FATTIE 2018 (Annual Michigan Gathering)

[hillbillyrkstr]

Well the 2018 Fattie Contest is over! And what a great gathering it was! This was the 6th annual Fattie contest, and the 7th year we’ve had the Michigan gathering.

We had a great crowd that I’d estimate was around 80 people. Down from last years 120-130 people but this was by design. We wanted to trim it a bit. A few regulars had scheduling conflicts and couldn’t make it so the roughly 25 fatties we were planning on ended up being 19 adult fatties, and 4 fatties for the children’s contest. We’d have hit our 25 if all the regulars made it, and I entered one. This was the first year I chose not to enter one. I made two and smoked them for the crowd to eat but I’m too busy on this day to enter anymore.

Sooo many people to thank.

Thank you Fowlerville Pork Producers for donating a half a hog, and processing as the first place prize! Thank you also Greg for letting us use your rig again, and for helping out all day.

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Hooper the Wonder Dog hanging out with the FPP smoker Friday afternoon.

Thank you Josh for donating your bounce house for the kids to play in all day Saturday.

View attachment 375854
Bounce house after we set it up Friday night.


Thanks to everyone who helped out prepping Friday evening! Had a assembly line in the barn that made 150ish ABTs for the next day. This group included local friends, @chocdog and TomKnollRFV who drove all the way from Wisconsin to attend this event! Thank your dad for us tom! It was great meeting you guys.

Ok I rounded up as many pics from people as I could so here we go. There’s a lot of pics I wish I had that didn’t get taken. Like I said I’m real busy at this event. Always being pulled in different directions. Not to much time to take pics.


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Here’s the pickled pepper & cream cheese fattie I made Friday night and smoked for the crowd Saturday. I heard it was a hit. Didn’t get any myself.

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Here’s the sweet & sour chicken fattie I made Friday & smoked for the crowd Saturday. Again I didn’t get any myself.

Five 8# butts loaded into the mes Friday night.

One of the butts pulled off the smoker Saturday morning.

Competition Fatties loaded on the smoker at noon Saturday.

Shot of the fatties a few hours in.

Fatties right before they were pulled.

Fatties as they were being pulled off by contestants to box up.

Far side of the smoker had a few fatties and 2 USDA prime packers that I put on the smoker around 930 Friday night. We wrapped them Saturday around noon and pulled them off the smoker at 430pm for dinner.

A Brisket unwrapped.

Slicing the brisket. Turned out pretty good. Think I’m finally getting comfortable with this cut of meat.

Slicing up a brisket.

Another shot of the brisket.

One more brisket shot. Nice smoke ring.

@humdinger drknking some of the makers mark private select I picked up at the distillery this summer.

Thank you @humdinger fpr bringing your smoker, Mac n cheese, and tables! As always it’s a BIG help!

Farmer Scott wearing the loser shirt as he took last place.

Farmer Scott’s stuffed pepper fattie that took last place. I ate a piece of this fattie and I’m not really sure why it took last. It was really good!

Cody won this kids contest. His grandma took 2nd in the adult contest.

Fire started with a leather lazy boy someone brought. Always a funny guy in the crowd.

Shot of the poster I had made for this years event. Jaws themed because I’m a jaws fanatic. Should have seen the look on the ladies face when I picked this order up! She had no idea what it was! Lol!

Watermelon shark I carved out for the party.

Another shot of the shark.

My buddy Greg grabbing his daughter after she picked a habenero from our garden and went to put it in her mouth. Could have been bad! Lol.


That’s about all I got for pics. I wish I had more. It’d have been nice to have some shots of the comp boxes. But what can you do...


Thanks to everyone who attended and helped out. All help is appreciated at this event. It takes an army!

Hope everyone who attended had a good time, and I hope y’all enjoy this thread.

Scott

 

[gmc2003]

Looks like you guys had a great time. All those fatties and briskets look great. You need to take a group picture next year.

Chris

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Thanks Chris!

It was a great day.

Yes we have never gotten a group pic.... that needs to happen!

Scott

 

[handymanstan]

Scott as always you put on one hell of a party. I had a great time and ate to much. The Brisket was the best I have ever had melt in your mouth and so juicy and a great flavor. I bow down to the King of Brisket. The abts were great so was @jokensmoken Burnt ends, @humdinger Mac and cheese. There were to many fatties to try them all but the few I tried were really good and this year the judges must have had a hard time picking the best. Let me know when you start planing next years.

