Championship BBQing Techniques
Championship Pork

In each of the topics we will be visiting, (selection, preparation, etc.) we will explain how the contestants move through the process of creating award winning entries for the judges to select from. There are thumbnail photos, which when "clicked" will display the full sized photo.

Preparing Your Mind

"Championship" presupposes that you intend to enter a contest and win. If that is your goal, the first step is to learn for whom you are cooking. It is immaterial how you like your barbecued pork and what your sweetie likes it isn't worth a hill of beans. Your goal is to satisfy the nebulous palates of six unknown judges, some of whom may never have tasted a real piece of barbecued pork. Most contest sanctioning bodies now have what they call "certified" judges. This means that the judges have had a short course in how to apply the rules of that organization and how to fill out the score card and the mechanics of the judging process.

It in no way indicates that they have the ability to taste, the knowledge of what real barbecue is, how to balance texture with tenderness or the mental capacity to not narrowly impose their personal tastes and prejudices upon your barbecue. So you must cook for the "lowest common denominator" of their personal tastes. What this means is BLAND. The seasonings and sauces must not be too anything - not too spicy hot, not to tart, not too sweet, not too salty, not too done, not too dry, not too moist and forget exotic spices that may shock their Provencal palates.

Setting the Schedule

Contests allow about a 10 minute window in which you must present your entry to the judges. If you bring your meat to its peak 2 hours before it is due, it may well be way past its prime when it reaches the judges. And producing the best barbecue in the world is fruitless if delivered 5 minutes past the deadline. If you intend to become a consistent winner, you must establish a schedule based on your experience with your cooker and continue to refine it and somebody on your team must make certain that you are faithfully following the schedule. Record times, temperatures -of the meat, internally at the beginning and at 30 minute intervals, of the cooking chamber and of the ambient temperature along with humidity, wind, precipitation and then record your impressions of the finished product and how the judges rated it.

Selecting the Meat

Have made the right mind set, the next step is to choose the lumps of hog carcass from which you will create your masterpiece. Whether you use shoulders, which is the whole front leg and shoulder are called, or the Boston butt, which is actually the shoulder separated out from the leg, there are certain characteristics which produce better barbecue. Look for fat evenly interspersed within the meat rather than collected in pockets. This interspersed fat is why this part of the hog is so popular for barbecuing. If the fat is properly dispersed and cooked out slowly at around 200° until the internal temperature of the center reach around 200° the meat will be moist and tender. Most folk will opt for the butt. So look for compact Boston butts with fine veins of fat, evenly distributed. You will need several, 3-6, to cook and then choose the best of those for your entry. Choose the middle size range, not the largest, nor the smallest. But, if upon experimentation, you find that you and your pit do better with larger ones, do not hesitate to use them.

Preparation

Butts need very little preparation. Trim off any skin and excess fat and reduce any layer of fat to no more than 1/4" thick. Record the weight of each and identify them accordingly. The smaller butts will cook quicker and if over cooked will be worthless for competition. You should, of course, use rubber gloves when handling the meat and make certain that knives, cutting boards and other utensils are thoroughly washed with soap in hot water.

Seasoning

This area has plenty of room for controversy. To rub or not to rub. To inject or not. It might come as surprise, but, unless you really botch it up to the point that you offend some judges palate, it won't make much difference. Seasonings on the surface simply will not penetrate far into the butt and injecting is really a waste of effort. To be effective, seasoning has to be injected in many, many sites in small amounts rather than substantial quantities in a few locations. Then at least 90% of any liquids will, hopefully, run out. I say, hopefully, because if a judge gets a bite of that concentrated flavor it may be too much for his taste and you immediately lose. Personally, I like to rub the surface well with a basting sauce containing some oil, let it dry and do it again before putting the meat on the grill. The main concern is to keep the surface from drying before the center reaches the proper temperature.

Cooking the Meat

Needless to say, you are going to need sufficient hot coals to maintain the temperature in your grill at between 200 and 225° for 12- 15 hours. So the grill/pit should have been full stoked and allowed to reach the proper temperature before putting the meat on. Throttle down the air intake — LEAVE THE EXHAUST FULLY OPEN — to maintain the desired temperature at the meat level. Temperature readings above the meat are meaningless. If cooking with wood, start a fire in your pre- burn pit now. If using charcoal briquettes, you can wait until about 20 minutes before you need them to light the up. If using lump charcoal, no pre-burn is needed for flavor purposes, but unless you do, the temperature inside the firebox will drop when you add the lumps because it has to absorb BTU's in order to ignite.

