The BBQ General

Wiley’s Championship BBQ

The General — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:17:13 +0000

Wiley’s Championship BBQ blog is now available at http://wileyschampionshipbbq.com. Visit us there!

We’re Open!!

The General — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:40:25 +0000

Wow! Two days in the restaurant business. Our hours are 11-3 and we have have a steady stream of customers once we open the door at eleven. We even had a repeat customer today!! The bugs are getting worked out…like the cash register from hell and the credit card machine that likes to print reports on its own. Perhaps the biggest compliment we had today…and we had several…was from a very successful caterer here in Savannah.

Our first customers!

28 Days and Counting

The General — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:54:02 +0000

A miracle has been accomplished…in four short weeks we have almost completely remodeled Wiley’s! Yesterday some of our plaques, memorabilia and posters went up on the wall. How exciting!
By Monday, we should have the bathrooms back together and a few final items accomplished on the physical building. Without the help of our two heros, none of this would have taken place. Meet Albert and Anthony:

Another Week Down!

The General — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:36:05 +0000

The painting in the kitchen is almost finished…just touching up is left! Laying the kitchen floor tile has begun today. All the walls have been primed, the floor in the FOH has been selected and TLW has finally decided on the placement of the counter.

We bought a 40 foot container. Right now all of the cleaned kitchen equipment is stored in it. When the kitchen is put back together we will have plenty of room for all of our catering equipment, as well as dry and paper storage. This will be the first time in The General’s career when all of my equipment will be located in one place. I’m not sure I will be able to function without running around collecting materials for caterings.

The General never lets his enthusiasm for smoking be deterred by small problems…like having no place to cook lunch. Since Friday was “fish day”I decided to cook lunch for the crew…smoked catfish and trout cooked to perfection along with crunchy coleslaw and some garlic bread. Cooked inside my soon to be smoke house on my competition Weber.

Big Announcement from the BBQ General

The General — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:15:48 +0000

TLW and I may have been lax about blogging the last few months, but it doesn’t mean that we haven’t been busy!! We are pleased to announce that at our tender “young” age we are fulfilling a lifelong dream of The General and opening a small BBQ “joint.” We took possession of the spot on Monday and have been hard at work ever since! It will be called “Wiley’s Championship BBQ.” We credit our friend Mike Mills, the BBQ Legend, for the name. He owns several BBQ restaurants in Las Vegas…called Memphis Championship BBQ. He shared with us on one visit that he had a regret that he did not use “Mike” as part of the name of his restaurants. Keeping that in the back of our minds for years, we have concluded that he was correct! Thanks, Mike!
Our joint is located 3 miles away from our house on Whitemarsh Island and is in the former location of another BBQ restaurant called Papa’s. They were so successful that they have moved across the street into a much larger location. Our spot, roughly 1200 sq. ft. will suit us just fine! We have a smokehouse out back and plenty of room for all of our equipment. We had a 40′ container delivered and it is now filled with all of the kitchen equipment (including fryers and stove) and all of the booths and tables from the front of the house.
At the end of week 1 we have made amazing progress as seen in some of the pictures below. With three amazing workers from the Old Savannah City Mission we have accomplished more than our wildest dreams!
We are planning on opening by Labor Day…if we can pull it off.

The General never lets his enthusiasm wane when it comes to smoking. Granted, his smokehouse is less than desirable, but with Friday designated at “Fish Day” we enjoyed his smoked trout and catfish done on his competition Weber. We enjoyed some great coleslaw and garlic bread with it.

Crab Cakes

The General — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:15:20 +0000

Savannah, being a port city, is really into seafood… and crab cakes are really popular here. In the February 2008 issue of the National Barbecue News there is a recipe for Grilled Crab Cakes with Salsa. The recipe calls for Corn Bread Crab Cakes with chunky salsa and a white sauce. It sounds very good and we plan to try it soon.

TLW also has an awesome recipe for crab cakes:

2 egg whites
1 C mayonnaise (Hellman’s)..can add more to get correct consistency
1/2 t Old Bay Seafood seasoning
3/4 t dry mustard
4 T butter
1/2 t ground celery seed
Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 t cayenne pepper
6 T extra fine cracker crumbs
1 lb. lump crab meat
8 slices white bread

Combine egg whites and mayo in mixing bowl. Add seafood seasoning, dry mustard, celery seed, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and cracker crumbs. Whisk to remove lumps.

