Competition Meat Feedback Needed

[Boots]

Would love some comments, constructive criticism, or outright ridicule on our competition meat for Taylor from any circuit pros out there. Had a blast at the cookoff but didn't walk (congrats again to Dirty for the impressive win in brisket), and since they don't rank below 10th place, we didn't get any judges comments (next time we probably do a sanctioned cookoff partly for this reason?). Obviously, the pictures are before tidying up he boxes pretty for rows, etc. But the texture, tenderness and flavor of the meat we felt was outstanding, with fork tender but not mushy brisket, and ribs that were bite off tender but not falling off the bone. If there is something that jumps out of the picture at you that looks non-competitive, we'd appreciate any feedback.

With 82 teams in the field and us as rookies, we had no illusions about the level of competition and our chances of storming the award table, but we cooked lights-out better than anything we had ever done and could use feedback on what we can improve. Thanks guys - Boots

[FR8 Train]

First off don't change anything based on your finish in an unsanctioned cook. Try your stuff out at a sanctioned event and see how you do. Next I assume you cleaned up the black pieces in your brisket box. Even if they taste good you wouldn't want to present your box that way. They both looked great to me. Just give it another shot before changing too much.

[BluDawg]

I aint no Professional BBQ Chef ( I've been learnin for 30 yrs)so take it with a grain of salt, from my prospective you should have left you brisket slices whole as well as the bones. There looks to be to many bones in the box and the lack of a glaze is killing you on appearance and may be flavor profile too. Applying a little Ausjus to the brisket slices would give the illusion of moistness to your brisket.
Now for me your presentation is perfect as that is the way I like my BBQ I let the meat tell the story with out any window dressing( NO sauce , No glaze just nekid). To be honest I thought you raided my picture files for a second.

[Pony Express]

its hard to ell from pictures, but the ribs and brisket look dry to me. Looking at the brisket on the cutting board, when I slice brisket for turn in there is lots of juice on the cutting board.

With that being said, it looks delicious!

[BigDave]

was that a CTBA sanctioned cookoff. They have ya cut pieces like that in the turn-in box. Ribs looked dry to me but they still looked tasty! Howdy neighbor...we are from Allen.

[3 star redneck]

Ribs need to be st louis cut and glazed, the brisket looks dry and should be in whole slices cascading from back of box to front. ..but I dont cook any UN-sanctioned cook offs.... ...I would try to make small changes in your next sanctioned event..

[Papa Tom]

Go take Redneck's cooking class and save yourself some time and entry fees testing stuff.

[FR8 Train]

its hard to ell from pictures, but the ribs and brisket look dry to me. Looking at the brisket on the cutting board, when I slice brisket for turn in there is lots of juice on the cutting board.

With that being said, it looks delicious!

Wow good eye. We also make a pretty big mess when cutting brisket, that board is much to clean.

[Boots]

Hey guys, great suggestions all, and really appreciate the compliments too. Camera doesn't do the meat justice at all, none of it was dry a bit and I gotta tell you, I hate a dry piece of meat. I do tend toward a leaner beef though, but cook it slow and long with a lot of mop (no injection though). We knew we definitely needed to work on the pretty-pretty, but this being our first gig, we were emphasizing nailing the turn in time, not blowing a qualification rule, giving the meat the best flavor possible, and hitting all four turn ins. Figured once we had the experience of actually doing an event and building out the box, we'd be able to have a better feel for our logistics and execution. I think we'll be hitting some sanctioned cooks going forward, with some small town cooks mixed in for fun.

Blu Dawg and Big Dave - you're right on the weird cut ups, that really threw us a bit. As far as I know, unsanctioned. At cooks meeting they tell everybody that the box has to have 25 bite sized pieces to accommodate (as best I can remember) an 8 person prelim table, then like a 4 or 5 person finals table, and then if need be a 3 person tie breaker table. Told us they needed extras to make sure they could accomodate the judges. I'm just a rookie, but seemed sacriligious to me (cutting up a bunch of juicy bones into "bite sized" pieces is a bit like buying a Ferrari and then hiring 4 Italians to carry the four tires at a run while 4 more try to hoist and run with the car). Not saying I know it all, just weird. On top of that, there's the question of how you do it? I'm not in the habit of hauling a bone saw around with me for giggles. Lucky for me, a couple of really crusty old-timers were sitting with me and were really helpful. A quick run to True Value Saturday morning for like a 14 inch PVC pipe cutter, and I'm in business. Cut the bones nicely. We just cut 'em in half and said to heck with it, that's the way we'd eat them if we HAD to cut 'em, and I bet that didn't help our score. I will say, that the cook's meeting got extremely lively at the point they announced all this, the old timers got highly exercised and were mobilizing for a march on the officials like the Marines at Iwo Jima. Luckily cooler heads prevailed, and everybody complied. But I can't complain, obviously it didn't hinder Dirty at all. Cooking for competition is a lot different from cooking for the home folks, we'll be patient and learn the ropes over time.

