S
Smoke Ring
Guest
I competed in a Lone Star BBQ Society sanctioned contest last weekend which got me to thinking again about the KCBS judging process. I believe that the way the Texas rules contests are judged relies less on luck and is probably a more accurate way to pick the best meat entry.
First, there is no garnish to worry about. You lay the meat in the box on top of a sheet of aluminum foil. There is no distraction for the judges as to who made the prettiest bed of parsley, or if some of the lettuce leaves are a different color, or heaven forbid they used red tip lettuce or some other "illegal" garnish. The focus is on the meat.
All teams put the meat in the box in the same way. Chicken is half a chicken in one piece. Ribs are laid parallel to the box hinge with 5 ribs on the bottom and two more on top starting at the back. Brisket is 7 slices and the ends cannot be trimmed. It's an even playing field.
Sauce may not be added after the meat is removed from the smoker. It must be cooked on if used.
There are no "trained" or "certified" judges. Judges are selected from the public on site. They are judging the meat only, not lettuce and parsley, based on what they like and think is good, and have no pre-conceived notion about how to score, starting at 6, starting at 9, scoring down because the entry has sauce and they wonder what the cook is trying to hide. No luck of the draw on which table your entry lands. No worry about will you get a table where judges are mostly liberal with their scores (start at 9) or mostly conservative (start at 6) or will you get an experienced "master" judge with pre-conceived notions about what barbecue should or shouldn't be and guessing the motivations of the cook.
There were 31 teams. Entries went through two rounds of judging. In the first round the 14 best entries are chosen to move to the finals round where the top 10 are decided.
Scoring - Points are awarded based on where you placed in each category. First place gets 10 points and 10th place gets 1 point. Another team that places first in a different category gets the same number of points.
It is true blind judging. Boxes are identified by a raffle ticket. The cook takes one half and the other half is taped to the box with the number down. No one knows whose box is whose, including the contest official. At the awards the boxes are stacked in the order they finished, the ticket is removed from the box and the number is called out. The team holding the matching ticket claims the award. The overall GC and RGC aren't known until all the categories have been claimed, points assigned and totaled.
Is this the ultimate way of judging BBQ? I don't know. All I know is that the KCBS judging system is flawed and needs to be re-evaluated. Yes, I know there is a handful of teams that win regularly. But they also finish way down the list sometimes. You not only have to cook well, you need luck. A cooking competition should not rely on luck. Luck doesn't identify the best entry on any given day. I think KCBS needs to take a look at their judging process. The board seems to feel it is just fine the way it is. But there is always room for improvement.
First, there is no garnish to worry about. You lay the meat in the box on top of a sheet of aluminum foil. There is no distraction for the judges as to who made the prettiest bed of parsley, or if some of the lettuce leaves are a different color, or heaven forbid they used red tip lettuce or some other "illegal" garnish. The focus is on the meat.
All teams put the meat in the box in the same way. Chicken is half a chicken in one piece. Ribs are laid parallel to the box hinge with 5 ribs on the bottom and two more on top starting at the back. Brisket is 7 slices and the ends cannot be trimmed. It's an even playing field.
Sauce may not be added after the meat is removed from the smoker. It must be cooked on if used.
There are no "trained" or "certified" judges. Judges are selected from the public on site. They are judging the meat only, not lettuce and parsley, based on what they like and think is good, and have no pre-conceived notion about how to score, starting at 6, starting at 9, scoring down because the entry has sauce and they wonder what the cook is trying to hide. No luck of the draw on which table your entry lands. No worry about will you get a table where judges are mostly liberal with their scores (start at 9) or mostly conservative (start at 6) or will you get an experienced "master" judge with pre-conceived notions about what barbecue should or shouldn't be and guessing the motivations of the cook.
There were 31 teams. Entries went through two rounds of judging. In the first round the 14 best entries are chosen to move to the finals round where the top 10 are decided.
Scoring - Points are awarded based on where you placed in each category. First place gets 10 points and 10th place gets 1 point. Another team that places first in a different category gets the same number of points.
It is true blind judging. Boxes are identified by a raffle ticket. The cook takes one half and the other half is taped to the box with the number down. No one knows whose box is whose, including the contest official. At the awards the boxes are stacked in the order they finished, the ticket is removed from the box and the number is called out. The team holding the matching ticket claims the award. The overall GC and RGC aren't known until all the categories have been claimed, points assigned and totaled.
Is this the ultimate way of judging BBQ? I don't know. All I know is that the KCBS judging system is flawed and needs to be re-evaluated. Yes, I know there is a handful of teams that win regularly. But they also finish way down the list sometimes. You not only have to cook well, you need luck. A cooking competition should not rely on luck. Luck doesn't identify the best entry on any given day. I think KCBS needs to take a look at their judging process. The board seems to feel it is just fine the way it is. But there is always room for improvement.
