KCBS Pork Rule

The only way to enforce anything in this sport is with the PORK GESTAPO.

I suggest that a rule amendment be added creating the Pork Gestapo. They will be volunteers, made up of overflow judges and the thousands of fans that sign up after watching an advertisement after every episode of BBQ Pitmasters. Their leaders will be crotchety bastards, never happy with anything but the black and white of the rules.

They will be assigned in force to the field of battle...popping their heads into every stroke of your knife, into every opening of your cooker. They will be tireless in pursuit of the rules, making sure each infraction is brought to the reps and organizer. They will find things such as the expiration tag on your fire extinguisher...or possibly the fact that between entries you didn't sanitize your table with bleach solution....

Yes they will find every single infraction you do...

Honor is paramount in BBQ. We used to hold it in high regard, yet the BBQ Explosion has brought glory hounds and honor less fools into our midst, all searching for a piece of plastic with a pig on top. Honor and integrity are alive and well in most of us...yet with popularity comes those that cheat, and they should be identified, vilified and banned, as there is no room for that in BBQ...create an organization to hunt down and root out the Beasts of BBQ

reality check.
There is no answer. You can't enforce every rule without pissing everyone off. You just gotta hope the guy next to you believes in Honor, Integrity, and Fair Play.

markG said:

My wife says the same thing to me. She thinks if the judges taste real chicken they may reward it with a good score!

Click to expand...

Where have you been? You should know by now that KCBS contests are BBQ sauce contests, not meat contests.

Rich Parker said:

I see it as every other law in society. It is against the law to speed but the only way I am going to get a ticket is if a police office (in our case rep) or another citizen (in our case another team) watches me speed and reports it.

Click to expand...

Everyone uses this analogy but it's more like the speed limit is 60 and the police never ever go out on the highway, so the legislature wants to solve the speeding problem by changing the speed limit to "60 - sometimes".

Maybe we should do what NASCAR does & put an official in each teams tent then if they do something wrong black flag them or dock them points:mod:

White Dog BBQ said:

How are they supposed to prepare if they don't even know what rules they will be competing under next year?

Click to expand...

Wellll, I dunno, a team could cook a bone-in butt over 5 pounds and part it out as they were boxing it. You know, like BBQ.

KCBS is better off getting it right vs putting a flawed rule in place. The 2014 rule was/is flawed. The current rule along with enforcement is the best solution at this point and before everyone starts in about pork Nazi's and NASCAR style referees again think about what's really needed; 5 or 10 random spot checks in the morning of turn in's isn't that time consuming. They can but done when the clock is being run around - "Hi clock check and you've been selected for a random pork check - please show me your pork" "Sure, here ya go" - opens cooker or hold box - shows legal whole butt or legal separated butt out of the cooker. "Thanks very much - good luck today"

Takes 2 minutes at most.

White Dog BBQ said:

To me, the biggest issue is that we are 1.5 months from the start of the 2014 season, and no one seems to have any idea what the pork rule will be next year. With the epic TotY races we've had the last several years, teams will likely be starting earlier than ever in 2014 trying to rack up points. How are they supposed to prepare if they don't even know what rules they will be competing under next year?

KCBS and competition BBQ have experienced incredible growth the last several years, but I have to wonder how long it can continue when we keep seeing things like this. Why should a sponsor commit a significant portion of its advertising budget to a sanctioning body that can't even set its rules in a timely manner?

Click to expand...

I really doubt that the teams that will compete for Pork ToY in KCBS are fretting over how they are going to cook their pork come January.

Slamdunkpro said:

They can but done when the clock is being run around - "Hi clock check and you've been selected for a random pork check - please show me your pork" "Sure, here ya go" - opens cooker or hold box - shows legal whole butt or legal separated butt out of the cooker. "Thanks very much - good luck today"

Takes 2 minutes at most.

Click to expand...

2 minutes later a portion of the legally separated butt is back in the cooker.:roll:

Slamdunkpro said:

The current rule along with enforcement is the best solution at this point and before everyone starts in about pork Nazi's .

