2014 Pig Jam, Plant City FL

[FLBuckeye]

Just finished my first competition (my brother and his wife's second) today. Am tired beyond belief. One hour of sleep in the last 36. Had some issues with my large trailer cooker as it was very windy. Couldn't get 6 pieces of chicken up to temp so we didn't turn in chicken. Was not happy with the quality of the Tyson chicken. Very disappointing. The ribs didn't come out like we wanted to either. We used St. Louis ribs and trimmed them up well. MAJOR issues with the pork and brisket and it took forever to get to temp. We wrapped early and barely got to temp with a short rest period. Pork was OK but as I had referenced before, my bro sprung for a wagyu brisket. It finally finished and OMG, it was tremendous. Pulled right apart; very tender.
Apparently the judges agreed as we got a second place in brisket. We were VERY excited to hear our name called.

Met CandySueQ as she was in training as a rep. Very nice to meet her.

Will post some pics after I get some rest.

[Jerod Broussard]

Good to hear on the brisket. Lack of sleep would be near the top of reasons I wouldn't attend a comp. I get whooped doing an all night cook where I do sleep, but knowing you got 4 briskets cooking, do you really "sleep."

[The Burn]

Congrats on the Brisket!

[smarkley]

Grats on the Brisket... ya lack of sleep makes everything so much harder.

[CandySueQ]

Weather was tough this weekend! Not cold but very windy, which can wreck fire controll and suck heat away. My RAT (rep apprentice trainee) experience was an eye-opener. There is a lot more involved in being an official than I thought! This weekend I worked with the Hon. Stephen Smith, the legendary Carolyn Wells and the handsome Mike Garretson. Stephen is one of the committee that developed the newcsp

[CandySueQ]

Scoring software! Sorry fat finger on my phone. My next training adventure is the Down Town Throw Down in Freemont in Las Vegas in 2 weeks. Instead of 64 teams there'll be 27! Big difference.

[FLBuckeye]

How many teams were in the amateur division and when will all of the scores be posted?

[CandySueQ]

23 - 22 turned in brisket. Results should be at KCBS.us now.

[FLBuckeye]

Thanks! Had we turned in an average chicken box, we would have finished 5-7 overall in the Backyard division.

[Huskee]

Congrats on your 2nd place call FLB! That is awesome! I can only imagine how frustrating that would be on the other issues. I get irritated when things take a long time at home because of crappy weather, I can only imagine at a competition having stuff not cooperate. But it sounds like you came out on top regardless!

[Jon Solberg]

ALRIGHT FLB! Who da man? YOU DA MAN! Very happy for you sir! Thats way cool!

[FLBuckeye]

Here are some pics from yesterday...

[FLBuckeye]

Two turn in boxes:


\

[Jon Solberg]

Again, this is just AWESOME! Thanks for the pics.

[smarkley]

Yes thanks FLB for the great pics... I secretly would like to help a competition team someday, so I am soaking all this up!

[David Parrish]

Awesome FLB! Looks like you guys had a great (but challenging) experience.

[tomtel84]

That is outstanding!!! Thanks for the pix and the overview of your experience. It really helps us newbe competition cookers.

[FLBuckeye]

Results are in! Ribs: 14th out of 23, Pork: 8th out of 22, Brisket 2nd out of 20, and of course no score on the chicken

[CandySueQ]

Reps always say to turn something in! Worst that can happen is a DQ and that won't be zero -- it may skate thru judging and get scored! Hard to take a zero, but you didn't come in DAL! Sorry we didn't get time to visit. This was a real eye-opener for me, never realized all the details that the contest officials do!