Shannon, IL

I don't suppose that there is anybody here that is going to Shannon, IL for the cookoff on the 7th and the 8th.

Excellent! Looking forward to meating you.

billm said:

I will be there ..Chi-Town Smokers

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Sort of met you last time, just not officially as brothers.

Just got my packet in the mail today.

See you on the circuit.

Great time had at a very well run competition. Good to meet some brothers and wish we had a little more time to visit.

As was said. This is a large contest (64 teams this year) that attracts some very big names, and to have all three teams with brothers on them walk the stage was pretty cool.

Learned a ton of stuff as usual. This being only our third comp and the first of the new season, Bob and I are quite pleased with where we are at right now and know that we can only go forward from here.

Chicken--Our triumph for the weekend. When we went there our biggest goal was to improve our chicken. After opening up our chicken (two types) and finding that the lion's share was thighs with ribs attached, we about threw in the towel. We had about a dozen thighs from the other place that did not have the ribcages attached. After lots of sorting and rib removing we ended up with 15 thighs that we were willing to proceed with. We spent tons of time on these and drew from a half a dozen practise chicken cooks from over the last month and we were fairly happy with the results and it paid off.

Lesson learned-----Chicken takes time and babying to do well with and it pays off

in the meantime........

ribs and briskit--we spent so much effort babying the chicken that we let the ribs and the briskit turn into flickers and butter. That's flicker ribs and butter brisket. Damned good and would go over great in the backyard, but not at the competition. While I was at Chi-town smokers talking about my over done brisket, I should have created a diversion and stole the one that they were carving on and ran like the wind.

Lesson learned---don't let your attention lapse on any category unless it is one of the extras that is not as important. Knowing that you have good briskit or ribs doesn't make them cook themselves.

pulled pork-- We also wanted to get higher scores in pork and did spend some extra time and effort on this. As a result we turned out some pulled pork that we all thought was pretty much the best stuff we had ever produced. Came in middle of the pack. During our discussion on the ride home, we determined that our pulled pork was too complex for the midwest pallete and they may be looking for something more simple and sweet which we know we can churn out all day.

Lesson learned--What flies in Long Island may sink like a stone in the midwest. Sometimes simple is better.

Beans--Last year Bob's beans tanked to almost the bottom. I told him this year to do it the exact same so that we see if it was a judges fluke or if they tank again we will know that they need completely tweaked for these judges. On the way to the comp, Bob said he forgot to bring white sugar (his recipe calls for half white and half brown). I said no biggie, just use all brown (ok so we changed them just a little bit). Then I notice him chopping up some of the way overcooked brisket and mixing in to the turn in container. Another small change, but they were still basically the same beans. No other changes.

Lesson learned-- Who knows. Could have been the small tweaks or just the luck of the judges or the bad luck of last years judges.

Other stuff learned--Stream lining is phenomenal!!!! We went from 2 trucks and 2 trailors down to 1 truck and 1 trailer and only forgot one thing. A can opener that we managed around anyway. Set up was a breeze as was the tear down. We were 90% set up in half an hour and were able to leasurly start meat prep and not get burned out on setting up, prepping and all that goes with it for hours straight like we did last year. Another advantage besides less fuel, that we realised on the way home was being able to go over scores and discuss the entire comp in depth while it was fresh in our minds. What to change, what not to change, what not to forget, etc..
I suggest that as anyone unpacks from a competition they closely look at everything that they are packin. If they are carrying around stuff that they haven't ever used, but keep loading and unloadin, then get rid of it.

That's enough for now.