TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Do you recognize any of these tools? They are specialized tools for a specific form of cooking. They are simple in design, but high tech in performance. I will give you one more hint. They will be used this weekend at the Rendezvous festival in Carson City, Nevada. If you guessed they are tools for cast iron pot cooking, your correct. These are Pot lifters. They are used to lift the lid off the cast iron pot. The lid will have live coals on top. You can imagine how hot it gets. These lifters are invaluable to save your hide. The X looking tool is a trivet. It is used to place the pot lid on while you are stirring or serving. All these tool will be put it to use as our team the 'MEATMEN" competes in a 'Three Pot Cook off"

A Three Pot Cook off consist of three dishes cooked in cast iron pots. The first dish is usually a bread. This is my specialty. I am making Maple, Cranberry and Bacon Corn Bread. The second dish is the Main. Abram will be making a pork loin roast. The third pot is a dessert. Larry will be making a peach pie. We will have approximately three hours to complete these dishes. Everything has to be prepared on the site. All the dishes have to be cooked in cast iron pots heated by charcoal. They will be judged and scored individually. The scores will be combined and entered as a team score. The judges look for several things. Presentation: The presentation is pretty simple. Does it look good? All the dishes can be only served on the pot or lid. Taste: This is an important category. Great looking food does not always taste good. Temperature: Is the food done? Is the dish burnt or underdone?

I am looking forward to this weekend. The festival sounds like a lot of fun. I do have some pre-competition jitters. This will all end once everything is set up and we are cooking. Hopefully we will come back victorious.