The day the Posse flew Chile's national flag (oops) and other tales from Blues, Bandits & BBQ

The Posse cook team celebrates after the first Blues, Bandits & BBQ festival in 2010. (Photo@R.J. Hinkle)

The Posse has always loved Blues, Bandits & BBQ, the food and music festival held in Oak Cliff.

Loyalty is a factor. Some of us lived in the O.C. and the festival does a good job of showcasing a great part of Dallas.

We also liked the fellowship of close friends cooking together around the clock and competing against other barbecue teams. Occasionally, winning was a side benefit.

So with the seventh annual BB&BBQ coming soon (Nov. 11 and 12 at Kidd Springs Park), allow us to reminisce, beginning with a lesson learned.

One year we cooked near Rob Shearer,  a creator of Blues, Bandits and the unofficial honorary consul of Oak Cliff. While we hunkered near our offset smoker, ready to feed it wood all night long because that's the way real barbecue is made, Rob tinkered a bit with the vent settings on his Big Green Egg and headed home to catch a few hours of sleep.

We poked some fun at him as he left. He just smiled.

The next morning, the Posse was tired and Rob was well rested. His brisket looked wonderful. The Egg, indeed, can be an excellent barbecue machine.

The Posse crew unloads smokers at the first Blues, Bandits & BBQ festival in 2010. (Photo@Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

For many in the Posse, our favorite Blues, Bandits was the first, held in 2010. It was our initial barbecue competition and there was a special energy as the festival blended itself into the everyday life of the O.C.  Jason Roberts even grafted one of his Better Block projects onto the festival.

We cooked on the street near The Kessler and napped on cots on the ground between the buildings. Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins blogged live and we proudly flew the "Texas" state flag at our site. One problem. Fellow BBQ blogger Don O. informed us that it was Chile's national flag, close but definitely not Texas. (How the mix-up occurred is a long story.)

Oops.

While we loved being on the street, the police thought competitors blended a little too intimately into everyday life, i.e., we obstructed roadways. So, after some intense negotiations, everyone had to move their pits, with fires blazing, a few feet onto the sidewalks. We had two pits, with a couple hundred pounds of meat already on the grates. Moving was a job.

It was also the year -- the only year, thankfully -- of what I'll call the organic experiment. Contest rules required us to cook grass fed and organic meats supplied by Urban Acres. The racks of ribs -- and I'm exaggerating only a little -- looked like strips of bacon connected by bones. Cat ribs, we joked. How do you produce great-tasting barbecue with skinny meat that has no fat?

Ricky Lawson's infamous Big Red chicken in 2010.
(Photo@R.J. Hinkle)

Competitors tried different techniques. Ricky Lawson brined his chicken in Big Red. The photo of him holding his scarlet bird remains a classic.

Justin and Diane Fourton of Pecan Lodge competed that first year. Their joint was still at Dallas Farmers Market; they hadn't yet moved to Deep Ellum. They won for best ribs. The next year, with the reputation of Pecan Lodge booming, I asked Justin if he was going to compete again and he said no. He couldn't afford not to win. Success has a price.

All in all, the Posse did well that first year. Marshall Cooper's brisket placed second. And Bryan Gooding won best chicken. We still call Bryan the Chicken King of Oak Cliff.

In 2012, we invited Clyde Biggins, who long ago owned "Clyde's Old Fashion Hickory Smoked Barbecue" on Westmoreland Road, to compete with us. After nearly 17 years in prison for drug conspiracy, Clyde had gotten out a couple years earlier and was dispensing barbecue again from what he called "Clyde's Rolling Barbecue," essentially his pit on wheels. We had eaten his food a couple of times and it was good.

With Clyde, who once worked for West Dallas barbecue legend Chester Hardeman, tending to most of the meats, the Posse won People's Choice. It was fun to see Clyde holding the trophy.

