West Coast Barbecue Championship

Fairfield California

August 16th, 2008

A national KCBS sanctioned event

Team results:

• Chicken - 5th place
• Ribs - 31st place
• Butts  - 32nd place
• Brisket - 36th place
• Overall - 30th place
• Total contestants - 40

As you can see, we did quite well for chicken, but not so good on anything else. This was our first awards call ever - even for backyard or local contest. And we're going up against the big dogs - a national event, championship series. The trophy (picture), walk, and cheers from the other teams made all the hard work worth while. The $50 don't annoy me much either.

Pork: Our butcher did us a (sarcastic) favor and removed the bone from the pork butt. Lesson learned - always specify bone-in when ordering. Make sure to look for the bone-in when picking up or purchasing off the shelf. This caused us big problems, and I don't mind blaming this for our pork running out of time before turn-in.

Ribs: Our bones finished early and had to rest for too long a period of time. Although they were good ribs, others excel at ribs, and ours were not up to snuff especially considering the rest time.

The Brisket wasn't great either. Though I knew it wouldn't rank last place, I didn't think it would rank that low. It finished early too and we used every trick in our book to help it revive it for turn-in time. Looks like we need some new tricks, but hey - we're Too Ashamed to Name, so no big deal.

Event website

Here's the shiny chicken love for all it's worth: