Some background - my dad and I have been competing 2-4 times a year for about 18 years now. We have only cooked at local competitions within an hour of his home in SC (Hemingway, Dillion, Kingstree, Mullins). It all started with a tradition of cooking pigs for Thanksgiving and Christmas for both sides of my family, which we still do. We use hickory and oak wood and cook with the coals. No gas cooking. We feel the old way tastes best. We make our own sauce, which is vinegar/tomato/pepper-based, with some brown sugar and assorted spices. We've won every place, some multiple times, and have gone home empty handed more times than not, but have never won until this weekend. Out of 68 cooking teams, we took home the giant trophy and $2000. It's always a good time, with drinks and cigars, plus a gracious helping of fellowship with family and friends. It took us a while, but we got it!

To quote a passage from the Almanac Ripper sent me - "A chicken doesn't stop scratching just because worms are scarce."

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Friend's son, me (enjoying a Sancho Panza DM), dad

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Dad prepping pig

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Brother-in-law, family friend, me, friend's son, dad

It's a lot of work, with 12-14 hours of cooking and firing the coals every 20-30 minutes. A lot of cigars were blazed, with some special thanks going to papajohn67, tedrodgerscpa, walleyedad1, and BD Strummer. Little sleep was had. All was enjoyed!!!

Here's to many more, pops!!
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Very cool. I cooked a pig over a pit all night once when I was a kid. It was a lot of fun to stay up all night keeping the fire going. All the work made it taste even better when we were done.
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Grats ! looks like a blast.
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Congrats! Looks like a great time was had by all! :-)
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Good job, Jamie! Now we won't have to eat fast food at the herfs anymore! woohoo!!
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Looks like fun...makes me hungry for ribs :-)
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Congrats on the win....
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Good job! Which parts of the pig did you cook.. or did you cook it whole?
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congrats on the big W.................now I'm hungry (sorry Gerry)
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Awesome job, Jamie. Congrats on the big win!
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You guys rock, Jamie. Congrats, my friend. :-)
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Congrats on the big win :-) :-)

For pennance you must send us all samplers of the pork :-)
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Dood! That is suhwheeet!! Congrats on the payoff of many hours of hard work.

Now do you give lessons?
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Hey man congrats!! Sounds like a great time!
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Winner Winner BBQ Dinner!!!

Congrats, and glad we could contribute with ceegars!
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Congrats!!! Looks like you guys had a great time, and the best part is is that it was a family thing, i bet. Well, that and the huge honkin' trophy!
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Congratulations!! It's great to see all the hard work pay off. Then again, there's no better way to compete than being around friends and family and enjoying some fine smokes.
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Congrats on the big win. Its kind of shocking seeing as you are a fan of the "other" school
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