Gooding made his own sausage that year but couldn't attend the festival so I cooked for him. I managed to burn every link but one, which we carefully turned in to the judges. It won, but all these years later, my Posse mates still kid me mercilessly. How can you burn sausage? (It's a long story.)

In 2013, Martha Gooding, Bryan's wife, devised some special culinary treats as we went all out to defend the People's Choice title. During the public tasting period, teams serve regular barbecue and other items to festival goers. The people then "vote" for their favorite with tokens.

One of our appetizers was a homemade crostini topped with a smear of brie, peach preserves, and a slice of smoked pork belly.  "Bribery on a crostini," one Posse member said.

It was, admittedly, a little high brow for normal Posse tastes, but the bribery worked as we won People's Choice again.

Sheriff Lupe Valdez poses with her Posse at the 2011 Blues, Bandits & BBQ festival. (Photo by Daniel Vaughn)

The event in 2014 is still a blur of cold and wind. Shivering for much of two days is not fun. It's much better to cook barbecue and listen to music when the weather is nice.

Last year, we retired and moved to Austin. My wife, Sherry, and I did return to Dallas in November for one more Blues, Bandits with Bryan and Martha. We competed as the O.C. Sausage Co., not the Posse (another long story).

Bryan made his sausage again and had high hopes. It was good and had a nice, subtle aftertaste. But subtle doesn't work in contests, where it's all about the judges' first impressions. While his sausage didn't even place, Bryan did win again for chicken, using his terrific vinegar brine. The Chicken King of Oak Cliff still reigns.

This year, the Goodings moved from the O.C. to Lopez Island, Washington State, where they already are building a food reputation for themselves. Before next year's big island cook off, Bryan promises to perfect rabbit sausage. Lopez has thousands of the critters running wild.

So the Posse (and O.C. Sausage Co.) won't be at Blues, Bandits this year. But we will be thinking about all of our friends there and remembering many good times. Have fun!

Bryan Gooding, aka: The Chicken King of Oak Cliff, at the 2010 festival.  (Photo@R.J. Hinkle)

The Posse cook team works the crowd in 2013 serving homemade crostini with brie & pork belly, winning the People's Choice Award.

Chile's national flag flies over the Posse cook camp at the first Blues, Bandits & BBQ festival in 2010, oops! (Photo@Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Cooking up a kosher BBQ storm in Big D

I don't know who invented the double-barreled lede, but old Charlie Dickens had it down:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

After talking to barbecue competition judge Jennifer Shiflett in advance of the Dallas Kosher BBQ Championship next weekend, we found ourselves in need of the same technique.

She said there's no difference in taste between kosher barbecue and regular barbecue. And she wondered if competitors are using too much sauce on some of their entries.

Either idea would make a good lede -- beginning --  for this blog item.

During the interview, we the got the taste question out of the way right at the start:

In a blind test, can you tell the difference between kosher barbecue and regular barbecue?

"Absolutely not," Shiflett, a lifetime member of the Kansas City Barbecue Society, said. "I don't think anybody could."

Shiflett and her husband, Bill, live in Fort Worth and are both Master Certified Judges. They are the KCBS contest representatives at the second annual Dallas Kosher championship at Sunnyland Furniture.

The big difference in kosher competitions, of course, is that there is no pork. Competitors cook beef brisket, beef ribs, chicken and turkey.

All the meats, smokers, grills, knives, utensils, spices and condiments are provided by the organizers to ensure that kosher dietary laws are followed. Teams do their prep work Thursday night. Cooking begins after sundown Saturday and judging begins at noon Sunday (Oct. 30).

The competition is organized by the Men's Club of Congregation Beth Torah in Richardson. Last year, nine teams competed. As of the beginning of this week,  nine teams had registered for this year's event.

Jennifer said that she and Bill do a couple dozen or so competitions a year as judges and competitors. "I bought Bill his first smoker for his birthday in 2010 and it’s been a whirlwind since then," she said.

