Early June always brings excitement to the team. It’s time for Tryon and the North Carolina State Barbecue Championships. This is a bit of a different KCBS contest. The four main categories; chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket are cooked, but this contest also has a whole hog category.
The who’s who of competition barbecue teams always attends. It was a collection of the finest teams in the east. The organizers are top notch. The cookers are important at this event and it shows. Tryon has also been going green the last couple of years. It’s a refreshing change for the better.
I usually put work on the back burner for this event. I like to plan a vacation around the trip. Tryon is a beautiful little town nestled into the Blue Ridge Mountains, just southeast of Ashville, NC. With some extra time on our hands, we left Thursday afternoon and arrived before sunset at Harmon Field. It didn’t take long to settle in, and by night fall we were happily sitting in chairs, enjoying a cold adult beverage and making plans in anticipation of the next day’s priorities. The team was set. Attending would be Mary and Kait of course, Bob and Gary Brown, Chris and Tricia Finney, and Garland and Rebecca Hudgins. Edward Mills would be our SCBA judge who was cooking with the team to advance to his Senior Judge status.
After breakfast Friday morning Mary and Gary took off to Hendersonville to get garnish and procure chicken. We used a special organic chicken that would be available in Hendersonville. They had a fairly long list of items to purchase, so Bob and I patiently waited for Finney and Tricia and Garland and Rebecca to arrive. Meat inspection would have to wait until Mary and Gary returned from the store with the chicken. Nerves were starting to settle in a bit. The temperature started to climb.
Chicken arrived and our meat was inspected, it was prep time. We trimmed, injected, rubbed and bagged everything we could by 3 O’clock and it was off to the cooks meeting. I like cooks meetings; they are always fun. It’s a good chance to see old friends, shake hands and wish each other good luck.
When I returned from the meeting Finney was getting busy with the Anything Butt entry. He was preparing Coc Au Vin. As he browned the meat and created the roux, the dish smelled fantastic. It was hard to keep a dipping finger out of the sauce. Chris had bought some white bowls that would fit well into a half pan. Once the dish was finished, we plated and garnished and headed for the turn in. The dish was another great creation by Chris Finney.
I fired up the OK Joe right at 6pm. My time line for the big cuts for this cook would be 8pm to 8am. It takes about 2 hours to warm up the pit and get it to settle down. She was right on time. At 8pm we loaded the butts and brisket and commenced to enjoying the evening. Mike and Vicky Adams came by for an evening visit. We told stories, chatted about everything we could think of and took numerous walk abouts to visit friends at the event. We were keeping the pit steady and waiting on Midnight. Chicken would go into the brine at midnight and it would be time to shift out for some sleep.
Chris, Bob and I took early sleep shifts, and Garland and Ed stayed up and fed the pit. Finney and I were set to meet at 4am for rib rubbing. Everything went off without incident and Garland retired for a well deserved nap. First fire shift is always a long day. We introduced the ribs to the pit at 6am. So far everything was on time, and progressing very well.
The large cuts were on time. They started to finish up at 8am and the last brisket was wrapped in redneck chrome to rest right at 9am. Ribs were being worked with layers of flavors and at 10am it was time to put the chicken on Bob’s new Stumps cooker. We had been doing a lot of work on Bob’s new stumps. It was equipped with a new Stoker forced air convection system. He had been running the cooker since noon on Friday. He made some pig candy and put on a practice Boston butt. The cooker was running very smoothly, and we didn’t anticipate any problems. None were experienced.
12:30 was the first turn in. Chicken would be first followed every ½ hour by ribs, pork and brisket. All of the boxes were done with ease and all turn ins were on time and looked great. We were all feeling very good about our products. The food was good, the boxes looked great. It was in the hands of the judges now. We had done our best.
We spent a little time cleaning up the cook site and rehydrated from a very hot day. 5pm was the awards ceremony. The results were good. We walked to the stage with a 5th in ribs. We finished 26th overall on a field of 80 very talented cooks.
After awards it was time for dinner. Kait made a very good Shrimp Scampi and Garland and Rebecca made Rib eye steaks with corn on the cob and baked potatoes. It was a great day capped by a great meal. We enjoyed a little of the evening, but an early bed time was in order. The heat of the day and hard work had taken its toll on everyone.
We got up reasonably early on Sunday, packed the trailer, camper and trucks and headed home. We had had a great experience in Tryon. It’s a great contest, put on by dedicated volunteers, and features the best cookers on the circuit. I'm already looking forward to next June.
