Help a Competition Rookie

[G2]

I've been watching the forum for a while and have competed...err...participated in one competition so far. We went spicy on our ribs and chicken, just like we like 'em, and the judges hated them. We have sweet now!

A couple of questions...

Can someone tell me what the default chicken turn-in should be? Our first comp we turned in boneless/skinless thighs. I thought they were delicious and looked great. We got five 8's and one 9 in appearance and mostly 7's and 8's in t&t and we came in dead last in the category. I know now it has to be sweet and not spicy and have skin, but what about the bone? Leave and trim the knuckle or remove the bone?

With regard to ribs, we did spares on our first comp and have been practicing spares since but do the judges in the south expect spares or baby backs?

With regard to brisket, at the last comp we saw a couple teams preparing burnt ends. Isn't this against the KCBS rules? I thought once the meat was separated it couldn't be returned to the cooker. Thoughts?

Thanks for the help. We'll be back at Pig's and Peaches this weekend to hopefully redeem ourselves.

[mobow]

1. chicken can be bone in or no bone skin on or not. sounds like you need to work on taste profile and tenderness more to those than just removing or leaving bone an skin. or just do it the same again for another contest and see what happens. maybe just got a table that was having a bad day.

2. ribs- which eve you cook the best

3. brisket= no not illegal. only pork can not be put back on the cooker once seperatd.

good luck. keith

[ParkAvenue_2]

can someone tell me what the default chicken turn-in should be? Our first comp we turned in boneless/skinless thighs. I thought they were delicious and looked great. We got five 8's and one 9 in appearance and mostly 7's and 8's in t&t and we came in dead last in the category

I'd be careful and not change too many things all at once. There are a lot of teams out there that would love to have had those scores in their very first contest. Hard to believe those scores put you in last. I'd be tempted to run the same product out again in the next contest and see what happens. If you change your spice profile AND your cooking method AND you have the new dynamic of an entirely new set of judges at the next comp, you could end up with lower scores but finish higher in the pack. Then what do you do?

We try to stick with minor tweaks from comp to comp rather than overhauling the entire process.

[boogiesnap]

i ran the same recipes out twice(KCBS), middle of the pack finishes.

i overhauled EVERYTHING(KCBS)...RGC.

however, it's yet to be determined if that was fluke or not. i'll have better data in a couple weeks.

while i'm not suggesting going this route, if you're confident in your product, turn it in, whether it's a new recipe/technique or not.

yeah, it is surprising that those scores landed you dead last. unless you got some very low tenderness scores.

in any event, try out some new stuff at home. if think it is better, go with it. if not stick with what you're confident with.

i hope that helped.

[G2]

Thanks for the replies.

I found the section in the KCBS rules about the pork...they put it in bold so it was easier to see! Not that we could have turned in burnt ends last time as we overcooked our brisket by a ton! It was so dry we could only get slices out of the point so that's what we turned in. Turned out to be our best category! In fact, we received a 9 for taste and tenderness from 2 of the 6 six judges. They must've never eaten brisket before.

I was a little shocked by last place in chicken as well. Our scores in chicken...

Appearance/Taste/Tenderness
8/7/7
8/7/6
8/8/8
9/7/8
8/7/7
8/7/6

[CBQ]

Originally Posted by boogiesnap

i ran the same recipes out twice(KCBS), middle of the pack finishes.

i overhauled EVERYTHING(KCBS)...RGC.

On the other hand, we spent 2009 changing and changing stuff when it didn't work. In 2010, we kept with the same base, made small tweaks, and starting finishing in the top ten on a regular basis. Many roads to success I guess.