The Pickled Pig's 2009 Chest to Chest Contest Pics

[The Big Pig]

I competed in the Chest to Chest Brisket Invitational and the following open contest in Great Bend, KS last weekend. It was a great experience that I won't soon forget. The detailed account below is long winded so I put the entry pics on top.

The rest of my team had other obligations and the distance from home combined with time away made recruiting an assistant difficult. So I opted to go solo on this contest. Although it may surprise you, I am not in the greatest of athletic shape and I tested the limits of my physical and mental endurance during this event. I had a lot of respect for solo cooks on the circuit before this event and have even more now.

I arrived at the Great Bend Expo Center and Fairgrounds (as well as race track, airport, armory, and other functions) on Thursday afternoon and set up camp. The staff was very accomodating and put me as close to turn-in as possible. This was a huge benefit as I did not have a box runner and the bathrooms and showers were also located in the turn-in building.

It was brutally hot with temps in the triple digits on Thursday and Friday and extremely high humidity throughout the weekend. To give you an idea of how hot it was, let me recount my liquid intake vs. output. From the time I arrived to the time I left, I consumed (36) 16 oz. bottles of water, (25) 12 oz. beers, (12) 24 oz. Diet Pepsi's, (6) 32 oz. Gatorades, (4) 32 oz. lemonade cocktails, (2) 32 oz. rum and diets, a 16 oz. margarita, and a few more glasses of water at a restaurant and a couple of stops at a drinking fountain. That's over 1,564 oz. or just over 12 gallons of liquid intake in 2 days. When I left on Saturday evening, I had used the bathroom just 5 times. The rest of that liquid was used to keep my well insulated body from overheating.

Thursday afternoon was spent socializing with old friends and meeting some new ones (Yellow Jacket BBQ and Sweet Peppers). On Thursday night, the group went to Four Legs Up BBQ for a cook's meeting and prime rib dinner. Kelly Wertz, a fellow competitor who happened to win last year's Jack, and his crew put out some great food including deep fried mac and cheese, deep fried Oreos, and creme brulee ice cream. If you're ever in or around Great Bend I encourage you to stop in for a great meal.

During the cook's meeting a vote was taken on the turn in format for the invitational. The organizer wanted each of his 17 judges to judge each of the 17 entries. KCBS rules only require 6 portions so a change was needed to accommodate. It was decided that we would use aluminum foil half pans and KCBS garnish rules to present 17 portions. I was a little stunned and unprepared for this alteration. First of all, my garnish box was pre-made in a 9x9 configuration. The new size meant I would have to fill in the rest of the pan. Second, I only brought 2 briskets. Sometimes I need both briskets to get the 7-9 portions I usually put in a box. And third, what do I know about putting 17 portions in a box? Do you put the flat slices length wise or width wise? And how do you fit 17 slices in a box with 17 burnt ends? Everyone else was in the same boat so game on.

I had to stop and get some extra garnish supplies on the way back. I trimmed and injected my invitational briskets after the meeting. I was glad I had not trimmed at home because I wanted the extra wide 16lb. packer flat slices for turn-in. Once that was done I did a little more socializing. Then the storms came. I packed up all but the waterproof big items (cookers, tables, and Carlysle) and several people came over and helped lower the canopy. Even though it was tied down securely, a 10x10 is little match for 50 mph winds. I waited out the storms in the truck. Once they passed, I socialized some more. When I finally looked at the time when the party broke up I was surprised to see it was approaching 3AM. I tried sleeping but it was so hot that it was almost pointless. I can't remember the last time I worked up a sweat just trying to sleep.

I got up just before 6AM on Friday to take a shower and get a UDS fired up and put the briskets on. Turn in wasn't until 7PM but I had decided to do a much slower cook than we have been doing as of late and since I was cooking some very large packers I thought it best to get them on early. But before I could do that, I had to set my camp back up. This would be the 4th time in 24 hours I had loaded or unloaded the gear and I was a little fatigued. Once the briskets were on I was a little bored so I catnapped in a chair off and on most of the morning. We didn't get the turn-in boxes until 11AM and my open contest meat was not yet checked in so there was little to do except get organized and tend to my 2 briskets.

Once my turn in pan was finished I spent most of Friday afternoon socializing. Some of the best time was spent in a misting tent set up by Andy from Smoke On Wheels. He had a 200 ft. hose connected to the water supply and a misting hose set up in a 10x10 along with a big floor fan. It kicked butt and was a good 30F cooler in the tent. It was like a little oasis on the plains. We were allowed to get our open contest boxes late in the afternoon. To my surprise, the boxes were 1/2" wider and longer than normal. Once again, my pre-done putting greens would have to be filled in once transferred.

