Over 500 pitmasters compete at the American Royal World Series of Barbecue in Kansas City, Kansas, in hopes of becoming the barbecue grand champion. Watch top competitors Tuffy Stone of Cool Smoke and Grant Basiliere of Que U fire up pork ribs, pork shoulders, beef brisket, and chicken in a fierce rivalry to win the title of best-in-class barbecue.
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00:00 To do well at this competition, you need everything to be perfect.
00:04 You can cook your best food, but you need to hit those right tables of judges that just
00:09 really enjoy eating your food and score you for it.
00:12 The American Royal World Series of Barbecue is the world's largest barbecue contest with
00:16 505 teams here this year.
00:18 I like to say we're the NFL of competition barbecue.
00:21 It is not for the faint of heart.
00:23 I don't think there's more teams competing in a world championship than there will be
00:27 this Saturday and Sunday.
00:29 First impressions of American Royal is just pure volume.
00:31 When you see 500 teams in one venue, the motorhomes and the trailers and the cookers and the scale
00:37 of it, how do they get everybody in here?
00:39 But this venue is, you can't get any better than a Speedway.
00:48 My name is Rod Gray.
00:49 I'm the CEO for the Kansas City Barbecue Society.
00:52 We facilitate the event, tabulate the results, and hand them over to the organizers so they
00:55 can award the winners.
00:57 My name's Tuffy Stone.
00:58 I've been cooking the American Royal since 2005.
01:01 Tuffy Stone with Cool Smoke is one of our top competitors.
01:05 He's definitely a veteran.
01:06 He's very exacting in what he does.
01:08 He has very specific processes.
01:09 He has a very specific timeline.
01:11 He knows ideally that you have to recreate great barbecue every time you compete.
01:18 Grant Bazalier from Gurney, Illinois and QU.
01:21 QU won both the Invitational and Open last year, and that's an amazing accomplishment.
01:26 The reps that were tabulating turned to me and said, "Has anybody ever won both contests?"
01:32 It had never been done.
01:33 Winning the Invitational and the Open last year, it's a little overwhelming.
01:36 Never been done before.
01:38 This year, coming back to the Royal, there's a little bit of pressure to win this thing
01:42 once, to win it twice, and it's a huge deal.
01:44 At the American Royal, the way the judging's gonna work is they're gonna have four meat
01:49 categories, and it's pork ribs, pork shoulders, beef brisket, and chicken.
01:53 The way the judges score barbecue is from nine to five, and then there's a two if it's
01:59 inedible, and then there's one as a disqualification.
02:01 We judge on appearance, taste, and tenderness.
02:04 So you can place in each category.
02:06 You can get a second, fourth, fifth, not win a category, but you can win the whole thing
02:10 overall.
02:11 That's what we shoot for.
02:12 I'm gonna start with chicken.
02:14 We brine chickens.
02:16 Chicken can be either chicken thigh or leg.
02:19 I've always done chicken thighs.
02:21 Process is a little bit more timely.
02:22 It takes me about an hour, an hour and 15 minutes to trim 16 perfect thighs.
02:27 We've been using Springer chicken.
02:29 They come in four packs.
02:30 16 is my recipe.
02:31 I know it seems a little much, but I like cooking 16.
02:35 I need that skin right there.
02:36 Opening up this pack of chicken, these three right away are gone.
02:40 That for appearance sucks.
02:42 You put that in a box, and you got this piece of flesh with no skin around it, you want
02:45 everything to look the same.
02:47 So that's a, we can't use that.
02:50 So I got one to work with right now.
02:52 With appearance, you want every piece to kind of look the same, especially with chicken.
02:56 You can kind of clip off any kind of bones that are hanging or clean up the skin a little
03:00 bit.
03:01 Take this little piece right here, take it down to the bone, and I'll remove that.
03:04 And then I'll remove this little tendon right there.
03:06 We're gonna leave the bone in, and then I'm just gonna trim out some of these thicker
03:11 pieces of fat.
