Parsley... is EVERYONE using it or what?

L

lunchlady

Guest
ok... I understand the pro... it looks great.

But what the hell else is so awesome that it gets you 9's instead of 8's?

Some input from judges would be great, since it seems that sometimes that can be the only reason our box didn't get a 9 in appearance. :confused:

So much for the "it's a meat contest".

I think I am one of the last holdouts who simply refuses to go through an entire case of parsley for 4 boxes.

So the question is... IS everyone doing parsley boxes now?

I don't know how to make this a poll...
 
a nice putting green just makes the meat look better, if its all even and nice, you dont look at it, you just look at the meat, but im not a judge!!
 
For us it was/is a matter of elimination. We were trying to improve our appearance scores. And the parsley box kind of eliminated one of the variables. I don’t believe the parsley boxes necessarily look better but they are certainly more consistent. They do not guarantee you 9’s

We don’t do them all the time. But we have turned in more parsley boxes than lettuce this year.
 
We use both lettuce and parsley. First layer in the box is lettuce to give the meat some support, then tightly-twisted bunches of pasley nested tightly into the lettuce.
When I judge a contest, I find myself totally ignoring the garnish, and focusing totally on the meat itself.
I guess we use parsley because it seems like that is what the majority is doing, and that is how we were taught.
 
I'm like you Michelle, I can't bring myself to pay for all that parsley. Up in Tryon NC this past weekend I bought 6 heads of green leaf lettuce and that was it. Out of all my appearance scores I got (12) 9's, (10) 8's, and (2) 7's. Honestly I was pretty disappointed with those scores - there was no reason for there to be anything less than a 9 given. I don't mean that in a boastful way, but I am my own toughest critic and know a kick-a$$ box when I see it. It really has me rethinking my presentation for the next 3 KCBS contests I have this summer. If I can find that KCBS-like program that lets you put in score and gives you a total, I'll run it with all 9's for appearance and see what happens. I have a feeling it would have moved me from 5th to RGC.
 
Michelle, to be honest, we cant seem to make up our minds. Our best boxes are made late Friday nights when we are feeling more "artistic" and anything legal could end up in the boxes. :wink:

So my best answer is no, we dont use parsley all the time.
 
Rub said:
If I can find that KCBS-like program that lets you put in score and gives you a total, I'll run it with all 9's for appearance and see what happens. I have a feeling it would have moved me from 5th to RGC.
Click to expand...

if you know your way around excel spreadsheets its relatively easy to do. Here's the formulas I use:

appearance: =cell*0.5714
taste: =cell*2.2858
texture: =cell*1.1428

I can email you a copy of the one I made its handy to track minor improvements in each score for each meat.

We have been only using green lettuce and making what we thought we fine boxes, but are going to try the parsley bed for our next comp.

I wish I knew more about what judges thought about the appearance of the meat. you hear alot that they don't look at the garnish, and they judge the meat on whether it looks like they want to eat it, but that's pretty subjective.
 
jbiesinger said:
if you know your way around excel spreadsheets its relatively easy to do. Here's the formulas I use:

appearance: =cell*0.5714
taste: =cell*2.2858
texture: =cell*1.1428

I can email you a copy of the one I made its handy to track minor improvements in each score for each meat.

We have been only using green lettuce and making what we thought we fine boxes, but are going to try the parsley bed for our next comp.

I wish I knew more about what judges thought about the appearance of the meat. you hear alot that they don't look at the garnish, and they judge the meat on whether it looks like they want to eat it, but that's pretty subjective.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I just sent the numbers to Sled and he's running them. I found the one I was looking for but my scores came out lower - they must have changed things up a bit since then.
 
lunchlady said:
So much for the "it's a meat contest".
Click to expand...

