- Nov 14, 2015
- 9
- 19
A couple of weeks ago my best friend called me on a Sunday and asked if I wanted to do his church's bbq competition on Saturday. I agreed because I figured I've catered parties of 120+, so a small church competition shouldn't be a problem. WRONG! Turns out this event had around 700 in attendance last year.
Fortunately for us it was people's choice and we could make whatever we wanted. I knew pork could go a long way and had a little wiggle room when cooking. To separate us from the rest we chose to make a bbq sauce with local bourbon and local honey and then serve it in half tortillas and garnished with fresh chopped pineapple.
It was a little overwhelming when we showed up just the two of us, with a $25 Craigslist smoker and everyone else had full teams with trailers and RV's. It started out a little rough being in booth 20 of 20 and being told by everyone that they were too full to eat anymore. Fortunately word got out and our line started to build. I'm not going to spoil the outcome, but scroll through and enjoy.
About 60 lbs. of pork butt and 120 tortillas.
I'm a little obsessed with being organized.
All of the ingredients for our "Bourbon Luau" sauce.
Small test batch was delicious so we went full scale.
A couple hours in smoking at 250.
I was hoping for more bark by 165 IT, but it eventually got there.
Was super excited to hit my 203 IT right on schedule.
Getting ready to pull the first two pork butts; we were swarmed before I could take a photo of the pork pulled apart.
Lesson learned, it takes more than two people to serve sample tacos to over 500 people.
Missed 1st by 20 votes and 2nd by only a couple.
Celebrating our 3rd place victory with a 17% Avery Tweak.
Fortunately for us it was people's choice and we could make whatever we wanted. I knew pork could go a long way and had a little wiggle room when cooking. To separate us from the rest we chose to make a bbq sauce with local bourbon and local honey and then serve it in half tortillas and garnished with fresh chopped pineapple.
It was a little overwhelming when we showed up just the two of us, with a $25 Craigslist smoker and everyone else had full teams with trailers and RV's. It started out a little rough being in booth 20 of 20 and being told by everyone that they were too full to eat anymore. Fortunately word got out and our line started to build. I'm not going to spoil the outcome, but scroll through and enjoy.
About 60 lbs. of pork butt and 120 tortillas.
I'm a little obsessed with being organized.
All of the ingredients for our "Bourbon Luau" sauce.
Small test batch was delicious so we went full scale.
A couple hours in smoking at 250.
I was hoping for more bark by 165 IT, but it eventually got there.
Was super excited to hit my 203 IT right on schedule.
Getting ready to pull the first two pork butts; we were swarmed before I could take a photo of the pork pulled apart.
Lesson learned, it takes more than two people to serve sample tacos to over 500 people.
Missed 1st by 20 votes and 2nd by only a couple.
Celebrating our 3rd place victory with a 17% Avery Tweak.
