pork turn in box

[rookiedad]

i have only seen a few pork turn in boxes in photos and at grill kings and i have noticed that it was usually served with a good amount of sauce. when i make pulled pork i sometimes like it served with a very light sauce made from cider vinegar, brown sugar and hot sauce. i sometimes apply this to a tray with a spray bottle and it often can not even be seen. my question is does anybody turn in a pork box with little or no sauce at all in competition?
thanks,
phil

[chad]

my question is does anybody turn in a pork box with little or no sauce at all in competition

Yeah and we get waxed!

[jminion]

I turned in pork in Seattle with no sauce at all. I had two butts cooked to pull and one for slices. The slices were so good that I turned in only the slices, took 2nd. The pulled was good but the slices were outstanding in my opinion, glad the judges agreed.

[BBQchef33]

unsauced, we tanked..

lots of sauce we placed and won..... But ya better have a good sauce, and dont add so much that you mask the flavor of the pork...


BUT... at home.. I mix cider vinegar with some cayenne pepper and a touch of nutmeg.. and then add a few tablespoons of that with a little salt to a tray of pulled pork.. (5-7 lb butt). Not alot at once... I add a couple tablespoons at a time and taste it... the idea is to just bring out the sweetness of the pork, without masking the flavor.


never got the cajones to do it this way at a competition.

[wsm]

Originally Posted by BBQchef33

BUT... at home.. I mix cider vinegar with some cayenne pepper and a touch of nutmeg.. and then add a few tablespoons of that with a little salt to a tray of pulled pork.. (5-7 lb butt). Not alot at once... I add a couple tablespoons at a time and taste it... the idea is to just bring out the sweetness of the pork, without masking the flavor.


never got the cajones to do it this way at a competition.

Gosh that sounds good!

I'd like that at my judging table.

[BrooklynQ]

For competetions, go with what you know and like best. Otherwise you'll be spending you're life guessing what the judges want. And that varies by day.

When I judged CT last year, out of the six entries one was sauced the way you desribe. I really liked it, but I don't remember how it scored overall. From my post after the contest....

The pork was probably the hardest for me to judge. It's not a food that is native to NYC. Each sample here was unique. Some were pulled, others chopped and some sliced. Some where sauced with a red BBQ sauce, some dry and one with a vinegar/pepper sauce. Very interesting. The experienced judges seemed to prefer pulled pork to the other samples, but if a box contained pulled, sliced, or chopped, we all tried it all ways. I guess the cooks were trying to please the judges by giving them what they liked best, but I think it worked against them. If the pulled pork was good, the slices weren't. And vice versa. As a judge you need to judge it all, so I know people lost points here. Don't try to give the judges everything, find a way that works best for you and ONLY do that.

To me, and to most of the judges at my table, the best tasting pork had the vinegar/pepper sauce. Unfortunately that piece was dry as toast. Talking with cooks afterwards, I was told that they all felt that it was risky to use that sauce in a contest in the Northeast. I guess regional tastes do matter.

If you want to read the old post about my first judging experience, it's here.
http://www.bandera-brethren.com/inde...t=3458&start=0

[Jeff_in_KC]

Just curious... you wrote that the vinegar soaked meat was dry... is there anything about vinegar's make-up that would tend to dry out meat when it is used? I haven't ever heard if there is.

[BrooklynQ]

I don't know if vinegar would dry out meat. I know it can make it mushy. The pork was sauced with a vinegar pepper sauce not soaked in it. Pooling off sauces is a DQ. From what I recal, the meat was over cooked and dry. It was long time ago. But, IMHO no amount of sauce can restore dried out meat.