Shertz Fest BBQ comp AKA Six Guns a Blazin first comp

[Pony Express]

I am sooooooooo tired and sore!
Got there Friday at about 4:00 and started setting up. Had a b-u-t-ful spot under a big pecan tree. The weather was really nice, cool, dry, slight breeze, until 7 am Saturday that is when it started raining. Rained for a while then stopped. No problem, big canopy kept us and the pit dry.

Heres how I set up

schertzfest 1.JPG

schertzfest 2.JPG

had a tent set up for napping, and the lantern hung from the center of the canopy worked really well.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the other teams set ups but I fit right in and it appeared as if I had been doing this for awhile. Many were surprised when we told them that it was or first comp.
cont. next post

[ChileFarmer]

Looks like you fit right in. Great that you didn't get completely flooded out. Looking forward to more photos. CF

[Pony Express]

ok so now on to the BBQ

I entered all 3 meats, (brisket, 1/2 chickens and spare ribs) and the jack pot beans.
Had no trouble getting everything done and turned in on time.
No picture of beans
heres the chicken. NOT very pretty and I cant tell you how it tasted because we had to turn in both halves. It was brined over night. It was juicy and plump when I took it off the pit

schertzfest chicken.JPG

Heres the ribs. Now I did 2 racks . 1 stayed on the pit 6 hours, was moped regularly, pulled and wraped and rested in cooled for 1 1/2 hours. The other was foiled at 3 hours, pulled and rested in cooler with other rack. We turned in the ribs that were warped at 3 hours

schertz fest ribs 2.JPG

This is the brisket. Its a choice from Costco. it was injected, rubbed and smoked for bout 13 hours. I rested it in the cooled for 1 hour, then sliced and turned in. It was very tender

schertzfest brisket.JPG

Now this brisket was absolutely delicious. I tasted others and I was sure that we would be in top 3 and possible be first.!

Cont next post

[Pony Express]

Ok, so heres how we did. There were 16 teams competing

Beans 5th
Chicken 14th (no surprise there)
Ribs 5th now my ribs were very tender and good taste, but I was surprised at the call)
Brisket 12th!!! I was dumbfounded! Talked with the guy who won brisket, who had tasted mine. and we was also surprised!

All in all, we had a great time, learned some things, didnt look like newbies, (thanks to you all with you help) and will defiantly do this again.

Please tell me what you can see in the brisket picture?

[ChileFarmer]

Pony, brisket looks mighty fine to me, Nice smoke ring, good bark and moist. What more could one want? Happy you did well on your first go. CF

[JamesB]

Congrats on the calls! Great job on yer first time out!

[nascarchuck]

Way to go!!!

As far as the brisket goes, well, I aint no judge or nothin, but it looks just fine to me! Like CF said, nice bark, nice ring...

[Big Ed]

Congrats on your first comp.I know what you mean about being tired,i just got all my stuff cleaned and put up.Now im ready for some football.

[Bluz]

Great Job Pony, and congrats on the calls. Great pics !!! Maybe one of these days James and I can think to take pics in the heat of battle, hasnt happened yet, but we'll get there.

[cowboydon]

I have not done a comp yet, however it likes like you have a very nice setup and I think for the first time out all your food looked great to me, and after finding a raw chicken while judging in Keller, yours looked plenty enough done for me, But that brisket really does look better
than a 12th.
Congrats on having a sucessful first comp.

[OSD]

Congrats on the calls and your first comp.

[Burnt Food Dude]

Congratulations on your calls.

The brisket looks good but there are several dark spots (bark I assume) on the visible slice. I would have tried to clean them off but in the heat of battle they may go un-noticed. The right sides of the brisket looks a little raggedy. Could be the pics. If not I suggest getting a longer knife. I had the same problem then switched to a 12 inch and the problem seems to have gone away. If not, just trim the ends off but make them uniform. When the sides have been over done (read dry), I've sliced off both sides and turned in the center cuts of each slice. I try to make it uniform.

I cook in KCBS contests where the rules are a little different. We don't have to turn in 1/2 chickens.

Otherwise everything looks good.

[Burnt Food Dude]

Forget about the parsley. If you notice the right side of the first couple of briskets have been cut off. The space has been taken up by hunks of sauce free burnt ends. KCBS allows burnt ends. Were you allowed to put in burnt ends? If so I'd do it. I think it would make the box look fuller. A full box is a happy box. LOL I notice I have some black specks also.




You didn't see a bottle of liquid spray Parkay in the picture. No. it doesn't get lightly sprayed on the backside of the brisket . Nope No Sir. Not me.

[JamesB]

Hey BFD. In the two contests I've done here we are not allowed anything in the box, but the piece of foil and the meat to be judged. I had thought of trimming the edges of the slices to fit the box perfectly, but in the cooks meeting of the LSBS contest we did last weekend, we were instructed to not trim. If the sliced did not fit in the box, to fold the ends over. Now, I'm thinking about trimming to fit before I cook the beef...

[Big Ed]

Thats a good look'n salad.LOL It makes for a good presentation though!