Regular readers of this blog know that the Posse, generally, is anti sauce. Real Texas barbecue, we think, needs only a good spice rub and smoke. We've been to a few competitions, though, and noticed that many expect sauce. Jennifer concurs.

"It seems like it's gotten sweeter and sweeter over the years," she said. "There's a ton of sauce on chicken and most of the time it's ridiculously sweet."

"I don't think I've seen a dry rib all year," she continued. Judges are even starting to see sauce on brisket. "And I think that's horrifying," she said. Wonderful brisket, with a nice crust, can be cooked with a rub of mainly salt and garlic.

The Posse couldn't agree more. Good luck to all the competitors this week in Dallas.

And, as for Dickens, it's always the best of times in barbecue.

Bill & Jennifer Shiflett at a BBQ competition in 2015. (Courtesy photo) 

Is reality TV stardom in Aaron Franklin's future? BBQ Pitmasters season 3 update

BBQ Pitmasters season 3 will begin filming tomorrow at the Don’t Be Cruel BBQ Duel competition in Tupelo, Mississippi.

The big news for Texas BBQ followers is that Austin BBQ pitmaster/owner Aaron Franklin will be joining the upcoming season of BBQ Pitmasters as a judge. BBQ entrepreneur and author Myron Mixon, of Jack's Old South BBQ, has already anounced he will be back as a judge on the show.

Championship pitmaster Tuffy Stone will also be joining the judging team. He was a major player on season one of BBQ Pitmasters and has great respect in competition circles. He also owns Q Barbeque, which has three locations in southern Virginia.

BBQ Pitmasters executive producer John Markus teased fans of the show with a tweet last Sunday as follows, "I am so excited about these two new Pitmaster judges. HINT: the most successful two BBQ restauranteurs working today!"

Having stood in line for one or two hours at Franklin BBQ on several occasions, I can vouch for John's tweet. I can only imagine that Tuffy's east-coast joints totally rock as well.

Adding Aaron and Tuffy should really help the chemistry and barbecue IQ of the show. Outside of Mixon, last year's judging team including former football player Warren Sapp and chef Art Smith left a lot to be desired. But so did the challenges to cook appetizers, rattlesnakes, frogs and alligators.

Playing Myron's deep south, old school BBQ personality against Aaron's hipster, young gun persona could be golden for the series. Tuffy is somewhere in the middle. It could also make the lines even longer at Franklin BBQ.

We can't wait to see the format when this season debuts around Memorial Day. Season one was must-see TV for backyard pitmasters around the country.

The last question we need answered is what channel the show will be on. I've seen rumors of "Discovery Destination" channel, but have never heard of that channel and don't get any Google hits on it either.

We'll update as we hear more details on BBQ Pitmasters season three.

Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

Photos from the Blues, Bandits and BBQ cook off in the OC

Here's a list on winner's from the Blues, Bandits and BBQ cook off at Lake Cliff Park in Oak Cliff. Congrats to all.....

Brisket: 1st – Matador Meat wine; 2nd – Texas BBQ Posse; 3rd – The Smoke Cliff Boys
Pulled pork: 1st – Smokin Ronnie’s BBQ; 2nd - Texas BBQ Posse; 3rd 3-Bar BBQ
Ribs: 1st – Oak Cliff Oh’s; 2nd - Smokin Ronnie’s BBQ; 3rd - Matador Meat wine
Chicken: 1st - Oak Cliff Oh’s; 2nd - Texas BBQ Posse; 3rd – The Smoke Cliff Boys
Sausage: 1st – BBQ Bandits; 2nd – Matador Meat wine; 3rd – Los Juevos

Festival goers hang out in the sun and green grass at Lake Cliff Park.

Gary Jacobson and Marshall Cooper check our rib entry before turn in.

Bryan Gooding's pork butts get up to temp in the early morning. The entry placed second in pulled pork.