03:12 I'm gonna roll it over, square it off.
03:13 A little pillow of love.
03:15 So this is what we're shooting for 16 times.
03:19 This is my chicken brine.
03:20 It's got some sugar, some salt, a little bit of juices, and all that good stuff.
03:25 Trying to get a bunch of flavor into this thigh, help it kind of break down and get
03:29 tender for me.
03:30 So I just do this for about two hours and go from there.
03:35 So we're in my trailer.
03:36 We call it Camp Cool Smoke.
03:38 Now it's getting down to brining the chicken.
03:41 I start off in a French kitchen, so my brine is mirepoix, which is a fancy way of saying
03:46 carrots, onions, and celery.
03:48 We have, I think, 21 chicken thighs.
03:51 We've tried to make them all about the same size, the same shape.
03:55 Salt, sugar, bay leaves, some peppercorns, Italian flat leaf parsley, and I've got some
04:00 fresh thyme.
04:01 Brines can be a really nice way of just elevating a dish.
04:05 And we're gonna let it soak for two hours.
04:07 I want, when these judges take a bite, they're gonna get that rub, they're gonna get that
04:11 chicken, they're gonna get that sauce.
04:13 But as they get into it, I want some of the nuances of this brine to come together.
04:18 What separates competition barbecue from backyard barbecue?
04:21 We're gonna push the flavor a little bit more.
04:23 It's gonna be a little bit more assertive.
04:24 It's gonna stand out.
04:26 Chicken's been in the brine for two hours.
04:27 We're gonna pull it out, put it on paper towels, make sure it's good and dry.
04:32 You can see the skin's white.
04:35 They've plumped up a little bit since we put them in the brine, soaked in some flavor.
04:39 Put it in a couple of pans, and we're gonna refrigerate it and let it air chill till tomorrow
04:44 morning when we're gonna put a rub on it.
04:47 Brisket, it's Snake River Farms.
04:49 They grade it on a silver, black, gold.
04:53 These are gold, American Wagyu.
04:54 I'm removing some of this fat on the backside.
04:58 This weekend, I am cooking two briskets each day.
05:01 You want options when you're cooking for this many people and such a big deal.
05:04 So this side is where I'm gonna try to pull from.
05:08 That thickness is perfect.
05:09 That's pretty much what I'm looking for.
05:10 I square it off to fit in this aluminum pan.
05:15 So this is a Wagyu brisket, aged 28 days.
05:19 So this rub is gonna be very savory.
05:22 It's gonna have salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, a touch of cumin, granulated garlic,
05:27 granulated onion, and a little bit of turbinado sugar.
05:31 I'm trying to put out a flavor profile that's gonna be appealing to everybody.
05:35 Some judge might like it salty, somebody might like it sweet, somebody might like it tangy.
05:40 My goal is for my taste to have a little bit of all of that.
05:45 So now we're gonna go into our injection.
05:46 Coming from my culinary background, I'd never injected anything before until I got into
05:52 competition barbecue.
05:53 We're gonna do a grid-like pattern.
05:56 It's not gonna be more tasty than the brisket itself, but it's gonna be really nice.
06:01 With competition barbecue, it's a one-bite competition.
06:04 You're trying to get as much flavor in one bite for these judges to impress them.
06:07 We inject brine, we season heavily, sauce it.
06:11 It's pretty intense.
06:13 Pork is the one that takes the longest.
06:15 So I start that sooner than everything else.
06:17 Pork shoulder.
06:18 So right here is that money muscle.
06:20 We trim that thing out, and that's where we get our slices with.
06:23 It's delicious, it's cooked perfectly.
06:25 Everybody's doing money muscle.
06:27 It seems a little ridiculous coming to these things and cooking five pork shoulders.
06:30 Judges, I'm sure they look forward to eating a money muscle.
06:33 It is the best part.
06:34 Even if I'm at home, I'll take that whole thing right there.
06:37 I'll braise it out, especially being from Pennsylvania.
