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Daddy and His Holy Smokers Debut- warning, picture heavy!

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Ericd3043:
The sign Sarah (my oldest daughter) made:



What a long day - had to work until 12:30am and then load up the van for the competition this morning.  In bed by 2am, up by 5 and just now sitting down.  My three girls joined me and were up and active!



6 am selfie..... Sarah and Rachael in the background...


Not sure who gave my red head the sharpest knife....


This was advertised as a Backyard BBQ competition.  I had incorrectly assumed that it meant no professionals..... I was wrong.  Out of 22 teams that showed, most were veterans of competitions longer than my youngest team member (10 years!)  There were 4 new teams, including ours.  The guy to the right of us had won the Peoples Choice Wing Competition 5x in a row...

Neighbor to the left


In front of us... part of the competition


First up were the Wing Competition - many of the participants all said that the People's Choice is a crap shoot, but the people that come to this one liked things spicy.  Had to keep that in mind.  I had made a Bourbon Maple wing sauce earlier in the week and realized that , while there was a kick, not enough - as my oldest daughter said, it was fruity with a little kick (finally told her it was the bourbon).  I ended up adding more Cayenne Pepper until I thought I got to the right mixture. 

In the WSM 22.5" grill... just start smoking the wings


The finished project...


End Result:  We pulled 3rd! 

One caveat - some teams were given 20lbs of wings because they had extra left over.  That meant those with 2 batches had 2x the chances (each purchase gave them votes for their favorite - 1 wing, 1 vote for what they like).  The 2 teams that were ahead of us got 2 batches.  We only got 1  10 lb bag.  We were told prior to the competition though, so it was not unknown.

Next up - chicken.  It was due 2 hours after the wings.
Couple of notes - I forgot to add wood to the charcoal in the WSM, so no smoke.  After I finished trimming, seasoning, rolling and getting them set up, I got talking to other participants.  Apparently boneless, skinless thighs is not traditionally what is used - go figure!  We made 12, served six. 

I made a sauce that my brother developed over the years.  It was pretty good, but spicy so I tempered it a little bit (added some bourbon and apple juice to balance it some).  Also was keeping in mind the recommendation to lightly glaze the chicken.

Chicken Thighs on the WSM


Boxed up and heading to the judging booth


End result:  We placed 17th.

Our scores ranged from 27.4 to 33.7 with a overall score of 152.5.  The only comment received was that they were too sweet.  My brother will find that funny - maybe I thinned them too much!

Final item:  Ribs

We made 3 racks of ribs - 1 with no mustard and 2 with mustard.  I put the one with no mustard on top of the Red Box and the other 2 underneath.  I knew that the top one would be more tender.  I ended up smoking (did not have enough smoke though) them for 2.5 hours, another 1 1/2 hours in the foil then 1 hour back on the grill.

I used a commercial sauce, a family favorite.  We had a major issue- I had used Baby Back ribs.  They were wonderfully trimmed and looked great.  However, I found out that they are tough to cut.  I had a new knife, but really butchered the first rack - I could not cut through cleanly.  One of the participants that we had friended with brought their knife for us to use.  Unfortunately, I was unable to use the first rack and had to use the ones that were lower in the box.  I knew they were tougher, but had to box something....

The boxed result:


Final result:  17th

Our scores ranged from 17.1 to 35.4.  I find it funny that they all came from the same rack of ribs - I did not have time to cut the other rack, but one was 9,9,8 and the lowest was 6,5,5.  Comments ranged from Pale ( they were...), not enough meat (reasonable), too sweet (disagree, that sauce has kick), tough (definitely).  The one positive comment card?  Very tender, excellent sweet taste with an after taste (came from the Pork Candy rub I used, mixed with Peach- I ran out of the Pork Candy).

Overall, not a bad experience.  Girls had fun, we learned some things, got our name called once...  I am beat though.  It was a long day.

hikerman:
Congratulations!  I'd say that was a successful first competition!  And it sure looked like your "team" had a lot of fun! Nice job pops! ;D

Hub:
Great post -- thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

Hub

TMB:
So cool.  Hey a call first time out ain't bad, not many folks can pull one off.

Important part is you had fun, you learned something and the best part you had time with your kids

tomcrete1:
Congrats! It all looks like winners to me  :)

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