Page 14 - January 2022 Barbecue News Magazine

Cooking With a Barbecue Team
By Don Collier
Certified Judge
When I became a KCBS certified barbecue judge I didn’t have any plan to become a Master Judge. I got the KCBS Reps to sign my verification form because that’s what a judge did.
As time went on I became closer and closer to 30 contests, and in 2021 I only needed six contests, but I had yet to cook with a team. As the year progressed, I judged the six con- tests and now had my thirty contests, but still hadn’t cooked with a team. A team invited me to cook with them and I was set. I headed to Ottumwa, Iowa for Ottumwa Smoketoberfest on September 24-25, 2021.
Checking Doneness
Even though I had known David Ellis and the Machete Boys BBQ team for a long time, I was unsure of how this experi- ence would go. After all I was a judge and they were cooks so we looked at barbecue contests differently. Not adver- saries, but not with the same perspective. I needn’t have worried. I could not have been treated better. I was wel- comed by the team, Kristen Spain, Christine Codner, Kevin Codner, along with David Ellis, and my thoughts and opin- ions were treated with respect. We didn’t have different perspectives either. We all wanted to have the best barbe- cue on the plate. Every question I asked was answered so that I came away with better understanding of cooking bar- becue. When you have an opportunity to see a cook team in action you gain an appreciation for what they do. There are many techniques used by cook teams, but how a probe is used when checking for doneness on pork butt and brisket was an “I never knew that” moment for me.
It is also an opportunity to let a cook team ask a judge questions about how they judge an entry and being a judge. I had an opportunity to spend a lot of time with the team I cooked with and was asked a lot of questions. I only hope the answers to the questions asked of me were half as in- formative as the answers I received when I asked questions. I judge appearance by looking at an entry and the more I want to try that entry, the higher my appearance score. After watching how the cook team put their turn-in boxes together I believe the way I score for appearance was vali- dated. After making sure each piece was as perfect as pos- sible, it was meticulously placed in the turn-in box. I found myself at times actually holding my breath as they got the turn-in box ready.
When you sit and judge, it’s usually easy to put down a score and move on. Having to tell the cook why I liked or disliked something they cooked made me think about the reasons why I score as I do. I was forced to think about the degrees of subtlety in scoring an eight versus a nine in taste for example. Being honest is important because this is a positive opportunity for you as a judge to explain what you liked or disliked about an entry. It made me a better judge having to justify what I thought about the team’s en- tries after tasting them. I also found that how the team’s flavor profile is put together from raw meat to finished entry, gave me a better understanding of the barbecue’s taste.
14 - BarbecueNews.com
JANUARY 2022