The Texas BBQ Forum

I agree that plated food looks great, but I vote no. That would go in the anything goes category. So, plated food does have a category ( anything goes ).
If you allowed plated pics in every category, Why have more than one category??? Because then you wouldn't be judging a pic of the meat, you would be judging who set-up the nicest looking plate. It's supposed to be about the meat that is cooked in each category except for the anything goes category. That category is wide open.

As for the arguement that plated food could be "marked", all I can say is (respectfully) So What? If someone is intent on cheating by telling their buds to vote for the plate with mac& cheese as a side, they could just as easily tell their buds to vote for picture #0003 or the one with the butcherblock cutting board. Unless all photos have are taken with the meat on butcher paper with only a white wall in the background, there will be the opportunity to "mark" pictures.

So for what's its worth I don't have a problem with sides on a plate. I don't someone will vote for a pic because it peas in it. Having said that, my position will be an unpopular one

This is just my .02 guys and gals.
I thought maybe a plated pic along with the cooking pics might jazz things up a bit. I'm not sure were the "marked photo" thing came into play but that was not my intention.

I am solidly with OSD on this if for for no other reason than I believe that participation would drop if folks thought it was all about plate art. Anything goes category is good and allows garnishing.

I'm not sure I get the "Plate art" thing PT.
I believe every cook we do is a work of art in our eyes.........am I wrong??
Picking the meat to cook.
Choosing the wood and fuel to cook with. (For some wood only )
Choosing which cooker to cook our prize on.
Kicking back and waiting for our work of art to be done.
Then enjoying what we all work so hard at cooking with a few accomodations as it were.

Here's a thought. Why not do an "Iron Chef" type of Throwdown? This is where you have several different types of meat (written on a piece of paper) and you draw one out of the hat, and that's the meat. You can add other items you HAVE to cook with the chosen cut of meat and they can be drawn as well. Here's an example.



Whole Meat (Draw one out of a hat)
Cornish Game Hen
Ground Goat
7 bone chuck roast
Pork Loin

Additional Items you MUST use (draw two out of a hat)
Habaneros
Spinach
Chorizo
Bacon
Ham
Artichokes
Mushrooms

Say the following items were drawn
Cornish Game Hen
Chorizo
Spinach

Everyone would have to come up with their unique dish using those three ingredients along with anyother ingredients they want to add, but they MUST use the three ingredients that are chosen in the same dish. So with the three chosen someone could make a Smoked Cornish hen with a chorizo spinach and cheese stuffing for instance.

This can be alot of fun and the meats can be anything you want to use to be drawn, let your imagination wonder!

Here's something for everyone to think about. All the suggestions have been good ones. But, the more complicated you make it, the more costly you make it ( having people cook foods they wouldn't normally buy ), the more rules you have to have to govern it, and more pics to take.
This will end up turning a fun, simple to enter ( take a pic of what you are cooking ), no special foods to buy, not a bunch of rules to worry about Throwdown into a costly, confusing, and complicated mess, that will end up with almost no-one participating in it because it's just too much of a bother to do it.

So it would be kinda like an anything goes category for everyone, but the ingredients are chosen for you. How you make and present the plate is up to the individual?

The rules in the ordinance for throwdowns seems clear enough. Why vary from it?

OSD wrote:Here's something for everyone to think about. All the suggestions have been good ones. But, the more complicated you make it, the more costly you make it ( having people cook foods they wouldn't normally buy ), the more rules you have to have to govern it, and more pics to take.
This will end up turning a fun, simple to enter ( take a pic of what you are cooking ), no special foods to buy, not a bunch of rules to worry about Throwdown into a costly, confusing, and complicated mess, that will end up with almost no-one participating in it because it's just too much of a bother to do it.

How is it making it complicated? The forum would chose the items that would be pulled from the hat, you just wouldn't know what exactly you're cooking until it's drawn from the list of items. It can be as simple as you want to make it or as complicated and diverse as you want to make it. The rules are simple as ever, you just have to cook what's drawn. You say 'people my not participate because it's too much', well look at the other side, people may not do it because it's the same thing they did the last time and you can only do brisket or pork should so many times before it gets boring. Some people like change and some don't, you obviously don't.

JaCK2U2 wrote:The rules in the ordinance for throwdowns seems clear enough. Why vary from it?

I was simply making a suggestion to make things a little different. Redundacy gets boring......... Not saying the Throwdowns are boring, but they most of the time include everyday 'BBQ' items that we all post on a daily basis. This would just be a little more imaginative way of doing the Throwdown. Again, it was just a suggestion.

As long as the secret ingredient wasn't something you'd have to hunt for in some ethnic market or pay big bucks for (like truffles or walnut oil) I think it could work.

For example, the Secret Ingredient is Beans! You could use dried pintos, anasazi, garbonzo or canned beans. Beans would have to be somewhere on the plate. Ditto if the secret ingredient were potatos, corn, rice or macaroni. The secret ingredient would be a common everyday staple. Keep the same categores we got now, just add the secret ingredient.

Straight forward, and not complicated at all. I'm warming up to the idea.

DATsBBQ wrote:As long as the secret ingredient wasn't something you'd have to hunt for in some ethnic market or pay big bucks for (like truffles or walnut oil) I think it could work.

For example, the Secret Ingredient is Beans! You could use dried pintos, anasazi, garbonzo or canned beans. Beans would have to be somewhere on the plate. Ditto if the secret ingredient were potatos, corn, rice or macaroni. The secret ingredient would be a common everyday staple. Keep the same categores we got now, just add the secret ingredient.
Straight forward, and not complicated at all. I'm warming up to the idea.

Exactly, that is certainly a variation. It's just a way of spicing the Throwdown up to make it a little more fun and different and an opportunity to use your imagination and creativity.

JaCK2U2 wrote:The rules in the ordinance for throwdowns seems clear enough. Why vary from it?

I agree here. Stick to the throwdown rules as previously done. There may be room for another contest type such as the Iron Chef idea.

Maybe I'm being a stick in the mud, but that's the way I feel about it.

Maybe it needs to go up for a vote?

Sorry I even mentioned it guys. I won't want to try to introduce anything new here anymore, seems by some of the comments some of you guys are set in your ways and want to keep things as they are......... 'the way you want them'. You might find if you try new things they're not too bad if you give them half a chance rather than not try them at all or try to find the negative in them.

Oh well.

I can see both sides, and am good either way.

I always need to fix something with the brisket, butt or chicken anyway, so I can just add it to the plate.

Or, if pork chops or chicken breast or pork loin is pulled from the hat, I can find some way of cooking it and adding the other required ingredients.

Whatever y'all decide