IBCA Cookoff

Oh You will do fine Remember its not 6 KCBS Judges But many folks that have asked to be judges What kind of Q would you serve the neighbors?

As if you are cooking for your neighbors is good advice. Judges will probably be made up of whatever org is sponsoring the comp. They will only be taking small bites. They might get into your second slice of brisket, won't get into your third. So you always want your best up front.

They will be sticklers on the width of your brisket slice. Too thin or too wide, they won't accept, and you will have to high tail it back to get another slice. Slices have to be whole. Split or tear the top of a slice getting it into your tray, and they won't accept it.

With 50 teams they might make you turn in two chix halves and 9 ribs and 9 slices of brisket as opposed to the usual half chix , 7 ribs and 7 slices of brisket.

Down here, any way, no one even touches the dark meat on the half, so you concentrate on getting the breast right. Take it off when the breast hits 161-165 range.

As for presentation, make it look pretty.Put it in the box in a orderly manner. You can't sauce, but you can glaze. It has to be at least "tacky" or they won't accept it.

20 min windows and turn ins will be an hour apart. If you have over 50 there, they even might go to 1 and a half hr between turn ins. That should be a breeze to someone used to doing KCBS. Hope this helped a little.

Mike

Good Advise Brother

Also,

They eat with knife/fork only so "tenderness" has a different meaning, especially on ribs.

And it better taste great cold. After you make it past the initial table, and make it to the finals, then they'll taste it again. It's not a fast process, so the food cools off.

The finals table is a taste off and they compare how it taste/etc to all the others. It IS a comparison, unlike KCBS.

And judges are trained on the spot by IBCA, so they're taken from the local population. Find out what the locals eat and keep that in mind.

Thanks for all the great advice. I have an idea what I need to do now. Will let you know how it turns out.

The only bummer is "YOU WILL NEVER KNOW HOW YOU DID UNLESS YOU MAKE THE FINALS TABLE" and then only how you place. As far as the dark meat mentioned above, some judges do check it and on a table that I judged at Traders Village, we DQed 5 of 13 entries due to blood. The poor SOBs had no idea why they didn't place. Live in Dallas and refuse to cook ICBA (once was enough) because of the judging and lack of feedback. It is a waste of money and time.

Got back from Phoenix last night - they had 50 teams at the Lake Pleasant IBCA cookoff, really good for a first year event. I was second in brisket, and made the final table in ribs and chicken. I enjoy cooking and being around other cookers, so I had a good time. Blake's BBQ won it, Oink County Cookers was Reserve (they were Reserve at the Jack this year also). Jim Gold of Yeah Baby BBQ also had an FEC100 out there - he was 8th in chicken and 7th in ribs - so the pellet cookers had a pretty successful IBCA cookoff. I know we got more sleep than the other people. I couldn't have driven to Phoenix Friday morning, cooked Friday night and Saturday, and then driven back Saturday night if I had to stay up all night watching a stick burner.

Great showing Tom..Will you do more IBCA contests?

Hi Fred, I'll do them if they're close to home. Do you do the IBCA contests?

There will be others close to home for you Tom.
Lots of things in the planning stages

Tom,
Haven't cook one yet, but have several on next year's schedule. I've been practicing spares and talking to folks about the contest. There are quite a few realitively close so I plan on giving them a try. I'll practice the half chicken and spares this winter, and decide on whether to stick with the OH/FE combination or go with just FEs.