Somehow I hadn’t found my way to a WhistleStop Weekend until yesterday. As the Rocket City Mom restaurant analyst, I had an opportunity to be a celebrity/VIP judge for this year’s shade-tree BBQ competition. What a great time!
This was my first foray into judging with Kansas City Barbeque Society rules, which are the gold standard for such contests. It’s double-blind, so the cooks don’t know who’s judging them and the judges don’t know who cooked what they’re judging. Lorrie was our table captain. She is a certified KCBS judge who answered questions, instructed us on protocol, and so forth. With KCBS rules, you rate each entrant from a high of 9 to a low of 2, on appearance, taste, and tenderness.
Our first round was five chicken entries. Lorrie passed each container of chicken around for us to judge appearance. Then, we got our pieces for assessing taste and texture. You take a bite and judge for each one. Then, after you’ve scored them all and submitted your card, you can finish eating.
The official “plate” mat helps you keep track of each entry, and makes it easy to throw bones away. We got a new one for the rib round. It’s definitely businesslike and treated seriously, but there is enough time to make new friends and share some laughs.
After we were done, I got to catch the end of Jason and Dawn’s set. They are very good. And they made me miss Big Spring Jam.
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