Competition Lessons

[nmayeux]

This could be one of those threads that could be continuously added to, but I did learn a few valuable lessons this weekend. Enjoy:

1. Don't try your first contest by yourself. I really missunderstood the amount of work, especially with the bad weather.

2. Bring it, because you will probably need it. Zip ties, parachute cord, extra injector, strainer, etc...

3. Be very patient with the spectators. It seems that "your space" is actually public space! My one regret is being short with a couple who wanted to samply my pork while I was putting together the turn-in box. If nobody explains it to the public, then how will they know how to act? Don't expect common sense...

4. Be generous with the other competitors, and they will be generous back. I did not understand how helpful my competition really was. There was only one team that had a couple of prima-donnas, but everybody else treated me like I was partner rather than a competitor. I made a lot of new friends!

5. Practice, practice, practice! Even though we had practiced, two of our turn-in boxes were a disaster. Pretty much throw the lettuce and meat in the box, and try to keep as much rain as possible out! We never tried to put one together under stress, and it showed.

6. Write out your schedule. I was amazed at all the PDAs, dry erase boards, Excel spreadsheets, notebooks, etc. It really makes a difference, especially when alcohol is involved.:mrgreen:

7. Expect the unexpected. We budgeted our time for brisket on several that we had done at about the same size. For some reason, this one didn't get stuck:evil: ! The damn thing was done an hour and a half early. Pretty frustrating...

 

[Bub-Ba-Q]

That first one is a real slap in the face. Now that you have done it, things will be easier. There are alot of things to make it go smoother. Ask or use trhe tools you think neccesary to accomplish that. I personally use my gut and experience as a schedule.

Was nice meeting you and hope to see ya again. Maybe Covington Ga?

Bubba

 

[nmayeux]

I sure hope so Bubba. You and your family really made this a great first experience. I must admit, I really enjoyed watching that little girl run you and your wife! She sure was a cutie.

 

[Bub-Ba-Q]

Thks!!! She knows that she is queen of the castle. As much as I am there to compete, I really enjoy the people. Makes it all the better when my family can be around. I am acually looking to by a trailer so that we can be a little more comfy on the road.

Bubba

 

[G$]

This could be one of those threads that could be continuously added to, but I did learn a few valuable lessons this weekend. Enjoy:

I love info like this. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ggriffi]

Noah,

Thanks so much for your thoughts. We are just a little over 2 months away from our first comp so I read this with great interest. I agree with everything but would like to add one thing that I am doing for practice. The first practice I did with 2 briskets, 2 butts, 6 slabs of bb's, and 12 thighs just to see how everything fit on my grill. Everything fit fine and tasted even better! However my timing was off a bit, so this past weekend I did just chicken and ribs to work on how long these really needed. I am going to cook these again this weekend to just make sure. After that I will do butts and briskets twice, once to get an idea for the timing and second time time to verify. Then three weeks before comp I am going to do a full cook but I am going to start this at about 8 or 9 a.m. using the timing that I have figured out for everything from the earlier practice sessions. My reason for this is that this will be the first time I will be cooking all at once since the very first practice, so if I need a little longer time for things I will have a better idea. Then the weekend before I will do everything just like I plan for the comp, starting Fri. night.

This might be overkill and might not work for a lot folks but this is just my plan for now, always subject to change though.

g

 

[nmayeux]

ggriffi
Sounds like you are on your way! The only thing that I did different, is that I cooked my chicken on a Weber kettle. I used the charcoal baskets to cook indirectly, but at a higher temp than the rest of the meats. The chicken was great, and the skin was very crispy. However, I'm not sure it was the sauce or the rain, but we could not get the sauce to flash out like a glaze. Anyway, good luck, and I'm glad I could help!

 

[MilitantSquatter]

Well said Noah.... Practices were great for us too even under contest timelines, but there's not better test than doing it for real..

ggriffi - good luck with your plan... It will payoff for you....

 

[Sawdustguy]

Gents,

Don't forget to use the search key here. There is a ton of information on the forum. It would be a shame not to utilize it.

 

[Jeff_in_KC]

One thing I learned from Poobah was that it'll take about six contests under your belt before things REALLY just kinda "click" and so forth. Damned if he wasn't right! He was actually dead on for us. We did well in our 5th (two 3rds) but felt a bit "off". Even though we got no calls (the GAB... 207 teams), we felt really "together" the next contest, our sixth. The seventh, we did awesome and finished 3rd out of 45 teams. We've gotten in 12 contests now and are still learning but I don't have to use a timeline like I used to. I just kinda got this internal clock thing going that says "Time to make the doughnuts". Oops... that was a commercial. Anyway, you get where I'm coming from I hope.