Lightly fold crab meat into mayo mixture. Cover and chill.

Discard crusts from bread slices and cut each slice into quarters. Process in food processor fitted with steel blade until you get a uniform small crumb.

Shape chiilled crab mixture into small cakes. Dredge each cake in bread crumbs and place on rack over a sheet pan. Chill at least 30 minutes so breading can set.

Prepare your grill for direct grilling. Place cakes on a sheet of foil that has been sprayed with Pam. Cook until the bottom of each cake is golden. Gently flip each cake and brown the other side. (You can also saute the cakes in a black iron skillet using the butter. )

TLW usually serves her crab cakes with her Cajun Remoulade sauce. The recipe in the NBBQ News calls for chunky salsa and a drizzling of a white sauce consisting of sour cream, mayo, milk, lemon juice and Italian seasoning.

Shrimp Alfredo

The General — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:24:09 +0000

Here is a recipe that you can do either inside or outside on the grill. Wow! Were we ever surprised at how good it was…and how easy. TG bought about 11/2 pounds of shrimp. Taking the easy way out last night, I boiled them with the shells removed. I could have almost as easily grilled them. Prepare enough fettucine for two or more. I used prepared Alfredo sauce that I found in the spaghetti sauce section of our local Publix. Heat the sauce in your microwave for about 2 minutes on high, lay down a bed of fettucine on your dish, spread the shrimp out evenly and cover with the Alfredo sauce. Garnish with minced parsley and serve with garlic bread. Really fast and really good. The Little Woman gave me two thumbs up for this dish!

Eating With Your Eyes

The General — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:59:24 +0000

People eat with their eyes…as if I didn’t already know that after competing 11 years on the professional BBQ circuit. Sometimes we have to re-learn things we already know to reinforce them. I believe that our success at the National BBQ Festival in November should be credited to TLW’s presentation of our ribs and brisket. I can only take credit for the ribs that I selected and of course the cooking of them. They were especially meaty…but the rest was due to her creativity…

Friday, after our finish in the middle of the pack of the Invitational event, we had a discussion with two judges, one our good friend Bob Lyon from the Seattle area. TLW asked them how they came up with their presentation scores, which amount to almost 25% of the total score for each entry. Many points were mentioned that we always keep in mind, but one stood out. Since the turn in boxes at this event were bigger than those usually used, the boxes should still be very full. In the Invitational, we did not follow this advice, and in thinking about our presentations, we could have added more samples.

In Saturday’s Open event, we kept that concept in mind and had no problem with putting in plenty of ribs, since all of our slabs were awesome. Below is a picture of our turn in box. During Friday’s contest, TLW put in one layer of ribs, but on Saturday two layers really filled up the box. And the judges must have liked them giving this entry the first place nod.

We had a major problem with our chicken. It came out of the pit much darker than usual. In retrospect, we ran out of honey that we usually use to sweeten our sauce and replaced it with maple syrup…could this have been the culprit? It took a great effort for TLW (and a lot of cuss words) to find enough pieces of chicken to fill the box…We were decidedly unhappy with that sample even though the day before, chicken was our only top ten finish.

When it was time to turn in our brisket, we ran into another snag. Our four briskets all seemed to be slightly overcooked…even though TG thought they were at perfect temperature. After cutting in to all four, TLW had about ten slices that were acceptable to her…but alone in the box they looked pitiful. So, she cut pieces from fatty parts that we usually don’t turn in…but love to eat. With about 30 seconds left, she placed them in the box jigsaw fashion and figured that all was lost. Much to our surprise, the judges gave us first place…amaziing!

Now whether you compete or not, it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you incorporate good presentation into the food that you feed your guests. Looks do count!

