Competition Test Cooking (1)

Untraceable said:
You are gearing up an practicing for a contest in sept? Quit wasting time and money and find something in April/May. Nothing will prepare you like actually competing. And no amount of practice between now and September will let you win a kcbs contest right off the bat
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Well, the head cook is taking a CBJ class in April and ideally would like to judge 2 or 3 events before cooking in September so he can see first hand what competition cooks turn in. Plus the September competition is in our home town, so that would eliminate travel. I plan on sitting-in on the same CBJ class as I was certified 10 years ago and not only are the sit-in "refreshers" recommended, they are free, you just can't plan on sampling. As far as winning anything, that might be a reach... it would be great if we're in the upper 50% and if not we're certain to be in the bottom 50%. :twitch:

PatAttack said:
Just a heads up. That Carolina "twang", may sink or sail you depending on where you're at.

A sweeter, savory piece of chicken with a little back end heat "pop" is what you're after.
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Yes, that is what we're after. I probably mis-spoke. The "twang" is not noticeable, but it knocks the edge off the (super) sweetness of BH Original, and helps thin it as does a little apple juice. (Maybe similar to mixing in BH Tennessee Red?). At any rate in the judges tent BH is still very popular in my area and has that great color. I have never heard a judge admit to scoring down meats with BH (nor should they), but many do recognize it straight away.

I took a competition cooking class 6 or 7 years ago and really need to dig around in the basement and go over the notes.
 
thirdeye said:
We do have 3 drums between us, and a Treager that might come in handy. The kale does look good. ^^That was one of the articles I used as a reference along with a couple of videos. Although we need to get started on our trimming and shaping the taste and tenderness is coming along nicely. We're scraping the skins, using the uncovered, then covered butter bath in foil pans. Seasoning is Birds & Bones, sauce is Blues Hog original cut with a little apple juice and a Carolina style cause for a little twang. This photo is an example of what we're shooting for.
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With that method you don't have to scrape skins, you may have to play with how long you cook uncovered. I go 45 minutes uncovered and 45 minutes covered at 325ish degrees, but I'm on a stick burner. I'd be careful with the Carolina style sauce as vinegar may be too pungent for some people. Birds & Bones is a great rub for chicken
 
Jousting Pigs said:
With that method you don't have to scrape skins, you may have to play with how long you cook uncovered. I go 45 minutes uncovered and 45 minutes covered at 325ish degrees, but I'm on a stick burner. I'd be careful with the Carolina style sauce as vinegar may be too pungent for some people. Birds & Bones is a great rub for chicken
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Scraping the skin is almost a necessity. My choices for chicken are not that great, the 3 grocery store chains have packages of market grade thighs varying in size and the skins are pretty fatty. Sam's Club is a little better. My Natural Grocer store has organic, but it's frozen in 4-piece packages and is inconsistent and pricey. One store can order Smart chicken but it's expensive. For me scraping is not that bad, I've done it for my backyard cooks for years. Trimming on the other hand looks easy (like in a Harry Soo video) until you do 12 or 15 and compare to each other.
 
I've cooked a few contests in the Rocky Mountain area and done pretty well out there. You are going to want to turn in thighs. Yea I get it, judge what's in the box blah blah blah.


Thighs score(properly cooked and presented), plain and simple. I understand legs are getting more popular in the Southeast region but most areas thighs are the standard chicken turn in.



I also agree with another comment made, why wait until September? Get out and cook, there are lots of opportunities in the RMBBQA to do so.
 
tduffy said:
I've cooked a few contests in the Rocky Mountain area and done pretty well out there. You are going to want to turn in thighs. Yea I get it, judge what's in the box blah blah blah.


Thighs score(properly cooked and presented), plain and simple. I understand legs are getting more popular in the Southeast region but most areas thighs are the standard chicken turn in.



I also agree with another comment made, why wait until September? Get out and cook, there are lots of opportunities in the RMBBQA to do so.
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The head cook wants to judge a couple of events before jumping in to compete. I sort of agree with this and it's common for me to see cooks judge a couple of times a year. In fact a husband and wife team I know judged 3 or 4 times and cooked 3 or 4 times a year. And yep, I'm a member of the RMBBQA. Until this year they had a third party judge registration program that was outstanding, I'm hoping the KCBS program will be too. So far for me it's worked for one full sign-up and several pre-registrations.
 
You can't go wrong with turning in skin scraped thighs. It's safe and not too bad to "master." I'm no well known KCBS team and have only cooked competitively for two years and 6-8 contests, but personally I'd rather keep perfecting what we've been doing than start over. Our scores are sometimes disappointing enough!!

Use kale. We can build four boxes in about 20 minutes.

With that said, there are teams here in the northeast that turn in full legs and do very very well. But, you have to remember it took them years to perfect that.

I signed up for a CBJ class in May in PA, so I'm pretty darn excited for that. My opinions could change drastically :)
 
Scraping skin is so 2014. Fat is flavor and moisture, don't scrape it off. There are several ways to achieve tender skin without scraping. One of those ways was posted earlier from the ICP blog.