This is the reason I like the parsley box. It makes it easy to show off the meat... Mostly acts as a bed and when presentation is complete you barely even see much parsley, just a bit around the edges
 
We do all parsley as well. Did lettuce/parsley mix at our first comp and averaged 8.5 in appearance. You can see the pics on our webpage. One of the reasons we went with parsley, however, is that, while more labor intensive, it is a very straightforward way of making a box and getting consistent results. It has not markedly improved our results from that first competition, but at least in my mind I like the product better. We do not go through an entire case a comp (although I am not sure how much parsley is in a case). I think, and I could be wrong as it is my wife who does this, that we use about two bunches per box and each one costs usually between $1-$1.50. Considering what one spends on everything else to turn a box in, I don't think an extra $12 is a big deal. But that is probably just me.:icon_shy
 
It is a ritual with Brian and I. We start working on boxes, and I B##ch the whole time that I hate doing them. We always end with; I hate to lose a point because it did not have parcely.

In my CBJ class Ed even stated, do you to have it, the rules say no. However, it has become almost expected that you do.
 
Rub said:
I'm like you Michelle, I can't bring myself to pay for all that parsley. Up in Tryon NC this past weekend I bought 6 heads of green leaf lettuce and that was it. Out of all my appearance scores I got (12) 9's, (10) 8's, and (2) 7's. Honestly I was pretty disappointed with those scores - there was no reason for there to be anything less than a 9 given. I don't mean that in a boastful way, but I am my own toughest critic and know a kick-a$$ box when I see it. It really has me rethinking my presentation for the next 3 KCBS contests I have this summer. If I can find that KCBS-like program that lets you put in score and gives you a total, I'll run it with all 9's for appearance and see what happens. I have a feeling it would have moved me from 5th to RGC.
Click to expand...


Rub I understand your frustration, but (12) 9's is nothing to get wrapped around the axle about. That's pretty darn awesome. If my math is correct, moving those (10) 8's to 9's will only net you 10*.5714 or 5.7 points. If you lost GC by < 6 pts then I understand focusing on the appearance. Personally, I've been trying to focus on getting my taste scores from 8's to 9's....now that is where the points can be found.

Basically, if you run the numbers...if you can get 9's in taste and tenderness, then you can get 5's in appearance and still score around 168 for the entry. After all, it is still a meat contest.....(sort of)
 
Garnish, whether parsley or lettuce is anathema to me when I compete.

But when I judge, I honestly strive very hard to focus on the meats as per the KCBS criteria.

Granted, it all makes for or is supposed to enhance and help the appearance, but I don't think I would ever judge down or up based on garnish alone on round one.
 
lunchlady said:
I think I am one of the last holdouts who simply refuses to go through an entire case of parsley for 4 boxes.
Click to expand...
I typically split a case bewtween 2-3 teams and even with a 1/3 of a case it more than enough to do 4 boxes and is very economical. I think a case from restaurant depot is about $20 so split 3 ways is cheaper than 6 heads of lettuce
 
its ok, keep doing the lettuce until after Harpoon ! LOL Its a lot of work, Ask Grace or Angela, but it is worth it for making the meat jump off the box at you
 
We've had fairly good results using a nice bed of dollar bills! :)
 
I do think it looks better, I like it for the chicken presentation.

I don't think that you need a whole case of parsley though, just go to a good produce store and pick through the bunches yourself. I think it holds up better than lettuce also and can be refreshed alot easier than a wilted head of lettuce that the heat got to by mistake.
 
People eat with their eyes. Even if the appearance score doesn't add up to much the way it calculated with regard to the overall. To me the meat just"pops" better on a bed of parsley. I do truly believe the same exact meat entry(one on parsley, on on lettuce) would "pop" more on a parsley bed. That being said a judge might score it up better with regard to taste just by thinking it is better by the way it looks
 
Sledneck said:
People eat with their eyes. Even if the appearance score doesn't add up to much the way it calculated with regard to the overall. To me the meat just"pops" better on a bed of parsley. I do truly believe the same exact meat entry(one on parsley, on on lettuce) would "pop" more on a parsley bed. That being said a judge might score it up better with regard to taste just by thinking it is better by the way it looks
Click to expand...

That's precisely my theory as well. Psychology 101 right there...
 
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