Figured I would share my boxes and experience at my latest competition as I normally put something up. Did the Squealin on the Square in SC over the weekend. It was our 6th competition in our rookie year. 4th KCBS (3rd in the Pro division). Each time we are progressively getting better. Our first pro we got dead ass last, then 32 out of 41, and now 18 out of 31. Hoping to crack into the top 50% or better before the year is out.
Weather was great all weekend since it was not really hot at all and actually got pretty cool Friday night. It is funny from competition to competition how you think some of the turn ins are great and they don't do as well and other are bad, but then they do well. That definitely happened here. We were right around 20th for each Chicken, Ribs, Pork. I really liked our chicken in terms of appearance and also tenderness and thought it would do decent. The ribs I wasn't happy with and the pork I though was pretty damn good and has been one of our best categories throughout our run. But all were below middle of the pack.
Then comes brisket, which I have never been happy with in terms of how the flat comes out. Never super moist but has ok flavor. This time I tried a different trimming method along with injecting the heck out of it. When it was done we made burnt ends which I normally always do like and they were good, but after leaving the flat to rest for a few hours and then slicing it nothing tenderness wise has changed. But we did have a new sauce mix that we dipped each slice in for flavor and I do think the injection added some flavor too. And maybe that is why after not hearing a single call for any of the first 3 categories and thinking all hope was lost (since brisket is our worst category) we got a call up for 7th. Go figure. So I'll be running with a lot of what I did for brisket flavor wise next time and really trying hard to cook the damn thing better so it is more tender.
Last before the turn in boxes I need to mention I was setup in between the GC (Blue Sky BBQ) and 3rd overall (2 Worthless Nuts). So shout out! Both teams were awesome and super friendly and were willing to talk to me about anything and offer advice that I gladly took. Having teams like that to talk to and help during a competition makes paying the entry fees and competing even more worth it. Definitely helps to grow competition BBQ in my mind. Heck I was even a man short till late Friday night (as my teammate couldn't get there early) and had to do all the Friday prep by myself and the folks at Blue Sky helped with that.
So here are the boxes. Critique is always welcome. Had a few mishaps with the boxes during turn in and will explain.
Not a turn in box, but here I am with one of the 2 WSM I ran on. I couldn't bring the TNT since my normal teammate couldn't come and didn't have the trailer for it.
I was very happy with the trimming of chicken. Need to get a shinier glaze.
This is the first time I have used more than 2 of the 4 racks we cook to get at least 6 ribs. Normally we get all 6 off of 1 or maybe have to go to a 2nd rack. Well I used 3 racks this time since there were only a few ribs from each that seemed tender and the different size shows. I also dropped a rib in the box that messed up the garish a little and hand to piece it back together.
I really liked the appearance here on the pork. It wasn't as tender as our last few comps though. I had been trying to tighten up the garnish our first few times out, but after finally stopping to make sure every leaf size is exactly the same and being super meticulous our appearance actually got better. It's like the judges aren't judging the garnish or something :crazy: :icon_blush:.
And the 7th place brisket
. Again i'm pretty happy with appearance here. The funny thing about this one was the guy I brought to help had been to just one of our comps on Saturday before to hang out. This time he was full on as my "teammate assistant".
During this box setup he was holding the box steady, as it was pretty damn windy, while I sliced the meat to get ready to put in the box. For a second he let go to grab something I asked for and the entire box went airborn and flipped over, spilling all the parsley onto the table. With about 8 mins to turn in I really didn't react much since I knew I could make it work. Had it happened in one of my first comps I would have crapped my pants. But the expression on his face was priceless. It was like he just dropped the superbowl winning touchdown pass and screwed it all up for me or accidentally broke all my smokers. I told him it wasn't a big deal. And this is why I may now try even less hard for garnishing because my appearance scores were great and all I did was just throw the parsley back in there all at once, put the meat on top and then tidy up the sides by facing the parsley that was upside down back right side up. Weird...
Thanks for looking
Weather was great all weekend since it was not really hot at all and actually got pretty cool Friday night. It is funny from competition to competition how you think some of the turn ins are great and they don't do as well and other are bad, but then they do well. That definitely happened here. We were right around 20th for each Chicken, Ribs, Pork. I really liked our chicken in terms of appearance and also tenderness and thought it would do decent. The ribs I wasn't happy with and the pork I though was pretty damn good and has been one of our best categories throughout our run. But all were below middle of the pack.
Then comes brisket, which I have never been happy with in terms of how the flat comes out. Never super moist but has ok flavor. This time I tried a different trimming method along with injecting the heck out of it. When it was done we made burnt ends which I normally always do like and they were good, but after leaving the flat to rest for a few hours and then slicing it nothing tenderness wise has changed. But we did have a new sauce mix that we dipped each slice in for flavor and I do think the injection added some flavor too. And maybe that is why after not hearing a single call for any of the first 3 categories and thinking all hope was lost (since brisket is our worst category) we got a call up for 7th. Go figure. So I'll be running with a lot of what I did for brisket flavor wise next time and really trying hard to cook the damn thing better so it is more tender.
Last before the turn in boxes I need to mention I was setup in between the GC (Blue Sky BBQ) and 3rd overall (2 Worthless Nuts). So shout out! Both teams were awesome and super friendly and were willing to talk to me about anything and offer advice that I gladly took. Having teams like that to talk to and help during a competition makes paying the entry fees and competing even more worth it. Definitely helps to grow competition BBQ in my mind. Heck I was even a man short till late Friday night (as my teammate couldn't get there early) and had to do all the Friday prep by myself and the folks at Blue Sky helped with that.
So here are the boxes. Critique is always welcome. Had a few mishaps with the boxes during turn in and will explain.
Not a turn in box, but here I am with one of the 2 WSM I ran on. I couldn't bring the TNT since my normal teammate couldn't come and didn't have the trailer for it.
I was very happy with the trimming of chicken. Need to get a shinier glaze.
This is the first time I have used more than 2 of the 4 racks we cook to get at least 6 ribs. Normally we get all 6 off of 1 or maybe have to go to a 2nd rack. Well I used 3 racks this time since there were only a few ribs from each that seemed tender and the different size shows. I also dropped a rib in the box that messed up the garish a little and hand to piece it back together.
I really liked the appearance here on the pork. It wasn't as tender as our last few comps though. I had been trying to tighten up the garnish our first few times out, but after finally stopping to make sure every leaf size is exactly the same and being super meticulous our appearance actually got better. It's like the judges aren't judging the garnish or something :crazy: :icon_blush:.
And the 7th place brisket
. Again i'm pretty happy with appearance here. The funny thing about this one was the guy I brought to help had been to just one of our comps on Saturday before to hang out. This time he was full on as my "teammate assistant". During this box setup he was holding the box steady, as it was pretty damn windy, while I sliced the meat to get ready to put in the box. For a second he let go to grab something I asked for and the entire box went airborn and flipped over, spilling all the parsley onto the table. With about 8 mins to turn in I really didn't react much since I knew I could make it work. Had it happened in one of my first comps I would have crapped my pants. But the expression on his face was priceless. It was like he just dropped the superbowl winning touchdown pass and screwed it all up for me or accidentally broke all my smokers. I told him it wasn't a big deal. And this is why I may now try even less hard for garnishing because my appearance scores were great and all I did was just throw the parsley back in there all at once, put the meat on top and then tidy up the sides by facing the parsley that was upside down back right side up. Weird...
Thanks for looking
