheerleading. Thanks goes out to her for putting together such a well-run and fun contest.


For some reason there are a lot of competition cooking teams from Ames, Iowa. Almost all of the them were there, and even more interestingly we were all placed next to each other for the weekend. One of those teams is Meadow Valley. It was great to get to know them and banter back and forth the whole weekend.


Once again, everything we turned in was solid. Solid enough in fact for a 5th place finish overall in what was probably the toughest field we have faced yet. We were very happy with the finish. Congrats goes out to Bare Bones BBQ, another Weber Smokey Mountain team who took home the Grand Champion. Also congrats to Darren and Sherry Warth of Iowa Smokey D's for the Reserve Call.


The best part of the weekend was after the wards ceremony we decided to stick around for a little bit and meet some of the other stragglers. We happened upon the Twyfords BBQ camp to find a crowd of people haning out. We decide to join them spending the next few hours having the most fun I have ever had at a bbq competition.

One of the reasons for this was the I was taught a new game by Randy Twyford. It is called "Here's To". Essentially, a bottle of Gentleman Jack is passed around to everyone participating and each person takes a turn going "Here's to (insert comment regarding your experience that weekend)". For instance one person, from what I can remember said "Here's to beating The Heat is On and winning my bet with him" The Heat is On is a one man team consisting of Mark Born who just happened to be there playing the game as well. This game went on for at least 2 bottles of GJ, and stopeed pretty much when everyone had their fill. You know, come to think of it it really isn't a game at all, but an excuse to drink a lot of whiskey. Fortunately, I was able to keep my wits about me to remember most of it. Once again it was an example of the wonderful comraderie that exists between all of the great people in the bbq world. "Here's To Randy and Marla Twyford for all the great advice they gave me that evening!" and "Here's To Darren and Shery Warth for the delicious pizza!"