Paul Kirk and R.U.B. (Righteous Urban Barbecue)

The General — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:21:34 +0000

Over the years I have always known about him The Baron of Barbecue, Mr. Kirk, but I have never met him, primarily because we cooked in the Southeast and he cooked in the Midwest. I am always pleased when someone goes beyond their passion and turns it into a business. Such is the case with Paul. He has recently published a cookbook

“Paul Kirk’s Championship Barbecue: Barbecue Your Way to Greatness with 575 Lip-Smackin’ Recipes from the Baron of Barbecue” (Paul Kirk). He has also added to the barbecue scene in New York City with his restaurant R.U.B. competing now with Daisy Mae’s and Blue Smoke. I would recommend that you try all three restaurants when you get to the Big Apple. We have visited Blue Smoke (and give it high marks) but have yet to try the other two.

I have also heard that he has opened another R.U.B. in Las Vegas at our favorite hotel The Rio. Check it out next time you are in Sin City!

Feast or Famine

The General — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:11:11 +0000

That’s what this time of the year represents…because we are now in the famine stage. In November and December we were doing multiple parties on the same day. Fed 3,500 people in Forsyth Park, cooked for over 1000 at the Roundhouse, and we cooked at the National Barbecue Festival (winning two first place trophies…one for brisket and one for ribs). Now that we are in our January doldrums, TLW has suggested that we get back to blogging.

So, here we are with two reformatted computers and none of our information was saved! Guess what TLW got for Christmas? An external hard drive…now we can back up our work…kind of like locking the barn door after the horse is stolen!! She asked me if we weren’t going to elaborate more on our exciting Fall, and, of course, I plan to!

I think the thing I am most proud of is when we engineered the Day of Great Thanksgiving where 3,500 folks were fed in Forsyth Park. It soon became very apparent that even though we own two Southern Prides, we were no match for feeding this kind of crowd. Nor was the small kitchen in the Old Savannah City Mission capable of that kind of production. There is an old saying that when you do big parties, you need to just break it down into a bunch of smaller parties. That is exactly what we did! We got Paula Deen’s restaurant, The Lady & Sons, to do the gravy…about 50 gallons of it! The Mansion at Forsyth Park did the green beans. Savor Savannah Catering produced the yams and Savannah Technical College (Culinary) produced the dressing. The General smoked 240 turkeys. Savor Savannah also loaned us four huge hotboxes to keep everything warm. Isn’t it MARVELOUS when a plan comes together? Guess what? We did all of this in less than a week.

The first of November saw us in Douglas, GA competing in the National BBQ Festival . In 2006, we finished in the top ten of the open contest, so this year we were invited to compete in the Invitational where the top ten teams from each sanctioning body around North America were invited to participate. We did respectably in the invitational, finishing in the middle of the pack of 38 teams with one call only…for 9th place in chicken. The open brought many more teams…over sixty. We thought we turned in good products on Friday, so we aimed at producing similar results for Saturday’s event. When it came time for the awards ceremony, our name was not called in chicken. We knew that our chicken turned out darker than the day before, so that was not a surprise. But what was a huge surprise was that we won first place in ribs, and first place in brisket. Had we scored better in chicken, we would have taken first place overall…but we ended up third overall! We were so proud of our performance, since we only cook twice a year, and we were up against some very strong competitors who compete a lot more frequently. If you get a top three call in any category, besides the money, the team is also awarded a beautiful brass bell (small for third to large for first). TLW had been saying all weekend that she wanted a bell….and now she has two big ones!!

Computer Disaster

The General — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:56:45 +0000

The General and I have had extremely bad luck with our computers this month. First, our Dell desktop died and the hard drive had to be reformatted. Ugh. All info lost…but we had a backup of most files on my Powerbook. Well, guess what happened? Crash! We are still crossing our fingers that Apple will be able to retrieve our files…if not….it will not be pleasant around here. In the interim, I have been trying to gain access to our blog and its files. This is my first attempt. If this works, I have lots of info to share!
TLW

Eureka!!

The General — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:39:46 +0000

The General has been out of town, so TLW has decided to go it on her own. Food and Wine magazine is one of my favorites. Their October issue is titled “Wine Made Simple.” As usual, their are many recipes TG and I want to try…especially the Spicy Pork and Tomatillo Stew which is pictured on the cover. The article that piqued my interest the most is “8 health benefits of drinking wine.” Here they the benefits:

Promotes longevity

Reduces heart-attack risk

Lowers risk of heart disease

Reduces risk of type 2 diabetes

Lowers risk of stroke

Cuts risk of cataracts

Cuts risk of colon cancer

Slows brain decline

The article goes on to list the evidence. You will have to read it for yourself here.

