Huge thanks to Jerry for helping me improve. We talked about how I cook, what ingredients I use and what steps I go through to prepare my box. I asked him for his honest opinion as a judge and he gave me good, critical feedback in a helpful manner. Although I was doing a lot of things correctly, he said my sauce wasn't quite right for SCBA. The flavors were too strong in some areas (ie: too sweet, spicy, tangy). Early Saturday morning, he sampled the pork and said it was terrific on it's own. We couldn't decide what to do about the sauce, so we decided to leave it out and see what happened to my scores. (My barbecue went commando!) The risk worked and I learned a lot! We scored 7th and I had my best scores ever.
I also let him help me prepare the pork, select the turn-in meat and build the box. We truly worked as a team. He got a first hand experience of the pressure we have as cooks, and the diligent amount of works it takes to build a box.
It was an excellent weekend in Union with a cook and a judge. We had a good time and learned a lot from each other. One of the reasons I love SCBA is all the friends and the comradery between teams and judges.
I'm looking forward to future cooks with judges.
(Side note, I would not advocate going without sauce. My taste score wasn't so good, but it was my personal best score. Just proves that Jerry was right, and my sauce was the problem.)
Looking forward to next season!
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