Raystown Lake KCBS Competition

begolf25 · September 21, 2011, 07:12:51 AM

We had another competition last weekend at Raystown Lake in PA. This was a great event at a great location. Weather was also very nice all weekend.

Also, got to meet Greg (pensrock). He stopped by on Saturday. It was finally nice to put a face with the name. Thanks for stopping by Greg.

We did ok. Again, not as well as we hoped. Finished 14th overall out of 25 teams. We did get a call for 5th place in ribs. We get pretty down after finishing like this but this is only our 5th competition so we are still pretty new to this and have got calls in all comps but one. We just don't like to loose...lol

Here are some pics from this weekend...

The competition was right on the lake...

We took the Big Easy along to cook some meals. Here we are cooking some bratwurst and potato wedges...

They set up next to the lake for the awards...

Our chicken got 20th

Pork placed 12th. We really thought this would do better. Flavor was great and the money muscle just melted in your mouth.

Brisket placed 19th. We are completely lost on brisket.

Ribs, the one thing we have a handle on.

Tenpoint5 · September 21, 2011, 07:16:52 AM

Looks like some good eats from here

muebe · September 21, 2011, 07:20:54 AM

Your entries all look fantastic to me ;D

pensrock · September 21, 2011, 09:56:35 AM

Everything looks great. Congrats on the ribs. And it was great to finally meet you. :)

SouthernSmoked · September 21, 2011, 10:02:21 AM

Dang!! All turn-ins look awesome!

Congrats!... on the walk for the Ribs.

Few more under your belt and you'll be wearing that carpet out.

OU812 · September 21, 2011, 01:20:55 PM

They ALL look like winners to me.

Good to here you got to make the walk with your ribs.

Habanero Smoker · September 21, 2011, 01:31:51 PM

I don't know where you are scoring low at. One observation on the brisket, if you scored low on appearance it may be because that one piece is much smaller than the others. For appearance, the look of the meat is most important, but that also includes uniformity of size and thickness of the slices.

TestRocket · September 21, 2011, 03:31:36 PM

Congrats on the ribs and like Habs I have an observation on appearance: Experiment around with different brush types and find one that doesn't leave brush strokes in your finishing glaze. I have another idea or two on your chicken you may (or may not) have thought about. PM me and I'll share a little (what little) experience. ;D

SiFumar · September 21, 2011, 03:57:39 PM

Looks all great to me!

Tenpoint5 · September 21, 2011, 05:40:35 PM

Having no experience at all and just going with a thought. Less sauce on the chicken and Pulled Pork. Looks really heavy on them compaired to what is on the ribs. Could this be a less is more thing?

Habanero Smoker · September 22, 2011, 02:26:21 AM

Quote from: Tenpoint5 on September 21, 2011, 05:40:35 PM
Having no experience at all and just going with a thought. Less sauce on the chicken and Pulled Pork. Looks really heavy on them compaired to what is on the ribs. Could this be a less is more thing?

The teams get feed back on how the judges scored them (for that particular day) . So each team will know how each judge scored on appearance, taste and texture, but not why they scored the way they did. If a judge scores low, then the judge may also include a comment card as to why he scored low. So the teams know what areas they are weak in. Generally, appearance will not take you out of the running, unless you really screw up the meat, or send in a box where the food has just been thrown in and no effort was made to make a good looking presentation.

I'm like you, I prefer to see the skin and meat. To much sauce hides the appearance of the food. It is hard to tell from a photograph, but about 50% of the entries I have judged have about that amount of sauce. Though appearance in one thing; too much sauce may effect the taste. If a judge can only taste sauce and not the meat, in that case a judge may not give you a high score. But keep in mind this is the opinion, observation and experience of one judge.

begolf25 · September 22, 2011, 06:49:08 AM

Quote from: Habanero Smoker on September 21, 2011, 01:31:51 PM
I don't know where you are scoring low at. One observation on the brisket, if you scored low on appearance it may be because that one piece is much smaller than the others. For appearance, the look of the meat is most important, but that also includes uniformity of size and thickness of the slices.

Thanks Habs, we knew that would hurt our apperance. What happened is the brisket wasn't done as much as we had hoped. So the farther in we got on the flat the tougher the slices were. So we decided to sacrifice on appearance, since it doesn't weigh as much on our score as the other factors, to try and save our scores on tenderness. Turns out it didn't matter...LOL

begolf25 · September 22, 2011, 06:57:24 AM

Quote from: Tenpoint5 on September 21, 2011, 05:40:35 PM
Having no experience at all and just going with a thought. Less sauce on the chicken and Pulled Pork. Looks really heavy on them compaired to what is on the ribs. Could this be a less is more thing?

Chris, the chicken had too much sauce for sure.

As far as the pork goes we usually go very easy on the sauce to let the pork taste come through by just coating it with a thin layer of a sweet vinegar based sauce. But at our last competition we received a couple comment cards stating the pork was "too salty". Not sure why they thought this, we usually go easy on the salt. So this time we decided to try a little sweeter sauce. Didn't get any too salty comments and our appearance and taste scores were very good. We fell short in tenderness which really confuses me since the pork was very tender IMO.

We will figure it out eventually ;D

Tenpoint5 · September 22, 2011, 07:34:21 AM

Just a guessing game. Some days you guess right and others you don't. Your right just keep trying!!