Competition ready?

So we are planning our first competition in August. It has entry for Brisket, Pork Shoulder, Pork Ribs, and Chicken. 6+1 pieces to enter for the judges. Based on this, from your experiences, how much of each should I cook, and realisticly on a poor mans budget, how many smokers would we need for all of it. I am getting a WSM 22.5 but even with all of its cooking area, doubt it will be enough. Any tips, advice and general knowledge is greatly appreciated.

-Semper Q

Thanks man for the advice.

Im going to one this afternoon with the same meats you will prepare plus loin for the public tasting part of it.Like you Im on a budget but from past experience I know Im going to cook a ridiculous amount of meat to get 6 good pieces of each to turn in:crazy:

im bringing along 2- 9 lb pork butts, one- 12 lb brisket (wish I had another but to late now) 3 racks of spare ribs and 3 racks of babybacks wich will be cooked differently and see which comes out better, 16 thighs, and the organizers will be supplying between 15 and 20 lbs of loin.The good thing is that I can serve all the leftovers at the public tasting.

I have a 275 gallon homemade smoker that I can fit everything in but as I said some of the meats will be getting cooked differently so Im also taking my Akorn and another smaller charcoal grill so i can do different things at different temps at the same time.

This may sound like overkill but last comp I went to I found out things can and will go wrong, I had a small flare up last time that charred my ribs, had I had some more I would have had time to cook them but I didnt so I screwed myself in that category.A storm came in and played hell with the temps on my big smoker, I had nothing else to put food on so I sat out in the rain and lightning all night fighting the firebox and trying to get a tent set up around it.


Despite all this I had a blast and learned a lot, met some great people, got some good advise, drank a lot of beer, seen some amazing smokers, and had some really good BBQ.I even managed to get everything done and turned in on time including the 50 lbs of chicken quarters they supplied for thier public tasting.

Only advice I can give you is its a big juggling act to get all the meat done properly and turned in on time, dont limit yourself on cooking space or cuts of meat, if you bring the bare minimum and something goes wrong its hard to recover from that.And have fun, most of the people at these things are great to talk to and willing to help you out if needed.Think of your first one as a learning experience and it will get better from there.Im off to pack the truck now, got 50 lbs of meat thawed out and it looks like a storms rolling in:wacko:

I have a team of three other guys. Im doing a firefighter comp next friday that is just ribs but im gonna be bringing out a small brisket anyway just to get a feeling of it on the weber. My only smoker ive used so far (a year) has been a hand me down which a friend from work gave me. It is a 18" Brinkman. He said that if u can cook on that thing then you can cook on anything. Although I would have to monitor it every 15-20 mins to control temp, Ive never had anyone tell me that anything that Ive made on it hasnt come out good.

Thanks for the advice. Id like to be able to do 2 briskets. One with my normal rub/inj and one simple with s/p/g. This is all learning/having fun, so I guess as long as we dont come in last, then we can say that we did alright. We are planning on doing the smoking at the Maples in Manorville NY.