Stan

 

[TomKnollRFV]

It's confirmed, we really did drive all the way up from WI for this, and we thought it was worth it. I was a bit anxious as here I really knew no one to speak of..me and Scott maybe talked all of a handful of times before we were on the road to hit up Michigan's Fattie Contest, and my dad has it worse off. He doesn't even do the smoking game, but it was really more like a giant family reunion. People were super nice, engaging, and he spoke to more people then I did! If I had known how many kids were around I'd have entirely dragged out all the stuff I used to bring for my friend's kids at the 4th of july, some cheap squirt guns, so on and so forth. Was fun to watch the kids try to collapse the bouncy house for half the afternoon, thought they got pretty close to it .. lol. Kids can be pretty determined! Next year if it's warmer I might bring along stuff for the kids to do water balloons. Though..as my experiences have shown ..when ever I did that, I ended up being snuck on with a hose and nailed, or having a bucket of them dumped on my head with ice in the bucket to make them pop as they dumped them..and I tried to get my dad to judge the kid's fatties, I'm 31, I think the rules mean he'd be allowed..

There wasn't any problems, and we stayed until around 10:30 On Saturday night and every one was still quite presentable. I'm glad Scott goes out of his way to make sure this is an event that is friendly to families and that trouble makers don't show up. People helped each other out <Though you could tell which of us knew the goodies came from the Smoker not the tables in the barn..>. We're already planning to come back next year when I think I might just enter.

I can't thank you all enough for keeping this event drama free, friendly, and full of good food, and most importantly my dad didn't feel out of place, he was welcomed and I think candidly met more people then I did. Which was my big worry, he'd feel like he didn't have any one to talk with when I was off talking with Stan and Walt or whom knows who else. But he found alot of interesting people and he really enjoyed him self. <He still thinks we're all a bit crazy about the fatties..but he might be right.>

We're looking forward to next year, hopefully I can bring my dog and she's not a spaz and actually plays with Scout. Maybe Scout can get her to wear her self and sleep then! But thank you guys for putting up with us cheeseheads! I can't think of a better way to escape for a weekend and better company to do it in! My only regret? Scott was so busy we only spoke a handful of times and he was the guy who had me out! Next year we'll try to plan a bit better so I can get out there a bit earlier or some thing, help with prep, who knows!

PS: I'll upload some Mackinaw bridge pictures, Mackinac? I got a few on the bridge, my dad snapped a few of it before we got on. I can't view the first 4 images on the post Scott did with pictures, just says view attachment and says I don't have permissions. Also we decided Chocdog will forever be known as 'Big Kurt' and Dinger as Kurt ;)

Picture Update: Sneaking in a picture of the skyline as the sun was setting out at Scott's place..talk about beautiful..!

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Thank you for all your help stan! It’s appreciated every year.

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Thanks for making the trip tom! Glad to hear that you and your father had a good time!

Nice pics of the bridge! I’ve lived here in Michigan my whole life and never been across it!

Scott

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Sorry about the first 4 pics. Here they are again:

Hooper the Wonder Dog with the FPP smoker Friday before everyone came over to help out.

The bounce house after we set it up Friday night.

Pickled peppers and cream cheese fattie. I made this one but smoked it separately for the masses to eat. I didn’t enter it.

Sweet & sour chicken fattie that I made for the party. Again I didn’t enter this fattie in the contest. Just too busy.

Hope that helps everyone who couldn’t see the first few pics on this thread.

Scott

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Thanks for fixing those pictures! I actually got some of the pepper fattie you did. Wasn't sure who did it though...hard to tell who did what when they all just sort of appear on tables lol

 

[Jeff Wright]

Looks like you all had a fattie of a good time. Nice looking vittles!

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Yeah we tried to get more organized this year but when it’s turn in time it’s a mad dash. I’m gonna need some volunteers next year to get the fatties all to a select few tables so people can try them out all in one place. We’ve tried to do this a different way each of the past few years and it’s never worked out the way we’ve wanted it to. Maybe next year we will have all the kinks worked out.

Scott

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

It was a great time for sure Jeff.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[TomKnollRFV]

The best plans still never survive contact with the enemy as it were Scott. Still they took that judging seriously, good half hour over those last few entries. You should considering typing up a list of the entries and putting them up, so people know what was all there. I wasn't sure which one I had with pineapple in it but who ever did it made a good one, they even grilled the pineapple first.

 

[kawboy]

Kinda makes me want to move to Michigan! How in the world do you straight on who's fattie's who's on that smoker? Looked like a fun time.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Kinda makes me want to move to Michigan! How in the world do you straight on who's fattie's who's on that smoker? Looked like a fun time.

You know I was there and I wondered that but never asked LOL.

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

That pineapple one was one of the fatties I made for the party tom. Never got to try it....

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

It’s a good time kawboy! We calmed it down a bit this year but still had over 20 fatties! Not to mention 40 pounds of pulled pork, and 30 pounds of brisket!

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I swear next year I'm entering man!

 

[JckDanls 07]

It really feels good when you pull off a successful task.. hey Scott... Great job buddy... Starting to get ramped up for the 8th Annual S. Fl. Gathering coming up in Nov. We do a rib contest and thinking of adding burnt ends to the comp...

It's confirmed, we really did drive all the way up from WI for this, and we thought it was worth it. I was a bit anxious as here I really knew no one to speak of..me and Scott maybe talked all of a handful of times before we were on the road to hit up Michigan's Fattie Contest, and my dad has it worse off. He doesn't even do the smoking game, but it was really more like a giant family reunion. People were super nice, engaging, and he spoke to more people then I did! If I had known how many kids were around I'd have entirely dragged out all the stuff I used to bring for my friend's kids at the 4th of july, some cheap squirt guns, so on and so forth. Was fun to watch the kids try to collapse the bouncy house for half the afternoon, thought they got pretty close to it .. lol. Kids can be pretty determined! Next year if it's warmer I might bring along stuff for the kids to do water balloons. Though..as my experiences have shown ..when ever I did that, I ended up being snuck on with a hose and nailed, or having a bucket of them dumped on my head with ice in the bucket to make them pop as they dumped them..and I tried to get my dad to judge the kid's fatties, I'm 31, I think the rules mean he'd be allowed..

There wasn't any problems, and we stayed until around 10:30 On Saturday night and every one was still quite presentable. I'm glad Scott goes out of his way to make sure this is an event that is friendly to families and that trouble makers don't show up. People helped each other out <Though you could tell which of us knew the goodies came from the Smoker not the tables in the barn..>. We're already planning to come back next year when I think I might just enter.

I can't thank you all enough for keeping this event drama free, friendly, and full of good food, and most importantly my dad didn't feel out of place, he was welcomed and I think candidly met more people then I did. Which was my big worry, he'd feel like he didn't have any one to talk with when I was off talking with Stan and Walt or whom knows who else. But he found alot of interesting people and he really enjoyed him self. <He still thinks we're all a bit crazy about the fatties..but he might be right.>

We're looking forward to next year, hopefully I can bring my dog and she's not a spaz and actually plays with Scout. Maybe Scout can get her to wear her self and sleep then! But thank you guys for putting up with us cheeseheads! I can't think of a better way to escape for a weekend and better company to do it in! My only regret? Scott was so busy we only spoke a handful of times and he was the guy who had me out! Next year we'll try to plan a bit better so I can get out there a bit earlier or some thing, help with prep, who knows!

PS: I'll upload some Mackinaw bridge pictures, Mackinac? I got a few on the bridge, my dad snapped a few of it before we got on. I can't view the first 4 images on the post Scott did with pictures, just says view attachment and says I don't have permissions. Also we decided Chocdog will forever be known as 'Big Kurt' and Dinger as Kurt

Tom... All the Gatherings that are the results of Jeff and his SmokingMeatForums here use this etiquette (so to speak)... That is why we all encourage people to attend a Gathering ... There are no strangers at these events... They are great places to meet new friends and learn new techniques...

 

[pc farmer]

Sounds like a great time. Might have to drive the motor home there next year.

The 2nd annual Pa gathering is in 3 weeks. Like JckDanls 07 said, its all because of the forum. People knowing each other on here.