Vinegar vs KC Sauce for Competition Pork

HogBack Mtn Comp BBQ Team said:

Who uses what? Should I go to a sweet style sauce for competition pork or is a NC Vinegar style :eusa_clapsauce ok. I have been using a vinegar based sauce but I'm wondering if a sweeter KC Style sauce is more what judges are looking for. Trying to take everyones advice and cook for what the judges like and not what I like. What do you think?

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motoeric said:

Sadly, vinegar sauces don't do well up here in the north east.

Eric

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motoeric said:

It very much depends on where you are competing. There are strong regional breakdowns for what is accepted and what isn't. Sadly, vinegar sauces don't do well up here in the north east.

Eric

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QN said:

While I personally like a vinegar sauce, there are many who do not. I would stay away from a vinegar sauce for competition. Remember, you are cooking for the judges. Here is an example; a few/couple of years ago, I was a table captain at a contest. There was a pork entry with a vinegar sauce. I tasted it and thought it was great. I would have given it 999. There was one judge at the table who did give it 999. The rest of the judges scored it as low as 5 on taste. After judging, I took the box back to the grazing table. My wife was working the turn in table and asked me if I had anything good she should try. I pointed out the vinegar sauced pork. She tried it and spit it out! Where I liked it and thought is was an excellent entry, she hated it. If she had been judging it might have been lucky to get a 3 on taste. As I said, stay away from the vinegar sauce for comps. A vinegar sauce is just too drastic/strong taste to take a chance at comps.

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QN said:

While I personally like a vinegar sauce, there are many who do not. I would stay away from a vinegar sauce for competition. Remember, you are cooking for the judges. Here is an example; a few/couple of years ago, I was a table captain at a contest. There was a pork entry with a vinegar sauce. I tasted it and thought it was great. I would have given it 999. There was one judge at the table who did give it 999. The rest of the judges scored it as low as 5 on taste. After judging, I took the box back to the grazing table. My wife was working the turn in table and asked me if I had anything good she should try. I pointed out the vinegar sauced pork. She tried it and spit it out! Where I liked it and thought is was an excellent entry, she hated it. If she had been judging it might have been lucky to get a 3 on taste. As I said, stay away from the vinegar sauce for comps. A vinegar sauce is just too drastic/strong taste to take a chance at comps.

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Rhapsody said:

This reminds me of an experience I had judging recently. We all got done judging the pork entries and were talking about them afterward. One entry was very sauced and pulled. One member of our table said they loved it while I thought that the sauce was good but the actual pork brought little to nothing to the party. They were amazed that I didn't like the entry stating " you could really taste the apple in it", my thoughts were " this isn't an apple contest", but I just said 'different tastes for different people', how would that go over for you guys?

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