Competition BBQ with Bardown Barbecue

Dan - Host: 0:00

Today's episode of the meat & Greet BBQ podcast is brought to you by iOS outdoor kitchens. They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists

Owen - Host: 0:19

Welcome to another episode of the meat & Greet BBQ podcast today we have Jordan from a bar down barbecue. And it's going to be an absolute fantastic episode for the first time we get to talk about competition barbecue in great detail. Find out more about the UK barbecue scene and what competitions mean, how to get involved, what the criterias are. And as ever, we get to hear about Jordan's barbecue fails. And also we set barbecue bingo challenges. So without much further ado, here's Jordan.

Dan - Host: 0:52

Jordan, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Great to see you how you doing your aim?

Unknown: 0:57

Yeah, very good. Thank you. Very good, indeed. Good, good,

Dan - Host: 0:59

good. So we've got a course Jordan o in here. And we're talking all things barbecue, as always. But what I love about this is we have someone here who's experienced in competition barbecue as well, which for the UK is a little bit different for us compared to some of our American listeners who might know it inside out. It's a bit new here in the UK. So we'd love to learn more about this in the podcast. But first off, can you table and more about yourself, who you are and how you got into everything.

Unknown: 1:28

Yeah, sure. My name is Jordan, I'm part of bar down barbecue. And it's me and my wife, the now other team essentially very much. And we've been doing it for three years. 2018. So I think everyone's trying 1920 to one to two for four years. But everyone's not counted last year, because everyone was in pretty much been going for years. And yeah, absolutely loving what I do and is actually progressing slowly into catering kind of side of it as well, which is good.

Dan - Host: 2:08

Fantastic. And did you do a lot of barbecuing for that point? Or was it something that you just were always interested in? And you dived in full on? How did that all come around?

Jordan - Bardown Barbecue: 2:18

So I had a barbecue and I was enjoying barbecue cooking everything because you do and just normal backyard barbecue and, and then back in 2018 when it first kicked off, we saw a few of my friends that were part of the team. And not anymore. We saw just an advert on Facebook saying is it going to be a barbecue competition? Malden, that was the smoking fire festival. It was its second year running them. And it was a modem at the prom. And we thought, yeah, let's give it a go. And pretty much just signed up there. And then to give it a fair shot a barbecue competition. That was what was called IB que en. So it wasn't the standard KCBS stuff that you get. And now that's the Open Championship that you get now. But that was our first experience that barbecue competition

Owen - Host: 3:15

was it was quite different to backyard barbecue in in, I'm assuming you have to. Do you have to these are quite strict guidelines of how you have to cook the food or present the food and

Unknown: 3:31

yeah, yeah. So the first competition that we did barbecue and one that was based around the KCBS categories, essentially. So it was obviously chicken, pork, ribs, and brisket, essentially. So weird. Did a few practice cooks before we ended, actually competed that time. There's all your standard turn ins that you have to do. So it's normally chickens first, and it's 12 o'clock, but you get a five minute window either side. So you can turn him 1155 and 1205. And he can't be one second over or one second earlier, less your window. And then your next one would be ribs, half 12. And then same principle eight, five minutes either side. And then one o'clock could be your pork and half one would be brisket. So that will be your kind of cooking times. And then some competitions, do ancillary rounds. So normally, your comp would be a Friday to a Sunday. Friday, everyone turns up in the morning or after work. And normally that's the time where teams have a bit of a jolly and a bit of a drink and get absolutely legless kind of thing. And be rude not to write. Exactly, yeah, and then it's good catch up for people that haven't been comps or teams that just want to socialize again, kind of thing. And then Saturday, they normally have like ancillary rounds. So it could be things like burgers, hot dogs, cocktails, wherever they want to come up with, they can do it like normally, barbecue comp will have a sponsor. So they'll throw in something to do at that. And then this Sunday is normally your main four categories that you cook.

Owen - Host: 5:30

Again, talking to us, like, you know, we're absolutely amateurs in terms of competition barbecue, we've never done it before. So what are the what are the things that our judges are looking out for, you know, in those main four rounds are that you would have traditionally on Sunday.

Unknown: 5:48

So you've normally got like your, so they categorize it and taste tenderness, appearance, and each of them are normally weighted. So your appearance is like, the lowest. And then like your taste and tenderness are like your highest. So even like if you score like a nine in night, your appearance or something like that, and then your taste and tenderness are down at like sixes and fives, as you're not going to do very well, because obviously, they're the ones that you want to be really, really good on, because they're the ones that are weighted the most. So you could even if your appearance is a sevens, seven half, eight or something like that. And then your taste and tenderness is like nines, then you're you're doing very well.

Dan - Host: 6:36

Do you know what you were saying? Like the five minute windows. For some reason I hadn't considered that I assumed it would be like half hour either side, particularly with something like a brisket to get the skills, right of like resting and dealing with the stall and things like that must be an absolute nightmare to get that five minute window. Correct? Because every piece of meat is completely different. How do they even judge the meats they give you in the first place, particularly things like brisket.

