Meat Rushmore BBQ Competition BBQ thread
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Jonathon I really want to, but we already have a BBQ contest booked that weekend.
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OK, so this weekend we went to Wagoner, OK. As I mentioned last time, OK hasn’t been too kind to us recently, and it’s always stupid hot this time of year, but…we’re just gluttons for punishment, I suppose.
The temps throughout the day both days were high, but the humidity was staggering. We have a clock that we set up on the porch of our trailer, that includes weather. Now, our smokers are up there, etc, so it’s always hotter there than on the ground, but on that clock it was reading 103* and 39% humidity at one point Saturday. I drink a lot of water, and the heat usually doesn’t bother me too much, but by about noon on Saturday, I was feeling it and really dragging. Also, noon is when turn ins start - not the best time to be feeling bad. Luckily, turn in time means I can be inside where there is AC.
Friday night there was an SCA contest. I have struggled in every one of those I’ve done, but the more I do, the higher my scores get, I just need to get in a rhythm with them I think, and honestly I don’t do enough to do that. Combine that with I never cook my steaks at home to the doneness required in SCA, and, well, it’s nice to have something to do on a Friday at a BBQ contest.
This was probably the best tasting steak I’ve cooked in a contest. The appearance…not so much. I left my pins at home that I use to hold the steak together after trimming some of the fat out from between the eye and the spinalis, so I tried not trimming it out, and as the fat rendered it kinda fell apart. I don’t have a pic, because as my wife was getting her phone out to take one, I told her I didn’t want to remember a steak that looked that bad, although I used some more colorful language than that. I do have a pic of the set up though, with my Chiefs red PK named Patrick, ready to rock.
All and all, the steak finished 14th, and while we didn’t get a good appearance score, it certainly didn’t get hit the way it should have.
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Saturday morning when we got to our spot from the hotel, it was already 80 degrees, but being that it was 4:30 in the morning it felt comfortable with a slight breeze and no sunshine. so we got off and running with the big meats, which go on at 5:15.
Chicken continues to be our nemesis, but I thought the chicken we turned in this week was really, really good. I have a hard time writing much about it because, well, there isn’t much to tell. I’m going to try and get some prep pictures of it this weekend, so hopefully I’ll be able to do better next week. It finished 14th, but I really believe it deserved better.
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Ribs continue to be a strong category for us, I really think the flavor on our drum smokers adds a flavor that hits the judges happy spot. Ribs, pork, and brisket all get fat dripping onto the fires that combust and give the meat a flavor that is pretty much impossible to recreate on another smoker.
Here they are about a half hour in, just waiting for them to color up before we wrap. This usually takes about 2 hours total.
After we wrap with butter, sauce, sugar, etc we put them back on for another 45 minutes to and hour until they reach tenderness. Then they rest untnil time to sauce, slice, box and give to the judges. We had one rack this time that was just way better than the others. All 4 were turn in worthy, but this one…something just jumped out about them. There was a bit of an issue with some fat on top of them, which made me not love the appearance, but we went with just the 6 bones across the box this time to only allow the judges to eat the best we had to offer.
These ended up 4th place.
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Pork is pork. Pork has been so good to us for so long, until we get to boxing, it’s almost robotic. Same thing at the same time every time. After they’ve been wrapped for an hour, I check them, and I can usually tell you within 5 minutes of when they’ll be done. While I like the success that it brings, it’s made it less fun to cook, as it really has become a recipe, not a journey like some of the other meats. A recipe that you have to have the experience and the feel for from doing it the same way for so long, but a recipe nonetheless.
Here they are coloring up. We flip our butts halfway through the before wrapping stage to even out the color, and this is from right before I did that. You can see the money muscles that I trimmed out beforehand, and the one side is kinda pale. Once I flip it over, it will catch up and even out the color nicely.
This was an interesting turn in, that definitely made things “fun” (that’s code for stressful). 3 of the 4 money muscles, which we slice, were tough. Again, we’re talking fine lines here and the difference between tough and mushy is miniscule. However, I wasn’t comfortable turning them in. The other was close to mushy, but I knew if I sliced them thicker, they would work. The problem is getting 6 slices (one per judge) that are thick out of one muscle. Luckily, it all worked out and we were able to do so. We ended up winning pork, successfully defending our 1st place pork from last year at this contest.
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Brisket was interesting. We go back and forth on whether to turn in burnt ends or not. Part of the issue is that there is not a standard to aim for with burnt ends. With slices, there are tests that judges use to judge tenderness and if you hit your marks on cooking it correctly, but burnt ends are the wild west. Some people like them a little fattier, some more rendered, and each judge seems to grade burnt ends differently sometimes. We actually went about 2 years without turning them in, and recently have started doing it again and have seen success with it.
I didn’t think they were going to go in this week. The point was a little thin, and they seemed to not be cooking the way we wanted them to. We cubed them up though, and they were good, so we put them in. It was a good decision as we also finished in 1st in brisket, giving us 2 1sts and 3 top 5s in the contest.
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We knew that we would finish high in the overall rankings, based on the 3 high calls. We didn’t know where our chicken landed though, and there was a team with 4 top 10s, as well as one with a 1st, 2nd, and 4th, so we weren’t sure where we would land, but figured top 5 for sure, and probably top 3. I figured 2nd or 3rd.
As they were reading off the top 10, they called our friend Bill our of Texas for 3rd (he had the 1,2,4), and I was prepared to get up to walk up for Reserve Grand Champion. However, they called the 4 call team…and then called us for overall Grand Champions.
