First Comp Completed

[ewatts2003]

I finally pulled the trigger and competed in my first sanctioned KCBS competition this weekend. I really only had 3 goals for myself for the comp...get everything turned in on time, don’t come in last is any category, and most of all have fun! I met all of my goals and even got an 8th place call in ribs! I had an absolute blast and can’t wait to get another one under my belt. Thanks to everyone on this site for the wealth of knowledge that is available! Here are some turn in box pics from today:

 

[ewatts2003]

Don’t ask me why the pics are rotated...idk what happened! Chicken I scored 166.8228 and finished 16th. Ribs I scored 169.6912 and finished 8th. Pork I scored 158.8228 and scored 20th. Brisket I scored 151.9544 and finished 23rd. Definitely have things to improve on and I’m looking forward to getting better!

 

[Bob C Cue]

Nice showing for your first comp. I'm no expert but the boxes look good to me. Congrats and meeting your goals!

 

[masque13]

Congrats!

 

[midwest_kc]

Congratulations on the first comp and hitting your goals!

 

[Ron_L]

Don’t ask me why the pics are rotated...idk what happened! Chicken I scored 166.8228 and finished 16th. Ribs I scored 169.6912 and finished 8th. Pork I scored 158.8228 and scored 20th. Brisket I scored 151.9544 and finished 23rd. Definitely have things to improve on and I’m looking forward to getting better!

Did you take them with an iPhone? The iPhone includes the rotation info in the picture and most web browsers don’t use it, so the pictures end up like that. Rotating them before posting will fix it.

Congrats on surviving your first comp and congrats on the rib call! I am curious about the brisket presentation. Why did you break the slices into two pieces?

 

[rumpunch]

Congrats on your first competition! And by the way, those boxes look a million times better than my first comp boxes!

 

[ewatts2003]

Thanks everyone!

Ron, yes I took them with my iPhone so that may be the issue. As for the brisket, it was overcooked and I had trouble keeping the slices together. I had no option other than turning in partial slices just to make sure I had enough pieces to meet the 6 judge requirement. Surprisingly the appearance scores for the brisket were better than I thought they would be. I will have to look at them again when I get home tonight and post what they were.

 

[Ron_L]

Thanks everyone!

Ron, yes I took them with my iPhone so that may be the issue. As for the brisket, it was overcooked and I had trouble keeping the slices together. I had no option other than turning in partial slices just to make sure I had enough pieces to meet the 6 judge requirement. Surprisingly the appearance scores for the brisket were better than I thought they would be. I will have to look at them again when I get home tonight and post what they were.

Makes sense. Sometimes the scores will surprise you :-D. At one comp our chicken looked terrible to me, but we picked the best pieces to go into the box and hoped for the best, and we got 3rd place! There is an old saying, “Never give up on the box!” :becky:

 

[fwdiii]

Congratulations!! Your boxes looked pretty darn good, especially for your first time!!
Yes, the brisket box was different...but looked good enough to eat!!

 

[sudsandswine]

Did you take them with an iPhone? The iPhone includes the rotation info in the picture and most web browsers don’t use it, so the pictures end up like that. Rotating them before posting will fix it.

Congrats on surviving your first comp and congrats on the rib call! I am curious about the brisket presentation. Why did you break the slices into two pieces?

I have an Android phone and mine are frequently rotated as well, even when they appear upright when browsing in the phone's photo viewer, when uploading direct from my phone. I'll either do it from my computer instead, or actually edit the photo by cropping it slightly and that seems to make the orientation "stick" enough to make the post happy.

Nice job on the competition, getting everything turned in on time during the first competition is not something to be taken for granted. :thumb:

 

[Ron_L]

I have an Android phone and mine are frequently rotated as well, even when they appear upright when browsing in the phone's photo viewer, when uploading direct from my phone. I'll either do it from my computer instead, or actually edit the photo by cropping it slightly and that seems to make the orientation "stick" enough to make the post happy.

Good to know! I don't have an Android anything to test with :-D

 

[Ron_L]

As for the brisket, it was overcooked and I had trouble keeping the slices together. I had no option other than turning in partial slices just to make sure I had enough pieces to meet the 6 judge requirement.

One other thing that I thought of... If you run into overcooked brisket again, change the angle of your slices so that you are offset from cutting across the grain. As you move away from perpendicular to the grain the texture will change. It may take a couple of tries, but you may be able to save the brisket with some creative slicing :thumb:

I borrowed this picture from Amazing Ribs and added my own line showing what i mean.

 

[ewatts2003]

One other thing that I thought of... If you run into overcooked brisket again, change the angle of your slices so that you are offset from cutting across the grain. As you move away from perpendicular to the grain the texture will change. It may take a couple of tries, but you may be able to save the brisket with some creative slicing :thumb:

I borrowed this picture from Amazing Ribs and added my own line showing what i mean.

That makes sense! Thanks for the advice and I will definitely have to remember that in case I run into a similar situation again.

 

[el luchador]

Congrats on getting your first comp under your belt.

 

[ewatts2003]

Here is a pic of my score sheet from the contest