When I got my first smoker, I started cooking pork using the "Mr Brown" recipe that I found at the Virtual Weber Bulletin Board web site. For someone first starting out cooking Q, this is a great recipe. By the time I cooked my first contest in May of 2006, my pork recipe had changed somewhat, but was still based on the Mr. Brown recipe. However, I turned the pork in without sauce at that contest. Here is the picture from the turn in box at Rhode Island.
To me, this box looked super dry. It scored 12th out of 21 teams.
The next contest we cooked, I changed it up and used pulled, chunks and slices of pork in the box. This took 13th out of 33 teams.
This box was kind of a mess looking at it now....and it is the only time I have ever turned in sliced pork.
Anyway, the next few contests, it was pretty much the same, with pork scoring in the middle of the pack. I knew that I had to make some changes to push it over the top. I made wholesale changes, using new rub and sauce, and I also started injecting. The first time I tried this recipe in competition was at the Jack Daniel's in 2006. It was our best BBQ result of the Jack, taking 20th place. Here it is....
Since then, the recipe has been tweaked and the presentations have changed, but overall my pork is pretty much the same. It has gotten some really good calls, including 3rd place out of 35 teams at Westport last month. While I love change and experimenting, this is one category I will be leaving alone, at least for now.
2 comments:
Nice little progression there, Ted; I'm wondering how well that first pork entry would have done with some sauce.
I'm a fan of another pork recipe from the Virtual Weber Bulletin Board, the modified Armadillo Willie's: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/pork1.html
I have never cooked that exact recipe, but it looks good. The one thing I like about both recipes is that they call for the cook to make all of the rubs, sauces and mops rather than use over the counter (or over the Internet) stuff. I think recipes that promote making things by hand helped make me a better BBQ cook.
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