Am I missing something with comp pork butt?

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Watching BBQ Pit Wars on Destination America, and I am noticing that these guys are only putting money muscle slices in the boxes for KCBS. I thought there needed to be PU:LED pork in the box with the money muscle as a little extra for the judges. Am I totally off base here or am I missing something?
 
MariettaSmoker said:
Watching BBQ Pit Wars on Destination America, and I am noticing that these guys are only putting money muscle slices in the boxes for KCBS. I thought there needed to be PU:LED pork in the box with the money muscle as a little extra for the judges. Am I totally off base here or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Here's a picture of one of my pork boxes
 

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How do you get that mahogany bark n that? When do you wrap? That just looks awesome!
 
That "little extra" will be judged ! Whatever you put in your boxes (meat wise), make it your very best.

Technically, you could have two portions of chopped, two slices, and two pulled tubes. This meets the requirement for 6 portions.
 
We put money muscle, chunks and pulled in our boxes until this year when we removed the pulled. We cook two butts and if both money muscles are solid we will put them both in and chunks in the middle, if not then the best money muscle and lots of chunks.

A lot of teams have success with pulled tubes, we have yet to try to go that route.

BV
 
MariettaSmoker said:
How do you get that mahogany bark n that? When do you wrap? That just looks awesome!
Click to expand...

For me when I do a competition I wrap based on color alone temperature of the meat doesn't figure in. With that being said you have to concentrate on fire management. Too much wood to early in the cook will darken the meat. Go easy with the wood until the rub sets on the meat. Here's a pic of one of my rib boxes
 

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As a judge, I judge ONLY what is presented. That means that if you only put MM in the box then it and only it gets judged (not scoring down for something that isn't in the box). If you put MM, chunks, tubes, pulled, and chopped in the box, then I will take a bit of each and judge everything. Biggest problem that I see is boxes that have multiple parts and not all of them are excellent - bringing down your score. ONLY put into the box your best stuff!
 
Bubba said:
For me when I do a competition I wrap based on color alone temperature of the meat doesn't figure in. With that being said you have to concentrate on fire management. Too much wood to early in the cook will darken the meat. Go easy with the wood until the rub sets on the meat. Here's a pic of one of my rib boxes
Click to expand...
Bubba, you do something that I always felt was important. Using ribs that are in their natural order. The length and curve match up and no gaps in between them. I may not have always had the best ribs, but I rarely missed an appearance point.
 

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It seems like you are starting to see more boxes with just MM to be judged.
 
MariettaSmoker said:
How do you get that mahogany bark n that? When do you wrap? That just looks awesome!
Click to expand...

I think this depends on your cooker. When we were on a stick-burner, we wrapped based on color and not time or temperature. Now that we're on a gravity fed (much more consistent), I wrap at the same time every contest, and my color is consistently the same, and my temperature is within a few degrees of the same each time.

My butts are in the smoke for 5.5hrs before I wrap them, but I'm cooking at a low temperature.
 
J&B'sBBQ said:
I think this depends on your cooker. When we were on a stick-burner, we wrapped based on color and not time or temperature. Now that we're on a gravity fed (much more consistent), I wrap at the same time every contest, and my color is consistently the same, and my temperature is within a few degrees of the same each time.

My butts are in the smoke for 5.5hrs before I wrap them, but I'm cooking at a low temperature.
Click to expand...

Low temp as in 205-210? I have been cooking on a stick burner but am not opposed to GF. What temp are you actually cooking at?
 
MariettaSmoker said:
Low temp as in 205-210? I have been cooking on a stick burner but am not opposed to GF. What temp are you actually cooking at?
Click to expand...

When my big meats are on unwrapped, they're at 235. When I wrap I crank the temp up to 250.

You would cook a butt or brisket FOREVER at 205-210 since finishing temp on those isn't much lower than cooking temp in that scenario.
 
J&B'sBBQ said:
When my big meats are on unwrapped, they're at 235. When I wrap I crank the temp up to 250.

You would cook a butt or brisket FOREVER at 205-210 since finishing temp on those isn't much lower than cooking temp in that scenario.
Click to expand...

Well you said low...LOL. 235-250 is where I'm usually at. Hard to keep temps right on the POS smoker I use. This is why Im getting a Shirley!
 
Here's another few questions regarding MM at comps..

So I'll pull the designated butt for MM off the smoker. Do you go ahead and cut off the MM then, and rest it separately than the rest of the butt, or rest the whole butt, then cut off the MM? Do you rest the MM a shorter period than you would a whole butt?

Also, with the butt you cut the MM off from -- since it cannot be returned, do you just rest it and serve it to guests/donate it/toss it/whatever, or do you go through the effort of returning it to the smoker after pork turn-ins to get it up to better pulling temp? I may be way over thinking getting an extra 10 or so degrees out of it for guests only.

Thanks all.
 
Titonka said:
Also, with the butt you cut the MM off from -- since it cannot be returned, do you just rest it and serve it to guests/donate it/toss it/whatever, or do you go through the effort of returning it to the smoker after pork turn-ins to get it up to better pulling temp?
Click to expand...

http://www.kcbs.us/news.php?id=740
3. Once the pork reaches a temp equal to or above 145 degrees, can I remove the money muscle and then return the rest of the butt to the cooker?
Answer: Yes, but the money muscle must be held at a proper temperature as defined by the USDA or cooled by USDA guidelines
 
Different people do different things, depending on what works for them, but we always take the remainder of the butt up to "pulling temp" so we can take it home with us.
 
Titonka said:
Also, with the butt you cut the MM off from -- since it cannot be returned, do you just rest it and serve it to guests/donate it/toss it/whatever, or do you go through the effort of returning it to the smoker after pork turn-ins to get it up to better pulling temp? I may be way over thinking getting an extra 10 or so degrees out of it for guests only.

Thanks all.
Click to expand...

I pull the muscle off the cooker and let the rest of the butt continue to cook.
 
Bubba said:
For me when I do a competition I wrap based on color alone temperature of the meat doesn't figure in. With that being said you have to concentrate on fire management. Too much wood to early in the cook will darken the meat. Go easy with the wood until the rub sets on the meat. Here's a pic of one of my rib boxes
Click to expand...

Hi Too much wood will darken the meat? What temps are you cooking at? What type of wood?
Great looking ribs!!!
Thanks DanB
 
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