I just got home from the Lamb's Farm competition. Alex and Kate put on another great show! The field was 34 teams and included a lot of folks who are going to the Jack next weekend. I judged along with BillM and 2Fat (Buzz) from the Brethren site and a couple of folks who were in my judging class back in January.
At my table, we were generally disappointed by the quality of the Q. Out of the chicken there was only one entry that stood out, and it was just OK. One of the entries was so heavily spiced that it took two crackers and a bunch of water to get the flavor out of my mouth before I could go on. One of the rib entries had so much smoke that my tongue went numb. The rest of the ribs were also pretty bad except one which has nice flavor but was a touch dry. The pork was a real disappointment. Two of the entries looked good, but on had no flavor and the other had OK flavor but the bark was so tough that I couldn't bite through it. We were all hoping that we would get some decent brisket entries but that proved not to be true. One entry was very thin slices placed on one leaf of lettuce. I have never seen such poor presentation. Of the others, two entries were so bad that none of the judges took more than one bite. One other entry had some very good burnt ends but the sliced brisket was very undercooked.
There was some good food turned in, however. I saw a beautiful tray of pork at the volunteer's table and tasted a piece. It was great! The table captain said that he tried a couple of great ribs form another table also.
I don't have the full results, but GC was Smokin' Clones and RGC was The Heat Is On. There were a lot of Brethren teams who walked including Scotty, Ulcer Acres, Porkcrastinators, Great Lakes Feed and BBQ, Smokin' Scotsmen (three walks and 12th overall!) and Michiana Mark who finished 10th overall in his first competition and took home the Best New Team honors!
After judging was over I went to talk with the teams. I saw Scottie, Ulcer Acres, Smoke Hunters, KRE Smokers, Porkcrastinators and a bunch of others. While waiting for the awards I pulled up a chair with a Smokin' Scotsmen team and had a chance to meet Tonto, BBQ Bud, BBQ Bubba, Michiana Mark, Divemaster , Ford and one other of the Scotsman who hasn't registered yet (Jeff, right? My brain is numb). After the awards I hang in the camper with the Scotsmen and Tonto made me some good coffee. It's always fun hanging with other Brethren and the Scotsmen are no exception. We had a good time talking about BBQ and cookers and all sorts of stuff. I had to get to a family reunion and had to bail, but I would have stayed longer if I could.
I took some pictures and will post them tomorrow.
