Rules questions

I'm taking a stab at the first one - I would think once you put the meat on, you're asking for trouble if you use any type of "assistance", even if it is removed by taking off the middle section of the WSM. So how is the rule meant to be interpreted? Rules say propane or electric is permitted as fire starters as long as the competition meat is not in/on the cooking device. But does that mean you can take it all out once you've started and continue to use propane to relight coals and then put it back on? Or is it once the meat is in/on the cooker, propane is prohibited under any circumstances? I'd want clarification before you tried it and if you're using propane to light coals on a smoker other teams have seen going all night, you're probably asking for a face to face with the rep to explain yourself. I think I'd avoid it regardless. As for the cheese in your sauce, I believe you'd just need to make sure the pieces were smaller than 1/8 inch. The rules only refer to "chunky sauce" and do not define what chunks can be made up of.

You're better off using a chimney charcoal starter to light the new coals then taking the center section off to reload. That way, there is no question about using an outside heat source. You will probably not have the meat off of the heat as long also.
If you want to do it the way you posted, ask the contest rep at the cook's meeting for an answer. Ask at every contest because you may get different answers depending on the rep.

Good luck, Benny

My opinion -- if the WSM is in pieces for whatever reason -- the meat's not on the cooker because the cooker is disassembled.

On number 2, cheese melted into sauce is simply a sauce ingredient. If it's larger than the dice requirement, it would be illegal because of the size not because it's cheese.

Again, these are my opinions only and do not reflect an interpretation of the board or KCBS.