What Did You Screw Up At Your First Comp?

It wasn't my first contest but my 2nd contest I didn't latch the pit door all the way and it swung open when I walked away and went inside our little camper. A team next to us knocked on the door about 530am and said "uh your pits on fire man" I looked outside and saw giant flames shooting out the front of the pit from a giant grease fire. I ran around and slammed the door and closed everything down to suffocate the fire. I was sure the brisket and pork inside were lava rocks. We ended up 2nd in Pork and 2nd in Brisket and took GC. It was dumb luck we didn't burn something down and burn the food up.
 
We drank the entire time and with zero sleep. Completely overcooked the brisket so when I tried to cut into it it just turned to mush. Had to turn in pulled brisket since I couldn't get any slices. Didnt finish DAL though.
 
We did our first KCBS contest in Sevierville, TN the year that a tornado came through. We finished middle of the pack, but that contest spawned a good dozen stories that still get told every year.

My advice is to revel in your ignorance and have a ball - you're only a contest virgin once. B)
 
Kettering OH 2010 was my first comp. I thought I knew my cooking timeline pretty good, and I thought I knew my pit pretty good. I thought I had the timing down for lighting my stickburner, bringing it up to temp, and getting the meat on at the precise time. All that goes out the window when you get nervous and feel the pressure of the the first comp.

Well, I lit the pit and it just wasn’t coming up to temp. I started getting real nervous as I watched the clock and I was getting closer to the time to put the meat on. I built the fire up hoping to bring it up to temp quicker, which it did. Well over 300, probably closer to 350. By the way, my fully insulated pit doesn’t come down in temp very well once it is up. Well, I’m used to cooking around 250, and needless to say, the meat (pork and brisket) was done WAY early, like 6AM early. I threw it in my holding boxes, and slicing the brisket was near disaster. I included a picture for your enjoyment. Note the ½ inch thick slices, smooth and even saucing, and undeniable crumbly appearance that those slices are about to fall apart.

The only thing I can say is there must have been some bad brisket there since mine came in 42/51. I did meet my goals that day: Turned in all my meat on time, and did not come in DAL. I finished 30/51.

What I learned was: Light the pit early, keep the fire small, be patient, and have faith the pit will be up to 250 when it is time to put the brisket and pork on.

brisket-1.jpg
 
Our first contest... Early June we had a Stumps clone 2 WSMs and a UDS.Plan was for the big cuts in the clone chicken and ribs in the others .All was going well until 3 am when I noticed the temp falling in the clone ,This had never happened. I tried to get it to take off again with no luck . I fired up the other cookers and got them up to temp and pulled out the meats from the clone and they looked FUBAR .Had the appearance of being creosoted over.I washed em in aplle juice and reseasoned them and put them in the cookers. Well when it was time for the ribs to go on I was trying to figure what I was going to do for space when it was time for the chicken to go on. About 8 am someone noticed the clone was back to temp .Moved the big cuts back . W got everything turned in on time when they came around and said to hurry up packing up that there were tornado warnings and we all had to leave .They were moving people to the high school etc. We had friends there that day and we tore down in like 20 minutes .Then the came and said scores were done to pick up you sheets and they would mail checks and trophies. Tornado missed us by a few miles but got that huge tree in Harbormasters yard.
Now I have Gurus and batteries for them.
 
NRA4Life said:
Kettering OH 2010 was my first comp. I thought I knew my cooking timeline pretty good, and I thought I knew my pit pretty good. I thought I had the timing down for lighting my stickburner, bringing it up to temp, and getting the meat on at the precise time. All that goes out the window when you get nervous and feel the pressure of the the first comp.

Well, I lit the pit and it just wasn’t coming up to temp. I started getting real nervous as I watched the clock and I was getting closer to the time to put the meat on. I built the fire up hoping to bring it up to temp quicker, which it did. Well over 300, probably closer to 350. By the way, my fully insulated pit doesn’t come down in temp very well once it is up. Well, I’m used to cooking around 250, and needless to say, the meat (pork and brisket) was done WAY early, like 6AM early. I threw it in my holding boxes, and slicing the brisket was near disaster. I included a picture for your enjoyment. Note the ½ inch thick slices, smooth and even saucing, and undeniable crumbly appearance that those slices are about to fall apart.

