Home Of Hoss's BBQ & Catering Co.

May 18th & 19th Danville Va. 2007 Competition!

This past Friday and Saturday the Hoss's BBQ team traveled to Danville Va. for the 7th annual Pigs In The Park BBQ Competition. 

This years team was made up of Hoss, Wayne, Jodi, and Dan.

   

We arrived after a slight delay during our travels.

Once we were set up we started prepping for the Anything Butt categories.  We prepared a smoked pizza off the Egg for the entree contest. 

Then we had a chocolate mousse brownie for dessert.  After the Anything Butt turn-ins we shared our food with other teams and got to see many old friends and meet some new friends.  Often the late night hours when everyone is up watching their pitts, is the only time that cookers get to spend with each other. 

Saturday morning was busy with trying to get all of our turn-ins ready for the judges.  The first turn-in is chicken which is due at 12:00.  After Chicken is the Rib turn-in at 12:30.  Followed by Pork at 1:00 and Brisket at 1:30.  Then it is time to break down camp and wait for the awards ceremony. 

We placed 29th overall out of 46 teams.  We were 26th in chicken, 22nd in ribs, 42nd in pork and 12th in brisket.  In the Anything Butt categories we placed 12th in entrees and 8th in dessert.  We got to see many of our friends such as Dizzy Pig BBQ, Red White and Que, Pure and Sinful BBQ, and My Side of The Mountain get call-ups during the awards ceremony. 

This contest is put on by Bill McMann and his crew of volunteers for the city of Danville.  It is always one of the best contest that we have ever traveled to compete in.  They take extremely great care of the cooks and our teams to ensure that we have a great weekend.  Once again we were not disappointed by their hospitality!

So once again the teams got all their cooking done on time.  Hopefully with a little more rest we will be back next year!

To see our competition boxes please go to the photo album for turn-ins.

Waldorf Eggfest 2007

On May 5th I traveled to Waldorf Md for the 2007 Eggfest.  An Eggfest is a festival put on by a distributor of Big Green Eggs to help spread the awareness of the Egg. 

The Eggfest in Waldorf is sponsored by Seasonal Distributors.  Many different people cook on demo Eggs throughout the day, and then the demo eggs are sold at a discounted price.  I was able to see many friends of mine that I have met over the years on the BBQ circuit.  It was also a great time to meet some of the Big Green Egg forum users face to face. 

My Dad, Mike Hess also made the trip down to the Eggfest, with my little brother and sister.  Dad enjoyed seeing all the new ways he could use his Egg.  He also found the solution to cooking multiple racks of ribs on his Egg.

The competition rig of the Wimer's was also really cool to see in person.  The way all four of the XL models look inside their trailer is amazing.  There were also other teams represented such as Dizzy Pig, BBQ Guru, and Free Range BBQ to name a few.  Also Ray Lampe AKA Dr. BBQ was set up next to Dizzy Pig cooking on one of the demo Eggs.  It was a pleasure to meet Dr. BBQ and get both my book and Dad's book signed by Ray.

The Eggfest was a great time and experience to see how many different uses there are for the Egg.  It was nice to be an observer this year and I will hopefully cook for the next Eggfest. 

Book Review:Smokestack Lightning

Smokestack Lightning Adventures In The Heart Of Barbecue Country was written by Lolis Eric Elie and photos were taken by Frank Stewart. Published originally in 1996.

This book is the result of two men and their journey to find the best Barbecue in the country. Their journey took them through the country from the Carolinas, St Louis, Kansas City Texas and up to Chicago.  Lolis and Frank ate at many of the famous BBQ shacks in every stop they made.  Often traveling way off the beaten path to find the ultimate BBQ.  The stories that they are told by many of the legends such Ollie Gates of Gates& Sons Bar-B-Q, in Kansas City. 

The pictures in the book are all in black and white and many of are different pitt masters and their pitts. I love the quality and agelessness that the black and white photos produce.    The stories that are told about how the BBQ changes from one region to the next are awesome.  The book also has a few recipes in the back of the book from many of the different restaurants they visited on their trip.  This book was part of the inspiration for Drew and I during our travels this winter. As we traveled across the country to see friends and family with  my Big Green Egg we often stopped at different BBQ Joints where ever we were.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is intrested in the history of BBQ.  Here is the link to the book on Amazon.com.  http://www.amazon.com/Smokestack-Lightning-Adventures-Barbecue-Country/dp/1580086608'