CodyJ.
Full Fledged Farker
I just finished up my first year of KCBS competition. Did 4-5 events. Most of the time was middle of the pack. Sometimes a little better. Had a few calls, but nothing major. All in all I consider it a good first year. Went with the same recipes for all events I feel this gave me a good baseline.
Things I learned:
- use Wagyu. Went from middle of the pack to 6th in each contest I used a wagyu. Did not inject with anything. Used a pretty basic rub. Only sauced the burnt ends. Bingo, figured it out a bit.
- pork. Over cook it and get a great slicing knife for money muscle. I inject but only with my juice of choice. Natural stuff. Still, was always a little better than middle of the pack most of the time. But no top 10's. I used the blues hog/Tennessee mix and a sweet rub. Nothing too crazy.
- ribs. When I cooked them right I did well. When I cooked under cooked them I did horrible. No injection or marinades. I learned to wrap face down in butter/juice and this helped a lot. Still, top 10 once. Other than that was all over the place in scoring. Really depended on if I under cooked them or not.
- chicken. I'm lost. I use thighs. Cook in a vat of butter and they still come out dry. Marinade in italian dreasing. Little bit of a decent rub. Sauce at the end and set the sauce. It tastes like ****. I'm lost. We did horrible in chicken however I found that if I put 9 thighs in a box my score went up.
After talking to many teams this year I found that many of the more notable teams use injections with msg and other stuff I can't pronounce. A lot of meat glue going on too.
Am I stupid for not using it? Part of me wants to make bbq that is what I consider to be bbq. But te other part of me wants to win. I'm torn.
Thoughts??
Things I learned:
- use Wagyu. Went from middle of the pack to 6th in each contest I used a wagyu. Did not inject with anything. Used a pretty basic rub. Only sauced the burnt ends. Bingo, figured it out a bit.
- pork. Over cook it and get a great slicing knife for money muscle. I inject but only with my juice of choice. Natural stuff. Still, was always a little better than middle of the pack most of the time. But no top 10's. I used the blues hog/Tennessee mix and a sweet rub. Nothing too crazy.
- ribs. When I cooked them right I did well. When I cooked under cooked them I did horrible. No injection or marinades. I learned to wrap face down in butter/juice and this helped a lot. Still, top 10 once. Other than that was all over the place in scoring. Really depended on if I under cooked them or not.
- chicken. I'm lost. I use thighs. Cook in a vat of butter and they still come out dry. Marinade in italian dreasing. Little bit of a decent rub. Sauce at the end and set the sauce. It tastes like ****. I'm lost. We did horrible in chicken however I found that if I put 9 thighs in a box my score went up.
After talking to many teams this year I found that many of the more notable teams use injections with msg and other stuff I can't pronounce. A lot of meat glue going on too.
Am I stupid for not using it? Part of me wants to make bbq that is what I consider to be bbq. But te other part of me wants to win. I'm torn.
Thoughts??
