This was the first comp with our new team shirts.......Pretty snappy. The front has a big t rex on it eating the words at least we thought it tasted good!
We set up around 10am or so and got everything organized. Since it was a US comp and we weren't licensed with the health department we got to do up all the walls and just chill. We also weren't able to do our own dishes or have water in the set up. Really weird health department and it made it really tough on us trying to keep clean utensils and so forth. This comp was in a parking lot and there was a grocery store near by. I loaded up on Kona Brewing company's passion fruit wheat ale. So good. Maybe too good and maybe it explains our results!
The only turn in on Saturday was anything goes. We made twice baked potato's with chives, bacon, and gouda and cumin cheese. Baked beans with roasted red peppers, apples, and skirt steak. Roasted tomato's marinated in olive oil and thyme and a smoked meatloaf. It turned out perfectly, tasted so good although I got a wee bit sick from eating the entire amount we didn't turn in......probably not the best plan!
We got our one call needed early with this baby and took the pressure off for the rest of the weekend. We finished 6th place and got a small cheque and trophy for the effort!With that we drank a lot of beer and made a few parsley boxes, this time we added ice berg lettuce in the middle to try and make it go a little quicker and easier and so the judges wouldn't be picking up parsley attached to there meat.
Keeping with my attempt to keep us organized I made a schedule for everything that had to be done and tapped it down to the table......we actually managed to follow it shockingly enough.
Our pork came together really really nice. Tender with wicked flavor. We were happy with it. I thought it was the best pork we turned in this year. As is often the case and becoming old habit the judges think I'm full of it and hated it. We finished 12 out of 19 teams.
The brisket was our best cooked of the year as well. Nice and juicy, good smoke ring. Just nice all around. Exccept the judges hated it as well. This was really starting to become old habit. Having said that in hind site I would never present the brisket like this again, it gives a few judges far too small pieces of brisket. We finished dead ass last.
Next up was the chicken. We cooked it better than in Richmond but we were still using those big thighs which is a massive mistake. The judges don't like them. My honest opinion is there is probably too much chicken flavor in each bite instead of sauce, rub and smoke when they are that thick, Needless to say the judges weren't impressed again and we finished 17th out of 19 teams. Ouch.
The last category of the day was ribs. We changed nothing from Richmond were we won ribs. Cooked them perfect, they came out perfect. As was the theme of the day though the judges were not fond of us and guess what........15th out of 19 teams.
The comp was frustrating but taught us a lot and made us look at a lot of things that turned succesful for us for the rest of the year. We especially owe a big thanks to Left Hand Smoke who won this comp who took the time to go through our turn in pics after and give there advice.
Keeping with my attempt to keep us organized I made a schedule for everything that had to be done and tapped it down to the table......we actually managed to follow it shockingly enough.
Our pork came together really really nice. Tender with wicked flavor. We were happy with it. I thought it was the best pork we turned in this year. As is often the case and becoming old habit the judges think I'm full of it and hated it. We finished 12 out of 19 teams.
The brisket was our best cooked of the year as well. Nice and juicy, good smoke ring. Just nice all around. Exccept the judges hated it as well. This was really starting to become old habit. Having said that in hind site I would never present the brisket like this again, it gives a few judges far too small pieces of brisket. We finished dead ass last.
Next up was the chicken. We cooked it better than in Richmond but we were still using those big thighs which is a massive mistake. The judges don't like them. My honest opinion is there is probably too much chicken flavor in each bite instead of sauce, rub and smoke when they are that thick, Needless to say the judges weren't impressed again and we finished 17th out of 19 teams. Ouch.
The last category of the day was ribs. We changed nothing from Richmond were we won ribs. Cooked them perfect, they came out perfect. As was the theme of the day though the judges were not fond of us and guess what........15th out of 19 teams.
The comp was frustrating but taught us a lot and made us look at a lot of things that turned succesful for us for the rest of the year. We especially owe a big thanks to Left Hand Smoke who won this comp who took the time to go through our turn in pics after and give there advice. After the results and before the oncoming depression (jokes of course) we hightailed it to the local Mexican restaurant for margaritas and food that wasn't bbq'd! Pretty good but man was I sick in the morning.......found out when I got home that I got some sort of parasite somewhere during the comp! This one just didn't want to go our way, think we'll listen to the Karma Police and skip this one next year!
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