Taste/tenderness

[boogiesnap]

The real skill and art in BBQ is rendering tough meat into tender succulent morsels.

Smoking guns and blues hog can be applies to anything and it'll taste good.

Should the weighting system be changed?

[Rookie'48]

The fact that Gun Powder & BH will score if put on shoe leather says more about the judging process than it does about the actual taste of the product. Too many judges are judging for what they like, and a lot of them like sweet.
It needs to be emphasized over and over that you're not judging what you personally like, but to judge "as presented by the cook". I feel that continuing education (whether by classes, seminars, online or in person) along with regular e-mail blasts from KCBS would go a long way in correcting this.
We are never going to get all judges to like the same flavor profile - and we shouldn't! But when a wasabi-plum wing can score as well as a Blues Hog thigh we will have made a lot of progress :-D.

[boogiesnap]

you're ALMOST proving my point my freind.

a BH SGH shoe or a wasabi-plum shoe would both taste good, but what would be the defining character? tenderness!

if tenderness was higher weighted then a wasabi-plum entry may be able to score as high as a BH/SGH entry through skill of the cook to cook the meat properly. i.e tender and moist.

ergo, tenderness should be weighted higher. agree?

[AZScott]

To maximize taste the tenderness has to be right. Taste in my opinion should be worth more since it's dependent upon both the seasoning and the tenderness.