 

[ModelMaker]

My Gawd GGRIFFI!! I hope you have a lot of hungry neighbors thats a ton of food your plannin on cookin up!!
Good luck though.
ModelMaker

 

[Sawdustguy]

My Gawd GGRIFFI!! I hope you have a lot of hungry neighbors thats a ton of food your plannin on cookin up!!
Good luck though.
ModelMaker

That is pretty much right on the money for a competition. Some teams cook more, some cook less. We do about the same except we do 24 thighs. Remember you are trying to pick the best of what you have made. On average it cost about $100 for meat for competition with ribs being the most expensive of the bunch. We ask our visitors to show up after turn-in and we take home enough for about one meal.

 

[The_Kapn]

Moderator's Note.

This tread Road Mapped.
It has excellent potential to be a useful thread.

TIM

 

[nmayeux]

Tim,
Thanks for road mapping this thread. Also, as far as the amount of food that you cook, the more food, the more choices for turn in. Out of three butts, we used the pulled from one, and the bark from another. By doing more than one, it gave us several choices to pursue. We cooked a lot of food, and brought home very little. SDG hit it with about enough for one meal. Our friends and spectators cleaned us out, and were very appreciative. This was one of the unexpected plusses.

 

[Kirk]

3. Be very patient with the spectators. Don't expect common sense...

Ain't it the truth. I've only done one fairly small local comp, but I couldn't believe what some spectators would do or say. One guy actually reached into the bowl I was using to sauce my pork and tried to grab a hunk without even asking. He got yelled at. My patience is tested by stupidity but it ends at rudeness. I guess the lesson here is to expect the unexpected from the public and set up your prep area so that you can have a little seperation from passers by.

 

[Q Haven]

Having just started competing this year, the best advice I can give is to do your homework before you go. There are tons of places on the Internet, on this site and others, where you can learn so much about the do's and dont's of competing.

When I went to my first event this past May, I was ready for almost everything that came our way. But I learned a few things:

1. Make sure you buy good tents. Our cheap Wal-Mart tent snapped in the first hour in stiff Rhode Island winds.

2. Make friends with the teams around you quickly. If you forget something or even just have questions, established teams are a great resource. Everyone seems eager to help.

3. Do your research on turn in boxes. There are plenty of teams that put pics of their boxes up on the Internet. The pictures can give you good ideas about what your boxes should look like. Make sure you have the right lettuce and garnish.

4. Remember to have fun!

 

[cmcadams]

I cooked more than that at the last comp... but then, I had a new smoker that needed the exercise! We did 4 brisket flats because I was injecting with FAB-B Lite, 3 boston butts... 2 to pull, 1 to slice, 6 slabs of spares, and about 24 thighs. We also cooked a bunch the night before to feed a group of people that came by.

 

[Bub-Ba-Q]

Once you get some experience, you will be able to cook less food. Your gut will tell you when buying meat and cooking it as well. A small but very helpful item during crunch time. Get a dry erase board and write on it not to ask for samples during that time period. After turn in you will have sample available. I acually take a table with tongs & paper towels and place it up front and out of the way to place my samples on. When I am done with a box, the food goes in a pan & up front. Spectators are free to help themselves to what they want. It only took 1 time for a spectator to walk in & reach over me during turn in to fix that. I love the public, but leave me alone for 2 hours.

Bubba

 

[ggriffi]

My Gawd GGRIFFI!! I hope you have a lot of hungry neighbors thats a ton of food your plannin on cookin up!!
Good luck though.
ModelMaker

I hope so to!

Originally I was only going to cook one brisket and butt along with 3 slabs of ribs and 12 chicken thighs for comp. However after reading several threads here about having multiple butts and briskets I decided to go with two each. I will be using my weber as well so I will be cooking the chicken on that and it should be ok. The only concern I have is having to watch two cookers but I don't see that as a major problem.


Dr. Guy,

I couldn't agree more about the value of searching this site for the info. I have probably saved a bunch already.

g

 

[Bigmista]

I've only done one contest but I made it a point to make friends with the people around me. Easiest way to do this? Make some fatties and pass them around!

And don't take too much stuff! That is the main lesson we learned the first time out. We had four truckloads of stuff and didn't use half of it. OF course we have four people on our team. This probably wouldn't be AS MUCH of a problem on a 1 or 2 person team but it can still get out of hand.