(Of course, the health benefits come from moderate consumption!)

Another reason I love Food and Wine is that they are a sponsor of Top Chef on Bravo TV. Even though this year is Season 3, this is the first year I have watched it. Even though TG detests reality tv, I would catch him stopping and watching it over my shoulder. It was great to see the underdog, Hung, win.

All through this season, Hung remained true to himself while ticking off almost all of the other contestants. His ego, confidence and drive superseded any effort to be popular. Initially he was not one of my favorites, but as he kept avoiding eliminations, I thought he might have a chance. As a true champion, he rose to the occasion when necessary. I am happy he won, but I think I also would have been happy if Dale had won. I can’t wait until F&W’s Top Chef edition comes out!

If you haven’t watched the series, I bet you can catch the re-runs on Bravo!

Grilled Swordfish

The General — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:15:44 +0000

I can’t say enough good about the June issue of Food and Wine magazine. Plenty of smoking and grilling recipes, and a lot of them were done by our BBQ friend Steve Raichlen. Last night we cooked their recipe for swordfish steaks that was out of sight! It consisted of a very basic one hour marinade consisting of salt, freshly ground black pepper, minced garlic cloves, lemon juice and olive oil. (TLW has convinced me that using fresh garlic cloves and mincing them gives a superior flavor than the already minced garlic out of the jar.)

Reading the recipe for the ‘ketchup’ which requires the roasting of fresh tomatoes, reminded me of how good roasted tomatoes are and what fabulous salsa they make. The recipe for the ketchup calls for 1 1/4 pounds of tomatoes. It has a lot of ingredients including allspice, ginger and capers.

TG highly recommends that you find this issue and look for the recipe on p. 188 or check it out

online. Remember not to exceed the internal temperature of 140* for your swordfish steaks.

BBQ Calendar

The General — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:48:55 +0000

Yesterday a package arrived in The General’s mailbox from Los Angeles CA. It contained a 2008 calendar entitled ‘A Pig a Day’ Icons of Barbecue. Earlier in the year TG received an inquiry from the publisher as to how to reach Dr. Porkenstein, a cooking team from Cape Cod. Happy to receive the info, Dick, the publisher promised to send us a complimentary copy. Thanks, Dick for remembering!

For The General, it has been fun to page through the calendar and see many of the icons we have seen on the bbq circuit for years.

Click here for more information. Seems to be a great opportunity for a Christmas gift for your BBQ friends!

One fun part of writing this blog is that you never know what is going to show up at your door. Before the calendar, we received a turducken from the Cajun Grocer. TLW and I can’t eat a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey all on our own, so we are getting together a delegation to help us with this monumental task. Can’t wait! Needless to say, we can’t recommend the turducken until we try it, but if you are looking for Cajun foods on the internet you may want to give Cajun Grocer a chance. TG is anxious to try their boudain sausage which we use in our famous championship shrimp and grits recipe.

Strange Coincidence

The General — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:08:23 +0000

In August, on our way to vacation at Lake Chautauqua in upper New York State with our good friends Sir Charles and Kathleen, TG was worried that the Lake might be too remote since I brought no reading material. After lunch in Cleveland, we found a Border’s Discount Book Store…and it truly was a discount store. Since I liked the low prices and their selection of cookbooks, I bought several. I didn’t pay much attention to them until we reached the Lake.

I began reading one called Cook-Off America Volume 2 and suddenly discovered that I was in the book! “The Original Q Company Brisket” National Capital Barbecue Battle. It goes on to call me a consistent winner and a “circuit” celebrity. Funny though, the recipe isn’t mine nor is the picture one of our shots…even though it is a darn fine one.

From then on, I was like a celebrity chef and our friends told anyone who would listen about this strange coincidence! I was then put on the spot when Sir Charles went to his freezer and pulled out a standing rib roast and announced that we were having a dinner party Saturday night and I was to smoke the roast as well as other parts of the meal.

Being away from all my spices and tools, I was able to go back into the archives of my mind and remember an old beef marinade that I used to use all the time. It consists of one third teriyaki, one third red wine vinegar, and one third water. The water keeps the teriyaki from turning the meat too dark. Also add a good shot or two of bourbon. The bourbon breaks down the fibers in the meat and acts as a tenderizing agent…as well as a flavoring agent. I let the meat marinate a couple days before cooking it. I must say that it was one flavorful piece of meat…and all the guests agreed.

