Memphis in May

Memphis in May

Postby SaySausages.com » 21 May 2014, 04:30

Memphis in May was quite simply incredible. The people were exceptionally friendly and the support of other teams was second to none! As some of you may know this was the first time to the event and infact due to a cartwheeling Ole Hickory at mine a couple of weeks before the first time I had cooked a whole hog and used this cooker.

Several British teams have taken part in the past and infact we had hoped the Crispy Critters was the UK version to add a little fun rivalry but it wasn’t to be. Our only goal was not to finish last and if we managed to stay outside the bottom 10 this would have been a remarkable victory.

My room at the quality inn was turned into a Rub, Injection, Sauce and Mop production line for the first few days and thanks to a cold I didn’t realise that the whole place smelt like BBQ sauce although most of the guests would have called this an improvement!! It was certainly an experience making everything on a single hob and pan which was one of my first purchases from Walmart!

We had quite a few teething problems which had a knock on effect, Sams club (their booker) which was going to deliver a lot of our ingredients to site lost our order so we had to run around and buy everything off site and move it in. The hire company which has a monopoly took until Thursday late afternoon to get the essential like fire extinguisher to site which meant we weren’t able to fire up the pit and practice so we decided to have a bit of fun on the Friday with the sides but that’s a whole other matter!! It was impressive that by the time the comp had finished we were still waiting for lights and security fencing from the hire company but I guess that may get there for next years event!!

For the sides we entered all of the sauces, beef and wings and were very happy with a 19th, 20th & 31st? in Mustard Sauce, Beef and Wings. For our tomato sauce I hadn’t prepared something before hand and we handed in the most horrendous mix I have ever tried and it was suitable trounced although somehow it managed to avoid last place!

We were there of course for the whole hog. We were very grateful for the help and advice we received over the weekend from teams all over the park and those that gave us a heads up about the event on other sites. At certain times it was pretty stressful, and unfortunately you will always get people wanting to talk to you at the wrong time but we made sure to make ourselves available when we weren’t taking advice or prepping. I think next time we will setup our booth properly straight away rather than wait for the judging, we will just have to invest in a hoover to clean the carpet before onsite judging begins!

We were very grateful to Ole Hickory for lending us a CTO-DW for the event, an amazing cooker which easily handled the 2 x 160lb pigs that we cooked for the event. I think for next year a couple of months weight first will help, getting a 160lb pig on the top shelf was interesting to say the least!

When it came to judging for this event you put in a blind box which contains Shoulder, Loin and the ham and then you have to present to 3 separate judges on site giving them the same pieces of meat. I was not happy with the turn in box, it was fairly thrown in due to us running behind schedule because of several types of moonshine the night before!

However I was very happy with the on site judging, speaking to people in that environment is something that I am comfortable with and just went back to basics. I could only be honest and told them of everything we had done.

After that round of judging we just moved on, we certainly didn’t expect to make finals and I went off to buy a few shirts for my kids. While there a couple of team mates came and found me saying that we had made finals!! I went into melt down because it was totally unexpected and I was not psychologically prepared for it, I think it took about 10 minutes to compose myself. By the time I got back to the pitch other teams were bringing round their pit decorations to help freshen up our pit, we were lent table mats, flowers and a whole host of other stuff. Unfortunately due to my state of mind I wasn’t able to catch everyone’s names but I do want to thank the Sheds and Bare Bones, just 2 of many that helped out at this stage. If anyone else that helped and lent us stuff reads this please say hi!! I am not rude in any way shape or form but was completely overwhelmed.

I was happy with the final round of judging and with out product even though we hadn’t looked after it for the two hours between judging.  When our name was called second we were just completely blown away.

Will we be going again? Absolutely, the planning will start sooner rather than later and we will go with the same philosophy as this time, avoid last if we can, outside the bottom 10 will be a success!

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SaySausages.com
 

Re: Memphis in May

Postby derekmiller » 21 May 2014, 08:26

Fantastic write up Toby, well done to you and the team.
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Re: Memphis in May

Postby aris » 21 May 2014, 08:48

Amazing. How long did you have to cook & rest that beast for?

Also - were you the only foreign team there?
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Re: Memphis in May

Postby aris » 21 May 2014, 10:15

Experience of a lifetime - well done!

So, how long does it take to cook & rest a 160lb poker?
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Re: Memphis in May

Postby Toby » 22 May 2014, 11:13

there were teams from various countries including Canada, Denmark the Netherlands and others. It was a great experience. for the whole hog we injected, rubbed, and cooked. kept it simple but did it well. put them on at 3pm and judging took place at 12 the next day so a fairly long cook
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Re: Memphis in May

Postby aris » 22 May 2014, 12:21

Awesome stuff. I'm guessing tat much has to do with the quality of pig too.
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Re: Memphis in May

Postby awesselbaum » 22 May 2014, 13:54

Hi Toby

Did you get my PM ?
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Re: Memphis in May

Postby Toby » 22 May 2014, 15:22

YEs sorry it came when i was away so overlooked it. Still waiting for the stock to arrive, it should be here tomorrow so will get back to you then.
cheers
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Re: Memphis in May

Postby awesselbaum » 22 May 2014, 20:47

That'll be awesome!

Congratulations on Memphis, it looked brilliant.
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Re: Memphis in May

Postby awesselbaum » 09 Jun 2014, 10:57

Hi Toby
Has the adapter arrived yet? I think I am developing OCD, I have been checking the saysausages shop site every day since (sometimes twice :-) )
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