Unknown: 7:05

And so things like your brisket, or the rounds on the Sunday, you'd normally have your butcher. So everyone normally have either sandwiches or different pitches or anything. And then you'd get your meats from them. Some teams are lucky enough to choose their meats and everything. So all that kind of stuff that other teams just bring up your butcher and be like, Can I have your pork butts in briskets and your chicken thighs and ribs and everything. And then it's just the practice kind of comes into it of knowing how you're going to cook it and when you're going to start all your barbecues when your time ends. And I have like white balls of pens all over it and scribbles and everything down. So it does come down to a lot of time ends and everything, then there's difficult sometimes.

Dan - Host: 7:51

Well, I must have gotten you Oh, I was just gonna

Owen - Host: 7:54

say you must have restarted. I suppose after a few competitions, it almost becomes like an art form, isn't it? Yeah. A bit of a science

Unknown: 8:03

here for laughs for instance, our first competition that we did, we thought our lead Yeah, stick the barbecues on this time and because that's what we've done at home and everything like that. But then you've got to take into loads of different considerations like the weather and everything like that, because you cooking outside not cooking in like a nice barbecue shack that's warm and toasty and everything. There's loads of different aspects that you got to think of. And the more competitions you do, the more you know, like, Okay, if I start my barbecue half an hour later, I probably get an extra half an hour's Kip that night or something like that. So it all is all about time ends of when you start things.

Dan - Host: 8:41

And are there any rules about what types of barbecue you can use for each of the different cooks or anything like that? How does all that work?

Unknown: 8:49

So obviously, you can't Well, the ones that we were going to you can't use gas. You can't use open fire pits and all that kind of stuff. So you can use your things like your offsets, you can use your kettles, you can use your drums, you can use Pro cues, you can use pellet grills and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, you only can't use gas or open fire pits is normally the ones

Owen - Host: 9:12

so even within that then so say I was cooking on a pellet grill and you were doing it in a drum that they would be kind of paired up in the same category.

Unknown: 9:26

Yeah, so you don't look like you don't have to cook on you can click on whatever you want. So there's not like a certain thing that you have to click on this for that mate. You have to click on this for this meat you can just use whatever barbecue you want to cook your meats and that's it. I get turned in, in like it's going to turn in you get given like a little polystyrene box. These are like normally the normal Kcb KCBS runs you get a little cage a little polystyrene box. You fill it with nice pre parsley greenery at the bottom of it. Make little pretty and then you present your six pieces, or six to six plus pieces. And then that's it, and then it's turned in blind. You hand it in, and then it normally gets switched again. So different number gets put on the box, and then it then gets passed to the judges, and they judge it completely blind.

Dan - Host: 10:19

I suppose the follow up question to that in is what are your go to equipment or to use in your different shows.

Unknown: 10:27

So, my Bob, I've got a Yoda wire, six 640 Pellet Grill. And I've got some pro cues. And I normally just take my wherever master touch with me for like, simple side rounds kind of thing. But I do most of my stuff on my Pellet Grill, and my ribs on my foci essentially

Owen - Host: 10:50

nice and the ancillary rounds, he was saying it could be whatever or whoever the sponsor is that you said, Mike, chuck in there, do you have do you have a preference when it comes to that that round? What what would be kind of your, your go to cook for that.

Unknown: 11:04

And I think it all depends what they what the rounds are essentially. So the latest, obviously the last comp that we did. One before that was the smoke and fire festival that they kind of mixed it up a little bit. So they still had you like your normal four main categories on the Sunday. But they, they class it as bird, beef, pig, and ribs. So you could cook any part of a bird, any bird, essentially, at any part of a per pig, any part of a pig cow any part of the cow. So it wasn't specifically for brisket. So that's why it was so open to so many teams that could join it and they didn't have to be in that whole Oh, you've got to cook your brisket, you got to cook your pork butts. So doing that kind of aspect of it, there was so much more flair. And that kind of thing from loads of different cooks. And for instance, like for the wing for the chicken rounds. We did We did wings. So we did like a Russian Roulette kind of style presentations is that you didn't have to put in a polystyrene box that was presentation. However you wanted to present it as long as you had enough for the six judges there. You could present it however you wanted. So we bought like a you know, the little Russian Roulette drinking game that you can see. Yeah, sure. Yes, yes, we bought, we bought that little table stuck plates to it. And then then each different plate was like a different mixture of wings, and the sources and everything that was our wings round. So it was it's kind of flair and creativity that you do that kind of makes it really good and fun for them kind of rounds.

Owen - Host: 12:45

I was gonna say does that does that actually amplify the whole experience the fact that you don't have to always put it in a polystyrene box with some part of green parsley, you can actually show a bit of personality and character would you prefer that all of the rounds can be like that.

Unknown: 13:03

I think it depends on the competition. Because if it's strict KCBS kind of cookin with the polystyrene boxes, the main categories that you're doing, I think it's it is good and fun. Because I think some of the sometimes the prizes are cash prizes, and it's like you put a lot of effort into it and you get a good amount of reward out of it. And the ones that the competitions that a bit more flair kind of say they're more fun than invite. That's what kind of gets more people into the cookie and the more people into the endrin teams into it because you can just get normal backyard barbecues that do amazing presentations, amazing cooking, and they don't have to follow that normal category stuff. And then that's what's barbecue is pretty much all about just getting people cooking and present food and making sure it tastes really good. Eventually.

