It’s a little deceiving to say a day because you actually start about mid-week preparing for a contest. Usually on Wednesday we go to 3 – 4 different stores to pick out ribs and chicken. We had a plan to start out using Compart Pork competition BBQ bundles but we had heard a lot of teams were smoking with Smithfield meats so that’s what we went with, Smithfield ribs and shoulders. As for chicken, we use the “Smart chicken” brand from our grocery chain, HYVEE, here in Iowa. I usually get 16 to 20 thighs so I can use the larger skins to wrap the smaller thighs after prep. We’ve been getting prime briskets at COSTCO and I usually look through 25 – 30 briskets to pick one. Usually on Thursday after work we’ll start going through our competition trailer checklist to start double checking what we have in the trailer and what we need in-case we need to make another store run Friday. Keep in mind we have been developing and refining this checklist for three years now and it has exactly 100 items on it so it takes time to make the checks.
On Friday we both usually still work unless it’s a competition event that we can also vend at then my wife and I would both take the day off to get the vending groceries. Most contest let you trim your meat ahead of time so I’ll usually trim my Brisket and prep chicken. We have a nice prep area in our trailer but not like sitting at your own table watching TV. I don’t do the ribs as Chris trims the ribs every contest he comes to. I’ll also pre-mix my pork and brisket injection and do a final mix of finishing sauces and put them all in labeled jugs. Early Friday evening I’ll go get all the beverages, water, Gatorade, and beer and put it in the fridge to chill. I’ll also by bagged ice and put it in the coolers. We use Grizzly coolers so the ice is just like you pulled it out of the store cooler Saturday morning. As you can guess, the garage fridge is pretty full by now. We will go down the checklist one more time together to make sure all boxes are checked to this point of the game.
Trimmed prime brisket ready for the cooler
Saturday morning I usually get up about a half hour before Chris gets here if he’s riding with us. I’ll load the coolers with meat and beverages. Double check generator, gas, and give the trailer one last walk around. My wife goes through all drawers and cabinets giving the list a third check. When Chris gets here he usually has a cooler and a few things to put in the trailer, for all of you that know Chris he likes things a certain way so of course my knives are never sharp enough so he brings his own. We load up and hit the road.
To be continued in part 2.
a couple of pictures of our battle wagon