The only thing I can say is there must have been some bad brisket there since mine came in 42/51. I did meet my goals that day: Turned in all my meat on time, and did not come in DAL. I finished 30/51.

What I learned was: Light the pit early, keep the fire small, be patient, and have faith the pit will be up to 250 when it is time to put the brisket and pork on.

brisket-1.jpg
Click to expand...

Nice greens though! :thumb:
 
What we screwed up the most? The chief cook and the rest of the team thanks to our good friend Jack! :biggrin1:

This of course led to screwing up most of our meats. We did get lucky and get a 3rd place call in Pork??? Not sure how... But we were hooked!!!

Toad
 
  1. Cooking beer can chicken and turning in all different pieces so the judges "can pick what they want" is not a winning strategy
  2. Knowing what the KCBS legal garishes are is one thing. Knowing what an illegal garnish is when someone brings a bag of unlabeled red leaf lettuce that isn't all that red is another. :icon_blush:
 
First contest was yesterday, stuck to our timelines perfectly, only forgot to pack margarine for the chicken, easily replaced, ribs were out, best 7 sliced perfectly, in the box, looking good... Then I stepped in. Just gonna give them a little spritz of apple juice to give them a shine. Bad plan!! I figured out I had the wrong spray bottle after the second spray. It was lemon disinfectant, used to clean the tables. Our best ribs had to go in the trash. CRAP!! And I did it myself, we made turn in but with ok ribs, oh well! That's how it goes. Still had a blast!
 
It wasn't my first contest but, I was competing in TGCBBQA event. Which is basically the same rules as IBCA. The chicken category called for two FULLY JOINTED chicken halves. For that particular comp I had purchased organic Smart Chicken, which apparently had the wing tips removed. I guess I never really noticed the wing tips not being there. Anyway, they wouldn't accept my turn in. A friend of mine had some extra chicken, so I ended up turning in theres so I wouldn't get a DQ. Moral of the story: if the comp calls for fully jointed half chicken, make sure it has wing tips.
 
(TL;DR - everything we could mess up, we did..)

Our first was last fall. We had everything down to a science - timing, rubs, packing. We'd done innumerable recipe practices and 3 full timed competition-style practices in the yard (not going any farther than the sitting room to nap on the couch - no kitchen access!) etc.

Then its time for competition. We brought about 2 cases of beer (for us, friends, etc.) We didn't make that mistake though - too nervous. We brought back 1.5 cases, untouched. Might have gone better if we drank a few to calm down!

We get everything set up, meats on, etc. I take a final walk around to say hi to nightowls around 3am and go down for an hour in my chair. Assistant starts freaking about temperature and runs the UDS up to 325 trying for 350 (....?!?!?!??!) They get it back under control but the basket is basically empty. Add coals, no time to get them lit properly, ribs go on. (Lesson: post temperatures in camp somewhere so nobody has to remember. Having them in the book isn't enough.)

Oops. Forgot to trim my ribs! No time now, keep going.. (Lesson: pre-trim everything.)

Damn. Forgot the wood when restocking the UDS. OK forget it, its got smoke, thats good right? (Kingsford smoke does not taste like wood smoke..)

Chicken is done! OK quick fire to crisp the skins. Forget the baskets I'll just dump some RO in and go for it. WHOA. Where'd the skin go? Postage stamp! OK lets try another... oops. Black! Ok... I can do this.. deep breath.. .... ok the judges don't want the one that fell in the fire. Lets get the best of what we have and get that box out of here! Hey Tuffy! Good luck to you too! (Lesson 1: Don't change methods during the competition! Don't wing it, do it exactly as practice! Lesson 2: Tuffy is a really awesome guy.)

Pull the boxes from the cooler.. oh no! Condensation erased our #! Get a new box, quick transfer of greens, all is well. (Lesson for organizers? Don't use water-soluble ink! Also, for us, a sheet of cling over the numbers until turn-in time..)

Ribs comments: Most teams trim them. (Separately: there is a tough membrane on the back that could be removed.) Tastes like charcoal. (...sigh. Yah they were awful. 35th out of 40.)

Chicken escaped without comment, and not last, but real low. It was supposed to be our best turn-in. Ooops. (32nd.)

Butts were ok. 37th though, gotta figure that out.

