let me ask this and I am being serious........the topic of inconsistency or unfairness or whatever with judges is obviously a hot topic.
but how do we expect something that ultimately comes down to a subjective decision to be handled as an objective thing?
yes, I am aware that judges are allegedly taught a few basic things to more consistently consider BBQ to be properly cooked etc. However, when it gets down to nut cutting time, to me, the subjective nature of each individual judge liking what they like will always win out.
How can it not? People can tell someone all day long that properly cooked bacon is flimsy and has a certain bend to it, and should never crunch.....but guess what, give me the crunchy bacon that is almost black and crumbles up.....lol the underdone stuff makes me gag.
we all hear the stories that properly cooked pulled pork shouldn't stick to the roof of your mouth......that properly cooked ribs should be able to have a bite taken out of them without the rest of the meat leaving the bone and that properly seasoned/sauced meat has a nice "balance" of sweet, savory and heat to it.......yet, the vast majority of EVERYONE that eats BBQ prefers the pulled pork to be "nuked" to the point of mush, the ribs to be "fall of the bone" and their sauce to taste as sweet as candy with no heat in it.
and even if you have a judge who is willing to accept instructions from KCBS on how they are "supposed to judge", how do you still deal with the final decision being a subjective thing?
how many times have all of us turned in meat that we would have hesitated to feed our dog, only to get a call on it? How many times have we turned in meat we thought was the best we ever made to not get a whiff? To me, thats just part of the subjective nature of being a part of a "sport" that relies on subjective opinions to tell us how tasty our turn ins were.
I guess what I am saying is that I don't know how you could ever get yourself into a judging system that doesn't contain perceived significant flaws by those being judged. But please don't think I am not in favor of researching and finding ways to improve the process and reduce the TOD experiences etc......I am all for that!!!! I just worry that achieving the results may be like going on a snipe hunt.
