Somebody pork butted on my kitchen counter

I got interrupted while posting that. It was supposed to say "unveiling in 30 minutes". That happened, but by then everyone was too hungry to let me waste time taking pictures. But boy was it good.
 
Bill Jennings said:
It kind of all is.
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Some of that depends on what else you are cooking.

Once the butts go on, then I mess with the briskets to get them started. Then the ribs. Then settle down for a while and start the lunch brats. Then set for a while again. Then things start getting up to temps and need tending. Once that happens, the busy work licks up because all the different meats start getting ready back to back to back. And then there is always someone that wants chicken, so you have to plan how and when to throw that on, too.

The fun part of a contest is that each item has a specific turn-in time, so you have to work at meating those deadlines. Good times.
 
Matthew said:
Once the butts go on, then I mess with the briskets to get them started. Then the ribs. Then settle down for a while and start the lunch brats. Then set for a while again. Then things start getting up to temps and need tending. Once that happens, the busy work licks up because all the different meats start getting ready back to back to back. And then there is always someone that wants chicken, so you have to plan how and when to throw that on, too.
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Oh yeah, there are busy times, all I did Saturday was two butts and three racks of ribs. No brisket or chicken this time around. But I'm getting hungry for brisket, so will have to do that soon.
 
Well this is one of the many problems I would like to deal with, You make me hungry
 
Aaaaand it's about to happen again.

My beer fridge doesn't have much room for beer tonight. That's something I have to figure out how to fit in tomorrow.

2 packs (6 slabs) back ribs
2 briskets
2 butts
1 pork loin
2 packs chicken thighs
2x10lb chicken wings

And buried in there somewhere is a vegetable tray.

Gonna be a good weekend.

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I want to see a 10# chicken wing!
 
Our 2nd, and final, contest of the year is this weekend. I have another one next weekend, but as a judge and not as a cook. I think I have one or two more judgings in Oct, but I haven't gotten confirmation on those yet.

I trimmed the butts and briskets tonight...saves me the time and trouble of doing that tomorrow at the park.

The ribs will go quick, we got back ribs this time instead of spares. The chicken thighs are "not my problem".

There's some sort of optional chicken wing contest tomorrow. BBQ, Hot, Other. One of the guys is going to try his hand at that, again, "not my problem".

More pix and a report sometime late Saturday.
 

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9th place in ribs. Didn't do very well overall, but a good time was had.
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Friday AM started with light rain and gray skies. Friday night ended with gray skies. It stayed cool all day, even cold as the day went on - overnight Fri night was cold. We'd gone from 95F to at least 50F (as shown on my meat thermometer) in pretty much 36 hrs. There was a wind chill Fri night. I had 2 t-shirts, one sweatshirt, one fleece jacket (and shorts), a knit hat, and a reasonably warm sleeping bag. But the NNE wind was pretty cold. I pulled a chair next to my cot to act as a windbreak, but I couldn't keep that cold wind off my head all night.

Fri nights are party nights at BBQ contests, this was no exception. We keep it pretty small, family and close friends. We might have had 25 people total, and enough to feed 3x that easily. The contest briskets and butts went onto the smoker at midnight, then we tried to get some sleep. I get up about 3 and again at 5 to check the fire and temps, and also to check meat temps if I think it's necessary. I can't sleep much at these things anyway, so staying up all night is my job. At around 6am it's time for the ribs to go in.

Saturday was warm and sunny, and a pretty good time. 913 BBQ was the big winner today. They are a husband and wife team, a very young couple, and they are really, really good at contests. So good for them - they, and another team, pretty much demolished the competition this weekend. They finished just a couple points apart, and then way, way off in the distance was the 3rd place team.

One of the rib winners was from Australia. I didn't talk to him, even though he was sitting right behind me when they were announcing awards. Last weekend was the American Royal, the largest BBQ contest in the country...and world...and it draws teams from all over. There are quite a few teams from Australia, so this guy might have come to KC for the Royal and stuck around a few extra days for this contest.

Just like when I fly, I take my camera to these contests with the intent to get pictures but get too busy to get very many.

#1 - some of the teams on the west side of the park, we were on the east side
#2 - 913 has a pretty sweet setup. They use the same smoker we do.
#3 - Our smoker. We have the cheap, beat-up popups instead of an air conditioned trailer.
#4 - Something I found in the parking lot.

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I headed down to Osawatomie, KS for a BBQ contest this morning. Not cooking, but judging. A lot of history in that town, look up "Bleeding Kansas" and read about it. So the contest is called the "Border War".

Chicken entries and rib entries were outstanding. Pork was good, brisket was meh. Brisket judges last, so it was a pretty big thud of a way to end a contest. They did have a dessert category, but there were not enough entries for all the judges so I could look but not touch.

