What a disaster! The good news is that we had a blast and there was one glimmer of hope (more on that in a minute)
It all started late Friday night/early Saturday morning as I was trimming up the ribs. My partner convinced me to start the brisket, so I cranked up the drum and the brisket was on at 1 am, about 4 hours earlier than I was originally planning on, but it saved me having to get up at 4 to get everything on, plus that is what coolers are for, right? Off to the camper for a couple of hours of sleep...
At 6 am, the brisket is done. DONE. 208*. Tender as it can be. It seems that someone (who will remain nameless) didn't stay up long enough to make sure the drum had settled in. It continued to climb after I (uh, someone) went to bed. Great...brisket turn in at 3:30. Done 9 1/2 hours early. By the way, since it was our first comp and we only had the one drum, I only had one brisket. Lovely.
The good thing is that the jackpot bean turn in went without a hitch...
Chicken and ribs on the drum, chugging away nicely. My partner asks "are you cooking these at 190 for a reason?" Turns out that running hot all night burned up most of my coals and the temp was dropping. Everything out, restart, and get the meat back on. Turned in beautiful chicken at noon. Came back to eat some of what was left, only to find it was not cooked. Great. It needed another 15 minutes. Hope we didn't kill anybody.
Ribs...man, these were good. Tender, spicy and sweet. As good as any I have ever cooked. Turned in on time, everything looking good here.
I pulled the brisket from the cooler at the appropriate time to begin slicing for turn-in. I could not force my knife through the end of the flat. Not a good sign. Cut through the middle of the flat and the knife went right through, but it was too tender and starting to fall apart. Thankfully our neighboring team came to our assistance with an electric knife and a world of experience. The only place we could find 7 good slices was through the point and flat together. Starting with a 9 pound brisket does not leave a lot of room for error. Got that mess turned in and started cleaning up.
So on to the judging announcements: No calls. But our number did come up as making the final table on brisket. BRISKET? That thing was a train wreck! Somehow we managed to make the final table with an over-cooked, dry brisket. Sure wish that had turned out like it should have.
Lessons learned:
1) Don't listen to your non-cooking, beer-swilling partner about when to put your meat on.
In all fairness I learned yesterday afternoon that all he was suggesting to do was season the meat, not start cooking it. And he didn't drink that much. Oh, and he cooks pretty well, too. None of those are as much fun as the first sentence, though.
2) No sleeping unless the drum has been rock-solid for an hour or better.
3) Buy a bigger brisket. I am used to cooking 14-15 pound briskets, so the move to 9 may have been part of my trouble. Plus, bigger briskets allow more choice when you screw up like I did.
4) Judges are likely to prefer their chicken cooked.
5) This is a lot more work that what I expected.
6) Bring more tables. Bring less of a lot of other stuff.
7) This is more fun than I expected.
It is a long drive home when you are tired.
We are already looking for our next cook off. There is one in Corpus Christi in December. Javier wants to cook that one. He said it is his birthday weekend, and he will do nothing but sit, eat, and drink. To me, it sounds a lot like what he did for this one, but I think we will be there anyway.
I was too busy trying to get everything turned in and forgot to take pictures, but my wife got some when she arrived, including the ugly brisket, I think. I will get them up as soon as I get home this evening.
