On May 1, 11:32 am, motley me wrote:
Stan wrote in news:04f84490-2a0f-4a6a-8ffa-
:



Hello, All!

Don't know if many (any?) of you would remember me, but I used to hang
around here a lot and even contributed to the discussions, on
occasion. I see quite a few familiar names still here, too: Dave Bugg,
Ed Pawlowski, Brick, and my good buddy Buzz, to name a few. Probably
some others still around, as well.

Been through a few changes, over the last couple of years. My wife
finally finished her doctorate in chemistry. (You may recall that she
contributed her expertise to a discussion/debate that I had with
somebody about carcinogens in Kingsford briquets. She's now
teaching chemistry at a local community college. As for me, I'm trying
to get myself retired from teaching so I can do something else that
doesn't involve hyperactive, hormonal teenagers! I'm also finally
going to have time to cook some barbecue contests this summer. Even
got my feet wet at a contest in Columbus, MS earlier this month.
Didn't win anything, but I didn't come in dead last, either!

Well, just wanted to say "Hi!" and let y'all know that I'm still
around, even if I've been scarce, lately. I'll try not to be a
stranger.

Stan Marks
Laurel, MS

Hey Stan,
I am fairly new here, so I don't recall you, but it's nice to see
another good ole' Mississippi boy here. I live up near Corinth.

How did the contest go?

--
Tommy Lee

Well, like I said - I didn't win anything, but I didn't come in dead
last, either. Actually, I was 35th out of a field of 42. My ribs and,
IIRC, my brisket both placed 32nd, while my chicken and pork placed
35th. It was a rather rough introduction to competition cooking, too,
as the wind that weekend was relentless (except for a brief time
during Friday night when it changed around from westerly to easterly).
I tried putting my canopy up Thursday evening by myself, but the wind
wouldn't play nice. I finally managed to get it up, weighted down with
four 5-gallon buckets of water, only to have that wind blow it down on
top of me, anyway, breaking on of the "scissor" struts in the process!
Luckily, the local Walmart had First Up canopies in stock, so I bought
a new one the next day and started over. With the help of some nice
neighbors, J.D. and Marie Parker of Paw-Paw's Backyard BBQ of
Lucedale, I managed to finally get some shelter up Friday afternoon.
Hey...who knew that those things come with STAKES to tie them down?

I had planned to use three smokers: two WSMs and my old standby ECB.
Even had a schedule all worked out as to how I was going to manage
cooking four meats on three smokers. However, when it came time to
load up my Tacoma, I realized that I didn't have room for all three
and everything else, too, so I ended up with just the two Webers. Had
to revamp my cooking schedule quite a bit to make it all work out and
get everything done in time for turn-in, the next day, but it all went
off without too many hitches. The wind, of course, made me work a
little harder than usual to get the temps stabilized, but I managed.

I was a bit disappointed with my ribs, as they seemed a bit dry and
overcooked, to me. Even so, they score higher than my pork and my
chicken, both of which I thought were very good. (My pork butts seemed
to take F-O-R-E-V-E-R to cook, and I just did get one of them up to my
target temperature in time for turn-in.) I was very pleased with my
brisket, too, but evidently the judges weren't too impressed. :/

All in all, I did learn a thing or two, and I've come to the
realization that maybe I need to judge a contest or two to see what
all the excitement is about. (I am a KCBS-certified BBQ judge,
too. Maybe I need to see what the winners' cooking tastes like
before I try again, and I may just enter a backyard contest or two
just to see how things go, before plunging back into the pro level.
Whatever happens, though, I plan to cook several contests this summer
- I'm even planning to spend most of the month of July cooking
contests in and around Colorado, where the humidity won't be so
bad.

Say, IIRC, there are a couple of barbecue contests up in north
Mississippi this fall - one in Ashland and even one in Corinth, right?
Maybe we can meet up at one of them.

Stan