A little bit of a Walton’s tie in here. Kelly, who won RGC (in the pic below in the cowboy hat) has a reputation for his sausage making. When I decided to get into it, the first thing I did was sign up for one of his sausage classes, and then started scouring the web and youtube. That’s when I came across Walton’s. I loved the YouTube videos, I had browsed the website, and I liked what I saw, but I hadn’t pulled the trigger on anything. During his class, he mentioned Walton’s as being a great resource for buying supplies, and how he orders from there frequently. That sealed it in my mind, which led me to this community, which led you to reading my ramblings. So, without this guy, I may not be here right now.
State Center, IA this weekend! Ready to get up there and do some cooking!
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We knew that we would finish high in the overall rankings, based on the 3 high calls. We didn’t know where our chicken landed though, and there was a team with 4 top 10s, as well as one with a 1st, 2nd, and 4th, so we weren’t sure where we would land, but figured top 5 for sure, and probably top 3. I figured 2nd or 3rd.
As they were reading off the top 10, they called our friend Bill our of Texas for 3rd (he had the 1,2,4), and I was prepared to get up to walk up for Reserve Grand Champion. However, they called the 4 call team…and then called us for overall Grand Champions.
A little bit of a Walton’s tie in here. Kelly, who won RGC (in the pic below in the cowboy hat) has a reputation for his sausage making. When I decided to get into it, the first thing I did was sign up for one of his sausage classes, and then started scouring the web and youtube. That’s when I came across Walton’s. I loved the YouTube videos, I had browsed the website, and I liked what I saw, but I hadn’t pulled the trigger on anything. During his class, he mentioned Walton’s as being a great resource for buying supplies, and how he orders from there frequently. That sealed it in my mind, which led me to this community, which led you to reading my ramblings. So, without this guy, I may not be here right now.
State Center, IA this weekend! Ready to get up there and do some cooking!
Midwest_kc Great weekend! Congrats
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good for you
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We knew that we would finish high in the overall rankings, based on the 3 high calls. We didn’t know where our chicken landed though, and there was a team with 4 top 10s, as well as one with a 1st, 2nd, and 4th, so we weren’t sure where we would land, but figured top 5 for sure, and probably top 3. I figured 2nd or 3rd.
As they were reading off the top 10, they called our friend Bill our of Texas for 3rd (he had the 1,2,4), and I was prepared to get up to walk up for Reserve Grand Champion. However, they called the 4 call team…and then called us for overall Grand Champions.
A little bit of a Walton’s tie in here. Kelly, who won RGC (in the pic below in the cowboy hat) has a reputation for his sausage making. When I decided to get into it, the first thing I did was sign up for one of his sausage classes, and then started scouring the web and youtube. That’s when I came across Walton’s. I loved the YouTube videos, I had browsed the website, and I liked what I saw, but I hadn’t pulled the trigger on anything. During his class, he mentioned Walton’s as being a great resource for buying supplies, and how he orders from there frequently. That sealed it in my mind, which led me to this community, which led you to reading my ramblings. So, without this guy, I may not be here right now.
State Center, IA this weekend! Ready to get up there and do some cooking!
Midwest_kc that’s the way to do it. Congrats. See Oklahoma isn’t that bad.
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Midwest_kc that’s the way to do it. Congrats. See Oklahoma isn’t that bad.
Midwest_kc congrats!!! That’s a lot hard work and cooking.
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Love reading this thread…congratulations and keep up the great posts and good luck on the next competition !!
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We knew that we would finish high in the overall rankings, based on the 3 high calls. We didn’t know where our chicken landed though, and there was a team with 4 top 10s, as well as one with a 1st, 2nd, and 4th, so we weren’t sure where we would land, but figured top 5 for sure, and probably top 3. I figured 2nd or 3rd.
As they were reading off the top 10, they called our friend Bill our of Texas for 3rd (he had the 1,2,4), and I was prepared to get up to walk up for Reserve Grand Champion. However, they called the 4 call team…and then called us for overall Grand Champions.
A little bit of a Walton’s tie in here. Kelly, who won RGC (in the pic below in the cowboy hat) has a reputation for his sausage making. When I decided to get into it, the first thing I did was sign up for one of his sausage classes, and then started scouring the web and youtube. That’s when I came across Walton’s. I loved the YouTube videos, I had browsed the website, and I liked what I saw, but I hadn’t pulled the trigger on anything. During his class, he mentioned Walton’s as being a great resource for buying supplies, and how he orders from there frequently. That sealed it in my mind, which led me to this community, which led you to reading my ramblings. So, without this guy, I may not be here right now.
State Center, IA this weekend! Ready to get up there and do some cooking!
Midwest_kc great job and please keep the thread going.
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I’m glad everyone is enjoying it. It’s been fun reflecting on things after the fact a little deeper and figuring out how to verbalize (or type) what happened and what I’m thinking.
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reflection can be a good InSite to what you are trying to accomplish
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Midwest_kc Those are awesome trophies Darkfish89 Maybe something to try for 2022?
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
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Midwest_kc Those are awesome trophies Darkfish89 Maybe something to try for 2022?
Jonathon Yes those are cool.
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Hey guys! I know I’ve failed miserably at keeping this up to date, but between work and cooking contests, I’ve just had absolutely no time. I think the work part is taken care of for a bit, so I’m going to share some updates, and get some stuff typed up.
In the meantime, I did a YT video for one of my sponsors I thought I’d drop a link for here. If this is not allowed, since it is in reference to another BBQ/Grilling store) my apologies.
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No problem, work and competition come first
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