FBA questions from a KCBS competitor

Roast Beast · Jan 28, 2015

I’d like to cook a contest the weekend of April 3-4 since I have that Friday off, and the only KCBS contests that weekend are 6+ hour drives away. So I’m considering cooking the FBA contest in Thomaston, GA that weekend. I’ve done some reading about the FBA, and I think I have a decent general idea about the differences between FBA and KCBS. Anyone have any other words of wisdom they’d be willing to share with a KCBS team looking to cook its first FBA contest? I'd really like to avoid a DQ....

What I think I know (I could be wrong):
- No garnish
- Bring the FDA stamp from the meat package
- Fill the box with meat
- No white showing in the bottom of the box
- Pork rule is basically like the 2013 KCBS rule (cook whole, don’t return to cooker once parted)
- Flavor profile is generally the same as KCBS, and there is a decent amount of Judge overlap between the two bodies
- Hour between turn-ins

What I’m not sure about:
- Any problem with using a gas burner to heat sauce or au jus?
- Do you put a sheet of foil in the bottom of the box, or is that a DQ?
- Any problem with aggressively trimming pork butts (trimming out MM, etc.), or would that not be considered cooking “whole”?
- Is it OK to return the other (non-pork) meat categories to the cooker once sliced?
- Whether I'm missing anything important

cpw · Jan 28, 2015

rabidawg said:
I’d like to cook a contest the weekend of April 3-4 since I have that Friday off, and the only KCBS contests that weekend are 6+ hour drives away. So I’m considering cooking the FBA contest in Thomaston, GA that weekend. I’ve done some reading about the FBA, and I think I have a decent general idea about the differences between FBA and KCBS. Anyone have any other words of wisdom they’d be willing to share with a KCBS team looking to cook its first FBA contest? I'd really like to avoid a DQ....

What I think I know (I could be wrong):
- No garnish
- Bring the FDA stamp from the meat package
- Fill the box with meat
- No white showing in the bottom of the box
- Pork rule is basically like the 2013 KCBS rule (cook whole, don’t return to cooker once parted)
- Flavor profile is generally the same as KCBS, and there is a decent amount of Judge overlap between the two bodies
- Hour between turn-ins

What I’m not sure about:
- Any problem with using a gas burner to heat sauce or au jus?
- Do you put a sheet of foil in the bottom of the box, or is that a DQ?
- Any problem with aggressively trimming pork butts (trimming out MM, etc.), or would that not be considered cooking “whole”?
- Is it OK to return the other (non-pork) meat categories to the cooker once sliced?
- Whether I'm missing anything important

I'm not an FBA expert, but have competed in a few without getting DQ'ed. All of the things you think you know are correct. I've heard that FBA likes super sweet, but we cook the same rubs/sauces as in KCBS, with decent success. Also, the last contest we went to the rep told us they were going to be more strict about the USDA labels, but I don't remember what he said specifically.

As far as your questions: No foil in the box, trim the butts how you want, we've heated sauce with gas, and have returned cubed brisket to the smoker.

Make sure you FILL the box with meat. The heavier the better. On chicken, I've seen people (we didn't do it successfully) put 9 thighs on the bottom upside down and 9 thighs on top of those. We've just used a bed of pulled chicken.

Also, minimum samples is 8, and they don't drop the lowest score.

hogzillas · Jan 28, 2015

I was an FBA judge years ago so I might be a little rusty on any changes but in general - meat only in box !!!, min 8 pieces the more the better & maybe as previous poster said to do a bed of pulled meat on maybe chicken, pork, brisket (not on ribs), sweeter is generally better so not much different than kcbs (if scoring well there don't change much if any), can't cook w/ gas but can warm sauce/au jus w/ it, not up on the returning meats to cooker part so can't say yea or nea but can be asked at cooks meeting if you don't get an answer here, scoring is in .5 pt increments for raw scores w/ 10 being highest before applying the formula to get final score but it should be close to what kcbs has w/ taste being the most. 1 hr between turn ins so you can actually clean/take breaks between each meat entry.

One more thing, if doing some kind of combo box put 8 pieces of each ie chicken breast/thigh put 8 thighs & make sure to have 8 slices of breast meat, brisket 8 slices & 8 cubes etc. I've heard of 1 anal judge who would dock you points if you didn't on those type of boxes. That was one of my pet peeves vs that judge as it says 8 pieces not 8 of each kind of meat!!! Not sure if he's still around though

cpw · Jan 28, 2015

I just asked on Facebook about the labels, the new thing is that the meat inspectors are going to collect the labels each time, instead of just showing them to the inspectors. Whether or not this is currently being enforced I don't know.

Roast Beast · Jan 28, 2015

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the detailed responses.

Chad, it looks like you stirred up a hornet's nest with your question on Facebook. Seems like passions about quirky rules in the FBA run just as deep as they do in KCBS. :mrgreen:

cpw · Jan 29, 2015

rabidawg said:
Thanks, guys. I appreciate the detailed responses.

Chad, it looks like you stirred up a hornet's nest with your question on Facebook. Seems like passions about quirky rules in the FBA run just as deep as they do in KCBS. :mrgreen:

I saw that! I was just asking a simple question, certainly didn't mean to cause any trouble.

You should have seen the post the other day about more judges than cooks. I think there were 200 responses.

jelser · Jan 29, 2015

cpw said:
I just asked on Facebook about the labels, the new thing is that the meat inspectors are going to collect the labels each time, instead of just showing them to the inspectors. Whether or not this is currently being enforced I don't know.

I cook FBA and also on the Board of Directors. I haven't heard this. Just make sure you keep the label if you pre-trim at home. As for the rules make sure you review them again in a couple of weeks because we are in the process of tweaking 2 items slightly.

FBA questions from a KCBS competitor

Roast Beast

is one Smokin' Farker

cpw

Babbling Farker

hogzillas

Full Fledged Farker

cpw

Babbling Farker

Roast Beast

is one Smokin' Farker

cpw

Babbling Farker

jelser

Knows what a fatty is.

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