Judging comps before competing........... it might help you out. Maybe. I took the judging class before competing but have never judged. I just wanted to see firsthand how they were instructing judges to score. Personally, If I'm taking time to show up at a contest I will be cooking it, not judging. I feel I become a better cook the more contests I cook. You can get a better idea of what people are turning in by spending the money on a class. To me I would find it hard to distinguish what people are turning in by judging a couple contests. You are only tasting 6 teams per category. What if the majority of them aren't from the top cooks?
 
You can't go wrong with turning in skin scraped thighs. It's safe and not too bad to "master." I'm no well known KCBS team and have only cooked competitively for two years and 6-8 contests, but personally I'd rather keep perfecting what we've been doing than start over.
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Scraping skin is so 2014. Fat is flavor and moisture, don't scrape it off. There are several ways to achieve tender skin without scraping. One of those ways was posted earlier from the ICP blog.
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Oh boy, you guys are killing me.... hehehee. No, seriously this is why I'm posting and I really appreciate all the advice.

I cooked for some amateur events years ago, and that was when the Pickled Pig method and the Jumpin' Jim saucy finish were popular, so I can see where continuing to perfect is moving in the same direction.
 
I really like this thread. Lots of helpful advice. I'll give my two cents worth: As a judge I'm not impressed by lollipops and it's just more variables for the cook to wrangle with. Oh, and jump into the fray. Just think about how many expensive, worrisome, sleepless nights you might be passing up by waiting until September.
 
You can do well scraping and do well without scraping. I personally hate it so if I can help save someone some time I will, but if you've found a method that works for you stick with it.
 
tduffy said:
Scraping skin is so 2014. Fat is flavor and moisture, don't scrape it off. There are several ways to achieve tender skin without scraping. One of those ways was posted earlier from the ICP blog.



Judging comps before competing........... it might help you out. Maybe. I took the judging class before competing but have never judged. I just wanted to see firsthand how they were instructing judges to score. Personally, If I'm taking time to show up at a contest I will be cooking it, not judging. I feel I become a better cook the more contests I cook. You can get a better idea of what people are turning in by spending the money on a class. To me I would find it hard to distinguish what people are turning in by judging a couple contests. You are only tasting 6 teams per category. What if the majority of them aren't from the top cooks?
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Pretty sure you missed the bus taking the class and not actually judging any contests. Why would you pass up the chance to see and taste 24 different meat offerings to see for yourself what is scoring well in your area? Not to mention gathering all the voiced opinion from fellow judges!
I judged for 6 years before forming my own team to get my Master certification. In all honesty I felt like I cheated because I already knew exactly what was winning in my area.
You might want to reconsider.
Ed
 
Jousting Pigs said:
You can do well scraping and do well without scraping. I personally hate it so if I can help save someone some time I will, but if you've found a method that works for you stick with it.
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The good thing from the practice cooks so far is that we knew thighs were the most popular entry, but we wanted to explore drumsticks and Cornish hens too. From a personal perspective the 3 main tasters liked all of the options, and we got to appreciate the attention to detail we still have to work on. All the forum help, in this thread and many archived threads is really wonderful, and as of right now thighs seem the logical choice.

One thing no one has mentioned is advantages or disadvantages of bone-in verses boneless. When judging I only see boneless thighs about 2 times out of 10 thigh entries, and they seem to score well. Many boxes of boneless thighs will have 8 or 9 pieces, so they are really full.
 
You might as well get “but it’s expensive” out of your vocabulary if you are really going to give competition BBQ a fair shake. Buy the best products you can. I know I will be.
 
my thoughts are...….

1. Cook it tell the meat pulls free from the bone, like a rib does!

2. The most important part is the sauce. Sweet with a bite on the back end! More calls are had and lost with the sauce.....just my 2 cents
 
ModelMaker said:
Pretty sure you missed the bus taking the class and not actually judging any contests. Why would you pass up the chance to see and taste 24 different meat offerings to see for yourself what is scoring well in your area? Not to mention gathering all the voiced opinion from fellow judges!
I judged for 6 years before forming my own team to get my Master certification. In all honesty I felt like I cheated because I already knew exactly what was winning in my area.
You might want to reconsider.
Ed
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Because I never wanted to judge anyways. I'm a competitor, not an eater. That and I know tenderness matters more than flavor. That and I don't believe there is a such thing as "what is scoring well in your area". Good Q is Good Q.
 
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tduffy said:
Because I never wanted to judge anyways. I'm a competitor, not an eater. That and I know tenderness matters more than flavor. That and I don't believe there is a such thing as "what is scoring well in your area". Good Q is Good Q.
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... and a little over-tender will score better than a little under-tender.

On Saturdays there is about an hour of visiting time after judges check in, and most of the time each table will have a chat after the judging slips are turned in. Judges traveling some distance, say from California, Texas, or the midwest will often comment about their home area. Usually it's the sauce where they recall the subtle differences.
 
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