Just got my first smoker

[Sled21]

(07-26-2021, 06:45 PM)MileHighGrowler Wrote: It's about control and hitting specific benchmarks.  It's about how well you understand the meat and equipment to make it to a specific spec.  That's the competition.  Taste is subjective, so I'm guessing that competition Q got where it is because they had to make it objective in some way.  I think it misses the point of bbq completely, and has no appeal to me, but in my head it makes sense as well at the end of the day. 

I've compared it to the beer competitions I used to enter.  Every style winner is based on specs.  Best in Show is the only one truly based on taste, which is completely subjective.  The bigger issue with beer comps was how hard it is to find enough qualified judges, so at a table of 4 judges who would do a style or two, it wasn't uncommon to have 2-3 of the 4 be people who just liked to drink beer who didn't even understand the specs.  I stopped competition brewing for a reason a long time ago... 

I finally got a couple of racks of spare ribs done yesterday.  First time I've smoked on my home smoker in a couple of months.  Been too busy and hate smoking when it's 95* outside! 

Right. That's why I quit competing, I hated spending all that money to cook BBQ I didn't like. They want you to hit a mark on ribs where it bites clean, but I like mine fall off the bone. Most people that come to the house want them "fall off the bone" But in competition that would be overcooked. Brisket in competition is way to salty to enjoy. Chicken doesn't even look like chicken in most cases. As I was told by a friend of mine when I got into it, you can't cook to impress, you have to cook to offend the least amount of judges, so it can't be too tangy, too sweet, you have to shoot for what I call bland. I wouldn't even take the leftovers home. Now I find it much more relaxing and rewarding to cook what I like.