Garnish / No Garnish Question

Bret this is a conversation that is brought up every year because its a BBQ contest not a garnish contest. IBCA (The International BBQ Association) another sanctioning body, they are out of Texas and they do not require garnish. I have never cooked an IBCA contest but their rules are different. So to answer you, this is brought up every year and the KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) requires a garnish as a rule for their events. Personally I like it because it adds something to the contest. Learning to build boxes used to be hard but on the interweb its not hard to find out how to build one.

In KCBS, garnish is optional per rule 12. To my knowledge, the "No Garnish" lobby has never gained any significant traction. Doubt it will either, IMO.

Crash is correct - garnish has never be required by KCBS rules. However, the option to use it is one of the unique features of the KCBS format, and I think it very unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

I hate building boxes, but I go to contest to try and win. Your meat is just going to stand out more with garnish (or distract from the meat if you fark it up).

Just Pulin' Pork said:

Bret this is a conversation that is brought up every year because its a BBQ contest not a garnish contest. IBCA (The International BBQ Association) another sanctioning body, they are out of Texas and they do not require garnish. I have never cooked an IBCA contest but their rules are different. So to answer you, this is brought up every year and the KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) requires a garnish as a rule for their events. Personally I like it because it adds something to the contest. Learning to build boxes used to be hard but on the interweb its not hard to find out how to build one.

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IBCA rules prohibit any garnish in the box to include pooling sauce. If present in the box it is not accepted at the turnin table until corrected. They have paper towels handy to mop the sauce and garbage containers for the garnish. The only thing that WILL be in the box is the piece of foil they gave you with the box (placed neatly in the bottom without identifiable creases), the exact number of pieces stated at the meeting and no pooling.

KCBS makes garnish optional. Some teams leave it out but most put it in. There are specific rules about type allowed, if used, and I really don't think it has any traction to ever change.

Just Pulin' Pork said:

KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) requires a garnish as a rule for their events.

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As others have noted, it's optional, so the question that really comes up is "Should we allow nothing in the box but meat?"

Some reps have told me that allowing garnish is seen by KCBS as one of the things that makes them different from the other sanctioning bodies, so it's very unlikely it will ever go away for that reason. Good judges understand garnish is optional, but many cooks admit that:

1. They hate making parsley boxes almost as much as they hate trimming chicken, however
2. The meat really does look more appealing floating on a sea of green vs. bouncing around an emptry styrofoam box.

(To the last point, some boxes in contests sanctioned by other organizations (MBN for example) tend to have a lot more meat in the box to compensate for that open space. Full boxes look better, right? If we didn't have putting greens to bitch about, we would be complaining about how much meat we had to turn in. :boxing

FBA does not allow garnish either.... I love it.... as I too do not like building the boxes, but I agree, it adds to the appeal. And I believe that if my box did not have garnish, and the other 5 boxes on the table did, the eyes and brain would not like it near as much, even though they are suppose to judge it as presented.... I just don't want to take that chance. So, until then, I build the boxes and keep on going. BTW, my presentation scores were higher in the one FBA contest without garnish than in all of the KCBS comps.... go figure.

BTW, the big thing in FBA, nothing at all in the box except meat... and the object is for the judges to see NO white from the bottom of the box.