Amatuer Competition

[afgoalie]

Just to recap, I don't have a lot of smoking experience.  I do have a La Caja China and an AMPS smoker that I plan on using in an upcoming amateur at our Air Force base.

The general rules are as follows:

We must cook 2 briskets and 2 bone in pork shoulders.

We must cook 1 (dry) and 1 (wet) for both the brisket and pork.

Wet will consist of some sort of BBQ sauce.

We get the meat at 6pm and must serve by 11 am the following morning.  Everything must remain in the cooking area. 

Now since cooking times are relatively fast with the La Caja that should leave me some time for overnight preps (i.e. brine, marinating, etc).  Most everyone else will be forced to start cooking soon after receiving their product.  I don't have as much experience with the AMPS so I am still on the fence with using it.  The La Caja will be the cooker though.

What I am looking for are tips, tricks, recipes, etc.  Anything you would like to share I am very open to any and all assistance.  Presentation is not a factor.  Each tasting portion will only fill one single, tiny egg compartment within an egg carton.  So picture 8 contestants sharing one egg carton.

On the line is a big green egg and bragging rights of course.  I've already had a buddy claiming to have already won the competition so it's game on.

After the judging we will have to provide the remaining meat for a fund raiser.  We must provide enough sauce for all the meat (wet and dry) if the customer desires.

Thanks,

John

 

[pineywoods]

Good luck with the comp and instead of brining or marinading consider injecting it's much faster and will yield better results

 

[jrod62]

Good luck

 

[smokinhusker]

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[afgoalie]

Opps

 

[afgoalie]

Well, the results are in. I took 1st in dry brisket(no sauce) and 2nd place overall. I'll try to post some photos in a couple days. I used the La Caja and limited the charcoal to cook low and slow. I also used the A-Mazing smoker. Words can't describe the level of awesome that resulted. I have cooked alot with the La Caja and this completely blew me away.

 

[alblancher]

Congrats on your success!

 

[oldschoolbbq]

            

          

   

 

[africanmeat]

 

[rabbithutch]

:worthless

 

[afgoalie]

It appears you all have an appetite for photos.  I consider this cruel and unusual punishment but you asked for it.  I appologize in advance because I was rushed to the judging table and didn't get photos of the brisket.  Rest assured they would have been equally awesome.  I cut pencil thin slices and they were dripping moist and almost fell appart in my hands.  The last image might seem jacked up, but if you can dig up a pair of old-school 3-D (red/blue) glasses you'll get an up close and personal look.  Yes, the last photo is in 3-D.

This first shot is with both La Caja China's fired up.  You can see that the charcoal is concentrated on the left.  Earlier in the night I had the charcoal even further to the left.  The meat was all on the right.  At the end I had the charcoal across the entire top to achieve my desired temperatures.  Total cook time for the 8-9lb briskets and 10lb pork was around 9-10 hours.  I used the AMNS smoker in both units. 

 

[barnesski1]

Cool set up!  Nice looking Q, and congrats on your success!  

 

[scarbelly]

Congrats on the great outcome