Dan - Host: 13:52

I think like the presentation side of things is really interesting to me because one of the hardest things I find is you can make something and cook it and it's absolutely beautiful. But how do you present it to people to make it look its best? I love the idea of the washing relax in my head. I was thinking that's amazing. What I would love to do just for friends at some point is set it up like that, but have like a mini water pistol or Supersoaker in the middle. It's full of hot sauce. Yep. And then people spin it and then they have to spray the hot sauce on. But I love the idea that at least for those rounds that it sounds like those are the less heavy cash prize rounds. You can have that sort of fun. But the few is there kind of like a like an end game or next level you want to go to are you thinking like trying going across the pond to America for some of the big big cash prizes?

Unknown: 14:44

That would be amazing to eventually get to been 34 years old and have one terrorizing child running around headless like as a headless chicken I've got no time and considering I got another one that due in about two weeks time, I'm gonna have like zero time to go anywhere abroad anytime soon, but gratulations Yeah, cheers. But that would be my absolute dream. Yeah, to even just to compete and say that I've done an American competition would be amazing. Even if I come last. I don't care. I just say that I've done it. And

Dan - Host: 15:19

on that point, how old is your youngest? If you don't mind me asking? 18 months, 18 months so like, I suppose in the pandemic has been less competitions, but even trying to do competitions with like, a toddler must be a nightmare. My daughter is turning five in the next month. And she has chickenpox at the moment. Hard enough me just trying to work with they're doing everything else. Yeah, hats off to you there but I'm got the planning involved. That must be interesting.

Unknown: 15:50

Yeah, luckily I've got so Sam has been the one that my wife is she's been part of my team for like since 2018, essentially and then this will we were lucky enough to do two comps last year, obviously the smoking fire one and then we did a KCBS one down in Devon. Both times she can obviously be there to help so I wrote pins and ringers and stuff to help me but like I said my uncle, he's a good cook. He does he enjoys cooking in the back garden kind of thing. So he came down and helped me at the smoking fire festival one and then one of my best friends just came down to the Devin one and helped me and he was more of a try to keep me calm kind of thing not not crack under pressure kind of thing. And he was there to drink the beers while while I couldn't just be some support, essentially.

Owen - Host: 16:46

No. So KCBS is at Kansas City Barbecue. Isn't in for the competition organisers. Obviously very, very big in America, obviously Kansas City, but when in terms of the competition, so in the UK, what is this? You know, what is the circuit? How many are Gucci? And non COVID? Yeah, the, you know, how many competitions would you look to be attending on, you know, on that particular circuit?

Unknown: 17:15

There was, there's only two that I know of now that are KCBS in ones in the UK and ones in Ireland. Are you smoking fire? It's third year, they did a Kcb competition. And now they've gone back to doing like an open British Open, so it's a bit more freeform. So there's only two that I know of that are KCBS. Now one, the one that that the one that's down in Devon. Smoking, the smoke in the waters is. It's just an amazing competition. The guy that does it, John, he is he does it on his own farm. He caters for the teams. He's such a lovely guy, but it's a closed event. So it's just teams that go in. So it's not open to the public or anything like that. So it's really, it's really good. Because obviously, when you get when it's a festival or when it's a something big, the teams don't get much chance to speak to each other or anything because there's a lot of public footpath and all that kind of stuff, like asking you questions and stuff like that. So like you don't get much time. But with that kind of competition that John's it's just, it's just teams, so it's really good. And this year, he's done a doubleheader. So normally you'll have a KCBS and the main cooks on the Sunday. But this time he's doing a doubleheader. So there'll be a cook on the Saturday and a cook on the Sunday. And the whole point of KCBS it goes to your points, so you get points from it. And then so you could be like the best in Europe or the get all that kind of stuff. So the more KCBS comps you do essentially the higher up a league table you get essentially

Dan - Host: 19:01

so based on that I'll take a spin on that league table. If you're for example like the best in Europe, what what is the outcome of that? Like Like do you get to go over to America or is there like a cash prize? How's all that work?

Unknown: 19:17

You get trophies and stuff on KCBS if like you're the best in Europe kind of thing. And normally you get things like you get invited to the Jack Daniels you get invited to Kansas City Royale BBQ competitions and all that kind of stuff. So you get the more more teams that are part of a competition. You get invites to that kind of stuff so and then they're normally cash prizes are the winners. So that's lights but you've got to be competing pretty much every weekend or every other weekend be up there winning that kind of money and again, top dogs in Europe and that kind of stuff. Without be

Owen - Host: 19:58

appreciate obviously you said about Phoenix got a young fan. Yeah. Would that be the ideal for you that you could be out there every weekend competing?

Unknown: 20:06

Yeah, it'd be lovely too but it says more comps in the UK that could pick up because all the comps are in Europe to the traveling stuff would be loads and loads of money. Just ridiculous just to go down to Devon for a weekend. You're talking about a grand just for like a weekend kind of thing or meet some food suppliers, travel, hiring vans, petrol, all that kind of stuff. The cost adds up massively.

Dan - Host: 20:36

God Yeah. Can you imagine trying to fly barbecues out to like Germany or the Netherlands or something?

