As the sun begin to rise, everyone was anxiously awaiting some warmth. But we didn't get it. With the sun rise came a heavy fog and we didn't see the sun for another couple of hours. But there was still work to do. Around 8:30, Bob and Mary arrived and I got a little much needed rest. I didn't sleep but it was nice to relax for a couple hours without worrying about the fires in the smokers. By 9, everything was cooking. Jenn got back to the site at shortly after that and started cleaning the greens for the boxes and then started to dress them.
With 15 minutes to go before the chicken turn in we pulled them out of the smoker and started to examine them and pick the best looking ones. This proved much harder than I expected and took a little too much time. But we got it in and up to the judges table with 5 minutes to spare.
Next was the ribs, and these were already out of the smoker and resting. We were overall pleased with they looked and how they pulled apart so we picked the best six ribs from the middle of the racks and handed them over to Jenn where she used a creative touch and turned in our best looking box in my opinion.
Next up was the pork. This was a concern of mine all morning. I didn't feel that I had put in on early enough for it to be truly fall apart tender. When we took it out and started pulling it apart, my greatest fear was realized. It was cooked through all the way but a lot of the fat and connective tissues had not had a chance to melt away. We got the best pieces we could and sent the box up hoping for the best.
Lastly it was time for the brisket to be turned in. This was perhaps the biggest surprise for me. I thought it turned out near perfect. A surprise because this was only the third one I've cooked and the previous too were border line inedible. I got it on the table and started carving. It was like I was cutting butter with a hot knife. The flavor was pretty good and really thought we had a chance with it.
After all the containers got turned in, we took a few minutes to breath and then it was time to start cleaning up and tearing the site down. We had a couple of hours before the awards so we were able to take our time with it, which was a nice change for the weekend.
As we made our way to the stage, exhaustion set in. It seemed like the stage was a good 5 miles away. Then the MC started and suddenly got a shot of adrenaline mixed with a bit of nerves. He rattled off the top ten teams in chicken and no mention of Sweet Racks. Next was ribs and we were thrilled to hear our names in the number 8 spot. Then it was the dreaded pork category and to no ones surprise we were absent from the top 10. Last up was brisket and we didn't have to wait long this time as we took the 10th spot.
We we thrilled that we managed two top tens in our very first competition! We ended up 12th overall out of 21 teams and we couldn't have been happier. Now it was time to work out what went right and wrong so that we could improve when we do it again in two weeks!
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