do tastes change?

[BBQ_Mayor]

For the past years of competing, I come into every year with the same recipes and end up needing to relearn a new taste profile for the judges. Anybody else run into this or is just me?

 

[ModelMaker]

Ray,
I don't think a yearly taste profile change is required.. Good is good year after year.
Judges palets don't change year after year. What changes yearly are judges. At Smokin in the junction I was suprised how many new faces I saw in the judges tent. I think that is your variable. If you are happy with your product stay with it, you will get what your after from contest to contest.
On another note I don't remember if it was you or Jay I talked to after judgng Sun. (I'm still not sure by sight which is which) but after I left I thought all I did was mention the bad side of the days results and I could see you might think I was just a whiner. I'm not, there were much more good (some excellent) entries and I should have focused on that instead of the poor entries. I want to be sure all the cook teams know I'm not a Debbie Downer.
My bad.
Ed

 

[Buster Dog BBQ]

Last year I had a nice talk with Rod Gray after a few very poor contest. He told me until ou have 5 or more bad showings don't change a thing because most likely it's a bad judge.

We kept cooking consistent like we have and it worked.

I talked to a few guys yesterday and they had good scores and one lousy one. Confirming what Ed said, lots of new judges and I think lots of cooks judging. Granted, some of the same teams who always walk did, the scoring was probably a little inconsistent.

 

[BBQ_Mayor]

Ray,
I don't think a yearly taste profile change is required.. Good is good year after year.
Judges palets don't change year after year. What changes yearly are judges. At Smokin in the junction I was suprised how many new faces I saw in the judges tent. I think that is your variable. If you are happy with your product stay with it, you will get what your after from contest to contest.
On another note I don't remember if it was you or Jay I talked to after judgng Sun. (I'm still not sure by sight which is which) but after I left I thought all I did was mention the bad side of the days results and I could see you might think I was just a whiner. I'm not, there were much more good (some excellent) entries and I should have focused on that instead of the poor entries. I want to be sure all the cook teams know I'm not a Debbie Downer.
My bad.
Ed

That was me Ed, thanks for stopping by, always glad to see ya.
It was interesting that after you had left 2 other judges stopped by and they too focused on the bad stuff. And a guy that was with us, who had never been to a contest before, asked why the judges were telling us how bad the food was. Understandably it is what stands out the most over the good. Doesn't bother me any to hear about that bad stuff, as long as it wasn't mine.:-D

 

[BBQ_Mayor]

Thanks Rod,:thumb: Just haven't been in a drought like this....ever.

Last year I had a nice talk with Rod Gray after a few very poor contest. He told me until ou have 5 or more bad showings don't change a thing because most likely it's a bad judge.

We kept cooking consistent like we have and it worked.

I talked to a few guys yesterday and they had good scores and one lousy one. Confirming what Ed said, lots of new judges and I think lots of cooks judging. Granted, some of the same teams who always walk did, the scoring was probably a little inconsistent.

 

[watertowerbbq]

I did trade PM's with Brian Sweeney on some of my concerns (not just judging) about the contest and he told me that each table had one local celebrity judge.

I'd fall into that category where I had one judge who didn't seem to be on the same page with the other five judges in 2 of the 4 categories. Hopefully next year they will all be CBJ's. I'm not an organizer, but I would think getting 100% CBJ's in West Des Moines should be easier than in other locations. I hope they do away with celebrity judges at next year's event.

 

[BBQ_Mayor]

I did trade PM's with Brian Sweeney on some of my concerns (not just judging) about the contest and he told me that each table had one local celebrity judge.

I'd fall into that category where I had one judge who didn't seem to be on the same page with the other five judges in 2 of the 4 categories. Hopefully next year they will all be CBJ's. I'm not an organizer, but I would think getting 100% CBJ's in West Des Moines should be easier than in other locations. I hope they do away with celebrity judges at next year's event.

I talked to a judge afterwords that had said there were celebrity judges. He said they were the judges talking at the table. :tsk:

 

[monty3777]

Where do you guys normally expect to finish at a comp? Does one 9th place call normally send you home happy? Or do you usually get multiple calls and come within sniffing distance of GCs and RGCs? I should know - but as I think about it I haven't really done all that many comps with you guys so I can't rely on my memory.

