Any Questions, folks?

[eater of food]

Hi all,

As many of you know, I'm Ed and I'm one of the judges for the IBQN calendar, for Pitmasters, Ready Steady Q and Kids-Q.

All this talk of the Tony Stone has made me insatiably jealous at my non-service since the end of the last season, and I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of eating again this year. It really is a wonderful job to have and we do appreciate how lucky we are to have the opportunities.

If there are any questions you'd like to address to me, as a representative of the judging community, then feel free to post them here. I will do my best to answer.

[Swindon_Ed]

If there are any questions you'd like to address to me, as a representative of the judging community, then feel free to post them here. I will do my best to answer.

Could you give a run down of what you're looking for in each entry for the four main categories?

[keith157]

Hi Ed, eating as a hobby sounds like fun,

[esselle]

Excellent Ed....nice to see the Judges feedback area back.

[Toby]

If there are any questions you'd like to address to me, as a representative of the judging community, then feel free to post them here. I will do my best to answer.

Could you give a run down of what you're looking for in each entry for the four main categories?

How much detail are you looking for? I have often thought about a judges class for teams but to be honest there wouldnt be enough interest. Here is a quick Summary

Chicken,
Appearance, remember it the appearance of the meat within the box, judges are looking for uniform pieces with a nice glace. Try to avoid brush marks. Bite though skin, juicy chicken with a good flavor, try not to completely mask the chicken flavor.

Ribs,
Again, a uniform box with a nice consistent glaze, if they pull off the bone they are over cooked, a nice bite mark is what the judges are looking for, juicy not dry.

Pork
sure you get the idea about the box and appearance. a nice bit of bark, try to avoid using too much sauce. It is important to make sure the pork is cooked well, no one likes dry meat.

Brisket
A nice pull for the slices which must be cut across the grain, no more than pencil thick, for some reason the slices seem to be getting thicker and thicker! It is alot easier to get juicy burnt ends, some judges will frown on a box that only contains them.

There is no point talking about a flavor profile for any of the entries, everyone has different tastes and judges will experience different things from the same piece of meat. I always recommend cooking for the masses rather than a few. As mentioned in the chicken section, it is the same for all categories, do not mask the meat, compliment it. The parsley / lettuce is not judged, but if it looks tatty it takes away from the overall appearance. At the same time, a box will be scored lower without dressing than one that has it. i am afraid its human nature.

The first thing i tell new teams is to learn how to cook the meat properly before playing around with flavors. 90% of RGC's will have messed up a single category. Once you have mastered the cooking, play with the flavor. Judges are people, albeit people with very large appetites! The judges we have can all boast more judging experience than any others in the UK, but with experience comes expectation.

We will have full judges comments for teams that compete in May, but this will probably be the only time this year.

i have already added to this twice and will probably do so again!

[eater of food]

Scott and Keith. Glad to get this section active again, and yes it is a wonderful job.

Hi Ed,

I'd just add a few things to Toby's post.

For chicken, try to avoid clumps of dry rub on skin or elsewhere on the piece. It's a little offputting to get a mouthful of grit.

For brisket, try to cook slices and burnt ends as we do like to see a range of goodies on offer. Obviously if one is great and the other turns out less well then play to your strengths. And regarding the slices, we're getting anything from wafer-thin because teams want to mask that it's underdone and tough, to full-on frying-steak size because it's crumbling. This is the winning brisket picture from Tony Stone, and it won by 9 points:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/522013_322463674486021_133011760097881_803360_1659463519_n.jpg

For pork, keep the chunks big as per Toby's training video, as small pieces are liable to dry out.

For ribs, try to cut evenly between the bones. Jackie put a tip in this section about keeping the ribs together as allowing air between them will cause them to cool and dry out more quickly. Sounds like firm logic to me.

-

Flavour:

The judges will keep an open mind. I have scored chicken with no discernible heat very highly as it was delicious. I have scored hot chicken samples highly too because I love heat in my food. If it's delicious it should score well, and there are so many different flavours available to make your sample stand out.

Generally, keep in mind that it's one-bite judging. Don't try to knock our faces off, but remember that you want to make an impact.

[Swindon_Ed]

Thanks for the replys guy's, i should have been more specific but i was a little tired last night when i posted, but i think it's great information for new teams to know.

I think my question was to do with pork and tenderness. Do you look for tenderness in the meat? Is there such a thing as too tender? Or as long as it's still moist is this what you're looking for?

This is the winning brisket picture from Tony Stone, and it won by 9 points:

With Byrons brisket i'll look forward to putting mine up against his again at Grillstock as our presentation scores from the judges were 8,9,9,8,9,9 it was just the flavour that let us down and i'll be sure that we won't have this problem again

[Toby]

It can be too tender, but we are talking extremes, left in foil and over cooked it will turn to mush which you will want to avoid.

i think May is going to be a very good indicator to the year ahead.

[eater of food]

As Toby says, I've had pork entries before which were so wet and overdone to the point of mush, so yes. The meat can be "too tender" and should retain some of its consistency along with moisture.

Toby's video is a great indicator of what we're looking for, and suggests giving a range of pieces - larger chunks, some pulled and moneymuscle slices if you like.

From my personal point of view, nothing pleases me more than full-flavoured bark along with the meat, so try not to forgo including it in the box.

[Swindon_Ed]

Thanks for that guys.