First Contest. First Call.

[joshcary]

I've been to many contests, and even helped other teams out, but I had never cooked a contest myself. I decided to take the leap and cooked the National BBQ Derby in Derby, KS this weekend.

I invited a friend to cook with me, so she cooked ribs and brisket and I cooked chicken and pork.

The cook went really well, I hit my timelines, didn't produce anything inedible, and was happy with how it went. I told myself that all I wanted was to make the best barbecue I could on that day, and I feel like I did.

After all was said and done, my chicken bombed and took 25th out of 35 teams... On the other hand, my pork did far better than I could have hoped for a first contest and I snagged a 2nd place call! I couldn't be happier, and can't wait to make another run at it.

Here are pictures of my two boxes.

 

[Teamfour]

Congrats!

 

[Ron_L]

Congrats, Josh!

What did you cook on? :wink:

 

[MattG]

Nice job Josh. It's all down hill from here.:biggrin1::clap2::biggrin1:

 

[cpw]

It all looks pretty damn good from here! Congrats (or should I say condolences) on the call!

 

[HookEcho]

I helped where I could (mostly stood there and watched lol ) while cooking the People's Choice pork butts. All I can say is I have never been that tired and overheated in my life. Josh and Angie did great, it was so freaking cool when he got the call!

I can't wait till the next one, although I think I am done with the people's choice stuff

 

[ewchippe]

I did peoples choice there also, and I don't think I will do that again. I didn't have a big enough cooler, so I had to put my PC pork on top of my contest pork to keep warm and it kept cooking it and was about as overcooked as I've ever had pork. Good job Josh.

 

[nucornhusker]

Congrats, Josh! That's awesome you got a great call.

 

[TheJackal]

Nice job! Chicken and pork on a Yoder? That sounds familier. Wait, that's what we do! lol.

 

[Alexa RnQ]

Congratulations!

There's nothing quite like it, is there?

 

[Smokin Pete43]

That's fantastic! Congrats! I hope I'm as lucky or as good as you when I take my 1st dip into the BBQ contest pool. My significant other is pushing me to jump in.

 

[Diesel Dave]

Awesome job!

 

[Biged92]

Congrats! Great job.

 

[PekingPorker]

Well done!

 

[joshcary]

That's fantastic! Congrats! I hope I'm as lucky or as good as you when I take my 1st dip into the BBQ contest pool. My significant other is pushing me to jump in.

All I can say from my experience cooking my first comp, is to just do it! You can't know what you think without doing it.

And thanks everyone! It was a blast... Can't wait until the Royal!

 

[sdbbq1234]

Congrats and very well done! You are in it for the long run now!

wallace

 

[RangerJ]

Congrats! That first call is the "gateway drug"....

 

[dano]

Congratulations!