I also found out something that most home chefs don’t realize. I was looking for some spices to use on the roast and I found that some of Charles’ spices were out of date…some by two or three years! Most spices are only good for a year or less…depending on geographic location (temperature and humidity). When in a pinch, the old standby is seasoned salt, black pepper and granulated garlic and that is what I used on the rib roast.

Another Burst

The General — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:00:23 +0000

Received an email from Steve from Sullicom yesterday. He has spotlighted The General on his blog. After some fine compliments, he comments that The General’s blogging is sporadic. He is correct! Both The Little Woman and I are trying to rectify this situation. Blogging for the BBQ General is, I think, a bit harder than for most bloggers because we collaborate on almost every entry…so we both have to be “in the mood” and “available.” Thanks, Steve, for giving us a kick in the pants, and we will try to be more consistent! Also, congrats on a great blog!

Linguine with Clam Sauce

The General — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:41:03 +0000

As TG has stated before, I have had marginal luck using recipes from magazines. In fact, I have stopped several magazine subscriptions recently. One that I continue to subscribe to is Fine Cooking and I have had success with many of their recipes. If you don’t subscribe to it, it would be a worthwhile addition to your cooking arsenal.

In their November 2007 edition, there is a recipe for Linguine with Clam Sauce that I thought The Little Woman might like. I asked her to try it…she was very willing since she has an addiction to clams of any kind! We both loved the result and plan to make it again tonight!

24 littleneck clams (TLW used 36)

6 T extra virgin olive oil

1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes

1/3 c dry white wine (TLW used Barefoot Chardonnay)

5 T finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

3 large cloves garlic, minced

Kosher salt

8 oz. linguine (FC recommends De Cecco, Due Pastori, or Rustichella d’Abruzzo brands) (TLW used the spaghetti we had in our pantry)

Freshly ground black pepper

Scrub the clams under cold water and set aside. In a heavy 3 qt. saucepan, heat 3 T of oil over medium heat. Add the pepper flakes and cook briefly to infuse the oil, about 20 seconds. Immediately add the wine, 2 T of the chopped parsley and half of the minced garlic. Cook for 20 seconds and add the clams.

Cover and cook over medium high heat, checking every 2 minutes and removing each clam as it opens. It will take 5 to 6 minutes total for all the clams to open. Transfer the clams to a cutting board and reserve the broth. Remove the clams from the shells and cut them in half, or quarters if they are large. Return the clams to the broth. Discard the shells.

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until it’s almost al dente, 6 to 9 minutes. Don’t overcook.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the remaining 3 T olive oil in a 10 or 12 inch skillet over medium heat. Add the remaining 3 T parsley and the rest of the garlic and cook until the garlic is soft, about 1 minute. Set the skillet aside.

When the pasta is done, reserve about 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water and then drain the pasta. Add the pasta, the clam and the broth the clams were cooked in to the skillet. Return to low heat, toss the past in the sauce and simmer for another minute to finish cooking it, adding a little of the pasta water if you prefer a wetter dish.

Taste for salt and add a large grind of black pepper. Serve immediately, garnished with parsley leaves.

Fried Squirrel

The General — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:05:19 +0000

Here we are with a party to get out on Saturday…and, guess what? …our power goes out. No power equals no stove/oven. Usually power outages around here are fairly temporary, but this one didn’t appear to be….especially when 5 Georgia power trucks show up. After the first two hours, we had to come up with an alternate plan for preparing our menu for the party to be held later in the day. Six hours later and with the party under control we learn the cause of the outage….a very dumb squirrel trying to chew through a line !

Green Beans

The General — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:57:46 +0000

If you stay in the catering business long enough, you get some really different gigs/jobs. We experienced this phenomenon this past weekend when we catered a party in Port Wentworth for a regional conference of The Little People of America. As different as we imagined it to be, it was probably one of the better parties (most fun) we have catered in our whole career. They had a talent show, a DJ, dancing and… even though their stature is small, they have large appetites! It was really a fun party to do!

