Comment Cards?

kenthanson said:

That's what we do up here in the PNWBA, pork at 11, brisket at 12, chicken at 1, ribs at 2, awards at 4. At the comp two weekends ago we received a comment card from just about every judge in every category....but we also received 9,9,9,8,7,4 for brisket tenderness

Click to expand...

Pnwba also has a list of words to choose from to help judges give feedback. This is why you see repeat comments. It provides a theme to how his cook went

Salty, plain smoke flavor, peppery...and a 5, wow. Lol...to me that is the definition of Brisket!

I love the comment cards. There is no shortage of judges out there for normal comps so who cares if you make them spend a little more time taking a real interest in what they are doing. If they aren't willing to explain themselves as to why they think or feel that way.... you didn't want them anyways. Then it is clear that the judge thinks the game is about him/her, and not the food. Make it about the food.

I would say for small comps and state qualifiers make them manditory. IF you're winning and moving along further up the ladder, you aren't needing or looking for advice at that big contest. And being one of 400 teams.. a few comments are not what you are looking for. Setting guidelines as to what type of event should get them is a easy way to not complicate dealing with 24 cards per team at large events.
Anything comp under.... 100 teams gets them, whatever. Table captian collects and sorts them for each teams at his table right there. They would then take them to a secondary table for other meat comment cards to join. They can run them to that table inbetween each meat catagory... like a bingo sheet LOL, or a filing drawer(which would be easier). All the organizing is done and done quickly. Takes like 5 minutes, so easy.

I also don't feel KCBS would need to gather this data either. If you get a explaination from 5 people that are similiar and sixth is way off. You can easily dismiss that one as a fool and leave it at that. Chalk it up to bad luck that you got that person. These only need to be personal opinion notes meant solely for the cooker. If the idea would be to use this as a tool to help identify and "retrain" that judge, I am not interested in that just yet. Fix one problem at a time. Deal with retraining that guy later. Nothing like taking two toxic topics and try to resolve them both at once. Like peace in Isreal and the national budget. Doesn't work. Put your pants on one leg at a time. Get the comment cards out there. Once that is in place, then it is time to analize what assets you have infront of you and how best to manage judges within your set rules. First get what and why they think out there, then if you want to, look further into what they are saying. I as a competitor have no need to know who the person it. Just what they think.

If there needs to be more time for the judges....... bump the first turn in up half a hour and then make the turn ins at 45 minute interavals. It would be petty and small if someone couldn't adapt to that. Just stubborn jack***ery. That way the brisket will be turned in only 15mins later than it is already. That also give the judge almost 2 minutes per entry to make comments. That is more than enough time.

billygbob said:

What comment would you expect for an average/6? "It was average"? "It could have been better"? Are you looking for the judge to tell you how you should have cooked? Judges are instructed to not do that in comments.

Click to expand...

That 6 may be considered "average" but it and even a 7 is the kiss of death when it comes to finishing towards the top.

Pappy Q said:

That 6 may be considered "average" but it and even a 7 is the kiss of death when it comes to finishing towards the top.

Click to expand...

So what you really want is for the judges to tell you why it wasn't excellent? Why it wasn't the best damn entry they judged? You want the judge to justify as to why they didn't think that your entry should have won.

bbq.tom said:

So what you really want is for the judges to tell you why it wasn't excellent? Why it wasn't the best damn entry they judged? You want the judge to justify as to why they didn't think that your entry should have won.

Click to expand...

Nope, I don't want them to tell me anything. Just give me an honest score that is fair when compared with others. I'm one of the few who don't care for comment cards and have found no benefit in them. But that's just my worthless opinion.

Why would you try to twist my comment? Just stating a fact.

Hats off to Candy for posting the poll and asking a simple question. :clap2:

Second, I voted yes. I did not think it was a big deal for me when judging to fill out a comment card. And I fill out a lot!

wallace

Smoke'n Ice said:

I am all in favor of the comment cards as is a concensus majority of the BOD. The only problem that I see is, the BOD member who is in charge of finding a solution, is against them in the first place and voted so. His job, as I understand it, is to form a committee and try to effect a solution. I think that ice water, cold day in Phoenix, etc. come to mind. We'll see.

