Presentation of Pork Shoulder For Competitions

[DaHorns]

Anyone have any pics or idea on how/what your turn in should look like? Thinking about entering a cookoff in October and pork shoulder is one of the catagories. Never have cooked anything but ribs in a competition before (other than brisket, chicken, and open).

[Burnt Food Dude]

It depends on the sanctioning body. KCBS allows you to use green leaf lettuce, parsley (curly or flat) and cilantro in the turn in box to improve appearance.

I don't know the of the sanction group but the allow only a small piece of foil on the bottom of the box.

As a suggestion, try to judge a comp or two. You'll get the idea of how the competitiors do their turn in boxes. We did and our boxes improved 1,000 percent!

[bigwheel]

Dittos on the sanctioning body. LSBS used to want one slice for show then about a cup and half of pulled. They have now done away with the slice and want all pulled as far as I know. IBCA dont seem to do shoulder very often..Traders Village invitational (which just happens to hit in Oct) is about the only place I have seen em do the category and that only come about every three years or so alternating with pork loin and turkey breastes the other two years. They want all pulled on that occasion less they have changed up the format recently. Old cooking chum splained to me one time that he like to put his pork in there in the shape of a dome..sorta as you would load it into a bowl and dump it in there trying to maintain the shape of the bowl. He claimed that expose less of the product to the air and keep it from drying out too much. That tip come from Shingleman aka Tom Hoefer and his lovely spouse Shinglebabe aka Elizabeth. He also makes some higher kewlish bbq pits.

http://bbqcookoff.com/

bigwheel

[Spice]

I cook KCBS and I always try to turn in Sliced, Pulled & some Chunk Bark pieces. If the pork is too tender or doesn't have a good slice profile, I will only turn in the two.

Spice

[Burnt Food Dude]

I usually cook 2 butts. If I decide I need slices I'll pull one out of the smoker early maybe 160-170 degrees. I'll take the other one up to 200-205. I know it does sound a bit high but I've been scoring in KCBS comps.

Heck my claim to fame this year is my butt beat Scottie Johnson's, CancerSucksChicago.Com, butt in a tie breaker. Probably the only time I'll beat him this year. The man is GOOOOOD!

[DATsBBQ]

I usually cook 2 butts. If I decide I need slices I'll pull one out of the smoker early maybe 160-170 degrees. I'll take the other one up to 200-205. I know it does sound a bit high but I've been scoring in KCBS comps.

Heck my claim to fame this year is my butt beat Scottie Johnson's, CancerSucksChicago.Com, butt in a tie breaker. Probably the only time I'll beat him this year. The man is GOOOOOD!

That's how I do butts.

[Spice]

I will normally do 3 to 4 butts ( I tell friends, family, and neighbors that I am cooking a contest and if they would like me to cook a pork butt for them, all they would have to do is supply the cost of the meat ) I now have 4 butts to choose from as opposed to 2. The flavor between the 4 are very different and we choose the best one. The way we coose ( and I have 3 other Team Mates ) Is unique. I pull some pork from each butt , put a little sauce on them and number them 1, 2, 3 , 4 . They taste each one, and on the count of three they hold up the fingers of the one they liked the best. The tie goes to the cook. Needless to say I have had 3 1st. place finishes and a 3rd. place finish this year.

Let your team mates help and judge your food!!( they have to be honest with you and not worry about hurting your feelings , this is not a game there is money at stake and you have to be brutally honest with each other or it is not going to work) Don't take things personal!! rely on each other to get yourself to the greater good.

It works for us!!

Hope this helps you!!

Spice