Unknown: 20:42

Exactly. So some of the teams that are now a bunch of swines Tony's Cotney Q they do a lot of comps in Europe and they're getting like the ferry from Dover across all Felixstowe, they're chucking it all over the back of a van and driving it all across. And so it's a lot of commitment to go all the way out to Europe and do that kind of stuff. Obviously, then now, it doesn't help with the US leaving the EU, there's loads of meats and all that important and all that kind of stuff. That's a nightmare.

Dan - Host: 21:14

I mean, thought of that, God,

Owen - Host: 21:17

I suppose we just need to up the scene here, then we locally that's that's the thing.

Unknown: 21:21

Yeah. It'd be lovely for people to get involved more or more festivals, having competitions and stuff like that.

Owen - Host: 21:29

This is gonna sound like a really silly question. But do you have a limit on how many people can be in your team? I mean, could you be a team of one? Or could you be a team of 20?

Unknown: 21:39

So the limits for together have their limit of four. But yeah, one of the guys Tony, Tony's Cotney Q he is he just does it on his own. He finds it absolutely fine doing it on his own, he gets, he's got no one to get in the way of him kind of thing. So yes, one or four people is your maximum. So it depends like some teams do as in, they split the meats kind of thing. So one person will do two of them one person with the other two, and then the other one that's doing that will just help out and kind of thing. So yeah, it works in some teams and other teams pretty much.

Owen - Host: 22:18

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Owen - Host: 23:24

Visit aos kitchens.co.uk. So what's on what's on the schedule for you them for 2022 aside? They're brand new, baby.

Unknown: 23:37

Yeah, money's very sparse at the moment with that kind of thing, because she's going to be taken up a hell of a lot of money might resource but my plan it will be to hopefully do the the doubleheader at the end of the end of the year, hopefully sign back up for smoking the waters again. And let's make the most smoke and fire again this year. That'd be two and then hopefully focus on the cater inside of it as well. And give it more than that. Essentially, yes.

Owen - Host: 24:07

Tell us tell us more about the catering. You mentioned that right in the beginning. Yeah. Chintu.

Unknown: 24:12

Yeah, so we we set it up. Very, very bad time when COVID for COVID first come out. So we sit we actually set it up at the end of 2019. It was just like, Yeah, we had this bright idea that we were doing takeaways and providing food for family and stuff before that. And before Oh, yeah, let's set up and see what happens. And then all of a sudden, I think we did our first comp but first catering gig in December of 2019. And then COVID happens and we were just great. That was a great start for a business. But apart from that, we just then started doing takeout from our house pretty much and cooking everything and doing delivery services for people locally. People would then come and collect And then slowly picked up back at our local gig that we did our brewery and providing food for them. And then we did some a few parties and everything. And now we just got to pick it back up again in the new year, this year, and get everything sorted. So got revamped the website that we've got an just get out there trying to get more advertisement and geeks and stuff.

Owen - Host: 25:24

Tell everyone what the website is, this is an opportunity to ask.

Unknown: 25:28

It's not running yet. It's down at the moment. So it will bar down barbecue code dot code at UK. So quite simple.

Dan - Host: 25:36

All right, what's your favorite things to be cooking for people, and is that the same as what is most popular?

Unknown: 25:44

So we try and mix it up. So like, for the brewery that we normally work out, we try and mix up between some even simple stuff like burgers and all that kind of stuff. For them, we're going to Liberia tacos, because that's a huge, that was a huge craze at one point. So we thought, well, we might as well jump on the bandwagon with that and try and cook it and it turned out really well. So it's it's whatever we fancy cooking, we try and stick to what we the whole ethos of what we do. So we do learn slow cooked meats, and all that kind of stuff. So we don't want to start branching out into providing chips and stuff like that. And we want to try and keep it a bit closer to the home of what we what we like cooking what we like doing. That's the whole part of why we set up bar down barbecue essentially. So we do like we do the smoked brisket, pork, pork, ribs, home sauce, homemade sausages, all that kind of stuff. So the better the meats kind of thing and all that kind of stuff. We just try and push and then

Dan - Host: 26:43

you drop that as if it was casual homemade sausages. Talk us through that.

Unknown: 26:47

Yeah. So it's just something that I just thought I'd give it a go. And then started enjoying making sausages and stuff. Just doing a lot of research talking to a lot of friends that are already making sausages. And then just started Yeah, trying to make my own and it's actually working out quite well.

Dan - Host: 27:06

So I haven't told you in this i This is something I've been quietly looking into. Because it kind of fascinates me because it's a lot more alchemy and science than people realize. Because like the fat content for making your own sausages is so important. You get weird textures and flavors. And then when you pair that with different flavors and things, it also can change the fields. So how did you even start there? And what's your kind of percentage of mix that you'd recommend people to look at if they're going to try themselves.

