The summer break went by quickly. Too quickly in fact, and before I knew it Garland was asking me what the fall schedule looked like. He was trying to make plans at work. Bob and I had discussed a few options, but I wasn’t in much of a hurry. I figured we had plenty of time to make some decisions. I knew we were planning on going to Abbeville; Union and Laurens were in the mix as well.The economy was in the process of taking its nasty turn. Fuel prices were on the rise and prices of food were climbing weekly. The fifth place ribs in Tryon had left us with a very small budget, but not one that could cover three contests, 2 of which were in the KCBS format, where we would have to supply our own meat.
Before I knew it, Union entry fees were due, and we had a conflict on the schedule. We just had too many things going on and something had to go to the wayside. I put my eye on Laurens’ Squealin’ on the Square and The Hash Bash in Abbeville. They were back to back weekends, and if I could schedule a vacation at work correctly, it could be done. I put the idea out to Garland and Bob, they were up for it, Wal-Mart approved, and fees were sent for both contests.
The wives had other ideas. My wife Mary and Bobs wife Gary had made plans to visit a pottery Expo in Gainesville, GA on the same weekend as Squealin’ on the Square in Laurens. With those plans solid, it only made sense to ask Garland’s wife Rebecca to the expo, and it would be “guys weekend in Laurens”. So it was!!
My brother Tom lives in Greenville, which is a pea shoot away from Laurens. My original plan was to pack up and leave on Thursday evening, take my Mom to Greenville, visit with family and be on site in Laurens early Friday morning to get our area staked out. Unfortunately, Tom had a health issue, and my Mom would have to cancel her visit. We changed plans quickly and would leave early Friday morning. Laurens is about a 3 hour drive from Charleston, and I wanted to leave as early as possible. It’s always nice to get into an assigned spot and get set up. Then we can get meat inspected and prepped as early as possible. The longer the meats can sit and marinate, the better. Bob had business to tend to, we would shoot for a noon arrival. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be a cluster of madness when we arrived.
Hope is a nice thing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t. This time it didn’t. Laurens was a festival in progress when we arrived. The streets were already filling up with festival goers and many of the teams had already arrived and were set up. We waited a bit, Bob found a red shirted organizer, we got our spot and pulled in.
It was a very tight squeeze. He had about 30 linear feet to drop the pit and the trailer. We managed it but the trailer would open on to the sidewalk, which was going to be busy with the public for the rest of the day Friday and all day Saturday. We would have to make due. Most of the events we attend, we can have support vehicles near by. We were notified my event personnel that we would have to park in the public out lots. The nearest of which was about 3 blocks away. We had to completely unload the trucks, which left us to manage a situation that we were unfamiliar with. Where would we put all the stuff. We had traveled too heavy.
We got as organized as we could. Thank goodness the weather was going to be good. Bad weather would have drowned us. We got meat inspected, prepped it and got it into the cooler. We would run our usual timelines and fire the cooker about 6pm.
Garland had volunteered to handle the Anything But Pork contest on Friday night. He was going to make Apple Enchiladas. They are apple pie filling rolled into a flour tortilla, cooked in a very rich butter sauce, topped with caramel sauce and pecans. The dish was very flavorful, sweet as your Grandma, and rich as your Uncle. We spent some time with the prep work, made the dish and dropped it into a box.
The afternoon was spent visiting. Terry Thrasher from Primal Que stopped by and our old friend Big Al Werts spent some time in our area. Dennis Dill from Devine Smoke and Bryan Lions from BareBonz also stopped by for a visit. Terry is working on a new logo for Carolina Pit Masters and he brought us by a few designs from the portfolio. The designs look great. Look for a new logo soon!
We were running the Oklahoma Joe and the Stumps cooker for the weekend. This is not the first rodeo for either cooker, but it is the first time we have hooked up the Joe to a forced air convection system. Bob did some research and found out that there was a bigger fan available for big offsets so we ran both cookers off of one CPU. It took a bit of getting used to but the cookers ran without incident for the entire weekend. It was really interesting to mix an old style Texas offset with new technology for controlling draft. Honestly, it as a pleasure. There wasn’t much fuel saving, but the luxury of a constant heat flow made the addition very welcome.
Bob had prepared dinner. We had a very good version of Triple Chili. Big Al stayed for a while and we all drank a few adult beverages and shot the bull. The music was great, the company was welcome, and we enjoyed a cool evening of cooking on the square in Laurens.
