Competition Brisket

My brisket was not top 3, which ended up surprising me as the people that did try my brisket as well as brisket from other competitors had come back and told me mine was their favorite. I did burnt ends as well as slices. It was by far the heaviest box I turned in.The slices in particular were very thick, as the meat was over done. the thin slices flaked apart, which would be great for sandwiches or to heap on a place to eat, but not very good for a competition box. As it was, the brisket placed 4th, so overall I wasn't too upset.

The brisket, since I did burnt ends, was by far the most work of all the meats. It got hit with a salt, pepper and juniper berry rub as soon as possible, then wrapped up and put in the cooler. One thing about storing a brisket in the cooler with rub is given their size, it is hard to find bags that fit them. I used oven bags. I had the brisket in 3 of them, all 3 zip tied up to help prevent any leaking into the cooler. It worked well enough, but a large plastic container that seals would have been better had I been able to find one.

The whole brisket went on one of the smokers around midnight. The brisket and shoulder each got their own smoker, as they were the biggest hunks of meat. After the ribs went on a smoker at around 6 am, the brisket was pulled off. The point was separated from the flat. At this point that is a pretty easy operation as the fat is very soft and starting to render. The flat got hit with a touch of sauce, wrapped in foil, then put back on the smoker. The point was cubed up into about 1 inch cubes, hit with a heavy dose of sauce, the cubes put into a deep aluminum foil pan and then put back on the smoker.

At about 10:30 or so I took the pan of burnt ends out, hit them all with more sauce and then put the cubes on the smoker outside the pan to let fat drain off, let the sauce get rendered down and sticky and just get more tender and delicious.

The brisket stayed like this until about 11 when it was pulled off, wrapped up and allowed to rest. After the shoulder was turned in the brisket was taken out and sliced. Probably the easiest boxing was finding the 7 prettiest cubes of meat for the burnt ends. I have to say it was tough to not eat the finer looking ones. I knew the ribs would do well, but of all the meats I sampled I liked these burnt ends the best. As mentioned above, slicing was tough as the meat was really well done. Great for eating, less then optimal for competition.

One tip I heard for knowing which way to cut the brisket is to notch the corner of the flat in the direction you want to cut before cooking. this works out great. The grain of the meat is very easy to see before you start cooking it. You want to cut against the grain, so find the direction the grain runs in, follow it to a corner, then cut a small hunk of meat off against the grain. When you pull the brisket off and are ready to start cutting, just find the flat nubby end and start cutting in the same direction.

Competition Pork Shoulder

This ended up being my worst category. I wanted to do some slices of money muscle along with the piles of pulled pork, but the pork was over done. As I was pulling the money muscle off it flaked apart just like the rest of the shoulder, so the judges each got their own pile of pulled pork. I think the biggest issue with this was simply that I've done so many shoulders I may have just phoned it in a bit.

For prep this got a generous dose of rub and sat in the cooler from about 2pm until around 10 pm. No injection, no brine, nothing. Next time it will get a little liquid love.

It went on the smoker at around 10:30 or 11. And it didn't budget until it was pulled off at around 11:30 to rest until turn in. The meat was pulled off at noon, portioned up and hit with a generous dose of sauce.