Power House Lawn & Leisure hosts Steak Cookoff to benefit LCHS
TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
Power House Lawn & Leisure, at their new location 2500 E. Main Street in Merrill, is hosting a Steak Cookoff they’re calling “Steaks for Paws” on Saturday, August 21. While the steaks themselves won’t literally be “going to the dogs,” the proceeds from the event will benefit the Lincoln County Humane Society.
Steak Cookoff
This “Steaks for Paws” event is one of dozens of Steak Cookoffs held throughout the nation where cooks and grillmasters can compete to make the perfect steak, and the event is still accepting competitors who want to sign up to compete, for a bit of friendly, fun cooking competition.
The entrants, both local and those who come from as far away as Iowa to travel the Steak Cookoff circuit, will all face the same challenge: to create the perfectly cooked steak that will please the judges according to their guidelines.
Have you seen some of the cooking competition television shows? This is pretty much just like that.
This is a team event, sort of, in that a team of people who cook together can enter the cookoff as a team and work on things together, except that only one single person/cook can actually touch and prepare and cook the steak. Other members of the team can help with other preparations, keep the Head Cook company and lend moral support, and cook other dishes in the competition. For instance, this “Steaks for Paws” Cookoff will include two ancillary dishes/competitions: Desserts and “Anything made with locally grown Sweet Corn.”
The “stakes” are high
The event is sanctioned by the Steak Cookoff Association (SCA) and representative, Anita Moore, will be on hand to oversee each phase of the event and coordinate the judges.
The entry fee to compete in the Steak Cookoff is $150 per team and includes two perfect choice, boneless, minimum of 1 1/8” or 3 cm. thick, ribeye steaks from Geiss Meat Service of Merrill and a 10×15 team space under a tent.
Entrants bring their own cooking mechanisms – any fire or heat source. (wood, charcoal, gas, electric, pellet, sous vide, etc.) – though most opt to use a grill of some type. Cooks also bring their own seasonings and cooking secrets to the competition. [Teams may share a grill, if desired, as long as the Head Cook on each team cooks his or her own steaks.]
Entrants must use the steaks provided and may not bring their own meat. Steaks are judged by a panel of SCA judges based on specific criteria and awarded points for attributes such as appearance, doneness (medium), taste, texture, and overall impression.
The prize for best steak of the day? Up to $1,000 for first place, with a $500 payout for second place, $300 for third, $200 for fourth, $150 for fifth, and $50 each for sixth through tenth places. Total prize payouts for the day will total nearly $3,000.
In addition, the first place winner will receive a Golden Ticket, which provides that entrant a chance at going to the SCA World Championship VIII Cookoff in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday, March 13, 2022, with more than 400 teams from around the world. [The winner, if not already a member of the SCA, has until Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. following the cookoff win, to join SCA to qualify to attend the Championship Cookoff. The cost of joining the SCA is $40. If not a member, the Golden Ticket will pass down to other winners.]
An additional $25 entry fee is required to compete in the Dessert category, and/or another $25 entry fee is required to enter the “Anything made with locally grown Sweet Corn” competition. That competition is also accepting entrants, so if meat isn’t your area of expertise, but whipping up a delicious dessert or creating an amazing dish incorporating sweet corn is, this is your opportunity to get involved. These ancillary dishes, as they are called, are secondary to the Steak Cookoff competition but are still an opportunity for recognition and must also be assembled on-site.
Prize payouts in the Dessert & Corn competitions are $125 for first place, $75 for second, and $50 for third place.
The day of the event
If this sounds like an appetizing way to spend your Saturday, teams can come early and ready to cook and still sign up and enter on the day of the event, although advance registration is even better. Sign up at steakcookoffs.com.
The cooks will meet at 10:00 a.m. to go over the rules, with the judges meeting following at 11:00 a.m.
This is a timed cookoff. with specific rules, so 12:00 noon to 12:15 p.m. is the dessert turn-in time, with corn dishes due to be turned in from 1:00 to 1:15 p.m. Steaks must be turned in between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m.
At 3:30, after judging takes place, the SCA will announce the winners and distribute awards and the elusive Golden Ticket.
So far, Moore said, there are about 20 teams signed up to compete at the event. Each team is comprised of as many people as the entrants wish, as long as only one person is cooking the steak.
The event is open to the public, and everyone is invited to come down and watch the competition unfold, see the grills the teams are using to cook, and pick up a few grillmaster secrets. While they wait, they can tour the new store and perhaps they’ll get the sudden urge to purchase a new grill themselves after looking at the seven lines of grills on the showroom floor – from the imported Italian-made ALFA Ovens to the “Made in the USA” models such as Broilmaster, Primo, and Smokin Brokers – and the extensive selection of 80 sauces and rubs, 19 flavors of grilling pellets, and grilling utensils and accessories.
Raising funds for furry friends
Dave Nelson, owner of Power House Lawn & Leisure shared his excitement about the upcoming event. “I’ve been trying to set up an event [like this] for three years.” Events like this are all over the country, he said, with competitors competing for points for the World Championship.
Here on a local level, sponsors like Geiss Meat Service helped make this event possible. “Andy at Geiss Meats is donating the steaks for it, which is huge,” Nelson said. “Other than our part of it, that’s the most expensive thing.”
Together, they’ve turned this event into a fundraiser for the Lincoln County Humane Society. Proceeds from entry fees beyond the prize payouts and break-even point will be donated. And then the prize winning steaks themselves will become a fundraiser.
“What happens with the steaks is … they only turn in a small amount of that to the judges, and then we own the rest of the meat,” Nelson explained, “So Geiss along with Art Mergot who’s got Mergot’s Mouthwatering Mayhem [food trailer], they’re going to cut all the meat up, they’re gonna au jus, and then we’ll serve steak sandwiches to the public. And all of the proceeds that day go to the Humane Society.”
Good for the community
Kent Baumann, Store Manager at Power House Lawn & Leisure, said the event will benefit the community at large, as well. “It’s gonna bring people to town,” he said. That can benefit hotels and other businesses in the community.
“It’s a huge thing to try and build, within the community,” Nelson said of creating the event, but, “It’s good for the community.
“It should just be a really fun thing,” he added. “We just want everyone to have fun, but for people that are competitive minded …” There will be plenty of opportunity for a little friendly cooking competition.
For complete rules, more information about the SCA, or to sign up online, go to steakcookoffs.com or call SCA Rep Anita Moore at 920.420.4618.