Some teams, like Pellet Envy, do contests nearly every week year-round. It's pretty much a full time job for people like that, their sponsors make it possible to pay the rent.

Now I need to rehydrate after all the salt I ingested.

No pictures during the contest/judging, it isn't allowed, but I did get some of the park and included a few below.

#1 Pellet Envy's rig. Rod and his wife do lots of contests. He has his own line of sauces and rubs in the KC area stores, maybe nationwide.

#2 I missed the early morning Bloody Mary contest

#3 In my goodie bag I found a little squishable cow that looks like he wants to cook his enemies.


edit: I just saw the results, Pellet Envy took 2nd place overall. Good for $500. Also got a 1st place in ribs.

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Is the forward part of their rig a camper, or just extra room for supplies, etc.?
 
Bill Jennings said:
Is the forward part of their rig a camper, or just extra room for supplies, etc.?
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That would be a commercial kitchen.

There might be a bunk in there, or they sleep in the truck, dunno.

Here's one that was parked next to him, same kind of setup, and another one next to that one.

They are pretty common for a lot of the pros. They can do catering and other things during the week, then drive them to a contest.

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Some semi-pros will use small toy-haulers and roll their smokers in and out of them when they setup. Those will typically be built up with storage shelves and alcoves for all the gear. Coolers with the meat get transported in the back of the truck.
 
Here's 913, they were there today, but this was from another contest last month. They won that contest. They have a similar setup for their husband and wife team.

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Interesting way to try and make a living. I’m just a duffer, a guy who likes to smoke things in the Green Egg in the back yard and drink a few cold ones!!!
 
Bill Jennings said:
Interesting way to try and make a living. I’m just a duffer, a guy who likes to smoke things in the Green Egg in the back yard and drink a few cold ones!!!
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That's me, too.

We have a "team" smoker that belongs to one of the guys - it's a pretty good size and is mounted on a trailer frame so it can be towed wherever. Anybody on the team that wants to use it is welcome, but I generally just pull out my Weber smoker and do whatever. Our contest setups are not nearly as elaborate. A couple of 12x12 popups weighted down with 5 gal water buckets, a couple of folding tables, a couple lawn chairs and sleeping bags, coolers of beer, coolers of meat, and cigars.
 
Somewhat tangential, but is it just me or has pork prices really dipped lately? Not sure whether it is seasonal or if a foreign country slapped a tariff on pork (bacon prices seem to be holding steady, though).
 
Since McDonald's has re-released the McRib, I'd say yes. Pork prices are down.
 
Not pork butt, but strip loins were on sale. $4/lb vs $9. The local grocery store does this sale a couple times a year. You can buy a whole strip, take it home and cut it or let the guys at the meat counter cut it for you for no extra charge.

About 12 lb of strip steaks at $4/lb. Came out to 15 steaks at around 3/4 lb +/- each. I vacuum packed them individually.

They won't suck.

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That looks good.

I am currently pork butting in the crock pot. Not everyone can have an @Matthew at their disposal to smoke it proper.
 
Ain’t nothing wrong with crock potted pork butt.
 
Looking at possibly blizzard conditions tomorrow.

Maybe I'll get a chance closer to Christmas. I normally host a few folks over for the Super Bowl, so I will probably do some briskets for that.

I will be in Lakeland, FL for a BBQ contest in January. Looking forward to judging that one, should be fun.
 
I didn't get the smoker out this morning:

KIXD 251853Z 35026G46KT 1/4SM FZFG VV007 M01/M01 A2964 RMK AO2 PK WND 34046/1847 SNEMM SLP039 P0002 T10061011 $


Anyone know that SNEMM means? Current conditions are snow and blowing snow with very low visibility.

 
Matthew said:
I didn't get the smoker out this morning:

KIXD 251853Z 35026G46KT 1/4SM FZFG VV007 M01/M01 A2964 RMK AO2 PK WND 34046/1847 SNEMM SLP039 P0002 T10061011 $


Anyone know that SNEMM means? Current conditions are snow and blowing snow with very low visibility.
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Snow Ending MM where MM is supposed to be minutes after the hour???
 
SkyDog58 said:
Snow Ending MM where MM is supposed to be minutes after the hour???
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I dunno - it's been snowing since noon, and expected to keep it up for another couple of hours.

I still haven't found a METAR decoder that explains it. But I haven't been looking too hard, either.

Current METAR:
"KIXD METAR not available"
 
flhrci said:
@Matthew I was under the impression that hard core grillers/smokers cook in anything. What happened? LOL
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Pretty much. I've cooked in rain, thunderstorms, snow, and freezing rain, yesterday we had 40+/- mph wind gusts and that seriously drops smoker temps. But what really happened is that I was too lazy to get out in freezing fog and 4-5 inches of snow blowing around.
 
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