One of the guys on the BBQ-Brethren came up with an idea of putting up signs during turn ins at a competition. His sign is pretty nicely worded, and wouldn’t offend anyone at all.
What’s the reason for this need at all? In my opinion, I think the public is given the wrong idea of what a barbecue competition is all about. Promoters seem to often tell the public that they can sample the barbecue. The Food Network shows 30 minute shows on competitions where you see people eating food. Don’t get me wrong; promoting barbecue is a great thing. However, the public, once they get to the competition or through the promoters could be told how things work better.
Anyway, I thought I’d include some stuff on our prep last weekend in Carmel, Indiana… if nothing else, as a lesson in how NOT to do competition barbecue!
We had a great site; It looked to be about 40X20, along a fence, with Shigs & Pits on one side of us and nobody ont he other. We had 2 EZup tents (ok, one was a First Up). Stephan of Shigs & Pits was even kind enough to help us put up our sleeping tent.
We decided to arrange the tents front to back, giving us covered space we could move over the cookers if necessary. We had 2 8′ tables, one along the front of the site and one along the side of the front tent, butted up against the other table. This gave us something of a barrier to help keep people out when needed.
My wife set up the party lights on the front tent; yes, they’re pigs and cows. We kind of got swamped, but we also carry around a bunch of great toys. We just kind of forgot to get them out. One is a pig that walks and oinks, another is a great rooster that clucks and crows and movies it’s head. If we’d been more in the middle of everything, I’d have made sure we got them out, but on the end, we just didn’t get there.
After we got the initial stuff set up and got our inspection done, we prepped our pork and brisket. This allowed for maximum time with injections and rubs on the meat. 
Here’s a pic of Mark getting the Boston butts injected with pineapple juice. You can see it was a gorgeous day. We immediately foiled the butts and put them back on ice until we were ready to put them on the cookers.
Right after the butts were ready, I started in on the brisket. They got trimmed up a bit, then rubbed, then injected with a coffee/pineapple juice mixture. We did 3 packers, which is the whole brisket (sometimes only the flats are used).
Here’s a close up of the briskets being injected.
And another one of Mark, Tony and me trying to keep the injector from clogging up on the briskets. Note the use of food handling gloves… there’s no excuse not to use them! I even use them at home as they keep the rubs from sticking to my fingers.
Since we started at 3 am, we didnt’ get pics of the chicken and rib prep, but here’s a shot of Mark and my wife saucing the chicken. We tried cooking at a higher temp, but things to a bit too dark doing that. We may just accept rubbery skin next time and go for the best taste we can get. With our results, we may just start over! We liked the taste at least, and the judging was enough all over that we don’t know what was wrong there.
And the last pic we have of prepping is getting the pork ready for turn in. 
We tried to kind of chunk the pork instead of really pulling it; we won’t make that mistake again! We did best with sliced and pulled, so we will likely go that route again next time.
Finally, here’s a photo of Mark and Tony telling me what they thought of my behavior during turn ins (they’re really just walking around on Friday)!
Actually, I did pretty well this time during turn ins; we were the most relaxed we’ve been, due to keeping on schedule pretty well, so we weren’t waiting for chicken to get done. We are all thrilled with an 11th in brisket, and Mark and I have already started to discuss how to change some things for Grand Rapids in less than 8 weeks.
If you have any questions about competitions or want to see photos of anything in particular, let me know. If I can answer your questions, I will, or I’ll try to find an answer, and I can get photos of particular things if possible in Grand Rapids.
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> public is given the wrong idea of what a barbecue competition is all about. Promoters seem to often tell the public that they can sample the barbecue.
Righto! The first comp I attended was also the first for a central Florida city; the promoters made it obvious that the public could attend the event and enjoy lots of good Q. The reality is that although there were lots of teams competing the only Q the public could buy was from the chain-restaurant team.
If we’d wanted that mediocre food we would’ve simply gone to the chain restaurant.
In any event, that was the first and last comp in that city….for just that reason.
John, I think the promoters think that they only way to get people out is to mislead them. Unfortunately, that makes for 2 groups that get upset… the public finds out they don’t get all the barbecue they can eat, and the teams have to deal with people that are upset. The promoters aren’t standing there explaining that the teams aren’t going to feed everyone. I think better explanations of what’s going on would still bring people out.
Thanks for the comment!
I found your website really interesting! My husband Ted and I just started competing this year; our first time out of the box was in RI in May where we took 2nd in brisket and 3rd overall. Our second competition was in NH in June and we took 1st in ribs, 2nd in brisket and won Grand Champions. Our 3rd competition was last week in Lake Placid, NY and….well, we didn’t do as well. We got 9th overall which wasn’t horrible, but definately not the results we were hoping for. Anyway, I can relate to a lot of what you were talking about and just wanted to say hello! Ted has a blog going too, and there is a link to that on our team website, http://www.qhavenbbq.com . Who knows? Maybe we’ll cross paths someday!
You web site is very interesting and informative. My team is entering it’s first competition in 2 weeks and I would like your advice on what I need. There will be 45 teams competeing in Butts and Ribs. We have a 3′ x 5′ tow behind smoker w/ fire box. One, how many butts and racks of ribs should we prepare? Two, how much log wood should we bring (we’re planning on using hickory, apple and maybe cherry)?
Thank you,
Brad
Brad, I’m glad you found something worthwhile on the site! Smokin’ Guns is a team that has a great checklist on their site to help get started. I talk a bit about getting ready go to in http://buckymcoinkumsbbq.typepad.com/buckyblog/2006/02/comptetion_supp.html.
To specifically answer your questions, part of what you will take will depend on how much fits on your smoker. If you’re doing one turn in box of each, with 6 samples or so, then, if it were me, I’d recommend at least 3 butts and at least 5 racks of ribs. The amount of wood is completely up to your smoker; each smoker eats up fuel differently. We use charcoal and wood for now, and we take several bags (it’s always better to have too much), along with a few armfuls of wood. Mixing cherry with hickory is a good idea, I think; it mellows out the hickory.
Curt,
Thank you very much for the advice, the list and your blog were very helpful. I am guessing, but from pictures I’ve seen, we could do about 24 racks of ribs or 18 butts, probably more, at one time. If we pass the first turn-in, we would have to do another (it would be nice but I’m not holding my breath). Taking your lead, I am guessing around 6-8 butts and 10-12 racks might do it. If turn-in time is the same for both meats, do you wait until the last minute before you turn your entries in?
Thank you.
Brad
Brad, with KCBS, turn in times are staggered. Are you doing a backyard comp or a MIM comp?
My first comp, we wanted to make sure we got everything in; there’s a 10 minute window for turn ins, and we were there right at the start of that window. As we’ve progressed, we don’t worry as much, and we try to get them in right about the official time (which would be in the middle of the 10 minutes). After having judged, I saw that the entries are taken to tables pretty quickly once they’re turned in. I’d thought that early turn ins might get cold, but I think entries are taken to the judges in pretty equal time.
Curt,
This is a Backyard comp but the pro comp is Memphis BBQ Assoc. It’s the Blues, Brews & BBQ contest in Charlotte on 9/21-9/23. Thanks for the advice here and on the BBQU website also.
I’ll let you know how we do. There are going to be about 45 teams. I’ve never been to a comp but I am really looking forward to it.
Thanks,
Brad