Bryan and Martha Gooding prepare the chicken entry, which also placed second in the cook off.

Posse pitmaster Marshall Cooper slices our second-place brisket entry.

The perfect setting and weather for a BBQ cook off, 80 degrees in Lake Cliff Park.

Posse pitmaster Marshall Cooper takes a well-deserved break in the mid-morning.

Martha Gooding and one on Dallas' finest.

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez and her Posse.

Festival goers hang out in front of the posse campsite at Lake Cliff Park.

1:30 am in Lake Cliff Park at the Blues, Bandits and BBQ cook off.

Photos by Chris Wilkins & Daniel Vaughn

The Sheriff and her Posse

The Texas BBQ Posse cook team poses with Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez during the Blues, Bandits and BBQ cook off held in Oak Cliff's Lake Cliff Park.

We did well (more details to come), placing second place in brisket, pulled pork and chicken. I'll be posting more photos shortly, but here's one of our favorites.

Thanks to the amazing Rob Schear and his awesome crew, it was a BBQ fellowship to remember. Also thanks to the judges, who each had to eat samples of all 54 meat entries today! See you all next year......

Photo by Daniel Vaughn

Checking out the smokers at the Smokin' Possum Cookoff

One of the coolest things at a BBQ cookoff is the opportunity to check out everyone's smokers and cook setup. Here's a quick tour of some of the teams the Posse is competing against here at Possum Hollow Camp near Graham.

Photos by Chris Wilkins

Smokin' Possum Cookoff a character-building experience for the Posse

We're still processing everything we learned at the Smokin' Possum Cookoff. It will take a while.

We had fun cooking just outside our cabins at Possum Hollow Resort on Possum Kingdom Lake over a nearly weather-perfect weekend.

As for our results, however, the best thing we can say is that it was a character-building experience.

Our first entry into the world of sanctioned barbecue competitions was a crash course in harsh reality. Cooking to maximize the impact of that one bite a judge takes of your food is not the same as cooking for friends and relatives in your backyard. And it's not the same as turing out good barbecue day after day at a joint.

We thought we knew that going in. Now, we really know.

There were about 17 entries in each of the three meat categories -- chicken, ribs and brisket. We didn't place in any, and the places went down to #10.

The really character-building part of the experience, though, came when the I.B.C.A. judge read the order of finish for the rest of the field. We were second to last in each category. That's consistent, if nothing else.

Thankfully, the judge read only entry numbers and not team names.

She also said that one of the chicken entries was raw -- NOT OUR's -- giving us the opportunity to instantly create a new team motto: "Better than raw."

The best part of the weekend was visiting with other cookers, like Brett Davenport of Burleson, who built his own giant smoker that can cook 32 briskets at once. The rig, complete with automatic awnings that shield cookers from sun and rain, weighs about 9,000 pounds.

Saturday evening, well after the judging, we visited with Troy and Amber King, married cookoff veterans from Wills Point who compete separately. Sometimes Troy does better and sometimes Amber, they said. Troy took first in chicken, Amber fourth in brisket.

They passed along some cooking tips and rub recommendations. And they both said that they wouldn't cook their competition barbecue for a meal at home. The taste is too loud, trying to attract the attention of a judge who takes just a nibble. That makes it difficult to eat much more than one piece.

"Competition is all about one bite," Troy said.

"You couldn't eat a whole sandwich made of my brisket," Amber said.

For now, we'll take some comfort in that.

Photos by Chris Wilkins

It's turn in time at the Smokin' Possum Cookoff

Gary J's famous chicken & ribs have been turned in to the judges, now it's down to the biggie - brisket. That's a 3 p.m. turn in time.

Marshall cooked three briskets to choose between for our entry. Out of that we'll enter just seven slices for the judges to taste test. Win or lose, we've had a great time last night and today. What an amazing day out here at the second annual Smokin' Possum Cookoff.

