MAD MEAT GENIUS

MAD MEAT GENIUS
Chilebrown at home

Sunday, August 17, 2008

JUDGEMENT DAY



This is about the day in the life of a barbeque judge or how I survived eating 6 pounds of meat in two hours. Yesterday, Dr. Biggles, Ms Goofy, and Yours Truly spent half a day at the Tomato Festival in Fairfield California. We were invited to be judges at a barbeque cook off. How could we ever pass this opportunity by. What fun! We had visions of free food, cold beverages and passing out a couple of ribbons. Well we did get the free food and a lesson about competitive barbeque.


Competition Barbeque is serious business. This event was sponsored by the Kansas City Barbeque Society(KCBS). The people who enter this event spend a large amount of time, money and commitment to compete. There is a lot of prize money involved. If you placed in this event, You would be eligible to compete in future and larger invitational events. Barbeque Competition is a lot of fun, but there is a lot of responsibility to be a judge. We experienced this close up and personal. I have the heartburn to prove it.

We were asked to get to the fair at 9:30am. The first step was to check in. There were 60 other judges. Some were novices like ourselves. There was a group of experienced judges. They have taken a class from the KCBS and have judged other events. We were broken into groups of 6 with a mix of eperienced and novices. Each group got a table. We received a small class in rules and regulations for the competition. There is a specific ritual to marking of a score card and placing the meat on your score plate. We were told what to look for in the food and how to score it. It basically broke down to Appearance, Taste, and Tenderness. You would assign a number from 1 - 10 . Nine would be most excellent. 2 would inedible. We would sample 4 different plates of 6 meats. The plates were Chicken, Pork Ribs, Pork Shoulder or Tri-Tip and Beef Brisket. We went over some more rules. There was one rule that was a little disappointing. No carbonated beverages or alcohol may be consumed while judging. I told you it was serious. We even were seated facing away from the competitors when they brought their food in. I am not going to guess the reason for that. We then took an oath. Bring on the Food!

The actual judging started around 11:45 and went to around 2:00pm. We took our judging responsibilities seriously. We tasted some very good meat. We also had some not so very good meat. Overall it was a blast. This was an opportunity to go behind the scenes at a barbeque competition. I think we might enroll in the KCBS judges class. But first, would you pass the Rolaids.

9 comments:

Zoomie said...

Wow, I've missed a lot in just a few days - bacon, pears, pulled pork, judging and even the firefall and Indian Love Song! I'm jealous that I missed the firefall and all that yummy meat!

Andrew said...

Sounds like a blast, I'd love to take a judging class.

meathenge said...

It's taken a while, but I think I've finally passed the 6 pounds of meat served, urp. GREAT DAY !!!

Biggles

Zoomie said...

Chilebrown and Ms. Goofy - your generosity with veggies is now ready to be rewarded! The peaches are ripe! Shall we meet again at Catahoula's tomorrow morning or do you want a delivery to your doorstep? If the latter, I need to know which doorstep! :-) They smell DIVINE!

Carol said...

Hi Chilebrown, You and Ms. Goofy need to set up a vacation for K.C. I will take you to all the BBQ places and we have a pretty cool farmers market also. I enjoy your site. Carol ( ups sleeper team from last year)

Chilebrown said...

Zoomie, reply back and I will meet you in the morning. Anytime after the commute. 10:00 would be way kool.
Andrew let's hook up in KC and take the class.
Carol, We would love to do that. We were already making plans.Try sending your
email address in House-Mail (North Bay Feeder: Paul Brown (aka Chilebrown)
Dr. Biggles you are the man. That was way to much info you judging Foo!

Chilebrown said...

Carol, on second thought, House Mail is not such a good idea. I will send my contact info next Thursday by Sleeper Team. Yeah!

Zoomie said...

Okay, Chilebrown and Ms. Goofy, I'll see you at about 10am at Catahoula! Cool!

Carol said...

Hey Chilebrown, All your friends here seem cool. My email address is cfilkil@hotmail.com. Give me some kind of time line by November and I will pick my vacation around your trip.