All of the competition pictures I've posted have been from working as part of a team with a (now former) friend. Today, I did a competition cooking my food.

I was a small contest, only 11 teams. The goal was to see if I could cook all 4 meats plus sausage on my little cabinet smoker. My setup:



One thing I wanted to do differently from when I was part of the team was to get the meat cooked well ahead of the turn-in times. Previous contests were a mess as we were hustling to finish something and get it to the judges in time. Today I had plenty of time to let the meat rest and then get the boxes ready when it was time for each.

First up was chicken:



I have never cooked chicken like this apart from the team. I wasn't too concerned about the results here as I really need to practice this more to get my method down. My worst result as it came in 9th.

Ribs were next:



I was happy with these. I tend to over cook ribs but these came out pretty good. Came in 5th.

Pulled pork:



Not one of my better efforts. I let it cool too much before pulling and tried to warm it back up, but then it dried out. 8th.

Brisket:



The cook was great. I cut chunks for burnt ends and they were tasty, but they were a little chewy, so I put them back in the smoker to render more. Came out more tender, but over-smoked, so I decided not to use them. Slices were excellent. Tender and moist with great flavor. I messed up by getting my box ready too early and letting it sit before turn-in and the color was a little off. My best result though and got second, one point behind first.

Sausage:



For this competition, sausage was included for the over-all score. I picked up some jalapeno cheddar sausage from the store, cut the casing off and made a fatty. I liked it, but going forward I'll go with something a little more popular like Italian. It was well cooked though and I got 5th.

There was no prize money, and my brisket just got me a generic second place ribbon, but they had some sweet trophies for Grand and Reserve champions made by some local guy.



I ended up in 4th place over-all, one point behind third. All in all, it was some great experience going forward. I know what I need to work on and can better prepare for the next one.


And with my second place ribbon for brisket, now I can say I'm an award winning BBQ cook.

Just goes to show why I'm not a bbq judge. Those ribs look pretty darned good to me. The chicken looks good to me as well, but I don't do chicken, other than wings, often.

Congrats on the showing after striking out on your own!

JH, thanks for sharing man. Good luck stepping out on your own. Best thing about being on your own is that you get to do it your way. Always easier to live with the results when you're the one with all the responsibility.

Go on.

He's a Trumpanzee.

More like a friend of a friend. I really didn't interact with him outside of BBQ contests, but I finally decided I didn't want to deal with his racist (referred to our mutual native American friend as an "Injun" for starters), bigoted ass any more.

Say no more.

That's the thing.

Everyone I who had both of our BBQ liked mine better. And I had no input on how our cooks were going to go. So it was his "team" and I just helped him out.

Also, while I am really easy to get along with, I am the kind of person who feel he is always right or knows better. It's better for me to have my own team and do things my way. My sister's and BIL came and helped me out a lot with prep and turn-in and I asked them for their opinions on how stuff tasted. Even though I don't work well under people, I am good about getting feedback.

Jim, congrats on the competition. What kind of cabinet smoker do you have?

It was built by a guy locally who does it as a hobby.

Sweet. That's exactly what I'm looking for. It looks really well made. I'm looking to upgrade my 22" Weber Smokey Mountain that I've been running for probably 10 years. Been pricing them on the net but just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

I've been really happy with it. Easy to use, doesn't use a lot of fuel, and it's insulated so I can smoke in the winter.

Anybody do the Royal this year?

Possibly my FIL. Will check.

A friend of mine and his girlfriend had a get-together to do a taste test of Kansas City BBQ. Everyone was to bring a rack of ribs from different restaurants and I brought a rack of my own. It was a blind taste test but some people would discuss their scores with each other before writing them down.

The results:

1. Q39
2. Gates
3. Jack Stack
4. Brobecks
5 (tie). Jim Hammer's and Joe's KC
7 (tie). BB's Lawnside and LC's
9. Slaps
10. Woodyards
11. Big T's

My scorecard:

1. LC's
2. Gates - This surprised me. The last couple of times I had ribs from their they were bland and had little smoke flavor. Maybe it's location dependent.
3 (tie). Q39 and Joe's KC
5 (tie). Brobeck's and Jack Stack
7 (tie). Jim Hammer and Woodyard - Not one of my better efforts, but I was rushed today and am having smoker issues*.
9 (tie). Slap's and Big T's
11. BB's Lawnside.

People were telling me they were impressed that I finished where I did, but I told them I should have finished higher. Somebody only cooking a rack or two can put more attention to their product than a restaurant that is cranking out hundred of racks a day. See the steak thread.

Totally unrelated to this evening, I got talked into catering my 35 year HS class reunion last weekend. Brisket and burnt ends. I smoked 6 briskets in two batches as my smoker will only fit 3 at a time. 5 hours of smoke and wrapped and finished in the oven.

The food was a big hit and I got tons of compliments.

*Smoker issues.

The firebox gasket isn't sealing completely leading to my fuel burning faster than I want and making it hard to keep a constant temp.

And I had a little mishap after cooking all that brisket.

