The Montgomery County Fair Cookoff held each April is a blast to participate in. The layout of the cookoff winds throughout the grounds and around a lake. This year was the first time that this cookoff has been sanctioned by the IBCA. The Xtreme Texas Cookers representing at this cookoff were : Chief Cook: Archie, Steve o, Randy M., David, Brian, Donna, Marjorie, Scot.
We setup Friday afternoon with help from Jason A. Thanks buddy. Friday night was a fun evening at the cookoff as we prepared sausage and steak for dinner. Saturday morning was busy on the pit with all 4 turn ins on our 2 bbq vaults. Chicken was due first at 10am prepared by Steve o, ribs were second at noon by David, brisket next at 2pm by Randy M, pork finally at 4pm from Archie.
Awards were at 6:30 pm after a lengthy public address problem that was never resolved. All and all we did pretty well claiming 4th place chicken and 11th place pork out of 125 teams. Just 1 place out of a trophy for chicken!! Thanks to all who participated in and helped at this cookoff. The Saturday night celebration was a treat thanks to the S.O.B. Cookers (Son Of A Bunch) across from us. Oh and spot #25 is the best spot in the whole cookoff for future reference.
Another year has passed at the Houston Rodeo Cookoff and another attendance record was shattered. 221,229 people attended the cookoff this year making it the best year ever for attendance. Although cool and windy on Friday, the weather was very nice for this years event. I think we fed at least 1,500 guests this year on a serving line that lasted for 2 1/2 hours Thursday and Friday, and all day Saturday. What a great your for the HLSR Cookoff. More than 1.5 million dollars was raised for youth and education in Texas just from the cookoff. We were happy to do our part and bring in our share of guests to contribute to that amount.
The barbecue was great as usual and I contribute that to the excellent pre-cook we had this year for brisket and the great help we had to prepare the on-site items. XTC cooked on all new equipment this year from Pitmaker here in Houston. I am confident in the competition performance of the Pitmaker Vault but was sceptical of the warming capacity for all of our serving line food. Friday night was the first test of that challenge and I was very impressed with the performance of the vaults. We could heat 10 chafing dish trays in each Vault like a convection oven. I also like the fact that we don’t have to carry and store 3 pallets of wood that use to be required for our big pit. We now have more space in the cooks area. Thanks to Pitmaker for building the new pit and allowing us to win “Most Unique Pit” this year at the show which is an honor only 37 pits have in the history of the cookoff. Although confident in our turn ins this year we were disappointed in our score in the BBQ judging. I am proud of all 3 of our turn in meats and realize that this BBQ cookoff is very big and odds aren’t in your favor. I am proud that we can all say we did our best and look forward to next year. Congratulations to Billy Jolly and the rest of our neighbors on Just N Time for your Champion Chicken. You have a great team and you deserved it. See you at Strawberry Festival.
Setup was a breeze this year thanks to all the help from our many friends. We started Wednesday morning at 8am and I think everything was done by 1. Thank you EAC and Miller for the JLG lift that you brought us to hang banners in the tent and the forklift you brought out to help Crown Royal. I am still looking for my bottle of Crown out of that deal. lol. Remember us next year please. Tear down was a snap and we were out of there at 10:30am on Sunday thanks to the dozen or so helpers.
I had a blast this year and I look forward to the next event we will compete in. For now, I’m just glad to not hear “Do you have any passes?” for another year.—Steve o
I think this years pre-cook was the best we have ever had. Thanks to Randy Carpenter for letting us use his facilities at Paver Connection again for our annual brisket cook. The weather was great which has a big help. Thanks to team members: David, James D., Randy M., Natalie, Randy C., Archie, Allen, Ryan, Scot P., Scott W.,Ronnie, Kyle, Brian, and Steve’o. Also thanks to Drew, April, Justin, and Gwen for helping the team out. We were able to cook, chop, slice, bag, and freeze over 900 pounds of brisket. We were able to put a new roof on the big pit; Thanks Allen! We were able to steam clean all team pits and equipment in preparation for the big cookoff. Im tired from this weekend, looking forward to a weekend of rest before the hysteria of Rodeo Houston sets in. –Steve’o
1/29/2010
San Antonio-
Had a blast at the San Antonio Rodeo Cookoff this past weekend at Sea World. This cookoff is a blast to attend and you really don’t even have to know anybody to get into a party there. It is a very public friendly cookoff with teams giving to the public food and drinks. Ill have to say that I was not expecting that after all my years at Houston cookoff and knowing how corporate it is. The spots were simple and for the most part wide open to visitors. I only saw a couple booths that had hired cops to watch the door out of hundreds of spots. Its just a laid back, simple cookoff. It was fantastic!
We hung out with the Crown Royal Roughriders cooking team this weekend and had a great time seeing the guys that cook next door to us at Houston. They had a fun party with plenty of food now infamous Maffaritas which are on the same page as El Patios blue margaritas. Thanks Steven.
Congratulations to Pitmaker for their success in this cookoff. Out of brisket, ribs, and chicken, Pitmaker vaults were used and brought in 5 top 10′s out of 30. The Reserve Grand Champion Tejas Cookers also used the Pitmaker Interceptor for their competition meats. We had a great time with Pitmaker’s George and Victor Saturday night partying at Tejas’s booth. Thanks for the hospitality Tejas, I had a great time.
I will attend this cookoff again for shure next year.
The Houston preparation is now starting. Its off to pre-cook this weekend, jello shots next weekend, storage load up the following weekend, then Houston Cookoff. This month is going to be busy. See Tejas Cookers Buckles!!
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