BBQ Contest -Gaylord Fiddlin and Brewin

The big day came for our first contest, We felt good about the items we had learned from the practice run that was only two weeks before and we had a good schedule and learned a lot about the actual cooking process as a team. Little did we know that we were not prepared to cook against the competition teams.

Items that we were ready for:
1. We had all of the items like knives, tongs, gloves, cutting boards, tables, tent, wash station, meals, drinks and etc… We didn’t have items that we had to leave the contest to retrieve.
2. We had a good schedule and everyone knew their responsibilities.
3. We had no surprises about how the contest was going to be run. Thanks to the book: Competition BBQ Secrets
Items that we weren’t ready for:
1. We really didn’t know what the products should look like during turn in
2. We struggled getting our food up to temp because our smokers weren’t as nice as other smokers.
3. How nice all the other teams are to you during competition.
4. How much fun you actually have during the event.
5. Getting a nice looking product as well as tasting good.

Use the first event as a learning experience and ask question to other teams because they will help you with suggestions. We have to give a big shout out to South Pork and Pig Smokers in Paradise for all the help.

We finished the first competition 73 out of 78 and received some scores of 9 on chicken and brisket. We didn’t get disqualified and we scored average on almost all over our products.

Here is what we found out later:
Chicken – cooked to dark, need to cook the glaze into the skin
Ribs - Have no idea – extremely tough but the meat should leave a mouth bite in the meat. Cook the glaze into the meat
Pork Butt – Good bark but needed to rest at least 1 hour
Brisket – we over cooked the brisket because it was falling apart it should have some give.

Some pictures: