Bigmista's Turn-in boxes

That all looks pretty good to me. You've got guts to present chicken breasts

The slice of brisket in the back of the box looks very thick but that may just be my old eyes.

Chicken looks great ! 9
Ribs, the color, shine, etc look great, 9. ( I don't care for the meat placement though, but the ribs themselves look great, nicely cut too)
Pork meat to me looks a bit dull. 7 or maybe an 8. Nice placement though !. make it look moist and shiny, and some color, solid 9.
Brisket looks pretty decent. 8.

Chicken - 6 grill marks look contrived
Ribs - 5 haphazard placement appear to be just put in the box
pork - 6 average just chunks not pull and/or sliced placement could almost be considered marking
brisket - 5 resembles pot roast and really thick slices probably overdone

that is what I would have scored and am a cbj and cook both and would have filled out a comment card with these statements

Chicken - 9
Ribs-7
Pork-7
Brisket-8

-Chicken looks absolutely great!! Nice shine not over sauced!(9)

-Ribs look good too. The rib at the bottom left is not rectangular but that's my only critique. Nice glaze, not over sauced and I like the arrangement! (8 )

-Pork I like the texture of your greens. My only critique is I would make certain to make sure every chunk has some bark on it. Although maybe they do but you flipped them for the every-other design. Nice work. ( 8 )

-Brisket looks so moist and tender. Color is good too. The back slice seems really thick to me but maybe its the camera angle. The grain on the left of those slices look so delicious. I guess the only critique and this may be because the camera emphasizes this is to make sure you brush your finishing liquid is evenly spread over the meat. It looked a little splotchy.( 8 )

Also great work with the greens!

So what were your scores and at what comp?

Chicken - 9
Ribs - 6
Pork - 8
Brisket - 7

Chicken - 9
Ribs - 8
pork -7 (i like to see me bark) nice placement
Brisket - 8
over all looks pretty damm good!

Rich Parker said:

Chicken - 9
Ribs - 6
Pork - 8
Brisket - 7

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I am asking this as a serious question and not an attack on the score. What was it about the ribs that made it a 6? I'm asking this as a contest cook who is looking to improve, not trying to stir the pot.

chix 8 - breast is tough, lots of courage to do that. I personally like a good thigh. Are the grill marks real, or branded on?
ribs 8 - I would always put a min of 8 ribs in the box. Remember you got 6 judges and you want to make sure the last one has at least 3 to choose from.
pork 9 - love the presentation here. Makes me want to try it.
brisket 7 - cut a touch thinner maybe. A bit of fat on the bottom of the piece closest to the camera.

Overall not bad though! Nice job!

I am a CBJ too.

Im no judge. But I am a Chef. All of the presentations look good so I would give a 7 on that.
The grill marks on the chicken along with the shineyness of the sauce looks great. So a 8 would be given.
The Ribs. Oh the ribs look fantastic, moist and I would be honered to run one of those pig cicles between my lips.. So a 10
The pulled pork. At first glance it kinda looked like BBQ chicken legs because It hadn't been pulled, but it looks moist and has a very nice color. so a 6
The brisket looks dry and a little thick. As a Chef it looks like you may have been rushed or you thought you didnt have the time to have it ready for the judges so you cut it too early. A 5 for that.
LIke I said im no judge. It is hard for anyone to judge on Pron alone. Other factors such as smell and taste are involved with overall scoring ( I would think ).
Like my Grandmother always said " The proof is in the pudding "
Im sure you did well in the comp.

http://www.kcbs.us/events.php?year=2010&month=6&id=2217

I like that chicken box
We went very traditional at this contest
12th place over all
4th in Ribs
8th Brisket
Reserve in Best Booth
1st in Most Creative PC items
Cobblers, Pig Candy Tri Tip, Meat Balls

watertowerbbq said:

I am asking this as a serious question and not an attack on the score. What was it about the ribs that made it a 6? I'm asking this as a contest cook who is looking to improve, not trying to stir the pot.

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I don't mind at all.

My first thought when seeing the box is confused and makes it hard to think I want to eat it when I can't focus on the meat.

I think the layout is definitely the problem because when I went back to look at the box and pay more attention I thought maybe I scored it to low. But with only a couple of seconds to score I guess that is what happens.

Bigmista said:

I
Here are my places

Chicken 32nd
Ribs 10th
Pork 26th
Brisket 5th.

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So let me add some perspective now that Neil gave the final scores. To me, the brisket LOOKS like the lowest score. The chicken and pork LOOK like the highest score. (At least how I would judge them.

I don't intend to minimize appearance, but all should bear in mind the relative weight of the appearance score

Just my opinion...so take it for what it's worth.
chicken looks like a couple of bumble bees there. I'm of the school that smoked chicken shouldn't have sear marks.
Ribs look like they came from different sets of racks-uniformity is far off.
Pork looks too much like marking too me, I'd have been too scared to try that.
Brisket looks fine, although the left sides looks overdone.
I'm sure it was all delicious though.

Bigmista said:

Appearance Scores:

Chicken 9 9 8 8 7 8
Ribs 8 7 8 7 9 8
Pork 8 8 8 8 8 8
Brisket 9 9 8 9 9 7

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Your brisket scores were higher than I would have given. (And good job)

Bigmista going it solo

Was there at the comp and will attest Bigmista did this on his own. The only team I saw that was a one man show.Good food and Good tunes at the Bigmista tent.

Smoke'n Ice said:

Chicken - 6 grill marks look contrived
Ribs - 5 haphazard placement appear to be just put in the box
pork - 6 average just chunks not pull and/or sliced placement could almost be considered marking
brisket - 5 resembles pot roast and really thick slices probably overdone

that is what I would have scored and am a cbj and cook both and would have filled out a comment card with these statements

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Glad you are cooking Bedford, and not judging:becky:

Tough scores.

Chicken- The grill marks could be contrived, or could be from a thick cast iron grate. Beyond that the knife work was nice, it has a nice glaze, and good color. The cook went outside of the norm, and it appears he did it well to me. I'd have given it a 7-9 depending on how it looked in person.

Ribs- I think if they were placed in the box a little differently, I'd be likely to score the box higher. As it is, I like they way those ribs look. They appear to be well cooked, and that attention has been given to detail based on how the sauce has been set, and how they've been sliced. Again it's 7-9 from me depending on how they looked in person.

Pork- I agree that some larger chunks would help the appearance. On the other hand I really like the contrast on color. It may be the picture, but it looks like a little spritz of something before the box went in would have made it appear more moist. In person probably a 7-8. I'm not seeing an issue with marking. If it is a violation of the rule, then KCBS needs to produce some templates that will effectively kill the options a cook has and the creativity many use to their advantage. I'd consider the chicken a likelier candidate for being questioned for marking than the pork.

Brisket- The lack of definition in the back two slices stands out to me. The layout just isn't quite uniform. I think it may have benefited from a little spritz as well to make it appear more moist. In person, it may have been a 9. Based on the pic, I'm going with 7-8.

My .02. Having been able to spend some time talking to Mack, I've got a much better understanding of his post I think. If you ask him a question, you will get a direct and honest answer. That's the way I read his post. For those of you that haven't had the opportunity to meet him, you might want to make sure that you don't read too much into what he had to say.