it’s now just 3 days until our first comp of the year!  I’ve been reviewing our past comps to see what we’ve done right and what we’ve done wrong.  We’re fixing several things, I think.  In an attempt to help us do better, and hopefully give others things to think about, here are the changes we’ve made, and why, in each category…

For those of you reading that aren’t familiar with KCBS competitions, there are a standard set of meats that are scored and contribute to determining grand champion: chicken, pork ribs, pulled pork and brisket.  Organizers can throw in other categories, too, if they desire.  These can include Anything Butt, sauce, dessert, etc.  Anything Butt generally means anything but the meats in the four main categories, but organizers often stipulate a theme or an ingredient.  In Carmel, the Anything Butt category has to include a Red Gold tomato product, as Red Gold is a sponsor.

One thing we’ve decided is that, when possible, when Anything Butt is done on Friday night, if the ingredients are conducive to it, we’ll just have the Anything Butt item for dinner, too.  I won’t say what we’re making for Carmel, but that’s what we’re doing.

Ok, for the four main categories, our improvements (hopefully) are:

Chicken:
We’re going to cook the chicken a bit hotter on an upright smoker to get the skin a bit better done.  We’re going to use the same brine as before, which means less salt in the rub.  We’re switching from a bourbon based sauce to an espresso based sauce which is more mainstream, I think.  I’ve gone back and forth on including legs, but we got 3 9’s on appearance using legs, so we may do the same again.  This will probably be a last minute decision, and my wife will make it since that’s her thing, and she does it well.

Ribs:
We’re not foiling them so long that the bones fall out of the ribs!  We’re sticking with a basic rub, and using a hard cider based sauce that gives a nice sweetness.  This will just be a glaze, so it shouldn’t be overpowering.  We’re going to foil for an hour instead of 2, and we may take a couple of racks and not foil at all.

Pork:
We’re going with an injection of pineapple juice and keeping the same rub.  We may play with pulling bigger pieces and not shredding the pork so much.  We’re really going to be careful about injecting the meat everywhere as much as possible, too.

Brisket:
We hadn’t injected before, but we’re going to this time, with a coffee based injection with pineapple juice.  Other than that, we’re sticking with the same rub and maybe pushing temps just a touch more than before (maybe to 195), but paying attention at the end to tenderness using a temp probe.

That’s about it!!!  Just a few more days to see if we can improve on last year!

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