In the last couple of years, we have started adding green beans to the menu. The General despises canned green beans because they taste canned, so I have been buying the frozen 5 pound long cut package at Sam’s. They are very easy to prepare. Simply bring your water to a boil (TG uses the turkey fryer pot) and add the green beans…for this party I used 15 pounds. This will cool the water, so wait until the water comes back to a boil. In the meantime, add a handful of minced garlic along with 1/3 cup of Lea and Perrin’s Worchestershire sauce. Once the water returns to boiling, cook for no more than 5 minutes. Do not over boil them!! Remove the beans from the pot and put them in half pans and add plenty of butter. As Paula Deen says, “The more butter, the better they taste.” These beans retain a nice green color and have plenty of texture and flavor…and have really been a hit at the parties where we serve them.

Cajun Remoulade

The General — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:17:12 +0000

TLW takes great pride in her Cajun Remoulade and Crabcakes recipes which she may post later…if I can bribe her. But here is one that is quick, simple and good. It was given to us by our neighbor, Ernie, and it is a replica of the sauce used at the Longfellow House (TG thinks in New Orleans). Apparently one of Ernie’s relatives had been searching for this recipe for over 25 years. It is supposed to be used with shrimp, but it tasted great with some frozen crab cakes we thawed the other night.

1 C Mayo – We prefer Hellman’s

1/4 – 1/2 C Creole Mustard – Zatarain preferred

1 T Horseradish

Juice of 1 lemon

2 shakes Worcestershire sauce

1 Garlic clove, smashed

Enjoy!

Foolproof Gazpacho

The General — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:57:35 +0000

While on vacation at Lake Chatauqua NY with our good friends Sir Charles and Kathleen, they introduced us to gazpacho. Even though both TLW and I had sampled it before, their recipe was especially tasty. They tweaked a version from the Joy of Cooking. Once home, TLW found a version of it on another blog Dope on the Slope. We enjoyed the Dope’s version very much!

* 4 or so lbs of field ripened tomatoes

* 1 quart of quality tomato juice (Dope used Looza brand…TLW used Publix brand)

* 2 firm, fresh cucumbers

* 2 firm, fresh green bell peppers (you could use red or yellow)

* 2 smallish fresh red or white onions

* 3 or 4 handfuls of fresh herb (parsley, basil or oregano)

* 1/2 cup of quality red wine vinegar (not balsamic!)

* 1/4 cup of quality olive oil (or more to taste)

* 3 cloves of garlic (or more, but be careful)

* 3 teaspoons of salt (or more to taste)

* fresh ground black pepper

* cayenne pepper sauce (optional) OR

* minced jalapeno (optional)

1. Open an ice cold beer or pour yourself a glass of chilled white wine.

2. Put a large pot of water on to boil and place a colander in your kitchen sink.

3. Wash the tomatoes and cut a small “x” at the stem and stern of each tomato.

4. Peel the cucumbers, scoop out the seeds with a spoon, and chop them into large chunks.

5. Peel and core the bell peppers and chop then into large chunks.

6. Peel the papery skin and first layer of flesh off of the onions and quarter them.

7. Flatten the garlic with the blade of your knife, remove the peel and mince. Set aside in a small bowl.

8. Finely chop the herbs and set aside in a small bowl.

9. Pour the vinegar into a measuring cup.

10. By now, the water should be at a nice boil. Set your kitchen timer for 2 minutes, and place all of the tomatoes into the boiling water. After the timer beeps, remove the tomatoes to the colander in the sink. They will need to cool there for at least 10 minutes before you peel and seed them.

Championship Grits, Again

The General — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:01:46 +0000

We couldn’t let August go away without reporting how we fared at the Dillard, GA Bluegrass and BBQ contest held the first weekend in August. First of all, as usual, we enjoyed the wonderful mountain air (especially since Savannah had been sweltering in the high 90’s and low 100’s with ultra high humidity). Also, the hospitality of Jane and Steve, the organizers, was amazing as it is every year and this was our 11th contest in a row with them…so you know they have something going on. Sixty teams gathered, some from as far away as Texas and all of the teams were “heavy hitters.” Last year we tied for second place overall, even though in the standings we placed third, so we were looking for another good showing. Buckhead Janet, our teammate came up from Atlanta, and we went about our usual prep.

