This last Thursday the Tri City Fire Department hosted an inter agency social at our hall, where we cooked the meats that we will be cooking at the cook-off. The turn out was far less than expected, with only a couple of fire fighters from Canyonville attending (Thanks Tom & Dale). Myrtle Creek Fire showed up later, after their training.
This was really because of poor planning on my part. We should have planned the event out further so that the other departments would have time to schedule it in without interfering with their normal training schedule.
The good news is that we learned a few things from the trial, and settled the dissuasion surrounding the controversial Beef Brisket vs Tri-Tip debate. While the Beef Brisket actually turned out all-right, it didn't wow, and everyone present said that they would prefer Tri-Tip. So Tri-Tip it is.
The other major piece of know how that we gained was a better understanding of how many meals a single large (very large) grill can accommodate. We cooked portions for 50 to 60 people, and I ended up burning the chicken. Mainly because the grill was full, and I wasn't able to control the heat by moving everything to indirect heat.
This leads me to believe that we might need to rethink our approach to feeding the public. If we only have six teams, and will be feeding 300 + people, that means that each team will need to feed around 50 people each. Even with a very large grill this will not be easily managed.
Either each team will need to bring at least two grills each, or we might need the TCCA, who is hosting the event, to barbecue much of the meat for the public. We can discuss at the next meeting.
Oh, and one more little insight that I gleamed from the social; When there's beef and ribs present, chicken will less appealing.
Oh, and another; Alcohol and barbecuing don't mix. Friends don't let friends barbecue their meat drunk. |