Pre-trimming meat, how early?

Pappy Q said:
How many comps have you done?
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We cooked three amateur ones. One last year and two this year. It will be four after June 20. I would enter more but have to work a lot. We are going to 12 hour days 6 days a week down at the mine. It is hard to plan anything with the schedule always changing.
 
tduffy said:
Nothing is worse than rotting chicken in the trash. Luckily I have a great relationship with a local butcher who lets me throw that in his dumpster that gets picked up several times a week.
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Put all your trimmings into one trash bag, then throw them into the freezer till trash day :mrgreen:. We don't worry about this much in the cooler months, but this time of year when it's 80*+ during most of the day, that chit gets ripe quickly, so this has been our best solution...our trash day is Tuesday so it's just too early in the week to trim for trash.
 
I usually trim chicken on Monday, pork and ribs on Tuesday and brisket on Thursday. I try to do it after the kids go to bed, so I've found a little bit each night works best.
 
Chicken gets done hopefully weeks in advance. The other meats I try to get done on Thursday morning before we head out.
 
Many of you must be totally fine with freezing chicken I take it?
 
Monday. I never freeze chicken.

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I trim all of my meats except for ribs on Thursday. I have it all built into my prep timeline. I put it all into 2.5 gallon Hefty zip lock bags and put it my fridge. 10lb shoulders and 17lb briskets will fit into these bags believe it or not. I trim the ribs on site because they only take a couple of minutes. I'm fortunate to live in the county and I have a big vacant field next door to my house so all of my scraps go there. I like feeding the wild critters lol. It's how I make friends.
 
definitely not going to work to be doing it on Thursdays. Some thursdays this year we will be on the road going to the contest.
 
I dont care about freezing meat so i trim in batches and freeze in vacuum seal bags.

Thaw it out the week of the contest.
 
J&B'sBBQ said:
Put all your trimmings into one trash bag, then throw them into the freezer till trash day
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Our trash day is Tuesday, so we freeze our scraps also. We don't like to do the chicken more than 2 days ahead, it keeps the least well.
 
We do a similar process. Ribs and Butts on Tuesday -- only because I don’t want to do everything on Wednesday. Chicken on Wednesday because Thursday is trash day. Everything wrapped in Ziploc bags and put in a separate refrigerator. And, I do the brisket on-site. Gives me something to do so I don’t have to start drinking at 10:00am.
 
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I trim chicken and ribs on Tuesday night and brisket on Thursday night. After trimming, all the meats get wrapped in plastic wrap and suck and sealed. I trim pork on site on friday afternoon.
 
For me most part I shoot for trimming meats, making marinades or injections Tuesday night ~ Wednesday night and load up Thursday night then leave out Friday morning.

This gives me plenty of time to still hang out with the family every night and still get to bed early enough for work the next day.
 
I'd like to get a jump on prepping some meats - is the weekend before too early to do the trimming for a Fri/Sat comp? I can either freeze, vacuum pack or both the meats. Was most interested in prepping chicken and ribs this early.

One concern would be if I freeze them then store them in a heavy duty cooler like a Brute / Yeti - will those meats even thaw out Friday?
 
With all this pre-trimming. How do judges know you haven't altered your meat? Like dry brining the chicken. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at those pre trimmed chicken pieces? Is it just an honor system?

I have only done one competition.
 
Thatgrimguy said:
With all this pre-trimming. How do judges know you haven't altered your meat? Like dry brining the chicken. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at those pre trimmed chicken pieces? Is it just an honor system?

I have only done one competition.
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That's right. Meat inspections are useless. Integrity is all that counts. You could have an entirely different cooler sitting somewhere else.
 
I trim chicken, vac seal, then freeze. Ribs, pork, and brisket usually on Wednesday or at the comp.
 
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