All American BBQ Bash
Sept 2/3rd, Ames, Ia

Hot off our win at the Winterset contest Frank, Rick and I headed to Ames with much excitement. We had a great brisket and one very large butt in our new refrigerator that added to the pressure of cooking well. Cool weather was in the forecast as was rain for Saturday.

We served 2 briskets to several guests (who brought more food) attending Friday night’s party. I ate enough that I was ready for a nap by 9:00.

The cook went pretty well except for our brisket and pork. The temps on both meats stalled at 170 and 183 for almost 3 hours before we said uncle and pulled them off. The judges told us exactly how our decision was by giving us our lowest score in pork for the year … a 142! We also received our first two comment cards that said the pork “had good flavor but very mushy” and we had to agree. Our mistake was cooking to temps rather than feel.

We did place 4th in chicken, 21st in ribs, 32nd in pork and 2nd in brisket for 15th over all and a respectable score of 654. Had we gotten just our average score in pork we would have finished 5th overall. So once again we have one bad score that kept us from a nice finish amongst some great teams.

Next up the grand daddy of them all the American Royal!