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!
