The weekend of April 17 was Catchafire for Q’s first competition this season. This was one of the smoothest competitions we have ever done. Everything went really well. We had trimmed the meat ahead of time so we didn’t have to worry about that onsite and had the trail organized and a schedule set to follow.
When we got to Kings Mountain and checked in there was a little bit of confusion about our name. The fireman who we met shouted it back to the person in charge of checking us in and that person heard “Kitchen Fire!” As he was a fireman, he appeared at the door pretty quick to see what was going on.
We got checked in and set up. The first surprise was that the “Anything but” was an onsite judging. We were not prepared for that. We got our plan together and Ken (our fearless leader) ran to the store for some supplies while I finished setting up. When Ken returned he got the Anything buts prepared while I went to the the cooks meeting.
I grabbed my water and headed to join my fellow competitors. I got to the meeting and sat down. As we were getting ready to start I took a BIG swig of my water only to hold it in my mouth as I read the label on the bottle; Vinegar. Boy was I surprised! No were to spit it out I had to swallow it. Vinegar is not as refreshing as it sounds.
The rest of the competition went smoothly. Overall we didn’t do well but we had our best appearance scores of any of our competitions. Now that we have the look down we will need to get our flavor profiles and tenderness nailed.
A few things we learned:
- Pre-preparation is good - REAL GOOD
- Taking only what you need saves on time and space
- Bring sleeping bags
- Don’t drink vinegar
- It is nice to be able to relax at a competition