siMON STERn
Knows what a fatty is.
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2014
- Location
- Jerseyville
Entered a little BBQ Cookoff this past weekend. Not sanctioned. Local non-trained judges. 20 teams. Allowed to use gas and electric in addition to charcoal and wood. Alot of home-made rigs. Several small Okie Joe-style offsets, a few propane fired vertical smokers. A couple UDS's. No WSM's. No insulated cabinets.
My team consisted of my brothers, brother in-law and father. Grillers, not low 'n slow at all. So, it was up to me to manage almost everything.
Five categories; pork, ribs, chicken, other and sides. We skipped chicken, more on that later.
Organizers provided two pork butts. Was expecting 7-8 lbs, got two monster 12-14 lbs-ers. Did I mention I was gonna cook on two Weber kettles and a char-griller barrell-style grill. Plan was to cook the butts on the Weber Performer, using snake/fuse ring for about 7-8 hours, then wrap and switch to the other Weber. Butts were too big to fit a drip pan, with charcoial ring. Drippings on unlit coals stopped the cook about six hours in. Lost an hour of cook time. Ended up putting one butt on each Weber, wrapped at 165 and went to top rack of Crar-griller to finish. Never did reach 195, but it probed well. Let it rest and hour and done came out clean with little effort. Really turned out good. Except money muscle, over done and wouldn't slice.
Using more space than I hoped on the butts caused me to skip chicken. Was planning on wings, not thighs.
Half way through my rib cook. A heavy 20 minute thunderstorm killed my kettle temp and had to refire. Near, turn in time an organizer came by and announced 15 minutes to Rib turn in. Pulled the best looking rack, sliced it and gave it a finishing glaze and boxed it. Turned it in. Thing was, nobody else was turning in. I thought I was down to just a couple minutes. Turns out after I left the site, the organizer came back by the site and said "sorry, there still a half-hour to go till turn in". Great.
I enter smoked turkey meatloaf in Other and beans in Sides.
Long story a little shorter. No calls. Still thought the ribs might be good. They looked good. Disappointed? Yes. Got the final results today. Turns out we finished fourth in Pork, fourth in Other, fifth in Sides and seventh in Ribs.
Made. My. Day.
SS
My team consisted of my brothers, brother in-law and father. Grillers, not low 'n slow at all. So, it was up to me to manage almost everything.
Five categories; pork, ribs, chicken, other and sides. We skipped chicken, more on that later.
Organizers provided two pork butts. Was expecting 7-8 lbs, got two monster 12-14 lbs-ers. Did I mention I was gonna cook on two Weber kettles and a char-griller barrell-style grill. Plan was to cook the butts on the Weber Performer, using snake/fuse ring for about 7-8 hours, then wrap and switch to the other Weber. Butts were too big to fit a drip pan, with charcoial ring. Drippings on unlit coals stopped the cook about six hours in. Lost an hour of cook time. Ended up putting one butt on each Weber, wrapped at 165 and went to top rack of Crar-griller to finish. Never did reach 195, but it probed well. Let it rest and hour and done came out clean with little effort. Really turned out good. Except money muscle, over done and wouldn't slice.
Using more space than I hoped on the butts caused me to skip chicken. Was planning on wings, not thighs.
Half way through my rib cook. A heavy 20 minute thunderstorm killed my kettle temp and had to refire. Near, turn in time an organizer came by and announced 15 minutes to Rib turn in. Pulled the best looking rack, sliced it and gave it a finishing glaze and boxed it. Turned it in. Thing was, nobody else was turning in. I thought I was down to just a couple minutes. Turns out after I left the site, the organizer came back by the site and said "sorry, there still a half-hour to go till turn in". Great.
I enter smoked turkey meatloaf in Other and beans in Sides.
Long story a little shorter. No calls. Still thought the ribs might be good. They looked good. Disappointed? Yes. Got the final results today. Turns out we finished fourth in Pork, fourth in Other, fifth in Sides and seventh in Ribs.
Made. My. Day.
SS