Brisket is something we entered just to get a few points. I have spent years destroying perfectly good briskets.. We beat 10 good brisket teams, came in 25th. It was the only thing that saved us. I've gone over the notes, no idea what went right.. it was tons better than practice.

Overall, 35th and an addiction. Next comp is next week, can't wait!

Oh, and the final lesson: pick a small local comp without huge teams. (We did that. And got our entry in the last day.. but then they went to the big local comps and signed up some of the best teams out there. Whoops! I really didn't want to go against mixon and company on my first time out..)
 
Disconnect said:
(TL;DR - everything we could mess up, we did..)

Our first was last fall. We had everything down to a science - timing, rubs, packing. We'd done innumerable recipe practices and 3 full timed competition-style practices in the yard (not going any farther than the sitting room to nap on the couch - no kitchen access!) etc.

Then its time for competition. We brought about 2 cases of beer (for us, friends, etc.) We didn't make that mistake though - too nervous. We brought back 1.5 cases, untouched. Might have gone better if we drank a few to calm down!

We get everything set up, meats on, etc. I take a final walk around to say hi to nightowls around 3am and go down for an hour in my chair. Assistant starts freaking about temperature and runs the UDS up to 325 trying for 350 (....?!?!?!??!) They get it back under control but the basket is basically empty. Add coals, no time to get them lit properly, ribs go on. (Lesson: post temperatures in camp somewhere so nobody has to remember. Having them in the book isn't enough.)

Oops. Forgot to trim my ribs! No time now, keep going.. (Lesson: pre-trim everything.)

Damn. Forgot the wood when restocking the UDS. OK forget it, its got smoke, thats good right? (Kingsford smoke does not taste like wood smoke..)

Chicken is done! OK quick fire to crisp the skins. Forget the baskets I'll just dump some RO in and go for it. WHOA. Where'd the skin go? Postage stamp! OK lets try another... oops. Black! Ok... I can do this.. deep breath.. .... ok the judges don't want the one that fell in the fire. Lets get the best of what we have and get that box out of here! Hey Tuffy! Good luck to you too! (Lesson 1: Don't change methods during the competition! Don't wing it, do it exactly as practice! Lesson 2: Tuffy is a really awesome guy.)

Pull the boxes from the cooler.. oh no! Condensation erased our #! Get a new box, quick transfer of greens, all is well. (Lesson for organizers? Don't use water-soluble ink! Also, for us, a sheet of cling over the numbers until turn-in time..)

Ribs comments: Most teams trim them. (Separately: there is a tough membrane on the back that could be removed.) Tastes like charcoal. (...sigh. Yah they were awful. 35th out of 40.)

Chicken escaped without comment, and not last, but real low. It was supposed to be our best turn-in. Ooops. (32nd.)

Butts were ok. 37th though, gotta figure that out.

Brisket is something we entered just to get a few points. I have spent years destroying perfectly good briskets.. We beat 10 good brisket teams, came in 25th. It was the only thing that saved us. I've gone over the notes, no idea what went right.. it was tons better than practice.

Overall, 35th and an addiction. Next comp is next week, can't wait!

Oh, and the final lesson: pick a small local comp without huge teams. (We did that. And got our entry in the last day.. but then they went to the big local comps and signed up some of the best teams out there. Whoops! I really didn't want to go against mixon and company on my first time out..)
Click to expand...


little tip....

you aren't going against myron et al.

you are going against YOURSELF.

i'd bet, your best Q is as good as any of the big names. problem is, they will bring their best EVERY TIME.

and the rest of us, well, you know your story. (and many others, inclusing myself)
 
4uweque said:
First contest was yesterday, stuck to our timelines perfectly, only forgot to pack margarine for the chicken, easily replaced, ribs were out, best 7 sliced perfectly, in the box, looking good... Then I stepped in. Just gonna give them a little spritz of apple juice to give them a shine. Bad plan!! I figured out I had the wrong spray bottle after the second spray. It was lemon disinfectant, used to clean the tables. Our best ribs had to go in the trash. CRAP!! And I did it myself, we made turn in but with ok ribs, oh well! That's how it goes. Still had a blast!
Click to expand...
Reminds me of a guy I know in AZ......he's a FANTASTIK cook.
 
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