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My competition ribs need advice!

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sniltz

sniltz

Meat Mopper
Original poster
May 21, 2008
228
11
China Grove, NC
I am needing some advice on my teams competition ribs.   We do good in chicken, pork, and brisket.  But our ribs always seem to be losing steam.   We use St. Louis style ribs, pull the membrane off, then put olive oil as base and rub on. We place in cooler and put on smoker cold.   We then smoke at 250 for about 3 hours and then wrap with honey powder, agave syrup, butter, and tiger sauce.  We leave it wrapped for 1 hour and then remove and grill with a pepper jelly, apricot jelly, apple jelly and rib candy sauce at the end for glaze.  Right before plating we use the jelly glaze again.  

They are really sweet and pull gently off the bone lightly.  I just don't know why they don't score high.  This weekend we came in 28th out of 35 on ribs.  Had good color, tenderness, and were spot on in our opinion.  Any advice would be helpful.  Thanks.
 
you are smoking them fine and I am sure someone will give better advice then me, but maybe they are too sweet? For me that is a lot of jelly.  Good luck to you all.
 
I'm thinking they are too sweet!  Judges like a little tang and a LITTLE sweetness.  I think you are overpowering their sweet tooth.

You already have all kinds of sweetness when you foil and then you layer it on afterwards.  Try using a tangy sauce without a lot of sweetness after you take them out of the foil.  My BDSE is a pretty good finisher.  Link below...try it or not, don't matter...just cut down on the sweet!

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/129351/pgsmokers-best-damn-sauce-ever-bdse

Good luck on the next competition and be sure to let us know how your ribs do once you collect all the great advice that will come your way!

Bill
 
Not an expert as I have not placed in ribs, only a couple of competitions myself.  Got some good advice at the last comp though from a team that has won quite a bit.  Possibly to sweet?  Also you might let them come up to close to "room temp" before puttiing them on the smoker.

I do have a couple of questions though what have your scores been?  Were you low on taste, tenderness or appearance?  Also do you have any pics?

I might not be the best to answer your questions but that info might help me, or whoever else try to help.
 
worthless.gif
 
I've never competed and only judged once outside of CBJ class, so this is a novice (or less) opinion:  Sounds awefully sweet.  You got one bite to impress the judge.  If they like it they might take two but in a large comp there's a lot of BBQ to taste so if yours is like candy vs BBQ, one taste is all you get.
 
Gonna have to go with waaaaay too sweet. Have you tried tasting (if possible) what some of the teams that are placing higher are cooking? I think a little sweetness in the glaze is good but has to be something to offset that. Maybe nix the second glaze and use less or no sugary stuff for your foil juice. I know I like my ribs spicy and salty (Not overly salty just more salt/spice). 

Doug
 
Without beating the too sweet horse anymore.........

It's about balancing your flavors. Look at the sweet and salty, acid vs. fatty and spicy vs. bland......but most importantly you still want to taste the pork. So everything you put on needs to help enhance it.........

It is very hard to adjust what you are doing with very little to no feedback from the judges........ As mentioned look at your scores and build from there....

Remember that the judging can be very strange ....... The way it is set up you can send the exact same product to different tables and get completely different scores......
 
 Thanks, for all the advice.  I do agree maybe to sweet but, that's what some of the teams were doing was turning in sweet like candy ribs.   The apperance was score ok, the tenderness was too.  The taste was low.  I have gone off what other teams were doing.  I was using the jelly mixture cause the shine on the ribs was really good.  As for the pics, I am at work and will try and post them.  We were not doing a kcbs sactioned event.  We were doing a SCBA event in Spartanburg SC.  It was our first SC event.  We had a great time and placed 14 out of 35 teams overall.  The SCBA gives you the meat.  We had 6 butts, 1 flat brisket(they told us it was going to be a packer)
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, 2 spare ribs(that were extremely thin).  We did the best we could with what we had.  They don't allow garnish just the meat and the box.    We came in 5 in butts, 15 in brisket, and 28th in ribs, and 14th overall.  I guess its back to our rib drawing board.   
 
Snitz, Do not try to do what the other teams are doin', be yourself in your style of ribs that you are trying to make. Ya just never know what the judges flavor will be on the big day. Just one more thing, try a small portion mixed together of each jelly on a sandwich and see what you think about the sweetness.

Good Luck

RP
 
Ribs look great.  As far as taste, I would try less sweet, maybe some heat.  If you haven't had a chance to, try judging a contest soon, this will give you quick feedback as to what the judges are liking and what everyone else is turning in.  Another quick route to learning the competition curve, here in Texas, we can stay after awards and sample the Top 10 turn ins, I always check out the ribs and brisket winners, really was an eye openeer the first time I did this. 
 
i also have not placed very high in ribs myself in comps i've done but as you can see above...you are likely going to sweet with the ribs. Another tip i might give is that Pepper Jelly is a aquired taste...some like and and some dont..so this might be hurting you if judges done like that spicy-sweet taste. You might look for another glaze that is similar in sweet and shine consistency in the glaze...minus the pepper aspect. just my 2 cents there

Also some competitions dont allow sauce....i dont know about the SCBA but i believe KCBS doesn't allow sauce. Here in Florida, the FBA does allow sauce. So make sure you know the exact rules of the competition and sanctioning rules your competing in.

Lastly....if you do a search on this site or elsewhere..i have seen a chart before that profiles each state and what flavors of meat and wood judges prefer...someone did very extensive research and this is invaluable
 
I know a picture usually tells a thousand words but in food's case it is not so easy. Let me start off by saying I have never cooked in competition nor judged in a competition. My comments are only my opinion from how I like my ribs. So two things, one the ribs look like there is too much sauce. This is messy, and can over power your Pork taste, and rub. The other is that the ribs look like there is rub missing, inconsistently applied, or has been brushed off with the sauce brush (the light and dark spots).

How many times are you applying sauce? Do you apply during boxing as well?

BTW they look good to me.
 
Last edited:
KCBS does allow sauce.  At times it is almost a sauce contest instead of meat contest.  IBCA here in Texas does not allow saucing after cooking, you may sauce during the cooking process, just not after. 
 
Last edited:
Bruno, my friend and other pitmaster on the our team is from baytown area in Texas and did the IBCA before coming to NC.  We named our team TEX-A-LINA COOKERS.   We took the best NC and Texas had and put them together.  We have been a comp team for about 2 years now.  I ran the KCBS circut with my Father and uncle.   We rub our ribs down with olive oil and our rub and let it marinade for a few hours.  We then smoke them for around 2 1/2 to 3 hours to set the rub.  We only put on the jelly mixture and candy sauce about 10 min before servering. 
 
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