06:39 That is, pork and sauerkraut is huge on New Year's Day.
06:43 I have some nice monies here, and I will have more options to pick from when I slice these.
06:48 I couldn't be more excited to cook these things tomorrow.
06:51 Pork brine already made.
06:54 So I'm gonna start with all of the money muscles.
06:57 In the injection, it's a little bit of some apple juice, we do a little bit of maple syrup.
07:02 It does plump up really, really nice.
07:05 Once it starts squirting some injection out, I know I'm there.
07:09 Maybe this one's gonna be what's gonna take me over the top as far as taste, tenderness,
07:13 and appearance.
07:15 Money in the bank.
07:16 Now it's time to start the pork.
07:18 We're gonna come in with two rubs.
07:19 It's gonna be a sweet rub and a savory rub.
07:22 I think it's got all the flavors that would make anybody happy that likes pork.
07:27 And if you don't like pork, you shouldn't be here anyways, 'cause this is all about
07:30 beef, pork, and chicken.
07:34 This is apple juice-based pork injection, and it's got some brown sugar in there, too.
07:37 So the spicy rub and the brown sugar and the apple juice, it's kinda nice.
07:42 And right now, in my mind, everybody's still tied for first place.
07:45 It doesn't start to change until we turn in chicken tomorrow.
07:50 Injections are done.
07:52 Everything's done for tonight.
07:53 Everything's in the fridge, hanging out.
07:54 Gonna get up tomorrow, 5.30, late to pits, and get some meat cooked.
07:59 So that's it.
08:00 It's all fun and games right now.
08:02 Everybody's casual, loosey-goosey.
08:03 But as it gets closer to turn in, this laughter and all this fun, all of a sudden get to be
08:09 a little bit more quiet and a little bit more intense.
08:12 Tonight I will be in bed at 9 o'clock.
08:14 We'll be full-on concentrating on cooking great food tomorrow.
08:19 It's 7 a.m.
08:22 I got briskets fired at 6.30.
08:25 Pork went on at 7.
08:26 Four hours until turn in, so I'm gonna keep these things dialed, about 300 degrees, season
08:31 ribs in about 10 minutes, and go from there.
08:33 How'd you sleep last night?
08:35 Horrible.
08:36 I've been working about three hours.
08:37 I have allergy season.
08:39 Kicks my ass.
08:40 7 a.m., and these pork shoulders are going on.
08:43 I'm gonna take these for about an hour, 45, two hours, get some good color on them, and
08:48 then I'm gonna wrap and then check them in about an hour, 15 hour, and 20 minutes after
08:53 I wrap.
08:54 If you come in here, you'll see I've got some ribs here.
08:58 They're St. Louis cut.
08:59 I've cut these a little bit smaller 'cause it's all about concentrating on the best bones.
09:04 My brisket flats, I got my brisket points.
09:06 They're cooking to doneness.
09:08 Over here, I got my pork butts.
09:09 This is a Texas crutch.
09:10 They've been wrapped in aluminum foil now.
09:12 Cut the money muscle off, and I'm just checking for doneness.
09:15 They're still feeling a little snug.
09:17 They're temping good, but it's a combination of temperature and touch.
09:21 So we're gonna let these cook for about another 10, 15 minutes.
09:24 We'll pull them off.
09:25 We'll let those rest.
09:26 Around 7.15, I like to season my ribs about an hour before I put them on.
09:30 We injected these last night, and you can tell they took really well to it.
09:33 Looking forward to cooking them.
09:35 This is old school right here.
09:36 This is a Cimarron Dox.
09:38 It's a very popular one with all barbecuers.
09:41 And then the next one I'm gonna put on, I'm gonna keep this one secret.
09:44 You can't give everything away.
09:47 I cook four racks of ribs.
09:48 You only need to throw six bones in the box.
09:50 We shoot for 10 'cause it fills the box, and it looks really cool.
09:53 8.15, we're gonna fire some ribs.
09:55 We're gonna get them on here.
