ITBFQ
is Blowin Smoke!
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2012
- Location
- Oswego, IL
Last weekend, we cooked in the Old Irving Park Beer and BBQ Challenge on the NW side of Chicago. The contest pairs bbq teams with local craft breweries to benefit a private Catholic school. I'm not affiliated with the school at all, but I am a teacher, and a friend of mine is a big craft beer guy - perfect for us. No entry fee, 5 butts provided, electricity, tents, LOTS of free beer, everyone cooking, hanging out and taking Friday night was a great experience. All we had to do was cook the butts and feed the people that bought tickets! It was a people's choice/voting contest as well as judged by Barry Sorkin of Smoque and two other local chefs. Lots of pics follow. We didn't win any awards, but didn't really care. We had a fantastic time, had lots of great beers, and came away with some great stories to tell!
I made the marinade for cochinita pibil at home. Found a great recipe and multiplied it by 5 for the 5 butts we had to cook. The Ceylon/true cinnamon, all spice berries, skwering and grilling the garlic first, etc. made for a marinade that I thought was perfect.
That stuff gets messy!
I put my UDS and WSM to work. On the right is my friend's WSM. The pork marinated for about 12 hours. Then on the smokers at 225 loosely wrapped in banana leaves and tied with kitchen twine.
I thought banana leaves would be hard to find. They aren't. If you have a Mexican or Asian grocery store near you, they are in the frozen section and about a dollar for a huge amount. This is Scott - a fellow brethren (SuperQue, I think?) and friend who came to give us a hand, drink beer and hang out.
There were a few shenanigans over night. This is not a picture of those. What happens at a contest stays at a contest, right?
Pork off the smoker.
Yes, we were paired with Revolution Brewing. We met with the brewer and tasted lots of beers with the tacos a few weeks before the contest and settled on El Hefe Loco - an Hefeweisen with some nice banana esters that complimented the pork really well. Revolution gave us a barrel they aged Working Mom in. We cut that up and used it for smoke flavor. The smell was surreal.
Just a couple shots of what we had to offer at our table (we were just one of 18 teams). We had a few more friends show up Saturday to help us serve over 500 tacos to the attendees. We were able to walk around and sample what a few of the other teams were offering. I thought we had a really good chance. We didn't have any calls, but we had a fantastic time. It was a dream come true to work with Revolution - they make some of my absolute favorite beers. We will definitely cook this contest again next year.
I made the marinade for cochinita pibil at home. Found a great recipe and multiplied it by 5 for the 5 butts we had to cook. The Ceylon/true cinnamon, all spice berries, skwering and grilling the garlic first, etc. made for a marinade that I thought was perfect.
That stuff gets messy!
I put my UDS and WSM to work. On the right is my friend's WSM. The pork marinated for about 12 hours. Then on the smokers at 225 loosely wrapped in banana leaves and tied with kitchen twine.
I thought banana leaves would be hard to find. They aren't. If you have a Mexican or Asian grocery store near you, they are in the frozen section and about a dollar for a huge amount. This is Scott - a fellow brethren (SuperQue, I think?) and friend who came to give us a hand, drink beer and hang out.
There were a few shenanigans over night. This is not a picture of those. What happens at a contest stays at a contest, right?
Pork off the smoker.
Yes, we were paired with Revolution Brewing. We met with the brewer and tasted lots of beers with the tacos a few weeks before the contest and settled on El Hefe Loco - an Hefeweisen with some nice banana esters that complimented the pork really well. Revolution gave us a barrel they aged Working Mom in. We cut that up and used it for smoke flavor. The smell was surreal.
Just a couple shots of what we had to offer at our table (we were just one of 18 teams). We had a few more friends show up Saturday to help us serve over 500 tacos to the attendees. We were able to walk around and sample what a few of the other teams were offering. I thought we had a really good chance. We didn't have any calls, but we had a fantastic time. It was a dream come true to work with Revolution - they make some of my absolute favorite beers. We will definitely cook this contest again next year.
