My first time as pit master for a KCBS BBQ event- all done on Big Green Eggs

allsid

A few weeks ago, I got the call on a Wed.


There was a full on KCBS event about a mile from my house and they were hoping to get 25 teams so it can make some kind of a national ranking.  I am a certified judge, but have never thrown my hat in the ring with such short notice. Fortunately, my egg dealer was willing to help with some logistics and 4 large eggs. 

The entire thing was an amazing and fantastic learning experience. I may have done things a little different had I been given more than about 60 hours to prep.  Here are a few images of how it went down-



Fired 2 of the eggs at midnight-  Brisket and Pork Butt went on at 1:20 am. Felt comfortable about the eggs being stable around 235F to go home about 2:15 am for some winks, despite heavy winds and no one to supervise the eggs if need be.


Got back about 0630 and went to work on getting the ribs fired-



As soon as the ribs were making happy, I got the chicken fired.  It was now about 0830 and chicken turn in was at 1130
For some reason, I went home but I was mostly a zombie. I missed the 10 am toast :(  

Chicken is my go too on the egg so I thought I had it nailed. My skin shrank, and it looked awful.

I really wanted to do it my way, the way I have done dozens of times before at home, raised-direct 2 hours blah, blah but I had to revert to the competition BBQ style of finishing the chicken in a brothy butter braise before saucing and preparing the turn in box-




All things considered, I was happy with how they ended up, and I could have been first to turn in, but asked SWMBO to let someone else turn in before us for some reason.  What a relief to get my first box turned in on time and prompt!



Chicken was behind me, and I had to turn in ribs in about 25 min. I had foiled a few racks already which I don't normally do at home.  Like clockwork, rib turn in time happened-



Ribs- done, boxed, gone.  Similar story on the pork and brisket.  Had those pulled already.

Pork I figured would be a no brainer.  Made a killer mop-sauce a little heat, and some sweet.

I also made the mistake of just boxing chunks of pork.  This was what I thought was my very best meat, but I came in second to last on pork butt-




Ok- now I am really concerned.  I have NEVER made a packer brisket on an egg and only once made on on a WSM when I took a comp class over a year ago...  


Nervous as heck, I separated the point and set it aside. No burnt ends today, just slices of flat for the judges.  Much to my surprise, this $ 55.00 packer from wally world just was sublime! I had no way to pre-cook inject it and it tasted amazing




I wished my bark was thicker and I had more of a smoke ring, but not bad for a guy who had never separated a cooked point from a flat before.  

All things considered, it was an amazing experience.  I came in middle of the pack out of 20 teams. I learned tons, and feel I am a better egghead because of it. I was under gunned compared to the big boys. The guy who won had (2) Snake River Farms packers he cooked at about $ 250 each- (woah).

People (teams) used some really fancy set-it-and-forget-it rigs with thermostats, prep trailers, bad (horrible) music blasting, friends from the frat house staying up all night tending the pits, and personal bartenders making them adult beverages. I was a one man band with a helper and SWMBO available to pack turn in boxes with parsley. 

I don't know if I will be so lucky to take another swing at an event like this with borrowed eggs but given the chance to do it all again, count me in!

Jstroke

I'll say you did fantastic. With 60 hours notice and no help to finish in the middle of the pack you did great awesome job. You get Hercules points just for attempting it.Honestly the boxes looked great to me. Just remember comp bbq has nothing to do with real life. I am sure it helped alot as an egger 

clifkincaid

Great read and big props to you for taking on that challenge

Scottborasjr

Great read and great results. I'd love to do a competition but would probably be way nervous.

SMITTYtheSMOKER

Getting out there and feeling the "full load" of the contest is what helped me the most after our first time on the circuit.  Getting the timing dialed in is critical to doing well in competition cooking IMO.  Congrats on crossing the line from Judging to cooking, you're now one of us. LOL

XC242

you rock dude!  

JohnnyTarheel

Awesome job!!

QingEsq

Verry cool.  And most importantly, you had fun.  Thanks for sharing.

Thatgrimguy

WAY TO GO. That's a ton of work. On my first run I just did pulled pork. So overall I was dead last. But in pork I was 9th out of 43 teams.