Forrest Lump boasts the most roast

SHANE Scott and his brother-in-law Cameron Fordham got into barbeques around four years ago when they both bought Webers and started cooking roasts.

Chloe Scott and her sister-in-law Sarah Fordham bought tickets for Meat Stock, one of the biggest barbeque competitions in Australia, as Christmas presents for their husbands not long after.

“That was the beginning of the end,” Mrs Scott said.

The Forrest Lump Competition BBQ team, founded by both couples, entered their first competition in May 2018.

Two weeks ago, the Scotts walked away Reserve Grand Champion with first place for their brisket at the Meat in Mudgee BBQ Competition.

The Fordhams were in Thailand at the time.

“Competition BBQ is more of a lifestyle than a hobby for us,” Mr Scott said.

Last year Forrest Lump made it into the top 100 out of 350 teams competing at ABA, the Australasian BBQ Alliance competition.

Mr Scott said this year they are currently sitting about fifteenth.

“The be all and end all is winning ABA,” he said.

“There is a leader board that we would love to be on,” Mrs Scott added.

The Forest Lump team cook Texan style, with meat heat smoked not cooked directly over fire or coals.

The four of them ensure they can cover all the bases during a competition as they cook four or five different proteins such as beef ribs, chicken, lamb in the offset smoker at the same time.

One team member makes the sauces, another turns the meat, number three slices and boxes the meat ready for presentation to the judges, last but not least cleaning as you go and making the parsley boxes is the fourth person’s task.

“The presentation boxes have to have a bed of parsley under the meat that has to be prepared in a particular way,” Mrs Scott said.

Mr Scott said the secret is to match flavours to appeal to the judges while his wife said it is time and patience and keeping the flavours unique.

The team can’t change the heat and the smoke when they have different ingredients cooking together, but the technique can change, it could be wrapping certain meats in foil or cooking in a boat to get air around the meat.

The result is mouth-watering meat presented to a table of six judges for blind tasting.

Forrest Lump have a number of sponsors on board so the expenses are not as great as when they started out.

“Beginner teams without sponsors would be up for at least $1000 per competition,” Mr Scott said.

The team source their meat from the only butcher in Geelong that does the low and slow cuts that are best suited to their type of smokers.

Mr Scott said the quality of the meat is paramount.

“fifty per cent of a winning dish is the meat quality, the other half is cooking technique and flavour,” he said.

They often dedicate one solid day of  a weekend to test recipes, techniques and flavour ideas.

“We always have meat cooking and you need hungry people to eat it, so we are very popular with our friends,” Mrs Scott said.

Long term Mr Scott said they want to move into catering and be able to offer master classes or weekend workshops.

The Forrest Lump Competition BBQ team are competing at the Iron Jack BBQ Challenge at the Western Hotel in May as part of Plate Up Ballarat.