Competition Meat

[Yeti]

Hi, I have finally paid my entry fee, so it is official - I am competing!

What I would like to know is how large each cut of meat is that is provided, and is it skinless ? and is it boneless?

Last weekend I smoked a 4kg Neck-end joint. It was boneless, but had skin on, which I removed, and cooked seperately. It came out great, and pulled apart easily with 2 foks (never managed to do this before!) so how similar is this to the competion cut?

Sunday is my first brisket. It is 3.5Kg and was rolled, but unrolled is about 1inch thick. Another butcher has said a full brisket could be upto 10Kg! (i have ordered a larger flat brisket for next weekend) What size is the competition brisket?

Yeti

[Steve]

I would expect it to be middle of the road size, 8-10lbs for the pork and 10lbs for the brisky. But Toby will have to answer this for you.

Whatever the size, it'll be cookable in the allowed time and if you can cook the sizes you are practising with, then you'll have no issues with the comp meat.

Is the reason you're asking just because you want an idea or do you have a more specific reason?

[Yeti]

Just want to have an idea really. I am trying to work out a time line for each meat, so knowing rough sizes will give me an idea of how long each piece will take to cook at a given temp. At the moment I have no idea how long a 4kg brisket will take. I am trying to keep my temperatures down at 110/120C to see how moist the meat stays. Next week I will cook at higher temps to see what difference there actually is (still low and slow but maybe 150C).

Yeti

[Steve]

That's cool, there are certain ingredients you can put into injections that require very specific measurements in ratio to meat weight, I just wondered if these ingredients were something you were looking at.

In terms of timeline, I usually get my big joints on around midnight, they'll be ready well in advance of turn in time (everything going correctly that is) but I can hold them in a cooler for several hours, in fact this extended resting period helps to improve the end product IMHO.

We may mix things up a bit this year because we're likely to power cook at least the pork and maybe the brisket too.

I know the automatic thing one worries about is those big bits of meat, but in terms of time they're very forgiving. Ribs and chicken are much harder as you don't really want to be resting them for a long time. We aim to be getting these off the cooker right before turn in if possible.

[esselle]

so when would you put the ribs and chicken on steve?

[Yeti]

I agree resting meat is needed and improvers the flavour. I foiled my pork last week at about 1am (decided I would start cooking late in the day!) and wrapped it in a couple of tea towels. It was still warm at 7am, and i had bbq pork sandwich for breakfast! Starting early tomorrow, as I want to eat around 4pm. Brisket, ribs, and maybe a neck-end.

I haven't done much chicken yet, but was thinking to smoke for the initial cooking, then use a high heat to crisp the skin, that is next weeks experiment.

Regarding injections, I haven't dabbled here yet, as I don't have an injector, although i have been meaning to buy one.

Yeti

[Steve]

To answer the question about my chicken and ribs.

Chicken normally goes on about an hour before turn in, my aim is to have it coming off the smoker just before turn in. I cook at 300F and it's usually just over 45 mins for the chicken to be done. Then it's off for saucing and boxing.

Ribs take a bit more of a judgement call, it depends how meaty they are. Normal meaty ribs take about 5 hours. I cook at around 275F for about 1.5h before I check them for colour, if it;s not quite right at that point I leave them another thirty mins. Then they're foiled for 2 hours before I let them finish uncovered to firm up again. Maximum time out of foil is usually 1h. I'll look to get my ribs on around 7am so they're coming off at 12ish.

[esselle]

Thanks again