Unknown: 27:33

So I just fall out? What first of all, I bought myself like a really cheap mixer and blender and all that kind of stuff and started experimenting with different cuts and everything can then just start putting, I think our first our first one that we did was trying to make hotlinks and then we put far too much like jalapeno powder and all that kind of stuff and then gave it to the wife and she literally blew her brains off like not even the whole sausage. She had like a sliver of a sausage. Yeah, I kind of had to rethink all the ingredients and spices that went into it. But yeah, we normally do a mixture of pork collar and pork fat kind of thing. And it's normally a 50 5050 ratio of beef and pork in ours actually. So yeah, we're just kind of we experiment with flavors we were the whole reason I got into the sausage making as well with that is one of the rounds up one of the smoke and fire festival was sausage. And the first when they first sent out the itinerary for it, they just said sausage round. For our grand great we get to make our own sausages and stuff. So we were actually going to make like a curried sausage and then found out that it was actually a sponsored round them and that we were going to get given us sausages. So we went over all this effort for weeks and weeks trying to perfect this recipe and then the final itinerary that I sent now it was like, Oh yeah, you get given your sausages. Oh, damn it with a nice sausages they were they did actually turn out really nice at the end when my wife had them at home and stuff like that. So that actually turned out really well. The presentation was gonna be lovely like crush poppadoms all over it and like onion bhaji scraps and all that kind of stuff to make like a proper curry in a sausage. I well. We enjoyed it.

Owen - Host: 29:28

And always be another competition for it. Exactly. Yeah.

Unknown: 29:31

So I'm still upset. I think I've still got frozen meat in the freezer. That for to make more of them. Still more left.

Owen - Host: 29:40

Does it actually when it comes to like rubs, injections, brines, all that kind of thing in competition barbecue. Is it expected that you make everything yourself? If someone just rocked up with a pre bought rub? Is that a bit of a cardinal sin or

Unknown: 29:59

no Everyone buys everyone. Everyone's using pre bought rubs, and pre bought injections pretty much. They're the best out there for a reason, winning competitions all in America. So I don't see why. Why you'd need to try and make your own if they're winning the American Royal or winning Jack Daniel comps and all that kind of stuff, so people, yeah, people buy them. Teams are sponsored by rubs as well. So obviously, you're at your Angus, and I think they're sponsoring teams. You've got barbecue co sponsoring teams as well, that rubs and sauces. So loads of teams are using all the pre bought stuff was not expected to make your own essentially. Yeah.

Dan - Host: 30:48

What's your favorites? What do you use?

Unknown: 30:52

So it's a mixture of, so I use a lot of American rubs. So there's ropes like called Ozark Heat? Is American rub. Bitman spot with the rubs. Like a whole cupboard full of them, but I think

Owen - Host: 31:09

also depends who's sponsoring you. Yeah. That's very true. But you know how the game works.

Unknown: 31:18

I can't remember the rubs. Now we use a lot of them. We use some of the angles, like rubs, injections. But now, there are mostly American brands, I can't literally completely conference off my head, what they are, but that they're a good doing good for us. Essentially.

Dan - Host: 31:40

It is it awful that apart from angaston, oink, I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell you some of the rubs they get if they're American or not, like me, church, just meet church, American British America. Yeah. Back in the night, I still haven't done it. I really want to get the Iron Brew that I'm brew up because it's a joke and work and I work with her and she knows this but I love I'm brew to me, it's like nectar and I want to see what that rub feels and tastes like what it does to meat as well. Because you can mix Iron Brew with like vanilla ice cream, and people think it's awful. But a blow your mind what that would do to meat. I'm no idea.

Unknown: 32:16

I haven't. Honestly, I haven't tried it. So I wouldn't have a clue if it would be nice. But there's a rub called to Jean. Jean rub. If you look on their Instagram page, people putting that on like ice creams and stuff like that on lollies and stuff like that, because it just cuz it's like a really lively, citrusy kind of flavor. And they're putting it on ice creams, it just brings out a completely different flavor. So it could be exactly the same what you're saying with the Iron Brew, could be could just blow your mind, put it on a mate and be like, Wow, that's meant to work. Or it could be the complete opposite. Why people doing this?

Dan - Host: 32:52

I wouldn't leave my house if it was that good. And I would put on like 20 things don't instantly because I would just be sat there. Yeah, smashing all of it. But that's the fun. And I love the fact that you said that you just basically jumped in because it was something that interested you in everything. Did it feel like when you first started out very much trial and error? Or Did it surprise you the level of your skills you went in from cooking at home?

Unknown: 33:19

And I think it surprised us a little bit? Yeah, I think we did do a few practice cooks. And just to make sure what we were cooking was right. And it's a lot of YouTube research, a lot of asking questions, but that's what the good thing about barbecue, the barbecue scene is. A lot of new teams turning up, loads of other teams will absolutely help you out no end, they're not gonna tell you how to cook it. They're not they're not gonna give away all their secrets, but they will help you like, if they've come around and you're trying to cut your meat up or whatever or trying to prep your mate, they'll come round and say, I need maybe you should do it this way a little bit different or give you some pointers. So each team is out there. Absolutely willing to help every new team possible. So literally any new team that's thinking about doing it, definitely do it because people out there will definitely help you. Without a doubt.

Owen - Host: 34:15

Content, we should get on it.

Dan - Host: 34:17

Like we've talked about it and we've joked kind of in private in the fact that we've no need to interest us but we also want to know where our actual cooks rank, because you see lots of stuff on Instagram and you cook stuff yourself and you eat it and you think oh this this feels very good. Particularly if you then compare it to maybe some like restaurants and stuff you go to, but you've got no actual real idea how good it is unless you go into something like a competition. Is that what drew you in originally?