09:57 Right in there is some blues hog lump charcoal in that basket.
10:00 Fill it up just about to the top.
10:01 Again, a full basket would get you six, seven hours of a cook time.
10:04 So when it's about ready to fire, I'll throw about three of these pecan wood
10:08 chunks, two or three of these pecan wood chunks on there just to help out with
10:11 the flavor.
10:12 Fit them in snug.
10:13 I'm on the gateway drums.
10:18 I wanted to start doing competition, and I was thinking about doing an offset.
10:21 These were very popular, and they were winning.
10:24 They're a ton of fun to cook on.
10:26 You're always moving, spinning, flipping, efficient, a lot of good flavor.
10:31 You get four of them going at the same time, it's like we're gonna saute line.
10:34 It's a good time, it's fun.
10:35 I'm cooking with hickory.
10:38 I like to split it.
10:40 I've got a tool here that I can split it really small.
10:42 My process is harder.
10:45 If you wanna set it and forget it, I'm not your guy.
10:48 These little bitty logs burn up quick.
10:50 So we have to stay on top of it and feed it as needed.
10:53 And I'm cooking on a traditional Texas offset pit.
10:59 You look at that stack right now, and it's running clean as a whistle.
11:03 I wanna treat smoke like salt and pepper.
11:04 I wanna treat it like a seasoning.
11:06 The bigger the cut, more smoke.
11:08 The lighter the meat, less smoke.
11:09 But I like a clean stack.
11:10 We're getting our chicken thighs.
11:14 They were brine, they were air chilled all night.
11:17 Now we're just coming in with our rub and we're seasoning them up.
11:19 I've got three different rubs.
11:21 All of them got different ingredients.
11:23 Some of them share ingredients.
11:24 I'm kinda walking this dance between trying to make it look pretty for
11:29 the judges and at the same time have it look like barbecue.
11:32 When you talk to competitors all weekend long here,
11:35 if they're turning in chicken thighs,
11:36 they're gonna talk to you about bite through skin.
11:38 Not about crispy skin, but about skin that when you take that first bite of
11:42 that piece of chicken, your teeth bite through the skin.
11:45 And it's harder than it sounds.
11:46 And then we're gonna put it up on the hot part of our grill.
11:49 And the reason I wanna cook hotter up there,
11:51 it's that pursuit of hopefully being able to give these judges a bite through skin.
11:55 Cuz they really like if you can give that to them.
11:58 Chicken prep, I wrap these just to help with the shape of them.
12:02 Trying to get 16 all to look the same.
12:04 So when I do plate up, I have plenty of options.
12:07 I got two different seasonings I'm doing.
12:09 Sweet, savory, bold kind of seasoning.
12:12 Kinda place them down.
12:14 What I'm trying to avoid is any kind of thumb, like that.
12:18 Just trying to avoid smudging it up.
12:20 I'm just trying to, cuz I'm trying to season these all evenly for
12:23 appearance purposes.
12:24 And after I do this, I'm not gonna touch them.
12:27 And they're gonna go on in about an hour.
12:28 This time of the day, a little hectic.
12:30 You got multiple meats you're worrying about.
12:33 I do need to give my ribs a little peek, maybe a little flip.
12:36 Cuz I do, I'm gonna wrap those in about 45 minutes if they're there.
12:41 When we're doing competition barbecue, timing is critical.
12:43 If we get too rushed and we don't scrutinize every piece of meat that goes
12:48 in, it could come back to haunt you.
12:50 I'm getting ready to check a brisket.
12:51 And they're getting close to being done.
12:53 Part of it is temperature, part of it is feel.
12:55 And that is feeling really good.
12:56 So I'm gonna go ahead and pull this off, and I'm gonna let this meat rest.
13:00 But now I'm coming in just to check the doneness of this pork butt.
13:04 They're close.
13:05 They're probably about five, six degrees off from being done.
13:08 The meat was put on at three.
13:09 They were wrapped at seven, so it's 922, and the pork butts are feeling good.
