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Something to chew on

A certification class teaches barbecue lovers - and one reporter - a meaty subject: how to judge competitions.

By JAY CRIDLIN
Published October 26, 2005

[Times photo: Daniel Wallace]

Table captain Chris Sparkman presents a container of chicken for judging to Al Rafalski, left, Don McLeod, center, and James Reece.

GET CERTIFIED

To become a Kansas City Barbecue Society-certified judge, you'll need to take one of the society's judging classes, which are offered at various times and locations throughout the year. For more information, call 816 765-5891 or log onto www.kcbs.us

PICK YOUR PIG

Plant City's Third Annual Pig Jam, a KCBS-sanctioned barbecue festival and contest - featuring softball, live music and games - is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Randy Larson Softball Four-Plex, 1900 S Park Road/1401 Albertsons Drive. Parking is $3, but admission is free. For information, call 813 754-3707 or visit www.plantcity.org

PLANT CITY - What makes good barbecue?

Seems like a simple question. Ask true 'cue fans in the Tampa Bay area, and they'll react as though you just inquired about the color of the sky. Are you kidding? Gimme Jimbo's in Tampa any day of the week, they'll say. Or: I'd walk two country miles for Eli's Bar-B-Que in Dunedin.

Well, that attitude is all well and good for noonday lunches and backyard hog spits. But in the world of competitive barbecuing, it won't cut the honey mustard.

"We don't care how well you cook as a backyard cook," says Ed Roith, a master judge with the Kansas City Barbecue Society. "It's how well you'll be able to judge proper competition cooking. That's what's important."

The Kansas City Barbecue Society, one of the barbecue world's three major governing bodies, lords over some 200 competitions nationwide, including contests in Lakeland and Plant City, home of next month's Third Annual Pig Jam.

Last week, Roith and KCBS president Tony Stone led a barbecue-judging seminar in Plant City. Thirty potbellied pork lovers - including one St. Petersburg Times reporter - signed up, certifying them to judge barbecue at officially sanctioned contests.

Want to know what makes good barbecue? Roith and Stone are the people to ask.

There are strict rules to judging barbecue, as well as an official oath and a code of conduct, including a provision against drinking alcohol. (No beer? At a barbecue contest?)

It's serious, no-nonsense business. Each hunk of meat is judged in three categories: Appearance, taste and toughness. Appearance is determined by how the meat looks in a clamshell foam box, and you can lose a lot of points if it's improperly packed: if there's not enough meat for each judge, or if it's sitting on the wrong kind of lettuce. (Only fresh green lettuce, cilantro and curly or flat-leaf parsley are allowed in KCBS contests.) When it comes to taste and toughness, you're looking for moisture, texture and flavor.

"So often, we put our favorite tastes into judging - which we can't do to properly judge," Roith said. "You judge what the cook turns in, not what your likes and dislikes are."

Here's what to look for in each of the four main categories:

CHICKEN: Thighs, apparently, are in this year. They retain more moisture than legs and breasts, and exemplary barbecued chicken should be tender and juicy. No matter what part of the bird you get, you should also taste the skin, even if you don't like skin, because that's where much of the flavor is. And chicken tends to turn pink in a smoker, so a reddish piece doesn't mean it's undercooked. Blot it with a napkin - if it comes back clear, it's fine; if it turns pink, your bird's not done.

PORK RIBS: That old saw about good rib meat falling off the bone? A myth, probably perpetuated by inferior chefs who tend to overcook their meat. If a rib is cooked properly, barbecue should come off the bone with ease - but only where you bite it. Heaven forbid the meat be overcooked and flimsy, or undercooked and leathery. Look for a strong taste, maybe a smoky flavor, and moist meat.

PORK SHOULDER: Pork can be served sliced, pulled or chopped, and it is often presented as a haystack of stringy flesh. As a result, it can be tough to tell by sight if the meat is overcooked - though long strands of pork are difficult to fake and are a good sign the meat is okay. The meat shouldn't be chewy. To test toughness, press the pork to the roof of your mouth. If it is mushy, it's overcooked.

BEEF BRISKET: Used to be, you couldn't get a good slice of brisket in Florida - it was mostly a Texas and Kansas City thing. Today, because it's so tough to perfect, it's a litmus test for barbecue cooks. "If you want to see if you're the windshield or the bug, wait'll you cook your first cut of brisket," Stone said. It doesn't matter how thick the meat is sliced; what's important is tenderness. If you pull a slice of brisket in your hands, the two sides should give slightly, then fall apart. Ignore the smoke ring, which some say is a sign of good smoked meat - it's easily faked, and should not be taken into consideration.

Our class tasted three samples of each type of meat prepared by two local amateur cooks, Fred Williams and Mark Poppell.

On each table was a roll of paper towels and a block of palate-cleansing crackers. No baked beans, no Texas toast. Per KCBS rules, we judged appearance, toughness and taste on a scale of 2 to 9, with the occasional 1 thrown in if there wasn't enough meat to go around.

We ate deliberately, savoring each piece by rolling it around in our mouths. Chewing in silence, we must have looked like sullen teenagers picking morosely at our dinner plates.

But in truth, the class discussions were spirited and well-informed. Here's a snippet of my table's debate on the pork:

"As far as the appearance goes, my problem with the first one was that it was buried in the parsley. It took forever to get around the table. We were just digging it out."

"I agree. Too much greenery."

"I gave that a 6. Otherwise, I liked that a lot. I think it was probably my favorite."

"I gave it a 7 on the taste. The bite was just so-so, but the tenderness was just awesome."

All the meat is good, of course, but maddeningly, you can't finish it. At a big festival, you could taste just a 1-ounce sample of each entry, and still end up eating 2 pounds of meat.

At the end of a competition, when it comes to picking a winner, Stone and Roith agree that the most important factor - more important than the rules, the flavor of the skin, the type of cilantro in the box - is the same thing that keeps barbecue fans returning to their favorite hog joints year after year.

It simply tastes the best. And you want more.

-- Jay Cridlin can be reached at 727 893-8336 or cridlin@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 25, 2005, 15:10:03]