First judging

well me and the wifes first time judging will be today at the ducks unlimited in ankeny iowa look forward to giving you all the scoop when we get done tonight have a almost 2 hr drive ahead of us. so you all besafe today have a beer for me.

Well sorry for late responses, we pulled up to the house neighbor is moving ( couple getting a divorce) and she needed our help to move some big stuff in our truck.

Well we get t the judging area plenty of time seems me and the wife are the only noob judges there. everyone at my table are 2-3 yrs of judging experience.

First was Bean category which i was pleasantly surprised by all was pretty good except one which had corn and rice and such which most my table didn't care for.

chicken i was more surprised by 3 of 6 entrees was hot, like right off the coals to table, which is good by the table capts getting to them to table quickly. besides 1 entree that had 2 off looking sides chicken thighs it was pretty good throughout, all was warm, moist, i can tell more then half was marinated in italian dressing. but all in all the chicken set was pretty decent.

Ribs.
at my table the ribs came out visually very well, presentation was on money on all very hard to score one better. 3/6 of the ribs came off the bone pretty cleanly not overcooked pull off. the other 3 was undercooked. 2 of the 6 was pretty good, one stood out for me taste/tender which i ate the whole bone.

Pork
i was kinda surprised by this one, had a entree which had no sauce on it and came in 3 flavors, pulled chopped and sliced and to me was the best one had very good flave and spices and no sauce to hide anything, and at our table scored pretty good. there was 2 that didnt fair well on presentation. very sloppy put in, and other was packed into a squished ball that no one really cared for.

Brisket.
the meat of the gods, which i was looking forward to. our table had a DQ on this item ( 1 of the 2 DQ at this contest) the DQ first off they sliced the Packer really nicely thickness but with 2 inches of fat left on the bottom and on top of that they didnt slice all the way through so one guy at our table picked up slice and 3 slices came up, and another had 2 slices come up. it was also dry and very tough to pull my slice apart. now rest of the brisket. my personal favorite and afterwards the tables was a chopped brisket which tasted like a teriyaki marinade or something along that line, outside had good bark and nice saucing besides the DQ one other entree, i am not sure all the teams try there food before sending it out. just not sure

Would i judge again?? yes in a heartbeat wife had a blast, and met some very nice people, biggest thing we both noticed at our table most of these people who judge have no idea of the other side of tent is like, most have very very very basic ideas of what we do to make this food.

if anyone was in this contest i apologies in advance if it sounded like i might have dogged any entrees that mighta been yours just wrote what i seen and tasted =)


BTW learned alot for our upcoming comp this next weekend in Waterloo Iowa it really helps to see both sides. anyone have the outcome of the contest? we did not stick around for awards.

Good Report!! Congrats on Your First Judging!!

Congrats on getting the first outta the way. Always like to hear what a first experience is like.