Southern Brethren @ Plant City

[kcquer]

I figure Tim and David are busy loading boxes for turn in. Hope they do well! Go Southern Brethren!

[Bigmista]

Good Luck brothers!

[jminion]

David, Tim what the hell happened we want to know?

[Solidkick]

Originally Posted by jminion

David, Tim what the hell happened we want to know?

YEA...........What JM said.............

[The_Kapn]

"Reader's Digest Version"-
Turned out to be FL St KCBS Championship!
News to us
"Little players" like Butt Rub, Home BBQ, and such showed up
Best we could do was 5th (brass and cash) in Chicken and mid-pack overall.
Vending is no longer an option for us--too distracting!
Live and learn.
DF will be along with full version--I need anouther Nap.
TIM

[kcquer]

Best we could do was 5th (brass and cash) in Chicken and mid-pack overall.

Not to be sneezed at in the company you're talking about. Congrats Southern Brethren!

[Neil]

No snezzing indeed. Good job SB

[BrooklynQ]

Great job guys. Vending and competeting at the same time is some trick. You need a huge staff to do that. Congratulartions

[chad]

Well, I'm finally able to sit down at the computer. After loading up Saturday night to come home I've had to sleep, find some family time, and clean and return the smoker we borrowed - hence I've been a little bit rushed.

We had great weather and overall a pretty good cookoff. Unlike Tim I didn't find the vending as much a distraction as a disappointment - we basically lost our butts $$$-wise - don't know why - maybe poor initial pricing, too near Thanksgiving, who knows.

Competition wise things went ok - I had some briskets the size of a couple of small European nations and they actually caused us some problems with timing and fire control. I'll let Tim cover that but suffice to say if we hadn't had two briskets, three pork butts, and three rib racks spread out between the three cookers we'd probably have had only chicken to turn it! :D

Teams of note, at least to me, were:
HomeBBQ.com - players in the FL circuit and they play at JD, AR, etc.
Smokers Wild from KC - only got Grand Champion!
Smokin Triggers from Texas
Buttrub.com
And a bunch of regional teams: Dumplin' Valley Cook Team, Big John's Texas BBQ, and a bunch more.

KCBS screwed up in scoring - they announced one of the top teams as 1st place AMATEUR - needless to say that stopped the show! Recount, recompute!! Just a administrative error but it bumped us from 4th to 5th in Chicken! :D

Our chicken looked really good and tasted great - Tim is going to post pics later, I think. Even our lettuce looked good!

Tim's been grumbling about the ribs, pork, and brisket - but they weren't a total loss since we managed to place 23rd out of 37 pro teams.

Chicken: 5th 878 888 879 898 899 867

Ribs: 33rd and I'd like to speak to judge #1 he/she gave us 9-2-2 and I'd really, really, like to know why! others were 756 667 745 754 878 Other than judge #1 I'll take the spanking - the ribs were not our best but were certainly not nasty (Tim disagrees - he wouldn't eat them! Oh well, more for me and mine :D) - the ones were turned in were a bit "tougher" than we like but would pull off the bone ok - tenderness could have been better and taste was ok but would have been influenced by everything else going on. Heck, I just ate the leftovers for lunch today and they were pretty good even it they fell off the bone at bit. (The other two racks were "dark" and definately overdone for turn-in - but still tasted good - more like a backyard effort.

Pork: 16th 767 766 878 898 777 877 - middle of the pack. Tim was upset that two of the butts didn't cooperate and the pulled that we did turn in was a bit over done but still quite tasty! We gave the judges plenty of bark and a nice pile of pulled meat. But, I'll agree that it wasn't good enough to place higher -- but thankfully it didn't stink up the place, either

Brisket: 20th - I was disappointed that we couldn't do better. We were a bit overdone and the bark was light - really tasty but light. We managed to get 7 decent slices and then I put a large portion of chopped point. Our second brisket just would not get done -- with the spaz on the pork, poor Tim was saying it was the first time he ever sliced pork butt and chopped brisket! :D

Other than the meat not cooperating the rest of the actual competition went pretty well. I had cleaned the demon lettuce on Thursday and wrapped it in damp paper towel and chilled it. So all I had to do Saturday was make up the boxes. I was never picking lettuce while trying to prepare the box -- maybe add a bit or reposition but no playing at the salad bar when the main course was coming!

If we can get some bills paid off we'll be hitting the competition trail in January. It's a toss up between Lakeland, FL (one of the biggest KCBS cook offs in FL) or the the first FBA cook off down in Sebring - we'll just have to see how it looks in a month or two.

I do agree with Tim that the vending is a pain in the butt - it was worth the effort for the experience and our wives did a great job keeping up with it but it was just one more thing to think about and the logistics of transporting and cooking 300# of turkey and 50# of brats was a pain. If we vend again it'll be to just sell off what we're already cooking!