Unknown: 34:47

Yeah, I think so. I think we like I said we would just we enjoyed backyard cooking, enjoy cooking for friends and family. We never got any criticism from them even though your family they probably shouldn't or they do keep it under their breath kind of thing. But I think

Dan - Host: 35:03

Emily's much different. I still hear about stuff. I messed up like, five, six years ago, you know?

Unknown: 35:12

I think, yeah, it just kind of we wanted to see if we what we were cooking was actually any good. And obviously, it was okay want to barrier winning some things. We were happy with it. So we just carried on doing it, essentially.

Dan - Host: 35:27

I think I think that leads quite well into barbecue fails, because on that point, I've mentioned it a little bit before about a bit more context into there. So I did some chicken kebabs like a few years ago for the brother and sister in law, and spent ages cooking. And I was using like a meat thermometer to make sure they were cooked. Little did I know that as I was poking the stick thermometer in, I was going straight through the chicken out the other side. So like Jesus, this is saying like 85, this is further and I really want you to take it, take care and everything, stand it up on the plate cut down. And as it drops open, it's pink. And my heart seems like right, give me that back. Also this out and you know, as all of us kind of barbecue cooks have learned to do overtime, you fix it. And it turns out great. And I still hear about it now. And it's little mistakes like that. And I did a Smashburger cook on the puncher the other night, which I love doing. And this isn't a big, like mistake, but um, I didn't put any like butchers paper on like thing I was using to smash and I also hadn't like, precisely warmed it up and even put any real oil or anything on there. So the first one I did, I went down smashed it lift it up. Do you think I could get the solid press? I could. But it's things like that, that you learn from what sort of fields have you learned from and have any of them happened in competition?

Unknown: 36:53

Yes. So our second competition that we ever did was a KCBS competition, which was our first ever KCBS competition. And we didn't go off. We didn't go into it lightly. We we were one of 50 teams. And we were it was our first ever KCBS competition, then this competition had some of the really, really top teams in Europe that will compete in this weekend. And we thought, well, let's give it a go. It's our first competition. Let's try it. Our aim was not to come last we came second from last. So we were over the moon with that result

Dan - Host: 37:27

one. Exactly.

Unknown: 37:31

But one of the cooks that went completely wrong was our rib rib round on that. So the whole, the whole point of KCBS rib is Gabi bite through bite through claim. So obviously you can pick up your rib, you buy it, it comes off really neatly. Pretty much you see your teeth in it and the rest of the meats on there. We were cooking them thinking they're done. That bit too done. We've gone to lift them out cut side chopping them on the chopping board and pretty much the bones are sliding with the knife as you're trying to come to me and we're just like, Damn how the hell we're going to try and cover this. So we're trying to piece bits of ribs from different racks to try and disguise like the six pieces that we need in the box. And then we just presented it kind of thing and then presented it came away crying, thinking Damn it, we've overcooked them ribs like massively, which we obviously did. But we just learnt from it next time around, we just did went home did a few more round cooks, practice them. Ribs are getting better and better every time now. So like you say, you just gotta learn from what your mistakes are and just crack on with it. It's like well, to Wellington,

Dan - Host: 38:43

so much more from that. Yeah, if you've gone over slightly by 10 minutes. Sure. Yeah. And it's those things that people need to celebrate. If you're cooking at home for the first time we're doing something different. If it goes wrong, yes, it's frustrating particularly spent a lot of money on a specific type of meat. But you'll learn far more from that then thinking you've nailed it first time and then six months down the line you realize Hang on, this can be so much better.

Unknown: 39:10

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 100% agree that it's just everyone learns from their mistakes and that's what makes it fun as well cooking because no one's perfect in this world. Some people think they are but it's just good fun.

Owen - Host: 39:24

How often you have into practice you mentioned obviously that you leading up to a competition you're practicing. So does that mean every single time you're practicing those four rounds? So like the amount of brisket and ribs and chickens you must get through is the same Yeah, so

Unknown: 39:43

some of some of the rounds. So we would normally focus like so if we say we're gonna do a practice go with just practice that one meet that weekend or something. We wouldn't do all four of them in one go because I think I'd be like 20 Stone heavier right now if you try to do that. Yeah, so we picked something that we knew in our last con that we did a bit poor at. So we just pick that me and go, Okay, let's try this little aspect of it and see what happens and then try it. And then maybe a few weeks later or a few months later, let's go back to it again and trying something a little bit different. And then to happen. There's no point changing. Absolutely everything can jump in completely different rubs all over and all that again, because you're literally then it feels like you're then starting the whole process again, in that comp, and doing it. So literally you just change, tweak things a little bit. So maybe, as an A, maybe you cook it five minutes more or half an hour more, or maybe put a little less rub on it and see what happens. Or maybe you wrap it a little bit differently or something like that. So they're literally minor tweaks that you're doing, who you source it differently. So that's what we're doing pretty much.

Owen - Host: 40:51

I suppose they can make the biggest differences in the long run.