For wood selection, read "Burning Wood & Blowing Smoke" in "According to Smoky" on the website or turn to page 306 in "The Great American Barbecue & Grilling Manual" for a fuller exposition. Personally, oak is the favorite with a little hickory, but most hardwoods will work well. The main concern is not to over smoke.

I am of the basting persuasion. I believe that it keeps the exterior moist which aids in the transfer of heat to the center. (Read "Heat" in "According to Smoky" or the chapter on heat in the book.) Moist matter is much more effective in transferring heat than dry matter, so the longer that you can keep the exterior moist, the better it will transfer heat to center.

After about 4 hours, usually after 2-3, the meat will not absorb any more desirable smoke flavor, but offensive creosote may be deposited on the surface if too much smoke is present. So, you get no benefit and some danger in producing smoke after 2-3 hours.

Monitor the ambient temperature at the meat and the internal temperature of the meat. I find the thermometers with digital read- out and remote probes essential. You should record these temperatures at least every 30 minutes. As you build a history, you can predict more accurately when your meat will be at its optimum for presentation. It is important to record the ambient temperature, moisture and wind conditions, because these can have a dramatic effect on cooking times.

Depending upon all the related temperatures, the butts should be done in around 12 hours. After 10 hours, begin to pay close attention. When the meat begins to draw away from the bone it is approaching ready. When the bone can be easily pulled, it is done.

Choosing the Entry

As time nears for prepping the entry, you must decide which of your butts is what you think will best please the judges. Teams have several methods used to choose. Usually, several members of the team will gather, taste those butts that have not been already knocked out because of defects, and settle on what they intend to enter. Sometimes the outer bark may be selected from one butt, the pulled pork from another. One thing to remember is that exposure to air will cool the meat quickly and dry it out. So the selection process should move swiftly. Meat is usually displayed with some bark, some meat pulled, some meat chopped and occasionally sliced. The contrast of colors from the dark outer skin, the pink "smoke ring" and the whiter interior should all be represented.

The Presentation Box

Memorize the rules on presentation written by the sanctioning body. Follow them exactly. Beyond that, choose the best pieces of meat and arrange them attractively in the box. In the shoulder/butt category, include some pulled and some chopped meat and include the gamut of colors from white to the dark brown bark. Count to make certain that each of the six judges can get a separate portion of each type of meat in the entry. Now a critical question arises: To sauce or not to sauce. Keep in mind that your goal is to satisfy the questionable palates of the judges, so not too spicy or exotic. If you believe that you meat benefits from the addition of your finishing sauce, by all means, use it. It should be applied evenly over the meat, not puddled, and it cannot be served up separately from the meat. Ultimately the overall flavor, sauced or not, will determine the taste scores. The choice is yours. So, sauced or not, close the lid tightly to prevent heat loss and take it hastily and carefully to the entry point.

Post Mortem

After you have sent the entry in, record the views and opinions of all the team members who were in the choosing process. Try to be specific in your impressions. Have each member rate each entry just like the judges are going to do. After all the entries are in and all the information is recorded, relax and have a cold one.

After the judging results are announced, get your copy of the scores and see how the individual judges scored each of your entries. By and by you will have a data base of scores for your entries in each category — those from the team and those from the judges. This can help direct you toward an end product that is consistently competitive. Don't be discouraged when some tasteless judge scores you low. See how the majority of the judges scored. You want to strive to reach the top five percent level and continuously refine your process. Don't make any great changes, just incremental adjustments.

Persevere and remember that the real reason you are doing this is to have fun. If, after all pots and pits are cleaned and the wagons have been loaded, you can honestly say that you had fun, then you have been successful.

Memorize the rules on presentation written by the sanctioning body. Follow them exactly. Beyond that, choose the best pieces of meat and arrange them attractively in the box. In the shoulder/butt category, include some pulled and some chopped meat and include the gamut of colors from white to the dark brown bark. Count to make certain that each of the six judges can get a separate portion of each type of meat in the entry.

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