Click to expand...

I take it you didn't catch the :heh: sarcasm :heh:?

White Dog BBQ said:

Huh. I know several teans that are practicing now for next year, some that will make a push for TotY and some that won't. You don't think this rule will affect their cooking methods?

Click to expand...

Some of those usual contenders have been working on alternate methods for a while, I guarantee it. A rules change may change their method, but I don't expect any dramatic changes. Those cooks that are at the top every year are there because they are great cooks.

If a rules change had any impact, I'd expect the gap between top cooks and the next tier to increase no matter what the change is. The best cooks will adapt more quickly, probably work harder at it, and the results will reflect that.

Why does the KCBS have rules anyway, no one polices or enforces them. People are more concerned about a water supply being close to their site than a guy getting his cooker back up to temp in the morning with a propane torch with his meat still on it. I like to part my butt and return to the cooker, we obviously no longer do it and results haven't changed, it was just part of the morning motion. Allow me to part and I will, tell me I cant and my results wont change. But the fighting over all these rules is crazy, because never once have I seen a team DQ'd for "breaking a rule" beside for what was put or not put in the box. Just keep cooking what you cook, nothing will change.

TooSaucedToPork said:

I take it you didn't catch the :heh: sarcasm :heh:?

Click to expand...

Why yes I did :butt:
:behindsofa:

:becky:

DawgPhan said:

I really doubt that the teams that will compete for Pork ToY in KCBS are fretting over how they are going to cook their pork come January.

Click to expand...

+1000 I have a feeling that the give a chit quotient is very low for the better teams.

The KCBS Board of Directors (bod@kcbs.us) and the Rules Committee (rules@kcbs.us) are willing, even glad, to hear their members' thoughts on rules changes.

Last year at the Open Rules meeting not one person there spoke up in favor of keeping the parting rule. Out of all of the e-mail responses to the Rules Committee regarding the pork rule not one stated that they were in favor of keeping it the way it was. Each and every member who mentioned the pork parting rule said to ditch it.

So - loaded with that information from the members - I proposed, and the BoD passed, a new pork rule. After a little tweaking Jeff re-submitted the proposed rule and it was passed by the Board. Jeff has now asked that the Board give their final approval to the rules changes for the 2014 BBQ season. That motion failed .

Honestly, is there a difference between cutting off a MM and putting the rest of the butt back in for pulled vs. cooking two butts, one for optimal MM and a second for optimal pulled?

It appears to me that the 'spirit' of the pork rule is to make you cook a whole butt well, but in reality, it just means that teams are cooking multiple butts to different specs. Having to cook it whole means nothing if you can cook 4 butts and pick and choose what parts of each go in the box.

Rookie'48 said:

The KCBS Board of Directors (bod@kcbs.us) and the Rules Committee (rules@kcbs.us) are willing, even glad, to hear their members' thoughts on rules changes.

Last year at the Open Rules meeting not one person there spoke up in favor of keeping the parting rule. Out of all of the e-mail responses to the Rules Committee regarding the pork rule not one stated that they were in favor of keeping it the way it was. Each and every member who mentioned the pork parting rule said to ditch it.

So - loaded with that information from the members - I proposed, and the BoD passed, a new pork rule. After a little tweaking Jeff re-submitted the proposed rule and it was passed by the Board. Jeff has now asked that the Board give their final approval to the rules changes for the 2014 BBQ season. That motion failed .

Click to expand...

From what I was told there were under 50 people there. Even if all were cooks that is a very low percentage to our registered team count. Especially to be making assumptions that is how the majority feels.

I do not want to see KCBS change rules just to reduce the skillsets needed to cook pork or any meat.

Rookie'48 said:

Last year at the Open Rules meeting not one person there spoke up in favor of keeping the parting rule. Out of all of the e-mail responses to the Rules Committee regarding the pork rule not one stated that they were in favor of keeping it the way it was. Each and every member who mentioned the pork parting rule said to ditch it.

Click to expand...

From what you said, the new rule should read like this.

Pork shall come from the shoulder.