Photos by Chris Wilkins

Fear & Loathing at the Smokin' Possum Cookoff at Possum Kingdom Lake

It's less than 11 hours til our first check in time at the Smokin' Possum Cookoff. This is the second year for the competition, which has been named as a Texas state championship by the I.B.C.A.

We're missing two members of our cook team, Bryan Gooding and Gary Barber, who were key members of the award winning run at last year's Blues, Bandits & BBQ Festival in Oak Cliff. This is our first cookoff since then.

We're cooking ribs, chicken and brisket against a tough field of seasoned competitors. We'll be live blogging during the day, for better or for worse. Either way, the Posse is having a great time being part of the Texas BBQ competition circuit.

Photos by Chris Wilkins

Texas BBQ competition season is upon us

As the Texas BBQ Posse, a small group of us from the The Dallas Morning News, and friends, have traveled much of the state in search of the best smoked meats we can find.

Then we tell readers what we think of the joints we visit.

Anyone can talk a good game, some readers have gently reminded us since we began our Barbecue Chronicles in late 2009.

So we decided to see if we could also walk the barbecue walk. Last September, we entered our first competition, the Blues, Bandits & BBQ festival in Oak Cliff.

It was an exhausting, but totally fun time as we camped near the corner of Davis and Clinton for two hot, sweaty days and one largely sleepless night.

During the day, two popup canopies protected us from the brutal sun, but our close proximity to our two smokers, which we steadily stoked for nearly 30 hours, magnified the mid-90s temperatures and our sweat.

Thankfully, as Sheilagh Cooper observed afterwards, “hickory smoke masks any and all other odors.”  Sheilagh is married to Marshall Cooper, our head pitmaster.

 “Not one of you stunk! At least not from the distance I tried to keep,” added Martha Gooding, wife of Posse member Bryan Gooding.

Over the two days, we cooked 250 pounds of brisket, ribs, chicken and sausage for friends, family, judges and festival goers, who numbered at least 2,000, by our estimate, and probably more.

Most of what we cooked was regular meat, with plenty of fat, from grain fed animals. “Raised on Cheetos and day-time TV,” cracked Bryan Gooding.

For the judges, however, we had to cook organic meat, much of it grass fed. It was provided by Urban Acres, a store located across Davis Street from the festival site.

Generally, organic meat is very lean and can have a gamey taste. One of the racks of ribs we were issued looked, with only a little imagination, like strips of bacon connected by bones.

We had done several test runs before the competition with different kinds of organics. We knew we would have to cook the brisket and ribs much longer than normal to achieve tenderness, and that we would have to spice up the rubs to boost taste.

Cooper added extra kosher salt, black pepper, granulated garlic and cayenne to the brisket rub. Gooding brined the chicken in a mixture of water, vinegar, salt and sugar.

We used a spicy hot rub on the ribs and, in a departure from our normal practice, wrapped then in foil halfway through their six hours in the smoker. During one test run, we didn’t wrap the ribs. Mistake. They were dry and tasted awful. We threw them away.

Internal meat temperatures are also critical. The chicken had to hit 160 degrees. The brisket, which weighed 16.5 pounds and was wrapped in foil after about five hours of heavy smoke, had to reach 205 degrees. After nearly 20 hours, it hit 203. We pulled it from the smoker and put it in a warmer, where it rested another 5 hours.
 
During down time, we talked to, and learned from, competitors on many of the other 21 teams, both pros and backyard barbecue kings, like ourselves. It was especially fun talking to some of the professional cooks, like Justin Fourton from the Pecan Lodge at the Dallas Farmers’ Market, who won for ribs, and Rick Fairchild at Lagarto Catering in Highland Park, who won for sausage and was Grand Champ.

Big Rick described how he cooks brisket for ranch hands during round-up. He digs a pit and puts in a bed of hot coals. On top of that he puts a layer of rocks and then the meat, wrapped in foil.

“We used to wrap it in burlap,” he said.