The briskets finished around 5PM and went into holding. I trimmed, seasoned, and put a beef tenderloin on the cooker for a potluck dinner. In a normal contest we pull brisket out of the Carlysle when the pork entry goes to the judges (30 minutes before turn-in). Since I was alone and needed to put together a much larger box I gave my self an extra 15 minutes and started separating the points at 6:15. 7PM came very fast and I was rushed putting the box together. By the time I was 6 or 7 slices into the first flat it was 6:45 and I knew I didn't have time to slice, season, and sauce the second flat and left it unsliced. I still had to get the burnt ends off the cooker and arrange the box.

The flat I turned in for the invitational was good, real good...but not as good or tender as the one I left on the counter. The savory melt in your mouth burnt ends I turned in were about the best I can make. I should have done test slices on both flats before working on one but the new format caught me off-guard. Even so, I would've been happy to have that brisket turn-in at any other contest.

Things started happening fast right after that turn-in. I cleaned up camp, socialized some more and went to a Mexican potluck hosted by The Slabs. Chris from Early Bird BBQ had the margarita machine going and I was relaxing with good food, good company, and good drink when the organizer came over to chastise (good natured and well received) his invitational cooks for being late to the 8PM open cook's meeting and he insisted that we go. I felt like a student who gets caught playing hookie from school (don't ask how I know this feeling). So at least 1 representative from each team had to go and since I was alone, I had to go.

Right after the cook's meeting we all headed over to one of the expo buildings for the 9PM invitational awards. It was closer to 10PM before the ceremony started and I still needed to trim, inject, and marinade the contest meat as well as transfer and fill in the turn in boxes. They announced the Top 7 entries and the winner of the invitational. Congrats to Andy from Smoke On Wheels cooking under the Pork Pullin' Plowboys name for winning the brisket invitational! Andy sometimes cooks with Todd (Pork Pullin Plowboys), who was in Shannon, IL cooking at and winning a pork invitational. I wasn't in the top 7 but was happy for those who were and really happy for Andy. By design the scores were not given out until after the open awards ceremony the following day so the cooks could focus on the open rather than fret about the invitational.

I ended up coming in 14th place out of 17 teams for the invitational. Normally I wouldn't feel good about that finish percentile but not this time. First, I knew going in the competition was going to be strong. Most of the teams there are more accomplished than we are and everyone there was a brisket champion during the last year so everyone knew how to cook good brisket. Second, as I mentioned above the format was different and I was cooking alone for the first time. All of the judges were KCBS certified and I received the following 17 judge averages: Appearance - 8.44, Taste - 8.0, Tenderness - 8.06. Those are decent and fair scores. I was only 19 points away from the GC out of a possible 576 points. I'm actually inspired by the results. While I think my brisket was pretty good, there is still room for improvement.

[The Big Pig]

After the invitational awards ceremony I got right to work, prepping the open contest meats. I finished up at 1AM Saturday morning and slept...with the A/C running this time. I was up at 4AM to get pork and brisket started. Then I got to work transferring the my garnish to the turn in boxes. Before finishing those boxes, 7AM came and I went to work on the ribs. At 8AM I started prepping the chicken. About 45 minutes after the ribs were on I noticed that I was getting a funky chemical type smell from my cookers. It was almost as if I had used lighter fluid but worse. I still don't know for certain what caused the odor. But I think either the humidity aversely effected the open bags of charcoal or I had a bad bag of charcoal. The bag of coal I used had been crushed as the briqs were broken and there was a lot of charcoal dust. I've been using this brand of charcoal for 2 years and this batch for a couple of months with no problems so I'm not quite sure what to think. As soon as I smelled it I knew I was in trouble. Most of my meat was already cooking and the damage was done. Although the chicken wasn't on yet, I opted to cook it on a smoker without changing out the fuel. I guess I was lazy or mentally fatigued at this point because I don't recall even thinking about changing out the fuel. So all four of my open entries were tainted with nasty smoke.

Once 10AM rolled around I pretty much worked non-stop moving meats to and from the smoker. We have somewhat complicated cooking processes for all of the categories at competitions that leave no room for rest as crunch time approaches. At some point in the morning I realized I did not bring or could not find brown sugar or honey, both of which are used when we foil ribs. So I sheepishly ask for help, getting brown sugar (which I did eventually find) and honey from other teams. I won't mention their name because they may not want people to know they have or use these ingredients but my thanks go to both of them. It's very rare that we ever have to ask for help and I was and am a little embarassed. But it's also a reminder of how helpful our fellow competitors can be. I was diligent about getting the entries turned in 5 minutes early on every category. Things happened so fast from 12-1:30 that it's all a blur.