Dave, glad to hear you're from Allen; open up a real barbecue place there to counterbalance all those burger huts! You guys are getting invaded after all, they opened up that In N Out burger thing over there; my wife said the opening day line was a quarter mile. Way too much noise about a griddle fried burger if you ask me. I'd rather go to a great dive like Keller's for a burger or better yet, Club Schmitz down in Dallas.

Be well, and see you guys down the road.

[BigDave]

Well Boots hope our paths cross sometime...we can swap lies! Yeah way to many restaurants in Allen area. Seems they close a few months after opening. Went to Rudy's the other day and it wuz just like the Austin area stuff. Fairly pathetic fast food Q.

Now Big Rays off of McDermott across from Viewpoint bank is purty good Q. At least the best in Allen by far. Course with Rudy's, Bar B Cutie and Dickeys...it ain't hard to be the best in town!

We used a pair of cable cutters to cut them ribs. Stainless blades & cheap. Cost about $12 at Home Depot.

[RWBTEX]

Ribs do need some shine, sauce or glaze is good, helps presentation as well as flavor. brisket does "look" overcooked and dry, maybe didnt help your score. I judged 62 ibca teams this past weekend and tasted the top 5 briskets, they were all moist and and all injected. I personally dont like the injection flavor but over and over again I see that the judges do. Ten years ago we didnt use that stuff to win, now days I dunno. Tasted some first round rejects that I liked better myself than the winners, just me but they did NOT have that juicy moist texture flavor. As already mentioned, dont go change your whole game after one cook off, that is something Johnny Triggs told me back in 1998 before he was a super star and tv celebrity, he's still saying that on tv today, I was just staring to cook competively bac then. Do a few cook offs and see how it goes, just tweak if its as good as you say you may do better next time. BTW first place ribs were not all sauced up, just a light glaze/shine, thought they were okay, had good overall flavor, second place ribs were real sauced up and very good imo, I liked them better myself. Its always funny to watch people judging at a cook off try it sometime.

[Boots]

Thanks RWB, really appreciate the help, and any Triggs wisdom certainly appreciated. Let me know if you can use a rookie judge sometime for a DFW area event this fall, would love to give that a try.

I admit to being a bit of a purist on some things, but not on others (wouldn't condemn others from resorting to the needle, just don't think I could bring myself to do it. I simply think as I keep improving I can do better without it, and to me it seems a way to mask the flavor of the meat, not enhance it). I generally stick with stuff that fits my "code of honor" for barbecuing: 1) Stuff a cowboy working over a pit of coals in 1880 could reasonably have done, and 2) Stuff that will enhance the flavor or depth and layering of the flavor of the meat without trying to mask or camoflage what it's true flavor is. Therefore, I think I can 'morally' live with going to a glaze, particularly as I mentally think about ingredients like honey, melted butter, maybe a little apple juice, definitely some Kentucky bourbon, possibly some really finely shaved and ground chipotle or anchos for a bit of pop, and some coarse black pepper for pop and appearance). I can see where a good glaze could add depth and some complexity to the initial bite of the meat without taking away what's inside it. Along with trying out a butcher paper wrap instead of foiling, I think this will be my next experiment.

Thanks brothers. See you down the road.

[RWBTEX]

I share every one of your sentiments Boots, many of us old timers swore we would never do that but here we are. We used to think of it as cheating but I guess its like Nascar now, if the rules dont prohibit it then its fair game, at least for contest purposes. like I said I liked the non injected flavor for myself and cook that way at home when I want to actually taste the brisket, lol. Either way Boots wish you luck, it takes some of that too, your definitely on the right track. We should be at Traders village Grand Prairie in October if all goes well tween now and then.

[Boots]

Thanks man, I will see if I can come see you in GP. Let us know here if you confirm.

Be well.

[dirty]

Hey boots, the meat looks good. Do you have a facebook? If ya do check out our page dirty barbque look at our turn in boxes. This was our thirteenth cookoff ever we always try to learn learn learn. You seem to be doing it right ask questions and get feedback.