compete or not?

[cavemanchuck]

i have never been in a BBQ competition, debating even if i could do it. i just dont want to ending up looking like a fool.
any thoughts?

[Huskee]

I'm not sure if anyone who competes thinks the others are fools. Maybe. But I'd like to think there's enough comradery that wouldn't' happen. If you're lacking in experience, you'll probably learn so much from the other good folks there, your fellow competitors, that you'll walk away with a trophy of knowledge and new friends. And who knows, maybe you'll do better than you think.

[Jerod Broussard]

You are looking at it from the wrong angle.

My first archery tournament I was rehabbing a shoulder and didn't even know how many arrows I needed. Shot like chrud and really enjoyed the folks and the challenge. I actually shot for a few years.

Competing will let you know how little or how much you know about time management. Or so I've heard.

[Kevinfilm]

I also have been thinking about getting into competing. I have been in a few local small cooks and learned a lot. A few people I have talked with said start out small and look for comps that have a backyard sections in the contest. Also try to join an existing team.

[Baker Dan]

I have competed for 2 years now. I love it and believe it has made me a better cook

[CandySueQ]

This is year 12 for me! I love it -- competing has made me a better cook (at least in my own mind!). Pay more attention to details as a consequence. There's lots of KCBS backyard contests in the SE -- AL, GA, TN but not so many in other places. Backyard is chicken and ribs -- a full sanctioned contest adds pork butt and brisket.

[_John_]

I've always been curious how mine would stack up, but I would rather just taste everybody's and compare vs sending it to a room to be judged.
I think a lot comes down to why you want to compete. Are you wanting to prove what you can do, test your skills, learn from others? What would winning, or losing, or being in the middle tell you? If you aren't prepared to lose then it probably isn't the thing for you, there seems to me to be much more art than science to competition cooking.

I had friends and family tell me they liked my food when I just started, but I was never sure because they will always tell you that. That was my first desire to compete, just to find out if it was really any good or not. I got better and practiced a lot and when I finally felt like mine was better than the restaurants we have around I noticed more people started asking when I was doing another brisket, or if I could bring a pork butt to the game. Then I had people asking me to cook for parties, weddings, events and next thing I knew I was cooking for 50+, and people who didn't know me were asking where my restaurant was. I thought I would cook for about 200 people last year (outside of family and friends) and ended up closer to 400. My first 200 person cook is in a couple weeks and with the requests I have already gotten I think I may hit 750 or more this year.
That ended up being what I was looking for, I don't have to be the best, or even close, lots of people enjoying my food and asking for more is even better to me than a trophy.

I would still like experts to eat mine and tell me honestly what they like and didn't like and recommend changes, if a competition did that I would enter the next one, who doesn't want to be better?

[DWCowles]

Just jump on in and act like you know what you are doing. 😊

[paulcav151]

My oldest and best friend had been singing the praises of how he makes the best ribs. I've had them a dozen times over the years and they are very good. Two years ago I forwarded him an ad for Oinktoberfest, a local competition here in Western New York. No response for a while, then a call. "It's probably the beer talking and it will never happen, but I would consider the Rib-off." I told him you take care of the cook, and I'll take care of the rest. We pulled in some friends and wives to help with the setup and learning what garnish is. Our kids and neighbors and friends showed up and we had a blast! It was a non-sanctioned event so no pressure there, and we really had nothing to lose because we didnt know what to expect so we set expectations low. We took second that year, eight last year, and this year expanding into the Outdoor Cooking Competition. Working up to a sanctioned event eventually. To make a short story long, you have to start somewhere. It's more about the fun and hanging with friends, and by the the way, a cook mixed in there that you probably would have done anyway at home. You won't be disappointed.

[CeramicChef]

I was on a competition team years ago. We mostly stayed close to home - Gulf Coast or so. We made expenses after a steep learning curve.

Competition BBQ isn't about BBQ that your family and friends would expect and love. Competition BBQ is too sweet for my tastes. You have essentially one bite, ONE FREAKING BITE to impress a judge. What your friends and family love generally won't impress a judge one single bit. Competition BBQ is, as has been said, all about details. And only about half of those details deal with the BBQ itself. What you're judged on isn't the entire rack of ribs, or the entire brisket or point, or about the entire pork butt, or even the whole pig. Rather competition BBQ is about a few ribs from the center of 5 or 6 racks. Competition BBQ is about the presentation box; heck there are classes on how to build a great presentation box! Competitionbbq is about a great deal more than merely the cook.

I liked the competition merely because I'm an old jock who will find a way to make a competition out of just about any endeavor! I'm an adrenaline junky and competition BBQ was a way to feed my addiction and my need to succeed.

Now I only cook BBQ in my back yard for family and friends I know what they like and how they like it. I like trying new things on my cookers and seeing how they react to those new cooks, techniques, tastes, etc.

If you really want to give competitive BBQ a try, do it, just do it with your eyes wide open to what you're getting into. I had fun. I hope you do too!

Here's to great cooks and even better memories with family and friends!

[CandySueQ]

Out of 150+ contests, I can only remember a couple of hands where competitors shared tastes of product! Best way to see how KCBS BBQ is done is to become a certified judge AND judge. It is sweet sometimes. I'd venture that balanced (sweet, salt, spice) wins more often than just sweet. I don't understand sweet on brisket at all, but I've sampled sweet brisket and it beat mine that day on the judging table!

[CeramicChef]

CandySueQ - great advice!

[_John_]

That is weird, sweet on beef is eww. Explains why so many people like Sweet Baby Rays (still the best selling?) and a can of Hormel can win a chili contest.

[cavemanchuck]

thank you for all the advice, i really appreciate the knowledge thanks again