Sweet VS Spicy


 
D

Darin Hearn

TVWBB Fan
I have a bunch of the BBQ contests that are shown on Food Network stored on my Tivo. And last night I was watching some of them. I usually watch them because I love BBQ and I watch to get some tips and tricks that are being used by people who compete. One thing I noticed last night that a lot of the people who place in the top ten with ribs and chicken are shown pouring honey and brown sugar on their ribs and chicken before they foil them. I usually make my ribs and chicken with more spice than sweet. In the two contests I have taken part in my ribs took 8th and 12th place. My chicken has taken 4th place. I was wondering if I would score higher if I were to make my ribs and chicken more sweet than spicy. What are your opinions on this? Does sweet beat spicy in a competition? Let me know what you think!
 
Darin, as a Certified Barbecue Judge,we are instructed to judge the meat only not the sauce. In reality, I don't know if that always occurs.
 
That seems a bit dubious to me, as the meat, rub, smoke, and sauce/glaze all becomes one entity.

That seems kind of like instructing the judges at a beauty contest only to consider the personality of the contestants, even as they parade in front of you in swimsuits.
 
Dave, if an entry is covered in sauce or way to spicy you can only judge what you are given. If I can't taste the meat because of all the concoctions that are on it or through it I try to judge accordingly. I believe BBQ is a combination of smoke,rubs,and sauce added to the meat to ENHANCE the flavor of the meat not to change it. I guess it's kind of like your example of the beauty contest. Beauty is a combination of all the contestants attributes. Judge accordingly
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'Sweet beats heat' is commonly heard and is seemingly borne out by recipes like the 'Competition Ribs', the Lilly injection, BRITU, et al. They are all sweet (cloying to me) but to each his own, as they say. Many comp people have told me that they cook sweeter for comps. Give it a shot and see.
 
Darin, I noticed the same thing when I watched those shows. There was a lot of honey and brown sugsr doused on those ribs when they foiled. I thought maybe it was a regional thing. You know how Kansas City is sweeter and North Carolina more vinegar based type sauces. California- a little of both. I'm going to have to go along with K- give it a shot and see. Our team took a 5th in ribs at the Autry in April. They were sweet but not overpowering honey brown sugar sweet.
 
I saw something else about this subject that bothered me. On Saturdays the BBQ America show is on my local PBS station. On the show this week they talked to a BBQ judge about how to judge a BBQ contest. The first question asked was, “Do you cook BBQ?” The guy they were interviewing said, “No, I don’t cook. I just come to eat.” I was like WHAT??? That killed the rest of the interview for me!! Can you really know what you are talking about or looking for on competition BBQ if you do not cook BBQ?? Even for yourself at home?? I guess I never realized that this was the people who I am cooking for in a competition. Eye opening for someone who is still pretty new to the competition scene!
 
Darin,

I finally learned that same thing after my 3rd or 4th contest. As competitiors we are cooking for the judges and I do things a little different than I do at home. I do add a bit more sugar and sweetness at contests but I do not like for myself at home.

I also agree on the judges cooking. I am a certified judge as well and can't imagine trying to judge a event without the cooking expereince that I have. But in there defense I have met sereval judges that taught me some things about BBQ that I didn't know and they have never cooked anything even at home. So there is a mix of both and I think it works pretty well.

Randy
 
One does not need to cook to critique--one needs to understand the food one is going to evaluate. I have known--and know--many restaurant reviewers and food writers. Most write very well, some extremely well (hence their gigs); very few cook worth a damn. Some write very well and have parlayed their writing-about-food talent into very lucrative deals but really do not know food very well. (I can think of one famous husband-and-wife team who have several books, a column in a major mag, a lucrative web site, but really don't know a whole lot about food despite years of eating all over the country and writing about it. Good writing though.)

The best ones know food and cooking and presentation and have a good sense of the craft and artistry involved and so can critique it and write about it well. (Like music or theater or film critics--most who do not write music or plays or films--good critics (read: judges, in this case) have a solid but expansive understanding of what makes something 'good' or 'excellent'--worthy of mention, commentary or more.)

Though there are certainly subjective elements (many) to writing a critique or judging food at an event, one hopes that those who write or judge have a better than rudimentary understanding of the food(s) being critiqued and can explain or expand on that understanding through their writing or, in this case, through selecting an appropriate numerical representation of their judgment.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:


The best ones know food and cooking and presentation and have a good sense of the craft and artistry involved and so can critique it and write about it well. (Like music or theater or film critics--most who do not write music or plays or films--good critics (read: judges, in this case) have a solid but expansive understanding of what makes something 'good' or 'excellent'--worthy of mention, commentary or more.) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

But please also remember editors...those whose job it is to make articles (and, thus, newspapers) sell. There has to be a balance, though it may downplay art.
 
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