freezing meats for competition and possibly looking for a team mate.

[Rusty Kettle]

Ok so I can't believe I am posting this as I didn't think there was going to be anything beyond Whitings this year. We might be doing a comp late summer. I got wife approval as some things have changed financially for the better. Thank god. I am getting stir crazy. There is a catch I can not buy meat all right before the competition. The deal is I have to freeze it and buy it a little bit at a time. I got a beer fridge and meat freezer for my birthday for the garage. So I have the room.

My question is do I trim the meat and vacuum pack it and freeze or should I just leave it in the cyro pack and freeze it and thaw out before the competition and trim it then vac pack it? With chicken should I trim then vac pack and freeze? How soon should I start thawing meat out? I never freeze meat for competition but that was the catch.

Other catch is my wife won't be coming as she probably has to work. I may be cooking this one alone. Any tips for cooking alone? I probably will post asking for help if anyone would be interested but I don't know if anyone would be interested since I am covering the costs of entrance fee meats and all supplies. Probably will need a hand With dishes, keeping me from.jumping the time line. I will post more details when I get the app out on Monday as long as I get vacation approval at work. Probably need help running the cookers. I run two 14.5" wsm and one 22.5 wsm. If you may be interested pm me and we can talk about it. Got questions feel free to ask. Just to be clear we are a low budget team and we sleep in the lawn chairs under a pop up tent. No camper or toy hauler or anything fancy. We rough it. Also this will be my first pro comp but have competed amateur for a couple years and have 5 comps at the amateur level over three years with one first place ribs call. If you may be interested pm me and experience is not necessary. It would be nice but not necessary. I am really just looking for a set of hands and someone to bull chit with and have a few beers. Again it probably won't be set in stone until monday but I got wife approval and that's 99 percent of the battle. I just need work approval. Just gauging interest. I got room for three more team members so if more than one responds I am open to having more than one.

 

[Red Valley BBQ]

I sometimes buy for three or four comps at a time when the wallet allows and freeze the meat. I have had no issues. My freezer runs about 14* so it usually takes 3 or 4 days to thaw out. Once it's thawed, I trim and vacuum seal.

Which comp are you going to do?

 

[Rusty Kettle]

I sometimes buy for three or four comps at a time when the wallet allows and freeze the meat. I have had no issues. My freezer runs about 14* so it usually takes 3 or 4 days to thaw out. Once it's thawed, I trim and vacuum seal.

Which comp are you going to do?

Boydton's Big Bad BBQ Battle at the end of August
In VA.

 

[ITBFQ]

Lots of folks buy, trim and freeze their chicken well before a competition. Some do all their trimming for the year all on one day so it is done. Just remember to freeze as quickly as possible and give the meat plenty of time to thaw out, especially the big ones. Good luck!

 

[ynotfehc]

Try to only thaw once

 

[Blanton]

Going alone is not that bad. Make sure you have everything out and at hand for turn in time. Nothing like finding you forgot to have the box open and ready when you have sauced gloves on!

 

[CBQ]

People freeze meat all the time. If you buy something frozen, leave it frozen. Defrost it just before the comp. If you have to trim it just before the comp (because you are solo) vac sealing it won't hurt.

If you buy something fresh well in advance: trim it, vac seal, and freeze. The general guideline is freeze fast, defrost slowly. I prefer to take frozen ribs out a couple of days ahead of a comp and put them in the fridge vs. using a water pan to do a fast defrost at a contest.

Note that you are always refreezing chicken. Unless you got it directly from a small farm, all large chicken processors freeze chicken as part of their process. If you purchase chicken in a store, it's been frozen and defrosted already. That said, refreezing it again doesn't seem to hurt it.