We decided to enter two ancillary contests as well as the regular KCBS sanctioned one. Same as last year, Grits and Cabbage. TLW used the same recipes for both. Last year she placed third in Cabbage and first in Grits. It is very difficult to repeat your success from one contest to another, we were just looking for respectable placements. Unfortunately, the judges did not enjoy the cabbage entry and we placed low in the standings. However, her
grits won first place again. Not bad for a Yankee!!

As far as the rest of the contest, we finished 7th in Chicken, but 9th overall. We were very surprised since we didn’t get a call for our ribs, pork or brisket…but we were right in there near the top 10 places. We were very pleased with our showing since we only compete two times a year and some of the heavy hitters are on the circuit 2, 3 or even 4 times a month. All in all, we didn’t come home with a lot of prize money, but we did come home with smiles on our faces!

A Neat “Hat Trick”

The General — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:16:26 +0000

No, The General has not taken up ice hockey! Let’s face it cooking…especially BBQ…can be a messy pastime. Over the years TG has collected hats from all over the country. All are valuable in the memories they provide, but most of my favorites had become too dirty to wear. I originally thought taking them to the dry cleaners may work…but that is pretty expensive. Here is an almost cost free way to get your hats clean…put them on the top rack of the dishwasher and hit the on button. Yes, you can have dishes on the bottom rack. When the cycle is complete, take the hat out and stuff a towel in the crown to retain its shape. Let it air dry and you are finished. I have done almost a dozen hats this way and even the worst ones have come out looking as good as new!

A Fishy Story

The General — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:01:50 +0000

Try to get to know your local fish monger…not just retail store…one that supplies restaurants with portion controlled fish. Such as the case here in Savannah with Matthew’s Seafood which supplies many local restaurants with seafood. Restaurants call for specific cuts (4 oz, 6 oz, 8 oz, etc). So what happens to the trimmings? TG recently bought some trimmings and made some outstanding kebobs for about half the per pound price of the fish itself.

I sauteed the vegetables in a small amount of olive oil and sprinkled with some seasoned salt and black pepper. This allows the veggies to soften up a bit before going on the grill

Failure of Big Bucks

The General — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:27:01 +0000

It is fairly human to think that ‘if I just had enough money then I could be successful.’ How about if you had a 73 unit BBQ chain and enough money to have at least 2 Southern Prides in each location and all the latest restaurant equipment? But….you failed.

Such is the case with Smokey Bones restaurant chain owned by Darden Restaurants, owners of Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, etc…

According to Nation’s Restaurant News, July 9, 2007, Darden has closed 54 locations since May and has put the rest up for sale. I can’t help but feel somewhat of a personal disappointment because The General was indirectly involved with the start up of the first unit in Orlando. My friend, Brian K., did the initial spec work for the prototype store and the thought of having a national chain doing BBQ was quite exciting.

So why couldn’t money buy success? In TG’s opinion, there were several factors that brought on their demise. First, the food was just simply off. They never could get their brisket down correctly and from what I hear, they consulted with regular food service consultants …not barbecue people. What sticks in my mind is one of the biggest negatives…they originally tried to turn SB into a sports bar. When they did this, in my opinion, they eliminated a big part of their customer base…women. Think about it-George comes home on Friday night after work and says, “Honey, I want to take you out to dinner tonight and let’s go eat BBQ at a sports bar!” He may get away with that once, but Honey isn’t going to want to spend a lot of quality/romantic time with George at the sports bar. BBQ has always had a male macho image…although there are plenty of good female BBQ chefs out there!

A lot has been blamed on the lack of success of the Smokey Bones chain due to the regionality of BBQ flavors. But I have always believed that good BBQ is always cooked essentially the same with the sauce denoting the region and that can always be adjusted. In certain areas, like California with its tri-tip, cut from the sirloin and Texas, with its beef brisket, those meats are predominant BBQ items. That, too, could have been addressed by SB.

What I believe wasn’t addressed is the fact that they did not have enough variety in their overall menu to make non-BBQ eaters want to go there.

The General works on this constantly doing grilled shish ke bobs, BBQ pizza, fish on the grills, wraps, etc. Of course, TG does not own a 73 unit chain!