Part 2 -- Topic: Your Assistance -- What do you like / don't like about the Cookshack

Mornin', Smokin'....Since the contests are being talked about so much, how about some enlightenment as to how the winners are processed and selected....Is this a committee,is it geared towards individuals or the restaurant trade,are they "kitchen " tested,is it on a CS?

Hi, Tom,

I can answer that. Recipes are welcome from both "backyard" barbecuers and foodservice or chefs. Neither is favored over the other. We are looking for good food, not where it came from.

We have just changed our judging, so I'll tell you what is going to happen with our new quarterly contests. As the recipes come in, and after Terry and I drool all over them, we file them until the end of the contest period. Then Terry and I review them and toss out the ones that are for grilled foods (not smoked foods), use quantities of liquid smoke but the food never sees wood smoke, and so on.
Then we decide which recipes actually belong in a different category, and we move them to a file for the next contest for that category. At that point we should be left with the pool of eligible recipes. We review each one, and we choose 10 finalists. These are the only ones that are prepared. As you know, Cookshack is a small company, and while we would like to have a team of professional chefs come in and prepare each recipe, we do it in house with the resources we have.

Terry and I are located in Norman, OK, not Ponca City where the rest of the business is located. (If you are just dying to know why that is, email me privately.) We are having a kitchen installed in our offices so that by September 30, when the current contest ends, we can do a good job of preparing the 10 finalists' recipes. Of course we will test smoked foods on a Cookshack smoker, probably a Model 160 or a Smokette. We have not worked out the details yet, but we will choose a panel of bbq experts and food professionals to judge the dishes on taste and appearance. We will each rank each dish, and the highest ranking one wins.

If you have any questions or would like to make suggestions, please email me. I am always open to a better way!

Donna Johnson

Wow, Donna, I am impressed and REALLY proud that I won a Smokette.

Thanks for the football ban, Okie! Uh...hunt till you die...LOL!

I would just love it if you had e-mail notifications when someone posts to me.

I pretty much love everything about my CS. Especially the economy of wood to smoke with. Hickory is something I have to buy up here, and it's expensive. I chopped down an alder of just the right porportion for my smokebox. Cut it into chunks and they are drying nicely. Do you have alder freely available down there? When our Moose is ready, I will corn a long muscle and then smoke and press it for pastrami. The Men of Moose Pass love this at X-mas. I slice it like chipped beef and spread with hot homemade mustard and wrap that around a homemade dill spear. Men ask me to marry them...

Andi,

When you start a "New Topic" at the bottom of the page before you post there is a button that says to notify you by email when someone responds to your post,give that a try. I do that when I am conducting a contest or something so I know to check the forum for the response, hope that helps.

One addition about "contests". The above is for the large scale contests, the Monthly contests here in the forum are much less civilized.

This is NOT how the Monthly Photo Contests are run. I'm the single judge for that (my idea, and I'm the judge). NOT that any football fans from Florida should worry when they enter. I'm not partial on this forum

Smokin

Smokin'

I don't know that I'd be a constant participant, or even a lurker, but if there were some way of either posting a schedule for chats or some sort of notification window to let us know when the chat room is active, I'd almost certainly drop in there more often. As it works now, it's a pain to take the time to sign onto the chat function and then find that you are all alone in the room.

Having said that, you know that I love the Forum and all that Y'all do for us!

Hi,
I think dimensional drawings (not just measurements) of the smokers in the product section may be a good idea. Some folks want to see if the smokers can fit into an specific location or whether the grill racks will fit in their oven or dishwasher, etc.

Also if there are owner's manuals maybe they can be placed online for everyone to see. You can use either Adobe or HTML formats...

Pictures are always great....especially of finished product...

Regards,
PrestonD

Morning, Donna and thanks for the informative answer to my post....That sounds excellent.....If it is blind judging, I might suggest that Smokin'[since he has nothing much else to do ]be one of the Q experts.....Since the nearly 800 members of the forum have confidence in his judgement ,it would lend extra credibility for us and maybe increase our participation...Thanks again.

Smokin, hope this isn't too obvious, but would a "bibliography" of good Q books be good for the new forum? Reading some of the newbies' posts reminds me that to read about what "low and slow" really means; about what is Mr. Brown and Miss White...and how do you get it; about the endless discussions about "to mop or not to mop".........etc, etc. That's all part of the lore.
Of course, you can read it all, and still find enormous value in the Forum, but the number of books is huge, and people ought to get a couple. IMHO, of course, as always.
Acarriii (Please don't tell me you already have a library posted: Books 101)

AC,

You don't know me very well do you

Favorite BBQ Books Part 1

Favorite BBQ Books Part 2

These are over in the "best of" archive. If you want to start a new topic (hint, hint) feel free and we can discuss them.

Smokin'

Hi, Tom,

You bet ol' Smokin' Okie will be judging the contests, if I can persuade him to do it. He is, among other things, a certified KCBS judge. For those of you who are not familiar with the acronym, KCBS stands for Kansas City Barbecue Society, and the creme de la creme of judges come from there.

Donna

Just a thought, but how about some how-to info/illustrations for proper probe placement (P3? ) in the site revision?

And some of that thermometer calibration and probe curing info, as well?

Appreciate the comments Zeb, I'll add them to the list.

One comment. A forum is very different than a mail list server, you get to pick and choose which posts your read. But it's added to the list to look at.

Currently, however, you can set this up so that you get emails to your posts (if you start a post, at the bottom left you'll see a box where you can check to be notified by email anytime some answers your individual posts).