We decided to go to the event on Friday since we had agreed to judge Ancillaries. Co-hort ( also referred to as Skull) judged Sauce and Seafood. Skull's SAUCE table had 2 completely non-experienced judges and 1 very experienced judge (but a little too experienced judge for her won good). Tip: Even if you have been a judge for 20+ years, if you only judge one contest per year (as stated), you might want to consider a 'refersher' class. Just sayin'. Skull feels that judging sauce is a mute point because the sauce can taste great but until it's cooked on an entry...it doesn't really count.
Skull's SEAFOOD table was comprised of 5 judges. First of all, unless all of the Seafood tables have the same # of judges, whatever table has the highest # of judges, the winner would come from that table. But bottom line is, judge #5's scores were dropped anyway. The food was very good. Very impressive. Salmon w/ lemon butter, seasoned grilled shrimp (seasoned and really good), cups of cocktail shrimp in a Cajun sauce (too black peppery) and bacon wrapped scallops w/ a hand carved orange bell pepper (very good presentation but the sauce overpowered the scallops). All judges agreed on their 10 on the table.
I (now referred to as Bones) judged Sauce, Beef and Dessert. There were 4 experienced judges at my SAUCE table and all samples were very tasty entries. 2 of the 6 samples tasted like metal - or like they were from a can. 2 of them had too much Worcheshire sauce in them and the other 2 were excellent and it came down to appearance and consistency. Only 1 can have a 10 so I had to make the cut. My BEEF table was a unanimous decision of 10s from all 4 judges for a filet that was so perfectly cooked medium rare and melted in my mouth like butta! The other entries on the table were a marinated filet that was a bit too salty and a little overcooked, a beef taco that was great and brisket that was a little overdone. Beef is difficult to get right and hold for the judges.
My dessert table only had 3 samples but they were rockin! There was a creamy strawberry cheesecake, cream cheese stuffed strawberries with raspberries and cheesecake squares with caramel/toffee drizzled atop. Let me just say YUM! I ate a lot of dessert, ok. Big props out to Debbie Storley for organizing ancillary judging.
After judging we went to visit with the teams. 47 teams competed this year. 47 GREAT teams! Then came the storms - the rain, the thunder, the lightening, the wind. WOW! Then the tornado sirens. Hmmm...we started thinking, "Should we leave?" I think not. A little rain won't hurt us, right? So we stuck it out til the weather had passed (temporarily, of course).
After a good nights sleep at a friend's house nearby, we were about to return to the contest when suddenly the rain started and the hail came crashing down. Skull made the most appropriate comment ever - "And right then, GOD showed up." When we arrived at the contest, we were quite surprised to see as that so many loyal judges had shown up ON TIME! Kudos to all of them!
Saturday morning:
Skull drew on-site SHOULDER judging. Of the 3 teams he drew, 1 team was a drop. Rumor has it that their smoker caught fire and well...you can guess the rest of that story. Team 1 Remarks: a perfect presentation. The presenter does the majority of the presentation. Very rapid-fire and she covers EVERYTHING...very humorous, nothing seems pre-rehearsed, it seems very matter-of-fact and at that moment. Shows off their expertise and knowledge of prepping, cooking and presenting their award winning BBQ. VERY well cooked shoulder and the bold sauce really complemented the meat very well. Made from scratch, that sauce makes you want to drink it!
NEXT: Team 2 SHOULDER. Skull says reputation precedes them but he is an experienced enough judge to know better than to judge on that face value. The presenter is a very lively character but didn't have a lot of liveliness about him this day...but the shoulder did the talking for him. Absolutely spectacular shoulder, from end to end, top to bottom...one of the best he has ever had...THAT DAY...and ever...and we've had a bunch. The 2 sauces were radically different. One spicy and then one sweet. Every part of the shoulder was cooked perfectly evenly and all had the same tenderness and texture.
Skull also judged Blind RIBS. 2 were crappy, 1 was OK, 1 was slightly better than OK. Nothing that would have stacked up to the normal 10 in a competition. And no, he wasn't judging Patio.
I (Bones) was lucky enough to judge on-site RIBS. TEAM 1: Only their 5th competition so far. Smoker was very interesting and their methods were unique. Great ribs. Sauce and rub totally complemented the meat. TEAM 2: Veteran team. Excellent ribs. Very tender. Appearance could have been a bit better if ribs were caramelized a little more. Flavor was great. TEAM 3: Veteran Team. Ribs were beautiful. They were perfectly tender and tasted awesome. Best of the day - in spite of the pouring down rain and their tent collapsing just after I left my seat.
All in all, it was a great contest and festival. I wish that the weather had been better so that more patrons would have attended and the Midway rides would have been packed...but there's always next year. Don't miss out or you'll be sorry!
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