Once I pulled the last briskets, I opened the firebox door and the valve all the way open to speed the burning of the charcoal and also the door to the cook chamber. That was about 8. At 10 I went out to close things up and I saw there were burning coals on top of the smoker. I was puzzled wondering how they got there. I then realized that I had left my box of wood chunks on top. I grabbed a flashlight to look inside the smoker. The interior has a red coating of rust on everything.

Then it hit me - all that brisket fat had caught fire when the charcoal was burning off and that had lit the box on top.

Kind of a lucky accident though. It completely cleaned out all of the fat that had accumulated in the bottom. I hit everything with a wire brush and gave it a coat of spray oil before cooking today.

So I had no oak chunks from what the supply I had been using and had to use some from a different source that wasn't giving as good results.

Long time no see boys and girls. Still lurk this thread and some good stuff going on lately. Was watching TV the other day (I'm old and I still watch TV like normal people. Get over it!) and they brined a brisket. Have brined my turkeys forever, but never thought of doing it with beef. So....

Found this little 10 pounder on sale.



Alert PETA. I had to kill it.



Washed and ready to trim. Note big ass piece of hard fat that will never render.



Silver skin and sinew removed. Work on that fat in a sec.



Eeeewwww....




Nice and clean with plenty of fat left to render.




Big ass pot and a liberal amount of Kosher Salt.





It was 2am my time on Saturday morning and I took it out of the brine at 6pm Sunday afternoon. (16 hour brine) Overnight smoke and be ready for Monday Night Football???


This ill looking piece of gray meat is what emerged from the brine. Yikes!



Since there was plenty of salt in the brine, only pepper and just a tinge of Lawry's Season Salt. Nostalgia.



And it's lit!



Going old school with a Brinkman barrel smoker I should have thrown away 10 years ago, but it is seasoned yo! Learned that putting up a foil wall in between the meat and the firebox and using a roasting pan and rack cooks the meat much more uniformly.



PSA. Proud new owner of a Bubba Blade. Highly recommend if you deal in large pieces of meat or fish. 5 Stars!



Totally unrelated, but played 18 at the local CC this morning. When it actually rains in Texas we can actually have green things.



Meat went on at 8pm CST. To be continued...........

4 hours in and we are already building a nice crust. Been pegged on about 275 degrees. Just put more wood on as temp had dropped to 200. Letting new wood burn down as to not over-smoke the meat. Hope it doesn't stall out in the mean time.

Nice report so far!

Pulled it off at 3am local for a good 7 hour smoke. Last wood refill pegged it out at 250 degrees. Bark in full force.




Time to go to bed and letting it rest in a 180 degree oven until.....

OK let's finish this up. I let it chill in the oven at 180 degrees until 2pm. Increased the temp to 225 for 2 hours and then 300 for what was supposed to be another hour. Had some other life small fires to put out and it ended up going for an hour and 40 minutes. Definitely didn't need that extra 40 minutes, but I think a somewhat minor issue overall.


Final product fresh out of the oven. 5:40pm.




Now to go night night and at least an hour rest in the cooler before carving.




Sliced point. This is where I think that extra 40 minutes hurt. Still tasty and juicy, but pulled apart to easily.




Since this was such a small brisket, just decided to not remove the cap and slice as is. Must have gotten my North/South grain of the meat a little off while carving, but OH MY LORD, super juicy and melt in your mouth good.




Overall, it was super juicy if just a bit over. I think the brine contributed to the juiciness and made it possible to just use mainly pepper and smoke to let the taste of the meat shine. Would do again for sure, with just a little less finish time in the oven.

Had 7 people at the MNF watching party. I brought home just enough for a sandwich tomorrow. Even tho I critiqued myself pretty hard in my head, everyone else was patting me on the back pretty hard. Probably just so I'll cook for them again and they can get free food.

Rating: 1 thumb up, 1 thumb 75% of the way up, and 1 thumb sideways. Will definitely try again with a few tweaks.

i've never done a whole brisket because i never have enough people to cook for, so i've done several flat cuts but they dry out so easily, even when i wrap @ 160 :/

i see point cuts in the store from time to time, think i should grab one of those instead?

Costco prime brisket seems to solve all of the above issues and no need to brine.

Yeah I was tired and little (lot) buzzed last night and mixed up the pics with the point and the flat. Anyway....

Whichever you choose the collagen/fat won't render/melt until it reaches ~190-200 degrees. Most of the time when a brisket is tough and dry is because it has not been cooked long enough or at a high enough temperature. When smoking I used to try and keep it around 225. Now I shoot for 250-275 and never let it get below 225 for 45 mins per pound. And then wrap and finish in the oven for an hour on ~300-325. And like a good steak, you have to let it rest for at least an hour before slicing.

Try the point. It has a layer of fat in the middle the helps keep it juicy. Good luck!

Please don't engage lolreplol. He is exiled from this forum.

I think you are kinda missing the point. Sure, for family gatherings I'll splurge and do a prime brisket. They are awesome. But at a cost of what $5-$6 bucks a pound? When I'm cooking for my lame ass friends, they get ~$2 a pound meat.

Part of the experiment was to see if brining would help a lesser cut of meat be more like a prime when done. Was happy with the results.