13:16 All right, we got four butts off.
13:18 The briskets are off.
13:19 The brisket flats and the points are both off.
13:21 We are 40 minutes to turn in.
13:25 Still have one kind of brisket lagging.
13:26 It's a big guy, but it will be fine.
13:28 Again, I have options.
13:29 And then this chicken I'm gonna check in about five, six minutes.
13:33 Our turn in times last ten minutes long.
13:35 They're every 30 minutes for the four categories.
13:38 Chicken starts at noon, ribs are 1230, pork is one o'clock, and brisket is 130.
13:43 I'm gonna give a peek at these chickens.
13:46 Those look great.
13:47 I'm gonna roll with them.
13:49 So what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna try to find
13:51 eight that I love that are all the same size and shape.
13:56 And I'm gonna get them into one pan.
13:59 So I'm gonna go eight and eight.
14:00 I wouldn't hand that in.
14:01 It's kind of wonky.
14:02 It's shaped differently.
14:03 So I'm looking for all the same shape.
14:05 Make sure that skin kind of adheres to the meat.
14:08 So this is the eight that I really like.
14:10 It's gonna go to that half pan all by itself.
14:12 Pay attention to it big time.
14:14 Chicken's cooked to the doneness that we're looking for.
14:19 Now we're gonna dip it in the sauce.
14:20 Put it back on the cooker just to lightly set.
14:23 We get into these entries, it starts to get more and more focused.
14:27 I do my best work nervous.
14:29 I do my best work with a little bit of edge.
14:32 You'll see my demeanor change.
14:34 When we start getting into when the chicken goes on for me,
14:37 I get a little quieter.
14:38 Chicken's very precise.
14:40 [MUSIC]
14:43 I got split skins, which isn't great, right there and there.
14:47 I cooked these same chickens last weekend and I got no split skins.
14:49 And now they all wanna split, which it may,
14:53 there's no rhyme or reason behind it.
14:54 Just, you're just gonna have to deal with it.
14:56 I'm gonna pick out six of my not prettiest ones,
14:58 cuz that's what didn't split.
15:00 And, appearance scores will happen.
15:02 But, yeah, it's not a good way to start off the day, but it is what it is, right?
15:09 I can't remember the last time I had split skins on chicken.
15:11 It's not like seriously.
15:13 It sucks big time.
15:14 So I got one, two, three.
15:16 Yeah, this sucks.
15:19 Yeah, it's not a good way to start off the day, but yeah, this sucks.
15:24 To do well at this competition, you need everything to be perfect.
15:28 What we're gonna do is we're gonna sauce them.
15:30 I'm gonna try to find the six that I like, all the same size with no split skins.
15:34 So with appearance, you want every piece to kinda look the same,
15:37 especially with chicken.
15:38 It just looks really good in a box.
15:40 We take some of the seasonings that we seasoned this with, and
15:43 we grind them up to a nice fine powder.
15:45 Just to kinda apply right before we plate up, to give it that one last little pop.
15:50 I'm gonna do two little tastes, and just make sure it's,
15:52 the tenderness is good, and then see where the flavor's at.
15:54 So, it's fantastic.
15:57 >> We have got to give ourselves enough time to review.
16:04 Part of it is through touch.
16:06 We can use our eyes, we can see moisture.
16:08 In some cases, we can do a sample to know whether it's got the texture that we're
16:13 looking for, or the flavor that we're looking for.
16:16 >> All right, so go ahead and paint them till they're pretty.
16:18 All right, touch that.
16:19 Looks good to me.
16:19 Go ahead and touch that.
16:21 Touch that.
16:22 That looks good.
16:22 Touch right there.
16:24 You can go into this one next.
16:25 All right, let me position, and then we'll dock them again.
16:28 >> I have a couple more options than I think.
16:30 I didn't think that guy was gonna make it.
16:32 Super pretty.
16:33 What I'm gonna do is, I'm just gonna get the back end of this with a little bit of
16:36 sauce, so I can stick this finishing dust right on the back of it for one last pop.