Click to expand...

and I would bet that person is also a rep and no comment cards have ever been handed out at a contest he reps

Q-Dat said:

It wouldn't bother me a bit, but I don't speak for everyone, so I see your point. Why not send the comment cards out via email or traditional snail mail the next day?

Click to expand...

keying those comments after the contest is a long process. Then sending the emails. Reps just don't have that time

If the comment tells me how to cook, it is not helpful. If the comment tells me what they liked or disliked about my turn in, it is very helpful.

Vince RnQ said:

In 2011, the KCBS Rules Committee suggested that comment cards be modified so that there were check boxes that said things like:

Too Salty
Too Sweet
Too Spicey
Under Seasoned
Off Flavor
Over Cooked
Under Cooked

This idea was never addressed to the best of my knowledge but it sure seemed like a very good improvement to those of us on the committee.

Click to expand...

The above would be useful. Most comment cards I have heard of have not been helpful at all. For example, the one comment card I received said "the sauce got in my mustache".

LindaM said:

keying those comments after the contest is a long process. Then sending the emails. Reps just don't have that time

Click to expand...

Well then lets make the comment card and the scorecard one sheet as others have suggested.

If anyone would care to come up with more obstaclea to mandatory comment cards/checklists, I will be happy to continue providing simple easily performed solutions to them.

No sarcasm intended here.

Big Mike said:

The above would be useful. Most comment cards I have heard of have not been helpful at all. For example, the one comment card I received said "the sauce got in my mustache".

Click to expand...

They obviously meant you put too much sauce on, so much it was messy.

The scoresheet on this page could foster some ideas fo comment cards.

http://www.bbqcritic.com/news.html

Here's what beer judges use for a score sheet on every single entry. It can be tedious, and I'm not sayin' there needs to be this kind of depth for a BBQ entry, but check it out. You'll see what I mean.
http://www.bjcp.org/docs/SCP_BeerScoreSheet.pdf

I am a judge and I like the comment cards, I think it shows respect to the cook teams if you score them down if you can give them a reason for your score. I once gave a team a comment card for a score of 9 9 8, because it was a great rib but just a little too overdone. A checkbox list of comments would be ok, but might get tiresome if it has too many options to look through to find the comment you want.

As far as the team number on the comment card, this is my idea. I borrowed the card image posted by Rich Parker, (thanks), because I could not find an image online. I understand that just using a marker to black out the alternate number the writing or imprint can still show through so that doesn't work how about this:

The reps would write the team number to the side of the alternate number and just take a simple paper punch and punch out the area of the alternate number, example below. This example uses addition of 111 to the actual team number for the alternate number. This would allow use of the current comment card with no change and obliterate the alternate number. Just a thought.

Pappy Q said:

That 6 may be considered "average" but it and even a 7 is the kiss of death when it comes to finishing towards the top.

Click to expand...

...as it should.

I haven't cooked in any contests lately where I felt like average bbq was going to be good enough to finish near the top.

Got a comment card on brisket when I was cooking with another team a couple of years ago that was useless. It said, "dry".... and that was all. Would have been nice to have more info to go on besides a one word comment.

Otherwise, yes. IIRC, in my judging class, the instructor said that if you give a team a lower score you should fill out a comment card explaining why you gave them that score. As a competitor, this would be nice to have so you will understand what may have caused you to receive a low score for that turn-in.

Smokedelic said:

...as it should.

I haven't cooked in any contests lately where I felt like average bbq was going to be good enough to finish near the top.

Click to expand...

Agree 100%

tnjimbob said:

Got a comment card on brisket when I was cooking with another team a couple of years ago that was useless. It said, "dry".... and that was all.

Click to expand...

The comment said "dry" and that was useless?????

Last I heard, cooks want judges to state what they found, not how to cook it better. This judge found the brisket "dry". Sounds pretty useful to me.

As a cook I would want this comment (if indeed that was the problem), and NOT call it useless.