Practice Pork Box

I like the bottom portions, but a little concerned about the top 5 chunks and the 2 chunks below them. . .

Mr. Towersof,
Your meat looks well cooked, sauced about right but still needs some housekeeping.
You would need to clean up the sides of the box, drips,shards of meat will cost you a point.
Next, try using curly leaf lettuce instead of that sparce parsley. Lay a full leaf on the board and cut out hard stem to make it more flexible and build up layers.
Your pulled looks as good as pulled can look, bigger shards will stay warmer and more moist. Your slices look excellent but you must take the time to place them with the same reveal on each piece, that's important.
The chunks look OKish, that long chunk is throwing off the whole symetry. Lining up chunks is not a very good look as there is too much variation in size, I think it would look better if the chunks were kinda in a pile that hide this problem.
Keep at it, your getting there.
Ed

If you're going to put different styles in the box, you need to make sure to include enough of each style for each judge. Technically, you have plenty of pork in that box for each judge, but this is something you have to keep in mind. If you put it in the box, we're supposed to judge it.

Give that, I would make sure to have at least six of those chunks and get rid of those two larger horizontal chunks. The medallions and pulled both look good, though the medallions are a little crooked.

I echo Ed's comments regarding overall "housekeeping." Take the time to clean up the sauce smudges. Try to focus on giving an even mat of greenery - your garnish looks more like an afterthought. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it does really need to be neat.

Clean. Neat. Even. Good words to keep in mind. Without those two long chunks below the five, you could have laid your medallions in a straight line.

Generally I like this box, with a few exceptions:

1. you might want to go a bit lighter on the sauce (or on some of the pork, i.e. pulled). Remember that this is a meat contest and judges want to be able to taste the pork flavor, at least on some portions of the entry.

2. don't worry about lining-up the chunks, especially since you only have 5 in line.

3. Like MM stated - lose the long "chunk" as it looks lonely and out of place.

4. not a scoring point but will affect your overall appearance is the garnish - try to "frame" the meat so that the same amount of green appears around the outside all the way around the box. Judges are not supposed to judge the garnish, but it could subconsciously effect the overall appearance.

I would say the back of the box needs work, too spare, looks out of balance with the front. More meat, less green.

The sauce on the slices looks a little thick, use a brush and paint the slices to be more even. Judges out here in the Pacific Northwest are too new to understand the way BBQ is supposed to look, so they are strictly "by-the-book" and would dock or possibly disqualify you for the pooling of sauce in the middle of the pulled section. Either mix it up more or just don't use as much. I use a very thin sauce just to keep the meat moist but not enough to change the flavor of the meat.

Same sentiments as others for the chunk section, make them all about the same size, git rid of the out of place white piece. Lay the slices more uniformly.

Collector-X said:

Judges out here in the Pacific Northwest are too new to understand the way BBQ is supposed to look, so they are strictly "by-the-book" and would dock or possibly disqualify you for the pooling of sauce in the middle of the pulled section. Either mix it up more or just don't use as much.

Click to expand...

Seriously? I mean, I guess I could see how you might deduct for heavy sauce if it makes the meat less appealing, but there's no way that's even close to pooling.

I know that and you know that, but it does say in the rules, no pooling of sauce and that little puddle...well, like I said, in the Pacific Northwest... The KCBS reps have had to step in a few times to make judgement calls but out here, there's really no grey area for these people. It's getting better, but if there's a table of new judges, it's a 50-50 shot.

Bear in mind, I know the difference so I can at least advise the new judges at my table, but a different table??? who knows.

13) Sauce is optional. If used, it shall be applied directly to
the meat and not be pooled or puddled in the container. No
side sauce containers will be permitted in the turn-in container.
Chunky sauce will be allowed. Chunks are to be no larger than a fine dice,
approximately 1/8 inch cubed. Sauce violations shall receive a score of one (1)
on Appearance.

I agree with most of the posts on this, however, one of the posts mentioned the amount of meat that is in the box. The judges don't have to judge all the meat in the container, they just have to have something to judge. For instance, I could turn in three chicken thighs and 3 chicken legs, and that would be legal as long as they were separated. With that said, however, the whole box is judged by the piece the judges get and if they didn't like legs, they would score it down.

Just saying!!

I agree with what others say as far as presentation. I'll tell you my first intial thought when I saw this box. Too many diffent cuts. I applaude you if you can get every cut/piece in the box spot on but to be realistic, I would only put a maximum of 2 cuts in a box. I see you have small chunks, slices and larger chunks. Just go with what it good. Don't give the judges an option of scoring you down. Once it comes to this, judges will "compare" between each piece in the box. Just my 2 cents.