16:42 This is boxing time.
16:43 And then all I'm gonna do is just place it in there.
16:46 Like, I'm gonna center it up just a little bit more.
16:48 [MUSIC]
16:50 >> Right there.
16:51 >> Now we're putting it into our box and working on presentation to turn in.
16:56 Tell them to hold it just like that and don't squeeze.
16:58 >> All right.
16:59 I don't wanna mess around here,
17:01 especially with being 500 teams in a four minute walk.
17:05 Four minutes, huh?
17:06 That's what it's gonna take you?
17:07 >> Four minutes.
17:07 >> Let's roll. >> All right, thank you.
17:09 You're kinda, cuz I'm getting a little stressed out.
17:11 >> Contests like the American Royal,
17:13 there are hundreds of people trying to turn in at the same time.
17:15 It is very stressful.
17:18 I've seen some of the best competitors on the circuit get disqualified because
17:21 they're pushing the envelope.
17:22 >> My adrenaline is totally kicking right now.
17:26 My heart's probably pounding a million miles a minute.
17:29 And my ultimate goal is to not fall and to keep my box about as steady as I can.
17:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]
17:38 Excuse me, ladies.
17:40 Thank you.
17:40 >> Thank you.
17:43 >> All right.
17:44 >> [SOUND] >> So we seat six judges at a table.
17:49 In addition to the six judges, we have a person called a table captain,
17:52 whose responsibilities are to go out and get in line, bring back those six samples.
17:56 Make sure all the judges get their numbers written on their cards and
17:59 their plates correctly.
18:00 And then the table captain shows them all the entries they judged for appearance.
18:04 Once we're done judging for appearance, then he starts to pass these boxes and
18:07 judges remove a sample.
18:08 And once that's done, they go to work judging for taste and tenderness.
18:12 And they write their scores on a card.
18:14 When the whole table's done, we collect those cards, and
18:16 then they go off to tabulation where we have a group of folks keying in those scores.
18:20 >> I'm gonna check ribs, see where we're at with color, see if we're ready to wrap.
18:24 I think these are right where they need to be.
18:26 That seasoning's tacked on there, it looks real good.
18:28 I love the color, so I'm gonna go ahead and pull them and
18:31 then get my wrap process going.
18:34 Apple juices, seasonings, turbinado sugars, maple,
18:37 I mean, we're just getting it all in that wrap.
18:38 We want somewhat of a flavor bomb.
18:40 It's a one-bite competition, so
18:41 we're gonna try to get as much flavor into these.
18:44 The idea is to take one bite, but most judges probably take two,
18:48 maybe three if they love it.
18:49 If you eat everything put in front of you while you're judging that day,
18:53 you'll eat over two pounds of meat.
18:54 They might be happy for a while, but I think they'll ultimately be miserable.
18:58 >> So Jeff's handing me the ribs.
19:00 We are gonna season them with seven ingredients on both sides,
19:03 put them in the full, do the Texas crutch again.
19:06 We're gonna cook them for about another hour and a half and then check for doneness.
19:09 [MUSIC]
19:12 >> People talk about a rib that's falling off the bone.
19:14 If you really get good at cooking ribs and
19:17 your meat's falling off the bone, it's overcooked.
19:19 We're looking to cook this rib to where we can take a bite where our teeth
19:23 land on the meat, it comes cleanly from the bone, but the rest stays there.
19:27 It's got a nice succulent, silky chew.
19:31 >> I'm gonna just start cutting.
19:33 I can just tell by cutting it.
19:34 You can probably get five good bites out of this one.
19:37 My certain process is I slice them, I sauce them,
19:40 I throw them back on the pit for a little bit.
19:42 I think it just warms them a little bit, and
19:43 you can let that sauce kinda tack on there.
19:45 >> We're gonna put some sauce on both sides, put them back on the cooker just to
19:50 let them lightly set, slice them and pick our best, put them in the box.
19:55 >> The prep for turning boxes in can be stressful.
