cupcake chicken

[Scottie]

Agree. Agree. Agree. We do both cupcake and trapizoid/rectangle. Got 1st place last year in chicken at the Sam Club in NJ using cupcake. Bombed this year (22nd) (picture attached) at Sams Club Comp going "natural". Same flavor profile, tenderness, ect.

Different table of judges though.....

Because you win a category 3 weeks in a row, does not guarantee anything the next week.

 

[Lake Dogs]

Could not agree more! I am replying about others that have said cupcake will get a low score if it hits their table. Heck, our first comp we landed 9th in chicken. Lately, we even got a 9th again in chicken.

My bitch is about judges going into a comp with a mindset of something they like, or dislike. Whether that be "no burnt ends gets a low score", "only 6 ribs gets a low score", etc, etc, etc....

Just doesn't seem to be the place for that.

I'm done; off the soap box on this.

wallace

Actually, Wallace, I think in this particular sentence you said it well; the "judges going into a comp with a mindset...". Judges should ALWAYS keep an open mind. That said, just because something is beautiful doesn't mean that it's appetizing, and conversely something doesn't necessarily have to be beautiful to be appetizing... They should look at it simply and think to themselves "Do I want to hit that, or not". If yes, to what degree, and if not, to what degree, the outcome is the score...

Its a good soapbox. The "every piece has to be symetrical or the exact same size"; where did that come from? It should be "do you want to eat it, or not". Mind you, to some, symetrical is more appealing to their appetite. That's fine and dandy.

 

[bbq.tom]

Those are wings on the side. Thighs in the middle.

Obviously. I still contend that the box would look better less jumbled - 6 thighs, not overlapping.

 

[ynotfehc]

I think the main goal is uniformity. If you use a muffin pan, loaf pan, bundt pan, butcher twine, or just pack them nicely into a perforated hotel pan and let them hold their own shape, if they look similar it will/should be well received. Ive scored just as well with thighs cooked in pans or straight on the grates as I have with legs. Ive actually switched completely to legs now, because I cook alone and dont have time to spend 10-20min prepping each thigh.

 

[BABYGOTBUTT]

Obviously. I still contend that the box would look better less jumbled - 6 thighs, not overlapping.

Getting a little off topic here but the appearance scores for this box are as follows: 8 9 9 9 8 9. Don't think it was appearance that killed me in chicken on this one. Looked up my appearance scores for last year for the 1st place (cupcake) chicken and they were 9 9 8 8 9 9. So for this sample size it appears (pardon the pun) that whether cupcake or no cupcake, score for appearance did not change.

 

[8BitBBQ]

I'm pretty sure my Cubism experiment is the wave of the future for chicken...
:heh:

We have been turning in cupcake chicken with an average appearance score of 8.67 (2@8 and 4@9) in each of our first three competitions. We had considered changing, but it's hard to argue with both the high scores and the consistency of the scores.

 

[cynfulsmokersbbq]

Agree. Agree. Agree. We do both cupcake and trapizoid/rectangle. Got 1st place last year in chicken at the Sam Club in NJ using cupcake. Bombed this year (22nd) (picture attached) at Sams Club Comp going "natural". Same flavor profile, tenderness, ect.

What is going "natural" mean?

Thanks

 

[bbq.tom]

What is going "natural" mean?

Less triming and do not put them in a mold.