Then comes another layer of rocks and more coals. He covers everything with dirt.

We also learned a valuable tip from Oak Cliff’s Heavy Metal Cookin’ Team, which won for brisket. They were directly across the street from us and their hammock sure looked inviting at 3 a.m. It would be a good addition to many backyard setups, too.

The judges, generally, didn’t care for much of the organic barbecue they scored. In comparison to regular meat, it fell short on all counts: taste, tenderness and look. They thought the chicken and sausage entries were better, on the whole, than the brisket and ribs.

We would agree. Many of us thought Bryan’s chicken was the best we had ever eaten, organic or otherwise.

In the end, we placed first in chicken and second in brisket. Not bad for a maiden voyage. And it was fun. That's why we’re planning to do a few more cookoffs this year.

Photos by R.J. Hinkle & Chris Wilkins

Here are upcoming BBQ cook-offs in the DFW area. The BBQ Posse cook team will be firing up the smoker at the Possum Hollow Smoke Off in Graham on May 20, come see us if you're there....

3-25/26 Ft Worth, TX Fort Worth Cops for Kids
3-25/26 Waxahachie, TX 2011 Youth Expo Assn./Knights of Columbus BBQ
4-01/02 Irving, TX 7th Knights of Columbus BBQ
4-15/16 Terrell, TX Terrell Heritage Days BBQ TX State Championship
4-22/23 Commerce, TX Cowhill Chili Fest & BBQ
4-29/30 Plano, TX Central Market presents "Thrill of the Grill"
4-29/30 Mesquite, TX 2011 Taste of Mesquite
5-06/07 Grapevine, TX Grapevine Elks Lodge
5-13/14 Carrollton, TX - 4th Annual Pink soles in Motion BBQ
5-20/21 Graham, TX Possum Hollow Smoke Off TX State Championship
5-20/21 Prosper, TX Prosper Firefighters Assn. BBQ
6-24/25 Kennedale, TX Cowtown Speedway BBQ
9-23/24 Hillsboro, TX Hill County Go-Texan BBQ TX State Championship
9-30/10-1 Keller, TX Keller Lions Club BBQ
10-07/09 Grand Prairie, TX 28th Annual Traders Village BBQ


To find BBQ competitions around Texas, you can check the International Barbeque Cookers Association and Lonestar Barbecue Society websites.

Click here to see more photos from the Blues, Bandits & BBQ festival.

Born to be a great pitmaster? Mark Cooper, 6, of Dallas makes the case.....

Can genetics contribute to the making of a great pitmaster? It worked for Tiger Woods, who began golfing as soon as he started to walk. As we know, the rest is history.

Mark's dad is Marshall Cooper, the lead cook of the Texas BBQ Posse, who has over 25 years of smoker experience under his belt. Marshall led the posse to first and second place finishes at last weekend's Blues, Bandits & BBQ cookoff in Oak Cliff. Similar to Tiger, Mark has been observing his dad at the smoker since he could walk. Marshall reports he ate his first baby back rib in his high chair at 18 months!

If Mark was a quarterback, the college scouts would already be circling the Cooper home in north Dallas. This kid loves BBQ. He loves to prep it, loves to cook it and loves to eat it. And he knows exactly what he's doing.......

During the BBB cookoff, Mark proved his mettle doing everything from unloading wood to cutting sausage, and all things in between. After all that, we named him as the first official junior Texas BBQ Posse member.

He may just be one of the great ones down the road......


(Photos by R.J. Hinkle, top, and Chris WIlkins)

Amazing photos from the Blues, Bandits & BBQ cookoff

Here's a great set of photos from the Blues, Bandits & BBQ cookoff by Texas BBQ Posse member R.J. Hinkle. R.J. joined us on Sunday to document the madness that invaded the OC last weekend. He's the manager of Quad/Photo—Dallas and one of the premier visual storytellers working the Texas BQQ trail. Enjoy......!