Feed Back On Boxes From NKC Comp

[jaestar]

I competed in the NKC comp this past weekend. It is the second KCBS event I have competed in. I finished 37/93. Below are pics of the boxes I turned in. Any advice and critique would be greatly appreciated. I apologize for the rib pic. It was taken from the back side of the box. Thanks!

Chicken - 899, 778, 877, 888, 778, 966
I planned on putting in 9 pieces, but had a disaster happen and almost lost all of my chicken entry. I had the grate fall and lost half of the chicken pieces to the water pan :doh: and was only able to save six pieces (thankfully!)

Ribs -766, 988, 889, 889, 999
This was my best category. I finished 19th.

Pork - 989, 999, 899, 877, 877, 788
I would have liked to have a larger money muscle for this. Will pay more attention to the meat when shopping next time.

Brisket - 867, 888, 877, 878, 888, 889
I didn't like the burnt ends so did not put any in. This might be the cause of the lower scores? The slices were really moist and had excellent flavor. I am not sure of the scores on tenderness as the pull test was perfect with them.

 

[bignburlyman]

Ok, here are my thoughts for what they are worth. It has been discussed many times that (my opinion) is that judging from pictures is harsher than at the table because we can study the picture longer than the 10 second or so look at the table. With that in mind:

Chicken. Looks good color and shine, I feel the front two pieces look like they have a lump or bump that distracts somewhat. The middle two pieces and the upper left piece look excellent, showcase them. I understand the problem you encountered with losing some of your samples so you did good with what you had left. My score 8.

Ribs. In fairness your picture angle is messing with me a little bit. The ribs look tasty, I would at the table look at the cut side to check out the meat. It looks like you had a little bit of rough knife work, at least on the left front rib edge. Color and shine are ok. Score 8 from picture, could be 9 at table.

Pork. Color looks ok, pulled may benefit from a little more bark showing. It looks like a lot of sauce on the meat, but it all looks moist. The main problem to me is the slices look lonely out in front, if you would have been able to fill the space you would probably get a higher score. In this situation I feel you would have been better with the pulled in front, and put as much pulled as you could fit, then the slices would be less obvious. Score between 7 and 8 so I would have to go with 8.

Brisket. Not much to be critical of, the flat looks like it was a little thin, but the slices look good. The left end of the slices look a little rough, like they were a little overdone and wanted to come apart when you sliced. Score another 8.

Notice I didn't comment on the garnish, I don't pay attention to that at the table at all. Here I will say I feel the garnish should provide a backdrop and a frame for the meat and you did well with that.

Very nice work overall.