Here’s our 2010 schedule competition schedule and results:
Pork In The Park, Salisbury MD April 16-17 74th out of 132 Overall Chicken: 49th Ribs: 124th Pork: 21st Brisket: 70th Our first ever KCBS competition and a great learning experience. The biggest thing we learned from PITP was that our RV setup was not the right solution as it caused us much extra effort during setup and breakdown. Also, I now realize the importance of a backup power source. Unfortunately our backup was an inverter running from the RV cigarette lighter plug, which required me to crank the engine at 2:00 AM. Aside from the absolutely horrible ribs we turned in, the other entries were actually OK. We’ll be ready for the next comp with a better setup and plan.
Middletown BBQ Festival, Middletown DE May 21-22 3rd out of 42 Overall Chicken: 3rd Ribs: 21st Pork: 6th Brisket: 3rd What a difference a month makes! Our new travel trailer and pickup were a tremendous improvement when it came to setup, breakdown and comfort during the actual contest. We arrived in Middletown fairly fresh, rested and ready to try the techniques we’d learned three weeks previously in Rod Gray’s class. Saturday morning I felt like we were really clicking, and I was very happy with all of our turn ins. I figured we might have a shot at getting our first call, but I never expected three in our second ever KCBS comp and a third place overall. We were absolutely thrilled with the results, and for sure we will be back in Middletown next year.
It was a very unique experience being able to compete on the streets of DC and literally two blocks from my office. No travel trailer this time, and I really suffered from the heat and humidity on Saturday. I sent Sharon home Friday night to stay cool, get a good night’s rest and pick up our garnishes. By the time the Saturday night turn ins were over, I was really on the verge of heat exhaustion. After some careful thought, we decided to skip the Sunday MIM-style contest because I was concerned I might get really ill. It was a good decision, as Sunday was even hotter. A night in the Marriott, featuring a long shower and room service, made a real difference and we enjoyed being able to walk around the venue. As for the results, we were very happy with the 3rd place call in chicken. And a 10th overall in that field? We’ll take it any day!
Bel Air was a real case of “good news/bad news” results.
The good news (and there was a lot of good news):
We finished in 7th place overall with a 650.8570, our highest total yet, and we were remarkably consistent across the four categories. In fact, from highest category (brisket) to lowest (chicken) the spread was only 2.2854 points, and we were the only team in the field of 59 to score above 160.00 on all four categories. We had two top ten category finishes in brisket (9th) and ribs (9th). And perhaps most significantly, it appears we may have cracked the code on ribs. After struggling to mid-pack category results in Middletown and DC, we decided to cook our ribs on a 22.5” WSM. The temp was spot on, and they came out great. So as of today, we’re an “all WSM Team”.
The bad news:
Category calls were 8th and up, so we didn’t hear our name. Although it would’ve been awesome to get a call, I know we are on the right track. We’re only four competitions into our KCBS competition career, and we’re cooking consistently. There’s always room for improvement, though, so we will keep working hard for the remainder of 2010.