19:59 What's not stressful is when you slice a rib and it just feels luscious.
20:02 It's not a wedding for 350.
20:04 It's just putting six pieces of meat in a box and
20:06 sending it, but it can be pretty stressful.
20:09 [MUSIC]
20:12 >> Behind, behind, come at the right.
20:14 All right, this is a heavy box.
20:15 Do not press down on the top.
20:17 [MUSIC]
20:26 >> I like the color on my pork, so I'm gonna go ahead and wrap it.
20:31 I mean, you could just see that that fat's nice and rendered out.
20:34 That color's really good.
20:35 Fat is your friend, butter is delicious.
20:38 So what I do is I come and I just hit it with some of my liquids.
20:42 I did get some apple juice in there.
20:44 Just kinda hit it over the money a little bit.
20:46 One of these glass bottles for five bucks.
20:49 And then I'm gonna come back over the top with everybody's favorite, maple syrup.
20:54 Maple syrup and pork is delicious.
20:56 I don't know who started it, but I appreciate them.
20:58 This is a turbinado sugar, sugar in the raw.
21:04 I'll use this.
21:04 I find that this, cooking such high heat in my wrap,
21:07 it doesn't get as dark as, say, brown sugar.
21:09 And then I'm gonna come back over the top, a little secret.
21:13 This is another seasoning.
21:15 I just like getting in there, there's some dried onions, some paprika,
21:18 some wood flavors.
21:20 I'm just gonna come in here, just start an extra pop in the wrap.
21:23 And then I'm just gonna, butter going right on top of that money muscle and
21:27 just make it that much more delicious.
21:29 >> Mouth feels important, especially like pork.
21:32 I think one of the ideas is if you can smash that pork to the roof of your mouth,
21:36 it's probably overdone if it's mushy, for example.
21:38 So you still want it to have some body, some integrity.
21:41 >> Back on the pit at 300.
21:43 Boom.
21:45 See you in an hour.
21:46 >> We're in the thick of it.
21:48 It might not be a sport, but it's not for wimps.
21:50 So these are the money muscles, and
21:51 we're just hitting them with a little bit of sauce all the way around.
21:54 There's a lot of steps in competition barbecue, and
21:56 the crucial steps come down to trying to pick the best pieces of meat that we're
22:00 doing, so we cook four butts, and we're just scrutinizing it,
22:04 evaluating it for taste, tenderness.
22:06 >> Tenderness is the stressful part of this.
22:09 It's the last thing that you actually get to taste.
22:11 Again, you can work on appearance.
22:12 Looks good.
22:13 Tenderness, you don't slice that piece of brisket or
22:16 that pork shoulder until a couple hours after it's off.
22:19 So while it's sitting there, you don't know how it's gonna slice,
22:21 how it's gonna hold up.
22:23 And you can go a little under, and you can go a little over.
22:25 I'm removing the money muscles.
22:29 I'm gonna take a little end piece off just to see where I'm at with flavor and
22:31 tenderness.
22:32 [MUSIC]
22:34 It's good.
22:34 That is good.
22:35 Take this fat off and expose that bacon.
22:39 I turn it into what they call the bacon.
22:41 Underneath the fat cap is like this nice stringy bacon.
22:43 It's delicious.
22:44 It's actually cooked really, really well.
22:46 I'm super happy with it.
22:47 Kinda break this up, not too much.
22:49 I wanna get it to the pieces that I wanna put right in the box.
22:52 Count those real quick, Cheney.
22:53 >> One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
22:57 >> I'm good.
22:58 Go.
22:58 I don't even wanna look at it.
22:59 >> Why not?
23:00 >> Because it's really good, and I just, I don't know,
23:02 I just don't wanna mess with it again.
23:04 >> Okay.
23:05 >> Damn, that one's good too.
23:06 >> Yeah, it's [BLEEP] this is a good pork box, my friend.
23:09 >> Today, I felt really good about the texture of everything.
