Red, White, & BBQ review....Milk Cow prep

We are back and mostly recovered from our competition in Westmont this past weekend.  It was a great event.  We arrived Friday afternoon, a day early.  The spots were a little tight and they ended up having to move people around to get us in.  It all turned out perfect as we ended up under a very nice shade tree and only about 10 feet from the water supply.  We got the canopy setup and secured and then headed for the hotel for the night to get a decent night's sleep.

We woke up pretty early Saturday and went down to get a good breakfast.  Very happy we chose the Clubhouse Inn and it's full free breakfast.  We checked out and searched out a grocery store.  We had a few things that we needed to get for the upcoming cook as well as items to munch on throughout the next 30 hours.  

We got back to our site around noon to find everything as we had left it.  Which find out is lucky because it was awfully breezy and some teams lost their canopies.  We finished setting up the site and started injecting the meat after we had it inspected.  The weather was very comfortable.  The temp was mid to upper 70's with a nice breeze.  After the meat prep we had nothing to do until the cooks meeting.  We took this opportunity to walk around and visit with some of the other teams and catch a few winks while we could.  

The cooks meeting was the standard welcome to the event.  Nothing new.  It did go on a bit longer due to the extra money sponsors put in for the special awards.  After that, we headed back and relaxed for the rest of the evening.  It's the most relaxed our camp has been.  

I lit the smoker around 9:30, mostly because I started getting antsy.  At 11 I pulled the brisket from the cooler to let it warm up a bit and apply the rub.  It hit the smoker at midnight and the pork went on at 2.  It was a comfortable night.  It got a little chilly and we were forced to close up the canopy and get the heater going.  The smoker ran perfectly through the night.

With the morning hours, came the humidity.  The air began to get thick and then hot.  Everything was still progressing well.  Ribs went on at 6am and the chicken was on at 10am.  We had the usual spectators curious about what we were doing.  Our location was proven to be more beneficial.  We were tucked back in a corner and not really visible from the main isle way.  We probably would have had a lot more visitors otherwise.

We got all 4 categories boxed up and sent in on time.  No DQs!  Below are the pics....


Chicken

Ribs

Pork

Brisket

Overall, we finished 29th out of 66 very good teams.  42nd in Chicken, 16th in Ribs, 8th in Pork, 36th in Brisket.  We met our goals of being in the top half and getting 1 call.  Now it's time to start prepping for the Milk Cow Music Festival that is taking place this Friday and Saturday!

Almost ready...

I managed to make it to Sobie Meats last night to pick up our cuts for the Red, White, & BBQ event in Westmont Illinois.  Spent a good portion of the evening trimming meat and making rubs.  Woke up early this morning to get going on the dreaded chicken thigh prep.  At this point of the day, we are looking pretty good.  Have a couple doctors appointments and then it's all BBQ focus until 5 pm Sunday.  Stay tuned for more updates!

Gearing up for the Red, White, & BBQ in Westmont, IL

It's Tuesday and the Westmont event is right around the corner.  During a normal week we would be picking up meats from Sobie Meats and begin prepping tonight.  But, the day job has taken over today and looks like I won't be picking up meat until tomorrow.  Since Westmont is a Saturday/Sunday event we aren't really getting behind, which is nice, but we aren't really getting ahead either.  This comp has presented numerous challenges already and we haven't even arrived on site yet.  This leads me to believe we will have one of two outcomes...we will continue the highly stressful and flawed week with a terrible showing or, we will have our best contest to date.  Only time will tell...

Monroe County Jam and River Raisin Rib-Off

This marked our 5th competition this season. We arrived in Monroe, MI after a 3 hour drive and began setting up the site as we always do. The first things that caught my attention were the size of the lots (huge), and the outlets and water at each site! This is the first time we have experienced this and it will likely be a contributing factor in us returning to the competition in 2012. We quickly came to realize that we were surrounded by first time KCBS cooks. Our little corner of the world became known as Rookie Row. Throughout the day and night there was a steady stream of rookies stopping by taking a look at the smoker and asking a lot of questions. It was great to meet so many new teams and we were more than happy to help in any way we could. After all, I remember when we were the rookies.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. The weather was perfect and Aww Hell made sure that there was a sufficient supply of Jell-O shots. After the cooks meeting, we joined a bunch of teams for a potluck dinner which was spectacular! So great to relax with the other teams and not worry about the night ahead for a little while.

As the sun went down we headed back to the site and began getting the smoker up to temp. Briskets and Butts went on around midnight and we tried to get a little rest. Sleep is rare on Friday nights at competitions but I managed a good hour and a half. Ribs hit the smoker first thing in the morning and everything was looking good. Until it came time to put on the chicken...I seemed to have lost track of time and the chicken went on 15 minutes late. This may not seem like a big deal, but when you are shooting for the later part of a 10 minute turn in window, 15 minutes can be disastrous. I cooked the chicken normally only cutting out a couple minutes out each step of the process.

The food tasted good with the new sauce but tenderness was an issue across the board. We put together 4 good boxes and got them in before time expired. We made it through another competition with no DQs!

Awards were an hour after the last turn in, so we didn't get much of a chance to clean up and tear down before awards. I had mixed expectations waiting for names to be called. I wasn't sure how the chicken would turn out with 15 minutes less cooking, and the ribs were a little tough. If we got good tables, I thought we might be able to finagle one call.

We didn't have to wait long as we got a 5th place call in Chicken! We went on to receive a 10th place pork call as well! Our brisket and ribs did not fair well, but we know what went wrong and those will be corrected for our next competition in two short weeks!