In Lynchburg, Tennessee, charcoal mellows the whiskey, and smoke flavors the meat. Pace Yourself Do the math. Precision on a plate 4. The Competitors Are Deadly Serious The challenges of turning in seven different categories of dishes within strict five-minute windows every half hour is astounding to consider.
Thighs that would make Suzanne Somers proud 5. Judging Is Essentially Splitting Hairs To reach this level of competitions, barbecue cooks must have won at other prestigious contests, and many of them cook somewhere just about every weekend. You Might Also Like. Tags: barbecue bbq cooking competitions jack daniels tennessee. Get the Latest! We Recommend. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. It was a perfect rib. As for the other ribs in the box, not so good.
So, such was our experience at our first novice table. It was a great learning experience, and we look forward to our second session. Gene Gauger, yes, but it depends on the organization of your choice.
If there is a competition going on in the state the odds are great it is being sanctioned and judged by one of these three, with the SCBA hosting the most. I am also a bigger fan of the judges' training provided by the SCBA as it is significantly more in-depth.
Anyway, I linked to either the events calendar or judging-specific pages for each organization above. Hope that helps! Did you ever want to learn to the proper way to judge BBQ? Yea, we did, too. Consider this: before any judge officially weighs in on any BBQ box, he will have done the following: 1 Attended a half-day 4 hours or so seminar where he learned the basics of scoring systems, some history of South Carolina barbecue, some of the background of the SCBA, and other clerical sorts of things.
So what was it like our first time at the Novice Table? Interesting and educational, no doubt. It was a good way to begin and made us more comfortable from the start. This establishes your baseline for judging. I know that sounds confusing. Anyway, back to the story… After getting us oriented, explaining the scoring average, and showing us how to hide your score sheets during judging, we began to sample BBQ. Apologies… Greg told us that boxes like this are meant to mimic boxes from the whole hog competitions.
The better boxes mirror this with the three sections mentioned above. Great minds… We placed samples in the rectangle on our mats, and we ate with our fingers. Next, Greg balled up a piece and examined its reaction. Did it uncoil? Did it just sit there? If it just sits there, it is probably overdone. Front lawns turn into makeshift parking lots and cheap motels are hot commodities for the 20, spectators who descend on the fairgrounds.
But the large turnout doesn't actually get to try the competition barbecue. Although the celebrities of the circuit are happy to shake hands and pose for photos, they're only cooking for the judges, not the masses.
I solemnly swore to objectively and subjectively evaluate each barbecue meat that was presented to my eyes, my nose, my hands, and my palate, so that truth, justice, excellence in barbecue, and the American way of life, may be strengthened and preserved forever. For each category which in addition to the four cardinal meats also includes sauces, cook's choice -- think spaghetti topped with chunks of brisket -- and dessert , teams send in one anonymous Styrofoam box with a bite of meat for each of a table's six judges.
The appearance of the meat is judged on a nine-point scale, and although every box has a big salad's worth of greens, they're only a frame for the meat. We are repeatedly reminded to keep our eyes on the prize: this is a meat-judging contest and not a frame-judging contest.
The thing KCBS stresses most is impartiality, so my regional bias for simple salt-and-pepper-barked moist brisket and dry-rubbed pork ribs went out the window. Like appearance, taste is judged on a nine-point scale, but there is no pre-determined definition of excellent barbecue -- it's the certified judges' job to set that bar.
Anyone who owns a microwave can nuke a tough piece of meat into a puddle, but great competitive barbecue dances on the savory line between falling off the bone and tough to the tooth. To score a perfect nine, a rib should play hard to get, with a distinct pull and a thin layer of meat left on the bone after a bite. For pork shoulder, the test of tenderness is to squish it against the roof of your mouth.
The standard for chicken is vague, but as the least finicky of the four major meats, it's the easiest to nail.
You're instructed to judge each entry independently of the others, never going back to change the score of a meat based on its comparison to others. He'll wake up every 45 minutes to repeat the ritual until dawn. This in part involved amassing qualified barbecue judges, and to do so, the KCBS held a class to train and certify judges.
That's why I was there, along with 25 or so other hopefuls: a hungry mix of retirees, current and former military members, and self-proclaimed "desert rats," aka ATV enthusiasts, drawn from the massive coastal sand dunes to the north. Three hours into the training, the guy sitting next to me noted, "I didn't know there was going to be a test" — which there was.
If we passed the class, we could join more experienced judges in deciding the fate of barbecue teams like Uff-Da-Q. Founded in , it is one of the largest cooking-contest organizations in the world today, sanctioning more than events a year across the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe.
A nonprofit, it counts more than 21, members and claims to have certified more than 26, barbecue judges. KCBS was formed in with only one criterion for membership: "that none of it be taken seriously.
Along with money, winners earn the prestige that comes with conquering a respected barbecue competition. Pulling off this credibility while remaining true to its creed isn't easy, and KCBS walks a tightrope between having fun and ensuring that the contests it sanctions run smoothly.
Which brings us to the last thing KCBS fundamentally wants to deal with: a barbecue team with smoking-hot tempers ticked off because an unqualified judge gave it a bad score. So yeah, there would be a test.
There would also be an oath. KCBS believes that barbecue is America's cuisine, and the oath taken by those passed who the class would include swearing to uphold " the American Way of Life.
First, we learned KCBS does not consider grilled meat barbecue. Grilling is defined in the handbook as "a relatively fast, direct heat method of cooking. As I learned to judge by KCBS standards, I found a mix of common-sense definitions and definitions based on opinion — the latter being the subjective glue turned gospel that holds the competitive U. Each barbecue entry we judged would be tallied based on three categories, Appearance weighted.
So, if an entry received a six in Appearance, 3. When pressed, the same judge gave some exceptionally helpful clarification based on his own opinions. The score of one means the entry is disqualified for not following the rules, and a perfect score only comes about when every judge at a table awards nines in every category.
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