 

[drbbq]

I'm always surprised that cooks think the new judges give the low scores. I think it's the other way around. The new judges are easily impressed while the seasoned judges are a little more critical. Just MHO.

 

[Gowan]

As for myself, if we feel confident that we were on our game, I expect top ten calls minimun, hopefully top 5.

Back to the original topic - I believe we are seeing the overall judges' preference shift away from super-sweet towards more spicy here in North Georgia. At least that seems to be the case from what I've seen over the last six months or so.

 

[BBQ_Mayor]

Where do you guys normally expect to finish at a comp? Does one 9th place call normally send you home happy? Or do you usually get multiple calls and come within sniffing distance of GCs and RGCs? I should know - but as I think about it I haven't really done all that many comps with you guys so I can't rely on my memory.

As any team, we expect to finish 1st but to be realistic, we expect to finish in the teens or higher with each call in a 50 team contest. And yes, we typically get at least 1 call per contest.

 

[monty3777]

As any team, we expect to finish 1st but to be realistic, we expect to finish in the teens or higher with each call in a 50 team contest. And yes, we typically get at least 1 call per contest.

My response was crap so I deleted it

 

[Pyle's BBQ]

Ray, I know why I finished where I did, but I did expect you to be higher. PM me or call and we could go over notes to see what is wrong. I had some good scores in categories and bad. Yes they were all over the place so I cannot really know what to do.

I know my brisket was overdone, chicken not even and I put a wrong piece in the box, ribs I was happy with to a point, pork shoulder did get dry but was ok.

 

[thenewguy]

I was really suprised by the judging scores too.
I turned in my absolute worst chicken I've ever had at a comp, and it ranked 20th out of 47. All I could say was...wow.
I was also extremely dissappointed to hear there so many "celebrity" judges.
I didn't spend this kind of money to compete to have a "celebrity" decide my food's fate.
All of the local drunks was kind of sad to see as well. Kinda sad to think the local bars were willing to sell alcohol to someone who could barely stand and then let them leave the establishment like that.
Not one individual but I had 4 different "town drunks stagger into my cook site.
2 of them decided to grab a chair and sit down, one started diving for my smoker(luckily their more sober friend steered them away from the idea of opening it).
The "first come, first spot" idea...well it sounds good in theory untill a few teams decide that they are more important than all of the teams that were actually in line for an hour or more.
I know, I'm whining. I'll get over it.
And why does ANYONE think calling the top ten team names up to the front and then announcing the order is the ideal way to call the winners?
That really takes out ALL of the suspense.
We had a great time, don't get me wrong, but the judging needs to be improved unless this is gonna be a $50 entry contest.

 

[Gowan]

And why does ANYONE think calling the top ten team names up to the front and then announcing the order is the ideal way to call the winners?
That really takes out ALL of the suspense.

Amen!

They do it this way at the Columbus, GA event, and I really hate it. I believe the thinking behind it is it speeds up the flow of giving out awards, but there are better ways to deal with that. Too much reality TV, methinks. What's next - voting cook teams off the island?

meh.

 

[BBQ_Mayor]

:hand: I don't and didn't want this thread to be a slam agianst any contest or judges. I'm simply asking about taste differences from year to year and if you have noticed any changes. DrBBQ has a good point with new judges vs seasoned judges. Thanks Ray.
For those that want to discuss the comp and scoring with me, please send me a PM.

 

[Buster Dog BBQ]

:hand: I don't and didn't want this thread to be a slam agianst any contest or judges. I'm simply asking about taste differences from year to year and if you have noticed any changes. DrBBQ has a good point with new judges vs seasoned judges. Thanks Ray.
For those that want to discuss the comp and scoring with me, please send me a PM.

The difference in this case was celeb judges didn't get a KCBS judging class. The thinking of a rib falling of a bone vs one bite and pulling from the bone would have been foreign to them. Celeb judges has no instruction.

 

[Scottie]

My take is it is the new judges. The old guard judges just can't judge BBQ and have no taste buds. The new judge's while excited about BBQ, are also very inconsistent. Their scores are all over the board. I can back that up with team scores at contests that have had a new judging class prior to a contest.

I don't complain if they over score my meat, no need to bitch when they under scored my product.

That's my take from a team that has cooked a couple of contests. Also all over the US contests.

 

[Sledneck]

I am thinking it is gonna change over to cajun flavors across the country, i let you know how it works out