British BBQ Society Forums

Thanks aris, an interesting read, some of the comments though made me wonder if we had read the same artcle

I've heard elsewhere - I think maybe at the BBBQS videos by Tony on YouTube - that competition barbecue is different because it's all about an immediate flavour hit, and that what you'd usually find too strong (whether that's sweet, or whatever) over a whole meal, is going to be required when someone has only one mouthfull to taste.

Now I've never been to one of these competitions, so I'll have to take those comments on face value.

But my question is, why don't they just get better judges? In most other forms of food 'competition' (not quite the same as here) they're judged by people who have a palate developed enough to tell what the whole dish will be like from the first mouthfull.

My second question is, and maybe some of our teams can answer this, why do it at all? If you love cooking great barbecue, why would you enter a competition to cook great competition barbecue - stuff which you wouldn't eat in other circumstance, as the flavour is too strong?

The other question I have - at these competitions, as the barbecue is cooked for just one taste rather than eating a standard portion, do the public eat the competition stuff, or are they served a 'toned down' version?

Cheers.

Steve W

Personally i have no problem serving my bbq to the public friends or family, there is nothing worse in bbq that you'll find in most sauces you can find on the shelf in super markets and other items that everyone eats like bacon.

You need to pack flavour in as you've only got one bite to get the flavour across to the judges but there are other skill such as cooking correct that you've also got to consider in competition BBQ.

Swindon_Ed wrote:Personally i have no problem serving my bbq to the public friends or family, there is nothing worse in bbq that you'll find in most sauces you can find on the shelf in super markets and other items that everyone eats like bacon.

You need to pack flavour in as you've only got one bite to get the flavour across to the judges but there are other skill such as cooking correct that you've also got to consider in competition BBQ.

Yes, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying otherwise.

What I mean is, would you serve it to the public with less sauce, or a slightly different sauce?

Steve W

I know it breaks alot of the teams hearts to fill their meat with additives, and some teams just dont bother and still do well. The main additives arent in the sauce but actually injected into the meat, saucing is a way to adjust the final flavor.

[quote=]But my question is, why don't they just get better judges? In most other forms of food 'competition' (not quite the same as here) they're judged by people who have a palate developed enough to tell what the whole dish will be like from the first mouthfull.[/quote]

Competition judging is all about one bite and the judges are trained in this manner, therefore your comparison between mainstream food judging and BBQ comp judging is already true. we are fortunate to have have judges that give up so much of their time, and money to judge competition after competition.

Everyone has a different pallet, and therefore nothing will ever be 100%, the aim is to get a full flavor punch without offending anyone.

hope that makes sense

Pecker wrote:My second question is, and maybe some of our teams can answer this, why do it at all? If you love cooking great barbecue, why would you enter a competition to cook great competition barbecue - stuff which you wouldn't eat in other circumstance, as the flavour is too strong?

The other question I have - at these competitions, as the barbecue is cooked for just one taste rather than eating a standard portion, do the public eat the competition stuff, or are they served a 'toned down' version?

I think the 'one bite' thing might be oversold. Yes you get the full flavour in one bit, but that doesn't mean you can't eat a lot of it.

Also the Americans like things sweeter than we do, they put sugar on their sweet potatoes for example, so it's probably not as OTT here as it would be in the US.

Also the Americans like things sweeter than we do, they put sugar on their sweet potatoes for example, so it's probably not as OTT here as it would be in the US.[/quote]

imho sweet potatoes taste better with a bit of muscovado or even marshmallows melted on top but I'm English and I'd never put malt vinegar on fried potatoes....now that is weird

We have been to several bbq comps IBQN & Grillstock and the food handed out by competitors is the same as they give the judges, just maybe not as pretty. As to John's comments about the palate in America being sweeter my VERY limited experience, and copious reading agrees with him, it came as a shock to wartime resteraunteurs and cafe owners to see "Yanks" putting the dessert on top of their main course to add sweetness .
There has to be a standard to which food is judged and for this style of competition the KCBS is the chosen one. Personally I/We would rather try a sweet sauce/flavour profile then hot
Stephen, how many standards do you want? It's apparant from the various recipes I have that styles and flavours vary across the US but in competition there has to be a judging criteria set.
We seem to be heading down a familier route again

keith157 wrote:We have been to several bbq comps IBQN & Grillstock and the food handed out by competitors is the same as they give the judges, just maybe not as pretty. As to John's comments about the palate in America being sweeter my VERY limited experience, and copious reading agrees with him, it came as a shock to wartime resteraunteurs and cafe owners to see "Yanks" putting the dessert on top of their main course to add sweetness .
There has to be a standard to which food is judged and for this style of competition the KCBS is the chosen one. Personally I/We would rather try a sweet sauce/flavour profile then hot
Stephen, how many standards do you want? It's apparant from the various recipes I have that styles and flavours vary across the US but in competition there has to be a judging criteria set.
We seem to be heading down a familier route again

It's Steven with a 'v', by the way.

I think the only standard I'd want is if it tastes good. The meats used are chicken, pork and beef, and the standard should surely be serving a sauce/rub/dressing that tastes good with those particular meats. If the meat is tough, or not enough bite, or someone's tried to serve apple sauce with lamb or mint sauce with pork, then it won't taste nice.

But that's not my point at all - if there's a standard (say a typical sweet tomato sauce) then that's fine. It's up to the competition organisers, and they can set whatever rules and boundaries they want - it's their competition.

My point was, about whether or not food should be necessary to to be different in flavour for the 'one bite' to how it'd taste if the judges were going to eat the lot.

Thanks everyone for the comments. Very interesting insight into how people think through these things.

Steve W