Unknown: 40:54

Exactly. Yeah. So the source in the rubs how long you're wrapping it for and like I said that five minute window either side is so we don't we obviously you don't do that at home. You know, I'm not sitting over clock on the wall was like, oh my god, I gotta turn it in right now. Things so we're just cooking it until it gets done. Wait until

Owen - Host: 41:12

wait until the kids are a bit older. And they're saying Daddy, oh, my dinner? Yeah.

Unknown: 41:18

Turn it in. Yeah, exactly. That's when they're going to be saying that. But no, it's just like, we just like I said, we just tweaked little bits of it, essentially. And

Dan - Host: 41:29

what I'd love to know is very much one thing cooking competitions. But what do you enjoy cooking at home for yourself? And what are your favorite types of cook meat to cook on? What are your tips for getting the best out of them?

Unknown: 41:45

So my personal favorite is chicken wings, or a bavette steak. At the moment, my wife being pregnant has gone completely off chicken. So chicken is like a no go in our house right now. So normally if she's goes out in the kid, the weekends or something, and I've got to do decorate and then I'll stick the barbecue on the cooks and wings for myself for lunch because that's the only time I'm getting them. But normally, like wings, pre marinated for 24 hours, buttermilk, all that kind of spices, black, white pepper, salt, black pepper, all that kind of stuff. And I prefer them. And then I'll take them out, season them and then stick them on the barbecue that way. No, sometimes the only way I can get my missus to eat them at the moment is if I deep fry them and completely mask the flavor of chicken whatsoever, which I don't mind but it's just a bit not that healthy for you. But I guess but I think yeah, chicken wings and bavette steaks are my favorite at the moment. Very much. Enjoy. We

Dan - Host: 42:46

haven't really talked about bavette steaks. It's not something I've ever cooked if you cook them before Oh

Owen - Host: 42:54

no, no, I've tried tip which is similar ratio, I suppose but not going to be that's baked

Unknown: 43:01

bake. Yes, that is like a big cut Burleigh on the chest kind of thing I think. And I said it's just something that you could clap kind of like a quick steak. Essentially. You're not cooking it for much long. Probably took me like eight or 10 minutes each side. And they're quite big. And then you chop them up and normally put me like tacos with like chimichurri and all that kind of stuff all over. It just turned out really nice.

Dan - Host: 43:30

Just yeah, something new and different to do.

Unknown: 43:32

Exactly. Yeah. So we don't. Well, my favorite steak is a ribeye steak to cook. And that's what Mrs as well. But I think the vet It just mixes it up a little bit, then it's got great flavor, and absolutely love it.

Owen - Host: 43:46

I think again, that probably quite neatly brings us into our barbecue bingo challenge where hopefully we can get some get something for you to cook that hopefully you either don't do very often. Or hopefully there's nothing you don't like or allergic to. Now, I'm not alone. We have had that in the past. So yes, we have a swiftly, swiftly take peanuts off. But here we go. Right. So I'll share my screen. And we've got a list of ingredients. Again, some meat some vegetables, some. What I'd like to know is we always put my signature dish. So I think you've already said chicken wings and perhaps convert steak. But what would you say is your signature dish? Would it be one of those?

Unknown: 44:39

Yeah, I'd say either of them. I'd cook as a special dish signature this year. Okay,

Owen - Host: 44:47

is there anything that you like the look of anything that you absolutely detest and don't want to go anywhere?

Unknown: 44:54

I've never cooked oxtail. I've never cooked off the oven. Pork neck. I haven't cook. But no. And pineapple. As long as it's not on a pizza, then I'm happy. Anything else? Yeah is fine.

Owen - Host: 45:11

Okay, all right, let's give it a spin and see what you get.

Dan - Host: 45:16

You know, as this is spinning, if it comes out with your signature dish, I would love to see the Russian Roulette wings. Job to be fair oxen. Free to land on. I wish.

Unknown: 45:37

Okay, that's interesting. Yeah. I feel that I'll give it a go.

Dan - Host: 45:43

Is there anything that jumps to mind for you at all?

Unknown: 45:49

Not at the moment, I think the normal stuff you'd say like a stew or something really like that kind of thing. But that's what everyone would come in normally do for KNOX tower. So I kind of want to do something a little bit different than something a bit outside the norm with it.

Dan - Host: 46:05

On that point, and outside the norm. In a lot of these competitions, there's quite strict rules. And he said, he talked about different rubs and things and certain like auxilary rounds, you've got a bit more flair with things like the presentation. But unlike the staples, you have to do a certain way. What do you personally try and do to make sure you stand out.

Unknown: 46:27

So you're not allowed to personalize the boxes in any way. So you've literally got to this there, there there is really strict criteria is on the KCBS side of it, there's you've got to have your six pieces, you can't have any. As soon as I opened that box, there can't be like pools of source, they can't You can't have markings on your meats, you can't have all that kind of stuff. And there's a very specific flavor that they're looking for. So blues hogs, is normally the go to source for barbecue teams to use because that's what it's lived on pretty much ever since KCBS started is blues hog source, and that's what most team pretty much uses. Normally, if yours doesn't taste like that, then they'll probably know that you're using something a little bit different. So you could do it that way. And kind of your signature, but maybe a little bit personal to you if you don't really like blues hogs or if you would prefer a different source but it is kind of quite difficult to try and personalize it to you without getting like disqualified or eliminated by doing something a bit drastic.