I volunteered for the first shift of sleep. Bob and Garland watched the fires and stayed busy listening to music and talking about the day. First shift sleep is sometimes difficult for me. I usually have a million thoughts about the cook running through my head. This cook was no different. I did manage to nap for a couple of hours and relieved Bob at 4am. Garland had decided to nap as well and he woke up with me and we got ribs rubbed and on the cooker.
Remember, the wives were in Georgia looking at pottery. I was sure they were having a good time, but we needed to get the garnish for the boxes done. Garland and I iced the parsley for a bit, and started to build our “putting greens” in the boxes. Garnish can be done ahead of time, and we didn’t want to have to build on the fly. Garland and I sat for about an hour and a half and built 4 very nice foundations for our sample boxes.
The cook went well and all of the large cuts were on time. We acquired a Cambro catering box a couple of months ago, and this would be the first time we would use it. It too was a welcome addition to the collection of tools that we need to do well. The Cambro boxes are well insulated and can keep hot food hot for many hours.
By 9:00am, briskets and butts were in the box, ribs were on the cooker, the garnish for the boxes was done, and it was time to turn our attention to chicken. We had dropped the chicken into a brine during prep and had taken it out to dry a little bit when we rubbed ribs at 4am. Bob had rejoined the group after his rest and had the Stumps running nicely and getting ready to take on some chicken. Finney had sent us a new cooking process and we were eager to try it out. The chicken was seasoned and we dropped it on the grates to cook at 10am. I was starting to get the usual butterflies in my stomach and the excitement of the day was starting to build. The first turn in, chicken, was due at Noon.
A KCBS contest is fast paced and exciting. Turn in times arrive every half hour starting at Noon. The Chicken comes first, ribs, pork, and finally brisket. Preparing the meat for turn in has to be well thought out and a cook will stay busy for a solid 2 hours with very little time to rest. Chicken has be glazed, ribs are being glazed at the same time, pork has to be prepared and the brisket points need to be separated from the flat as quickly as possible. It’s fast paced but a lot of fun. It’s like playing Beat the Clock in the kitchen!
We hit all of our times with time to spare. All four categories went in without incident. We rested a bit and enjoyed the festival. Bob had made some friends who were watching us work though out the morning and we shared some of our competition meat with them. They were delighted. Bob has never met a stranger. It’s one of the qualities that will make him Mayor some day.
The festival was packed. We are all involved with judging and are certified in multiple organizations. Many of our KCBS judge friends stopped by for a chat. We were waiting on 4 o’clock for awards. Overall, we had cooked well. The cookers ran without incident and all of the flavor profiles had been executed well. All of the plans had worked out. We experienced a little glitch with some chicken skin sticking to the grate, but we had managed to cover it well. I thought our food was fantastic. My bias is obvious.
4 o’clock finally arrived. It was awards time. We carried some chairs to the Court House steps and sat down in eager anticipation. Mary was calling my phone. The wives wanted to stay on the line and be part of the awards. I was too excited to oblige. This was our final shot for the year. Our food was good, and it was time to see just how good it was. The talent around us was well above average. The awards started with the Anything But Pork category. We were not called, and Garland had a bit of a disappointed look. Chicken was next. They were calling 8 places for ribbons and trophies, the top 5 would get checks. We placed 3rd in Chicken!! This was our best effort to date. Bob and Garland had done the cooking and were very happy with the outcome. Ribs were next and we were blanked. I thought the ribs were outstanding. We must have made an error somewhere. Pork followed and we listened intently for our name. The calls were made, third, second, and no Common Interest. Our name was called for a 1st place in the pork category!! We were as happy as we could be. Brisket immediately followed and we got an 8th place call.
We knew we were one of the top finishers in the contest, but would it be good enough to win. The Grand Champion would get an invitation and paid entry into the American Royal in Kansas City, and an entry into the lottery draw for the Jack Daniels invitational. These are two of the three major goals I have set for Common Interest. The announcer made a huge build up. We waited and listened intently for our name to be called. Butts and Breasts got the call for Reserve Grand Champion. We were still in the race, but with all the great teams around us, I began to get a sinking feeling. The announcer continued to build the excitement and paused for what seemed like an eternity and called Common Interest as Grand Champions. It was celebration time. Hands were in the air, hugs were had, and a very happy Common Interest team walked to the stage to accept the award of our first Grand Championship in the KCBS format.
We celebrated throughout the rest of the afternoon, and enjoyed the evening in Laurens. We would wait until the morning to pack the site and head for home. We enjoyed a nice dinner with the Pickin’ Porkers Crew and Big Mo and the Aho gang. We celebrated our victory until we were just too tired to stay with it anymore. We traveled home happy.
Congratulations to all of the cookers who got calls in Laurens. It was a cook I will remember.
