1st comp done, looking for advice

I just completed my first "backyard" competition with mixed results. The competition prizes included entry into the "Praise the Lard'' Murphysboro 17th St. KCBS event, so there were several big time teams their looking to get that entry fee taken care of. As far as I could tell I was the only solo team there, cooking on my 18 WSM! There were 3 categories: ribs, chicken, and wildcard, and turn in times were all 2 hours apart. I placed 14th out of 20 overall, with my ribs and chicken both ending up 17th. I took 2nd place in the wildcard category with a smoked breakfast sausage and egg cup that I've worked on for awhile.

I was surprised at the results of the overall competition. The judging was done by local service men and laborers, and it was based on taste only. The teams that won ribs and chicken did more of a competition style cook, which to me is not as appealing to the average joe taster. I'm sure they tweaked their recipes a little to suit tastes, but I sampled their entries and they were much like what you get at a KCBS turn in table. I would not think the average person would enjoy eating lots of comp-style bbq...too sweet and rich.

My question is...for those who compete in KCBS events and "backyard" comps, do you change your style, or are recipes just that good and they are universally liked?

I don't compete, but I wonder if you still fell victim to the "one bite" thing. Meaning that winning ribs are probably too sweet/strong/whatever to sit down and eat half a rack, but when you're judging one bite from each entry yours came out a little bland relative to the competition.

When I cook for myself or friends & family, I don't inject, brine, layer rubs, finish rub, mop, nor scrape. Comp BBQ to me is one-bite BBQ. I overload my food with complimenting flavors and hope for the best.

Im a KCBS CBJ and have been BBQing/grilling for about 20 years now...............I eat and taste BBQ wherever I can, restaurants ,comp, backyard BBQ you name it.
I can tell you one thing, there is a HUGE difference in competition BBQ ,backyard BBQ and restaurant BBQ.
Now, your BBQ is judged by "local service men and laborers" .......................
Well just have fun with it and dont let it get to you too much.

Peter

If I had been in that contest, I would have been very tempted to find the most popular local Q restaraunt, buy some of their sauce, and tweak it just a little bit. If that's where local folks/judges eat then that's what they prefer.

I never use my comp recipes for backyard type cooks. It's too much. For instance ribs, for comps it has several layers and is really only good for one or two bites. For backyard Saturday afternoon, I prefer a pretty simple rub and I may not even wrap if the tenderness looks good. Those are for eating at least a half rack.

Russ

How right you are and I never realized it. Never really looked at the comp threads here since I never thought of participating in one. Now since I have and i wont even tell you where my brisket came in.......but I was set up with a really great guy named John and he was telling me comp taste needs to be much different....I know that now. Need to start peeking here and poss post a new thread.... we did score first in beans!!!