Last weekend was our 5th competition, in Nelsonville, Ohio… The Ohio Smoked Meat and BBQ Festival.  This was our latest competition season-wise, and Friday night was COLD!!!  We made due, though, and got through the night to end up with a great Saturday with 60+ degree temps and gorgeous fall colors everywhere around.

One thing that’s different about this comp is that there’s no other festival going along with it, so it’s nothing but teams that show up to cook.  And our biggest contribution was to be the 25th team to allow the winner to be eligible for next year’s Jack Daniels competition.  Other than that, we pretty much blew it, but, most importantly, we had a great time cooking bad food!

To be honest, our food wasn’t that bad.  We placed 5th in ribs, our second walk.  The walk was short, though, as we were only about 4 feet from the table!  We were also pretty happy with our brisket, but the judges at our table just didn’t care for it.  That’s the luck of the draw sometimes.  Our pork didn’t turn out all the great, and our chicken bit, but we’re still working on that to do better next year. 

Thursday, my sister, Heather, flew in from Manhattan to join us.  We did a much better job of using a checklist and plan this year, so getting ready wasn’t all that stressful this year.
Once we got all set up, we put on some chicken to try to improve on previous chicken.  My other sister, Kim, and my mom showed up to join us, and Todd, my nephew showed up eventually with his friend, Drew.  They go to school about 15 miles from where the comp was, but had transmission problems.  My niece, Maggie got to show off her new engagement ring, bringing Judd, her fiance, in tow.  They stuck around as long as they could take the cold, then it was Mark all alone to tend the fire for a while.  My wife had a room at the inn nearby, and I was able to join her there for about 3 hours of sleep in the warm hotel room!

I think our biggest mistake was having the smoker open too much in the morning, so temps dropped and extended cooking times.  We also didn’t trust the temps to stay up overnight and put the pork on too early, so we had to put it in a cooler a bit sooner than we’d planned.

We injected the pork first after getting set up, then applied a slather to it with the rub mixed in with the mustard base.  We do really like the pork we’re getting, from Premium Standard Farms.  it’s got great texture and is really tender. 

Brisket prep went well, with the injection only squirting on a few people, and the rub went on just fine.  I think one change I’m going to try is to use a bit less rub; I think it will make the brisket a bit easier to handle after it’s cooked.

The briskets were all prime grade, and looked pretty good, though I want them a bit bigger next time.  They came out good and tender, though, and pretty moist, so I wasn’t disappointed.

The ribs were supposed to be Premium Standard Farms, also, but there was a mix up, and we weren’t able to get them in time, so they ended up being from Sam’s.  We did six racks of St. Louis ribs, and, for the first time, I actually prepped them the night before.  This made putting them on the smoker MUCH nicer int he morning!  I also found out that there’s a reason we don’t get photos of everything, like the rib trimming, at a comp… We’re pretty busy at times!  Other times, there’s nothing going on, but sometimes it’s full throttle.

Mark trimmed the chicken really well, but, as you can see in the pic, as they were getting done, he had his car keys ready in case he had to make a quick escape!!!

Actually, the chicken tasted ok, but it wasn’t anything great.  The best we’ve done in chicken was with a bourbon-based brine, and I think we may go back to that as a first step.

We ended up pretty badly in the standings, with pork and chicken bringing us pretty far down, but we did place, and got a check for the first time!

Here are our entries.  Any comments are welcome!