Now that's not to say I won't try concession work on my own. I'm lining up a monthly bike rally (or two) and some other opportunities to sell food - gotta pay for this habit some way! :D

[mook]

Congrats on a great competition!!!!!!!!

[The_Kapn]

Here is "The rest of the story" now that I am home and "chillin'"

DF and I do not agree about the finer points of a couple of things.
That is OK, cause we are Partners/Brothers and Brothers are allowed to disagree

Just so there is no confusion--we have learned our lesson and will "Kick Ass" in the Southeast in 2005--we are stronger now!

We had a great time as did our spouses and kiddos!

But, I blew it--notice I said "I", not "we"--very important in this case!

I am posting this as a "lessoned learned" for the others that may try the same gambit--

Team duties are simple--DF is Chef and I am Pit Bitch. DF selects and preps the meat--then I cook it properly (at least the StudeDera portion). We jointly do the final turn-in boxes because "2 heads are better than one". Even the wives help out with presentation--gotta love the extra eyes

When you put this in scoring terms, we are jointly responsible for "appearance", DF controls "flavor", and my job becomes "tenderness".
Simplistic, but works for a "post-mortum" on the event.

I will tell you that the taste of all 4 entries was "to die for"--Wonderfull!
As a Judge, I would have been giving "very high" if not "maximum" scores for flavor!
But, tenderness (my job) was screwed up!
As a Judge (I am human), I would be hard pressed to give high taste scores to a peice of under-cooked or over-cooked meat.

Judges- jump in and tell me if I am wrong!

My mistakes--too many to list

For example--I know the Brisket is HUGE, but have it loaded in the top of the StudeDera.
Guess what--this chokes off the exhaust

Then, I compond the error by ignoring about 20 warning signals that things are not right
It is taking "way too much fuel" to hold temp!
Air temps "don't make sense" from top to bottom!
Meat temps are not climbing as they should!
Smoke is just "wafting" from exhaust!
And "on and on and on"!
Amateur mistakes all around

In the morning we have the ribs in the lower section of the StudeDera right where they belong and on time.
I am busy "foiling" the first 100# of huge Trukey Drummies for vending.
I go to the StudeDera and the ribs are "ahead of schedule" on "pulling back" and seem to be "ahead of schedule" on cooking. Also, they are "darker" than normal- not my normal golden brown!
So, I move one slab up a couple of shelves and go beck to important stuff--like wrapping Turkey Drummies for sale

DF and I had to sort through 3 slabs of burned ribs to find a center set of ribs that "just might score" something and not be DQ'ed for being toxic
Uning imagination--we hid the buned parts, came out "kinda OK" on apperance, and "tubed" texture--rightly so in my opinion!

I could go on and on--but the StudeDera, under "my watch" produced crap--simple!

I have had lots of time to reflect--it is a 6 hour drive to DF's plus all the intervening hours to "ponder"!

"Vending" is a distraction at our level of experience on the circuit! Plain and simple!
I was trying to protect our investment in "vending" and lost track of our primary mission of "competing"

I I/we had focused on quality product--we would have been "top 5" or better, cause we can do that! And that is all meats- not just the Chicken!
Even with the field we faced, our stuff is good!

So, we learned our lesson!

We must get sponsors lined up (large and small) for the 2005 campaign and I have lots of new ideas to try!

We will succeed--just gotta find some $!

Just my thoughts--

TIM

ps- I just tried to add a couple of pic and got the "Sorry, you have reached your maximum....". I will figure that out later and post a couple of pics!

[Heath]

Tim, Dave,

Good job there. I applaude your passion. I make Q and have people tell me I should be selling it. And I still cannot see myself going to competitions. I just don't think I'm worthy yet.

And on the Vending part of it. You mentioned the kids and the spouses really had a good time. What if they did the vending portion of it? You guys could offer some guidance and oversight and let the makers be the takers for a portion of the profit. If they understand that they are doing it for the next trip and they get a little extra... they might have even more fun. Then you guys could concentrate on the competition cooking.

Anyways, congratulations and good luck on next year.

[chad]

The wives and my son DID the vending - they did fine!! We just allowed ourselves to get too involved in the prep instead of letting them do it. Not to mention that when sales weren't moving we started fretting over the lost $$$.

The day I have to explain sales to my wife is the day they put me in the ALF! :D

[Bellybro]

BAby steps guys!

Don't beat yourselves up over this.
You did great!
The vending will get easier with each event and as everyone figures out there roles in the vending and what needs to be done hopefully your involvement will be less.
I gotta believe you learned and can make adjustments for next time and get even better results!!!!

Great job! Southern Bretheren! You guys rock!!!!!!!!!

[CinCity25]

congratulations guys!! that's an excellent showing! i hope you had a great time! :)