Owen - Host: 47:42

Do you think that then becomes a risk if everyone is using blues hog? And that's the the taste of they're expecting it to send out the wrong way?

Unknown: 47:51

Wrong way? Yeah, yeah, it does, essentially but like for like our chicken round, we don't use a standard sauces and standard rubs and like the last few years, we came first in it and third in it so and we won, even though we didn't use it at all for the smoke and fire festival, but we won that round chicken anyway. So we use we don't use our stat, the standard rubs that you'd use or sources for them. And it's working for us at the moment, which is good.

Dan - Host: 48:21

That leads perfectly into what my next question was going to be. What do you feel is the best cook you've ever done for a competition? And does it also pair with what you're most proud of achieving at a competition?

Unknown: 48:35

I think the proudest Cook was our was it asked third ever KCBS comp what our third ever comp which was the first second KCBS one and we actually came first in our chicken round. And that was amazing. Considering the it was the second time we've ever done a KCBS comp and winning it against I think there's about 10 now there's about 15 teams there and we won that round so we were over the moon with that and that was my wife there. We've got a nice trophy got a cash prize of I think it was 100 quid, so paid towards the weekend away paid for the booze and everything. So yeah, that chicken round was our most memorable cook for sure. And that I've now got the plaque that night nicely positioned in my barbecue shack on the wall. So it's always a reminder that actually did something well then

Dan - Host: 49:31

tattooed onto your chest.

Unknown: 49:33

I think the wife I'll be a bit mad if I didn't get the kids names.

Owen - Host: 49:40

They could go underneath. Yeah.

Dan - Host: 49:44

We've had someone on who's competition level winning competitions in categories level, barbecuing. We've not talked about wood because that's a huge flavor profile you're playing with they're all sort of kind of wood flavors and things do you either recommend or you swear by yourself

Unknown: 50:01

so on when using the pro Q and stuff like that I used oak and because I was really good, I like that and then for normally in the yo in the Yoda and use a mixture of apple and oak. I use a mixture of pellets in there pretty much yeah the flavor turns out really nice on them. I've got no complaints and other people I've got no complaints so far, which is good.

Dan - Host: 50:33

I've just been loving cherry I think they're looking we carry so much mainly because the smell particularly a few hours in. I remember I put some stuff on when out with the little one came back as we drove around the corner on Austria. But it was like oh, I can smell I still carry sweets carry. I was thinking that that can't be the word. I thought someone was doing like a big clear out like cleaning or something we used to like a cherry scented thing. Yeah, I couldn't believe the scent that's kicked off. And I mean, obviously you can taste it in the meat. But I think it's that spell while it's cooking. I prefer more than anything else. Yeah,

Unknown: 51:07

you definitely can definitely smell it as you're burning it. Definitely. But yeah, when we fire up the Yoda in the mornings or the procure in the mornings, and then we can cook some stuff you do. It does smell really nice round. Like

Owen - Host: 51:23

oh, great. Well, it's been absolutely fantastic having you on the show. My pleasure. Again, is your opportunity to tell everyone where they can find you. So to you know, tell our listeners about your website, your social channels, where can we find you?

Unknown: 51:40

So website not everyone just yet but it will be up and running very soon. Is m bar down BBQ dot code at UK. Instagram is app bar down I think it's underscore BBQ and we're on Facebook as bar down barbecue as well. So yeah, just come and follow us like us see what I'm cooking every now and again. And I'm not posting as much as I should be at the moment with a pregnant wife I'm about to pop and her child running around headless at the moment as well. But once that's all sorted and we have a new baby join that'd be cooking a lot more as well.

Owen - Host: 52:16

And hopefully we get to see you at a competition at some point this year as well.

Unknown: 52:20

Yeah, definitely definitely

Dan - Host: 52:21

another episode of the meat & Greet BBQ podcast thank you so much Jordan at you can find him online at bar down BBQ, give it a Google go on your favorite social media account. I'm sure you can find it by searching for that. As always, thank you so much for watching and listening. If you're on YouTube, give us a like and subscribe. It really helps people be able to find us. Depending on what podcast app you're using. Again, give us a subscribe or give us a rating. We won't be too upset if you give us less than five but we want five stars from you. So please do do that. And more people can hear about us. If you go and search for us on Instagram, Facebook meat & Greet BBQ podcast you'll find us you can find us on our website as well if you go across to meat & Greet BBQ podcast.com. And we'd love to hear from you as well. You can either direct message us on any of our social media accounts. Or you can email us on meat & Greet BBQ podcast@gmail.com. And then you might even get an answer from one of us probably owe him because he's a bit more active on that. But I do try my best I will be involved where I can. We also have recently set up on our link tree on Instagram, a buy me a coffee. So if you'd like to support us in any way from that point of view, we'd absolutely love it and anything that we get will invest straight back into the podcast to bring you the best guests and the best information that we can. But thank you so much for listening. And until next time, keep on grilling.

Owen - Host: 53:50

Right. Well thanks very much Jordan and yeah, we'll catch up would be so

Unknown: 53:55

fantastic.

Dan - Host: 53:57

To have a good one.

Unknown: 53:58

Yeah. Cheers. guys bye. Today's episode is

Owen - Host: 54:13

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