Pics! The Pickled Pig's 2009 American Royal Pictures

[The Big Pig]

We cooked in the American Royal Invitational and Open contests this weekend. The Royal is the largest BBQ contest in the country with 473 teams competing. The contest is held the first weekend each October at Kemper arena. If you've never been, I recommend going at least once to take in the experience. Friday night at the Royal is like having a loud and rowdy party with 100,000 of your closest friends.

The invitational portion of the contest was our first full invitational. The 119 team top heavy field was comprised entirely of teams winning a qualifying grand championship during the year. The roster of teams is studded with all manner of bbq elite and royalty. Although we regularly compete with many of those teams, we've not competed with such a high concentration of them at once. For us Pickled Pigs, it was somewhat intimidating.

As for our cooking in the invitational, it was fair. We've cooked better and we've cooked worse. The contest boxes used were quite a bit smaller than normal because of the taper and height of the top half of the box. Although it seems trivial, we're used to having an extra inch to play with and it sort of threw us off our game. Our chicken and rib entries both hit the sides and tops of the boxes. We ended up finishing 39th in the invitational.

A friend and BBQ mentor from Pork Pullin Plowboys, Todd Johns, won the GC for the invitational. Todd has been tearing it up lately on the circuit and I think that is his 5th GC of the year. It was no surprise to most folks that Todd won but it sure was cool to get to see it in person. Congrats Todd!

The open contest went smoother for us. Maybe it was because we had just gone through the routine the prior day or maybe it was because we all went home and slept in beds on Saturday night. But we hit on all cylinders and turned in what we thought was some of our finest entries all year. The judges thought a little differently though and we finished 50th overall with a 10th place call in brisket.

They also had a side, dessert, and sausage contest. For sides, we turned in vegetable, potato and baked bean entries. Our vegetable entry, the tomato puffs we worked on last weekend, was the single worst entry we have ever turned in. The pastry wasn't cooked and did not puff, and because we got rushed for time, we literally threw the dish together haphazardly and tossed them uncovered in a 650F cooker to melt the cheese. The cooker melted the cheese but it also turned it smoke grey and loaded the uncooked pastry with an unpleasant smoke flavor. I was embarassed and ashamed of the entry and wished we had not turned it in. However, the judges thought a little differently and we got a 6th place call on that dish. They must have given us a lot of pity points. Our sausage did okay too getting a call at 19th place.

Boondoggle BBQ picked a heck of a coming out party and won their first GC at the Open. They were overdue for some recognition from the judges and I'm sure this is only the first of many GCs in their future. KC_Bobby cooked with us when we won our first contest in May and it was amazing to see his team not only get a couple of really good calls, but win the whole deal. Congratulations Bob and Don!

It was really a fun but exhausting weekend. We got to see so many old friends and meet a ton of new ones. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello. Our neighbors this year did well too: Vincent's Smokin Kettle (1st in Dessert), Ques Your Daddy (3rd in Pork), Ribs 4 U (6th Overall), Denver Cajun BBQ Crew (18th in Pork), Smokin Cracker (RGC, 2nd Chicken, 8th in Brisket). And it was fun to cook next to Juggy's Juicers. I hope these great teams allow us to join their neighborhood again next year.

Invitational Pics








Open Pics

[Finney]

Looks good to me.

[Hambones by the Fire]

That is some good looking bbq. Congrats on your results. 39th out of a field of 119 GC's (with many being multiple GC winners) is a heck of an accomplishment.

[worthsmokin]

This was our first year at the Royal and first contest ever basically going for the experience it was so fun I am sure we will return next year. I just wanted to say you have been a tremondous help reading all of the information you have on here. I attended the invitiation awards hoping you would get a call. Yesterday at the open awards I hollared for you every time you were called. Good Job and thanks for the great website!

Becky

[wmurrow]

Congrats on the Brisket in the open. Pics look great and I'm sure it tasted awesome.

Wayne

[Capn Kev]

Congrats Paul! Which of the brisket entries pictured above received the call? ...and which of those chicken entries faired better?

[lwest99]

The last brisket pic got the call and the lower chicken pic did better. I got alot better chicken that I was able to use for the second day (open).

[BrooklynQ]

Congrats! Sounds like it was a great time, surrounded by some great folks. The food looks outstanding.

[WildBlue]

Hey guys, it was great visiting again with you. Great looking boxes, as usual, great calls. Paul, you thought the vegi was not done, but I guess the judges really liked it. I guess your next cook is at the Jack.

[JD McGee]

Paul, I want to sincerely thank you for your competition posts and pics...they have helped Brian and I immensely this year in our first season as "Left hand Smoke".

As usual your boxes are impeccable...congrats to you and your team for a very successful season.

I hope to meet you and your crew and thank you personally next year at the Royal (for sure) or the Jack (hopefully).

JD