After the brisket turn-in I started breaking down camp right away. By 3PM I was finished and had time to rest in the A/C for 30 minutes before the awards ceremony. I was completely and utterly exhausted by this point. My body was so fatigued that it was difficult loading the cookers (about 50 lbs.) on the trailer. Even light items were a chore to pack and load.

I finished 19th out of 41 teams overall. Disappointing to be sure but fairly judged. The competition was tough. 11 of the invitational teams scored higher than I in the open contest and 3 or 4 of the others who scored higher could have or should have been in the invitational. Using tainted charcoal and a handful of other errors should have and did hurt my standing. I somehow managed to pick up a 9th place call in pork which kept the team's call and prize money streaks alive. Rod Grey from Pellet Envy was GC and Rob from Munchin Hogs At The Hilton was RGC (congrats to both).

I've had a few days to reflect on the experience.

1) Choosing a longer distance, invitational and open contest combination in brutally hot weather for my first solo cook was really challenging. When fatigue sets in, I make a lot of mental errors and don't see or recognize problems and opportunities. And in a cruel twist of fate, the pinnacle of attention is needed during the last step when I was the weakest, turn in time.

2) Our competition processes are too complicated for solo cooks (i.e., scraping skin, injecting cuts, marinating, etc.). There are a lot of very sucessful solo cooks who consistently win that don't appear to take nearly as many steps as we do. I have no doubt we overcomplicate things and want to rethink some of the things we do.

3) Without my teammates present I can forget competing in the extra categories. I had contemplated turning in sirloin, anything beef, and dessert entries in this contest but wisely chose to pass. Had I attempted those categories I probably would have passed out from exhaustion half way through.

4) I am always amazed at how helpful fellow competitors can be. Also, the organizer would have provided a golf cart shuttle service for me at turn in time if needed.

5) Cooking good BBQ involves doing a lot of little things right. There are no real "silver bullets", just a lot of small actions that may not seem significant by themselves but have a huge cumulative impact. Attention to detail is important.

6) The best part about any contest is the socializing. Normally I am fortunate to spend a lot of time with my own team. This weekend I was lucky to get to spend quality time with some of the best cooks in the country. For instance, Scott from Wild Blue and I talked several times during the weekend. I took as many mental notes as I could of how he does things. I cooked between Twin Oaks and Blazin BBQ and got to talk to and watch both award winning teams in action. I was able to visit with old friends and even meet some I had only known online. And since I cook with a lot of these teams on a regular basis it was like being surrounded by friends. Come awards time, I know I am going to get to see friends get called regardless of how I fair. And sometimes seeing someone else I know succeed is more gratifying than hearing my own name called.

7) The worst part about cooking alone is not having anyone around for a 2nd opinion. For all of the other comps I have done, I have been fortunate enough to have at least 1 person with me that knew about BBQ and competing. Having another set of eyes, ears, and taste buds is a big deal for me. Even though I may disagree and still do things my own way, having another opinion presented is a luxury I won't take for granted. Leaving me to keep myself in check does not produce good bbq.

There were some challenges along the way but I am glad I did this contest. I learned a lot from the experience and believe those lessons will make me a better cook. The memories will last much longer than the pain and fatigue. I probably won't do alot of solo contests in the future but I will definitely do it again.

[Chappy]

I'm exhausted just reading what you did. I can't imagine doing it alone. Good job on what you accomplished. They really threw you a curveball by wanting so many portions. I bet some teams had to get some more supplies.

[Finney]

Earlier today I started to post "Where has Paul been the last two days?"... Now I know... You were typing this post! LOL

You still did us proud.

[WildBlue]

Hey Paul, it was great visiting with you over the weekend.

The weather was something to deal with, and Paul you did great for being setup under one 10x10 ezup with basic table setup. I was great hearing you get a call in Pork.

I will post pictures and my event review when I get back home. I got home and went on vacation with the family. I drove another 800 over the last two days and I do not have my camera with me.

[Smell Whats Cookin]

Wow that was a very interesting article. I have done one cook by myself last year. It was my second time out doing the compition things. I kind of know what you are talking about in your article. I appreciated the way you explained everything. Congrats on your job well done there. That is nothing to hang your head about. Again GREAT JOB.
Chris

[swamprb]

All I can say is WOW!

[BrisketBelly]

You certainly get 9's for presentation. How does your boneless chicken usually score? I wondered if they held together well enough when eating. I wonder how judges take it when they receive a boneless thigh.

[The Big Pig]

You certainly get 9's for presentation. How does your boneless chicken usually score? I wondered if they held together well enough when eating. I wonder how judges take it when they receive a boneless thigh.

Generally they score well but not always. You can see some of our results towards the bottom of the first page here.