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.
Last edited by JimHammer; 08-18-2018 at 11:36 PM.