Judging Backyard Divisions At Comps

I have judged one backyard competition where the categories were: ribs, chicken, tri-tip and sauce. On 8/10/13 I will be competing in a backyard competition where the categories are: ribs, chicken, hot links, sauce and "open".

As there will be KCBS judges and a number of teams have a certain level of professional competition experience, I am hesitant to go too crazy with my submissions. I like to be creative in the flavors that I put together, but I anticipate the judges will be expecting "traditional" bbq. In this competition, there is a No Garnish policy - at least I don't have to practice with putting greens

> All that said..... How many of you have either cooked or judged in a backyard
> division and what are your thoughts on entries within the guidelines I mentioned above?

In the past I'd always participated fairly heavily in ancillary categories, particularly seafood, chicken (MIM,MBN,GBA chicken ain't sanctioned), and stew... In most, they call it "brunswick stew" competition, but in a few they just say "stew". Interesting, I have a *special* stew that is singularly awesome and has won chicken and seafood categories at this particular very highly contested contest. Every time I've entered my *special* stew in a stew contest, we get trounced. Yet, so far when I've entered my brunswick stew (which is also pretty good; thanks Saiko), I've walked every time... I've come away with this: Dont enter something too far out of the norm in a category where they're expecting one thing.

For example, while that beef pot pie might be the best beef pot pie entry ever, and probably the best food out there today, if they're expecting brisket, or at least beef BBQ, I might submit a pulled beef entry, but not a pot pie...

Lake Dogs said:

In the past I'd always participated fairly heavily in ancillary categories, particularly seafood, chicken (MIM,MBN,GBA chicken ain't sanctioned), and stew...

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What? No cat entries?

There's an MBM contest here in Charlotte that has a backyard, although it's now called "Challangers" and has 2 main categories (butts and ribs). the side stuff (anything/sauce/bloody mary/and the like) are anyones game, regardless of level of comp. don't see a lot of the "pro" teams walking to the judges tent for that stuff tho. as for the comps, we've done well out there. walked 4 out of 5 years for various things. It started off as a booze fest that if you were half serious with the cooking, you had a shot. it's now packed with lots of great teams and we are thinking about doing the pro side this year for shoulder or maybe just ribs. a 1 in 20 shot of some cash/prize is better than a 1 in 60. but they now have certified judging and on site/finals. a bit of a step up from the folks from the art league and the fire chiefs judging. Its a low pressure good time. plus the turn ins are stupid late. I think last year, ribs went in at 2:00 and butts at 2:45. I didn't even light the smoker off until 4:00am. it helped us get a lower cost comp practice over the years. I liked em..

deguerre said:

What? No cat entries?

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Or Nutria?

completely forgot my point. first 2 years, regular rub, no injections, sauce cups walked with the meats.. last couple years, injections, spritzes, glazes, knife skills..etc.. all important. which is good. the judges upgraded and so the food had to follow. some nice but not to fancy pulled and some glazed ribs faired well the first two years.. then were just like everyone else the years to follow.

I've judged "backyard" in KCBS comps 5 times, and all of them were just the normal 3 categories-chicken, ribs, and pork. I've also judged ribs in backyard at an MBN contest.

Never heard of the "other" categories as part of the "backyard" comps.

Just saying...