23:13 But the worry is air is the enemy to barbecue, and as it gets in that box, and
23:16 it goes to the judges, and it finally sorts to the tables.
23:19 Hitting it with a little glaze felt like what we did was probably the smart move.
23:23 So we turned in chicken, we turned in pork ribs, we turned in pork shoulder.
23:29 We got one category left to go, it's beef brisket.
23:32 The window will open at 125, and it closes at 135.
23:37 Cuz we only got that much real estate to work with, so
23:39 we're like a carpenter when it comes to barbecue.
23:41 We measure twice and we cut once, hopefully.
23:43 All right, here's what I did.
23:45 I counted nine.
23:47 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, cuz that's the fat.
23:51 [MUSIC]
23:54 All right, so I'm gonna go on either side of this brisket and get a slice and
23:57 see what's on.
23:58 I'm gonna kinda shoot for as far as tenderness goes.
24:01 Good way to look at it, you can bend it, give a little tug.
24:05 And that's just a little tight.
24:06 It eats really well.
24:07 See how this side does?
24:09 I can already tell slicing it, it's gonna be a little bit more tender.
24:13 You just kinda get a little pull.
24:14 That's where you wanna go with tenderness.
24:16 I just do a nice trimmed brisket.
24:19 We sauce it just right so it has a nice sheen, doesn't look dry.
24:22 We shingle it just right so each is just perfect.
24:25 I shoot for seven, maybe eight slices in a box.
24:28 Beautiful box.
24:29 Yep, let's go.
24:30 [MUSIC]
24:32 It's gonna take about four minutes for the box to get there.
24:34 [MUSIC]
24:38 I think that needs to be chucked down a bit, the slice itself.
24:42 Franzberger, happy motoring.
24:44 All right, and that's a wrap.
24:47 We instruct the judges to pick up a slice of brisket, and
24:51 it should pull apart somewhere near the middle.
24:52 And then you're instructed to sample that brisket from where it pulled apart,
24:56 cuz that's probably the most tender point of it.
24:58 Regarding the smoke ring,
25:00 they're specifically instructed not to judge based on smoke ring.
25:04 Because it can be recreated with chemicals.
25:07 So seriously, we specifically instruct our judges not to judge based on smoke ring.
25:12 In three and a half hours at five o'clock, so if y'all come with us,
25:18 we'll see whether we got our butts whooped or whether we get a ribbon at the rule.
25:22 >> [APPLAUSE]
25:23 >> In 13th place, 861,
25:26 Hot Coals Barbecue.
25:28 >> [APPLAUSE]
25:30 >> In 12th place,
25:32 team 958, Rusty Tate.
25:35 >> [APPLAUSE]
25:45 [MUSIC]
25:55 >> Ribs weren't as pretty as I wanted them to be.
26:01 Chicken had a little hiccups, but pieces that we ate were pretty good.
26:04 I love pork today.
26:05 I thought the money was good and pool was good.
26:06 Even I had to fuss around with it for a little bit.
26:09 Brisket seemed all right.
26:10 I just wish it was a little bit nicer presentation,
26:12 a little bit more uniform slices.
26:14 But sometimes it's just nature and the beast.
26:16 You just gotta work with it and what you got.
26:17 So we had a good time.
26:19 >> We had a great time.
26:22 We didn't get a call, but we've had good fortune here before.
26:26 It was great to see everybody get to get up on the stage,
26:28 grab their trophy, grab their ribbons.
26:30 As far as our cook went, we were very satisfied.
26:33 We were happy with our chicken, our ribs, our pork shoulders, our brisket.
26:37 Chicken was a tad salty, but we had a great time, saw a lot of old friends.
26:42 I hope we were able to give you a glimpse into how we sometimes spend our weekends.
26:46 Competition Barbecue, you can meet some amazing people.
26:51 You can learn a lot.
26:52 It's a lot of fun.
26:53 >> In the American way, may your name be called last.
26:56 Say cheers.
26:58 >> Cheers.
26:59 [MUSIC]