I got home a little late last night and didn't have a chance to post. Work gets me up very early.
The class was great. Ray is entertaining and very knowledgeable. Working with Tim Handy was a blast. I also got a chance to meet some fine people who want to improve their position in competitions and some who just wanted to be better cooks.
There were a wide variety of cookers there to work with. We had the OK Joe, which is a very attractive piece. There were Fast Eddies, Green Eggs, WSMs, Stumps, Backwoods, a Southern Yankee, a homemade offset and other homemade cookers of all shapes and sizes.
I was lucky enough to win the door prize.
I am now the proud owner of a Reveo vacuum marinator. Very cool! I can't wait to post up questions on it's use. I know Rich has one.
After we set up and registered on Friday, Ray signed everyones cookbooks and aprons. Class started about 3pm. We prepped the meats with Ray's rubs and injections, and talked about techniques. It would be difficult to get into content because every cooker there cooked in a different way. Ray was very knowledgeable in every style of cooker that was there, and answered all of the questions. Low and slow were the directions and we followed them in all cases except the chicken. We used a basic Jumpin' Jim technique for that. Ray cooked his chicken on the Green Egg. Everyone used their respective cooking vessels to get temps up as best they could and still not overpower the ribs that were cooking, and large cuts that were finishing off.
I wish I could say that there were a bunch of secrets that we discussed. Attention to detail and sound cooking techniques that are discussed every day on this board were executed with plenty of color and style by the Dr. himself. Timing is crucial at a KCBS cook and Ray showed how to handel the various catagories well.
On Saturday morning Ray ran a nice class on building boxes. I'm not sure that Ray actually builds his own boxes. I think he carries someone with a little more patience and finess for the task. His boxes were attractive and he had plenty of pointers for choosing and crisping lettuce, and had lots of material on hand for those that wanted to build boxes. He spent time helping everyone and giving pointers for those that wanted to build a box.
All in all it was a quality experience. I'd highly recommend the class. It was chock full of pointers and techniques that will help every cook at every level of experience.
Thanks for the great weekend Ray! Let me know if you ever get into my neck of the woods. Charleston, SC is a beautiful area and can be a culinary extravaganza.
I'll post pics when I get a chance. I'm not the most savy computer geek in the game. It takes me a while to figure it all out.
We made Good Q!
Jack