Turn in Boxes from last weekend KCBS

My gosh. Those look Fantastic! There must have been many entrants.

I could comment, but I am an 'Internet Judge' - I've on seen 'rate my box' and other sites, never up close.
The brisket burnt ends are not uniform. Different sizes and colors.
The slices, on the other hand are farkin fantasic.

The ribs (might?) have been turned on their sides to showcase the meat.
It looks oversauced, but maybe not for a comp.
The chicken looks good.
Everything looks really delicious.
Why do you have 8 or 9 or 6 in the boxes?
Isn't 6 the norm?
You must have been up against stiff competetion.

Looks good Matt. Is there a reason you turned in so much MM? I would have tasted them both and turned in what I thought was the best. And then added pulled to the box. With the BE's, judges will ding you for having them be uniform.

Chicken-9
Ribs-8
Pork-8
Brisket-7

Overall these are good entries. The pork looks great in the pictures, seems like a 9 to me.

The chicken is okay, probably high 7 or 8. The pieces could be more uniform and they look a little light in color. It also looks a bit rough, not as smooth as I have seen. I have seen the sauce get a bit rough like this if I set the sauce on the smoker and it it is too hot or I leave it on too long.

The ribs look okay but looks like there is a wide seem of fat across the lowers third of the bottom row of ribs, it looks like it is a half circle on the bottom left rib and then gets bigger across the bottom 4 and it is almost half the rib on the bottom right. This could just be something in the picture that does not show up in person. Also, are those baby back or St. Louis cut? They look like baby back and I have heard don't score as well in KCBS judges, I have thought about trying them but never had the nerve because of the reputation.

The brisket slices look great, the burnt ends might look better with the bark on the top rather than pieces on there side. The other issue is the grease/sauce on the left inside of the box itself. I am not sure how a judge would look at that but it does make for a messy presentation.

Hope this helps.

Do NOT display the side of a rib. Some judges will judge down for it. Don't take a chance. Offend no one. Build the box to win, don't build it with your ego

I am going to treat this as though this was my turn in. I am going to be critical and I do so only to help. Please take no offense. I hope this helps.

Ok you have 9 nice pieces. They are a little pale and a bit uneven. I would try to create a frame with my straight edges to draw the judges eye to the outer frame and miss the imperfection that trail into the center. So I would switch the center with the one above it. The two top corners need to switch corners in the same position. Right side middle and bottom need to turn 180 degrees. Same for the left side. I might even switch the middle left with the bottom right to fill out the bottom line a bit. Yes I get that nuts.

The ribs. Well first and foremost I would yell at myself out loud for putting the left side rib in the box at all let alone in the front line. I would also do a San Andreas and slide the back set under the front to better fit the ribs in the box. Probably turn the whole front row 180 degrees since the bone end side seems a little more uniform. I would move the top left rib into the middle if I needed to put it in the box. That pale bottom left portion is a judge magnet.

The pork box is nice and has some good pieces in it. As someone said build the greens up a bit further as the meat seems to sink into the box. Again I would just move some pieces around. I would also try to darken it with some sauce as the chunks don't have much color. The third piece up would look great at the top of the column. I would also try to get some pulled in there as someone else said. There are better pieces of the money muscles to put up front.

The brisket slices look a little heavy on sauce. I would probably have left one slice out and put the ends across the front. putting them down the side crowds the slices and draws attention to your box trim on the slices. Without the ends on the side the trim will look neater against the greens.

Chicken 8
Ribs 6
Pork 6
Brisket 7

Did you find your scores for us to see? Sometimes the pictures aren't as flattering as real time. Would be interesting to see where you might have gotten hurt.

That line of fat on the ribs is disconcerting. It affects the color for sure. It looks like you can see the brisket bone cartilage still there in the space on the middle rib, so you may want to revisit your trimming process. Also the rib on the right shows some tearing that probably happened when it was cut.

Pork is the best looking box. Perhaps a little more sauce on it. The MM on the right looks a little dry, but could just be the camera angle.

Brisket slices are OK, but the burnt ends are all different shapes and sizes. Some have bark, some don't. Either try to make them more uniform...or pile them in vs. trying to arrange them. A pile is a good approach when they all look different. If you line 'em up, they had better all look the same.

I'm not going to comment on the chicken, as we got killed in chicken at Lanexa, but we were 2nd in ribs and brisket, 1st in pork.

jamaicamon said:

Very tough field in Lanexa VA

Thanks for looking!

Click to expand...

jamaicamon,

I judged there and you are correct there were some great cooks and turn ins looked great. I don't know if I judged you boxes. Very hard to judge when you have so many good looking boxes and great taste. Your boxes look good to me. Taste and texture mean alot to me. Keep cooking you are getting there. Best of luck to you. Just my 2 Cents.

R/S
sgm2004

I pretty much agree with the feedback given here. My small piece of advice would be to use the garnish to your advantage. When I judge, I don't judge garnish, but here it goes... I would recommend using parsley or green leaf lettuce in a different way to frame the meat. Seeing the white of the box through the lettuce (ribs and pork boxes) probably didn't help. Also, the bottom left rib should have been left out. Other than that, I like the mahogany color you got on most of your ribs. I would try to make all the chicken pieces look like the thigh in the center. Keep in mind, like Ron_L said, this is after picking nits for a few minutes, not a cursory look like judges get under the tent.

The scores for the boxes appearance are as follows.

chicken - 8,9,9,8,8,9
ribs - 9,8,8,7,8,8
pork - 7,8,9,8,9,9
brisket - 8,7,8,9,8,8

I think your boxes look really good. Here's my thoughts on Appearance:

Chicken – 9 – looks great

Ribs – 8 – trim more fat, straighter cuts, tile/domino ribs – overlap front rack on top of back rack, reverse racks (front to back) to hide fat showing through

Pork – 8 – change direction of chunks in center to vertical and tile/domino

Brisket – 8 – remove front slice, arrange BEs in a line across bottom bark-side up

Keep after it, you're on to something! :thumb:

I agree with Ron. The boxes are always the hardest to get just right but super important. Its all in the little little details.

The chicken could be a little more uniform.

The ribs have too much green. I'd add at least 2 more. Fill the box up.

The pork display seems unorthodox to me. A little height would probably help.

The brisket should have the burnt ends more uniform (size and bark up). Be sure to wipe sauce up to give a cleaner appearance.