Need Some Input From Comp Judges


 
Kelly C

Kelly C

TVWBB Pro
My BBQ Team is preparing for our first competition of 2023 and I have a question for current and former judges. During cold weather competitions can a judge tell if a team used a bag to keep the meats in the turn in box warm or not? Just wondering if this is advantageous. My team has never used a warming bag before but the weather this coming weekend is going to be colder than any prior Comp. Appreciate any suggestions you can give. I am thinking something like this insulated bag:
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Kelly, I can not tell if a team uses such a item. First off, I have no way of knowing what a team carried their boxes in as we are to never know what teams we are judging.... Blind Judging !
 
The temperature of the meat is not a judging consideration. Judges usually only get the Chicken entry right after 6 boxes are delivered to the turn-in table and then provided to the table captain. After Chicken, Table Captiains must make sure they don’t take the same team’s entry to a table that already had a previous meat from them, so there is a delay getting this sorted out, especially with the last entry, Brisket.
 
Thanks for the quick responses. I realize the temperature of the meats is not judged but was curious if it could favorably impact the scores from judges primarily in the taste category. Just looking for little ways we can up our game. I appreciate the information.
 
As Bob said, judges don’t know anything about an entry until it’s presented at the table, so you can do do something I used to do when I competed—test different variables on CBJ’s at your home. We cooked exactly prepared chicken, ribs pork and brisket on a WSM, pellet grill, offset, drum smoker and kettle and let the 6 CBJ volunteer judges blind taste them so we see which they liked best/worst and comments. We got to experience changing the look of the turn-ins and in one category, different rubs and sauces. We learned quite a bit. You could test the insulated box idea by doing the same thing to see if there is a variable in score in any judging category and make sure the judges tell you why and what the differences detected in their category comments. After that experiment, we made pizza in an outdoor wood pizza oven and jumbo shrimp and crawdads from Louisiana on the pizza cooker. It was a great day for learning and camaraderie.
 
Kelly....
Sleeves and other such keep warm devices are often seen in use by teams during turn-ins.
Teams are seen by anyone working outside the "tent". These could be Volunteers working the (initial) turn-in table.
Only speculation here, but I don't know how the use of such devices/items would affect the Taste.
But I can see where it might affect the Texture especially with crispy skin chicken samples.

NOTE - I really like Mark's suggestion. We too have used just such an arrangement. Works very well for both the teams as well as 'judges'. A learning experience beneficial to all.
 
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Congratulations today!
You guys had some tough conditions again this year, but shined through! Best of luck to you Kelly and your team the rest of the season!
 
When I judge, I can't tell if an insulated bag or sleeve was used. And while temperature may not be a judging criteria, we all know that temperature of barbecue affects its taste and tenderness, so turning in hot meat is to your advantage in whatever way you achieve it within the rules.
 
James J said:
Congratulations today!
You guys had some tough conditions again this year, but shined through! Best of luck to you Kelly and your team the rest of the season!
Click to expand...
Wind chill was +3 degrees yesterday morning, which made it more challenging to have all Weber WSM’s get up to temp, but they did and held temps. We didn’t do very well, but had a lot of fun as always. Here are the turn ins:
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