How much do you cook?

We cook at least two briskets, two butts, six racks of ribs and fifteen to twenty pieces of chicken. Mostly, just for backup. Every once in a while we will try something different at a comp.

We double your amounts.

Only "differences" is we put one brisket and one butt to the "warmer" side of the Kingfisher. It seems that the meats cook up about the same anyway.

Each meat group is prepped the same with spices, etc.

No real difference in woods or smoke flavors except we might throw in some fruit woods after the butts and briskets are in foil and the ribs and chicken are starting to cook.

Just gets to complicated for our little minds to manage more variety than that

TIM

We cook 2 butts, 2 briskets, 3 slabs, and 15 pieces of chicken. Backup is good, but I usually take them to different temps, for example.... pulled pork vs. chopped or sliced.

We do 2 butts sometimes 3, 2 briskets, and 6 ribs, Chicken you always do a lot of so I say 16 pieces.

You are not cooking nearly enough for a contest. The idea of cooking more is you have a choice of what you turn in. If a brisket did not turn out just right you have one or two more to choose from. Same goes for butt, chicken and ribs. If you only cook 1 brisket or 1 butt and they do not taste exactly the way you want them to. you are screwed.

More is good if cash for meat and extra cooking space are not an issue..You can get by on what you mentioned.. they key though is to be real careful about not overcooking or undercooking and prepping right...

Last year, I did 2 briskets, 2 butts (comes in twin pack), 6 ribs (comes in tri pack) and 15-24 chicken parts.. This cost me approx $150 per contest.. This was nearly 1/4 of my overall contest expense.

The six ribs were definite overkill in my mind.. It's the most expensive of the meats (babybacks) and I had three times as many compared to butts & briskets for a category that was equally weighed to the other three..

In retrospect, I wasted a lot of food as most of it I did not bring all the way back home for various reasons. I rarely noticed any significant differences in taste and tenderness and appearance between the like items..

I've been toying with the idea of cooking less to be more focused.. Have not made a decision on that as of yet.I think that if one cooks less, you'll more likely be much more cautious about your prep work, your temps, times, feel etc. All good things necessary to perform your best.

Again, if money and chamber space are no object, cook more.. If they are an issue, you can deal with it by cooking carefully.

We cook 2 briskets, 2 butts, 4 racks (spares), and about 20 thighs. Cost is a little easier for us because we have four people and each person covers the cost of the meat they are in charge of.

Chances are that each cut that you buy at the market is from a different animal. Different age, different sex, different feed lot. All of these factors play into the flavor of the meat. When you buy only 1 cut you are rolling the dice that that particular cut is the best cut available.

We do 2 Brisket, 2 Pork Butt, 6 racks of ribs and 20 or so chicken.

Know your Butcher! Tell them what you need!! Pick it out yourself from not what's at the meat counter, but what's in their cooler.

You are paying for it, so you might as well be picking out the best!!

We have found, that when we talk to our meat suppliers, and told them that we were cooking on the Pro Circuit, that they bent over backwards to give us the best cuts.

Yes meat is expensive, but 1 Butt---1 Brisket--- does not give you the best odds of walking!!

IMO

Spice

2 briskets, 4 butts, 6 slabs, 18-24 pieces of chicken

All for the same reasons as mentioned... options at turn-in time.

2 briskets, 2 butts, 3 racks of ribs, at least 12 pieces of chicken. If I have the extra money I will cook more of everything but the above is my minimum.

Sawdustguy said:

You are not cooking nearly enough for a contest. The idea of cooking more is you have a choice of what you turn in. If a brisket did not turn out just right you have one or two more to choose from. Same goes for butt, chicken and ribs. If you only cook 1 brisket or 1 butt and they do not taste exactly the way you want them to. you are screwed.

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You better tell Mike Davis and Johnny Trigg they've been doing it wrong all this time. They both cook a minimal amount of meat.

YankeeBBQ said:

You better tell Mike Davis and Johnny Trigg they've been doing it wrong all this time. They both cook a minimal amount of meat.

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Heck, If I ever got as good as those guys, I would cut back.
For now, "an amateur hedging my bets" here.

TIM

YankeeBBQ said:

You better tell Mike Davis and Johnny Trigg they've been doing it wrong all this time. They both cook a minimal amount of meat.

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You tell them they are doing it wrong, we would be screwed though. They can get away with that, they are amoung the best cookers in the world. We do this as a hobby and cook 4 or 8 contests per year. There is no way we have the experience to cook as consistantly as they do. It is a real possibility for us to have trouble with a brisket or a rack of ribs. If we brought only one we would be in trouble and DQ.

BTW We only take 2 briskets, 2 butts, 6 racks of ribs and 24 thighs.

Sawdustguy said:

They are not screwed, I would be screwed though. They can get away with that, they are amoung the best cookers in the world. We do this as a hobby and cook 4 and 8 contests per year. There is no way we have the experience to cook as consistantly as they do. It is a real possibility for us to have trouble with a brisket. If we had only one, we would be screwed.

BTW We only take 2 briskets, 2 butts, 6 racks of ribs and 24 thighs.

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I cook 2 butts, 2 brisket 3 or 4 racks of ribs and 12 thighs. I used to cook a lot more chicken and ribs but I find I get a better product cooking less because I can give each piece of meat more attention. I think the main reason Trigg and Davis could so little is because they are on the road all summer and have nothing to do with all that extra meat.

Three years ago I thought I would save a little money and cooked three racks of ribs for a contest. Two of the racks didn't turn out very good. The third rack was okay. I managed to get 7th place with it. It scared me enough that i've always done at least six slabs since.

I know some competitors will do three racks of spares and three racks of baby backs and pick the best for turnin.

It did seem that last year I was getting three to five good racks out of six at every contest. I just don't want to take a chance at a contest. Leftovers are never a problem.

YankeeBBQ said:

I used to cook a lot more chicken and ribs I but I find I get a better product cooking less because I can give each piece of meat more attention.

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Glad to hear my potential thought process is not totally off the wall !!!

YankeeBBQ said:

You better tell Mike Davis and Johnny Trigg they've been doing it wrong all this time. They both cook a minimal amount of meat.

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You tell them they are wrong. It would be foolish to assume we cook as well as the pros. We do this as a hobby with only 3 years experience doing 4 to 6 contests a year. We do not have the consistentcy that they do. It is entirely possibly for us the make a mistake or have a brisket or rack of ribs that just doesn't taste as good as we would like. For us to compete I don't feel comfortable bringing one of each. We feel comfortable bringing 2 briskets, 2 butts, 6 racks of ribs and 16 thighs. If Mike davis and Johnny trig cook 1 brisket, 1 butt a rack of ribs and 6 thighs for a contest, good for them, they have my respect. As an hobby team, having fun with this, I feel going to a contest with a little more in the ice box is appropriate.

What everyone else says 2 briskets, 2 buts, 6 ribs, and about 24 chicken thighs. All cooked the same way - for the reasons that spice mentions above. Sometimes will will throw in another whatever and try a different rub or method.

2 briskets, 2 butts, 6 slabs and 24 thighs here. Thighs may sound like overkill, but it is kind of hard to get thighs that are uniform around here and we need a good batch to choose from. Might do less this year as we will be supplying all of the meat from the store and we will be able to pick through before we go.