Originally written in 2009:
Dear BBQ Friend:
For the past few months, I've been reluctant to show everybody our barbecue turn in boxes that we have been using recently. One reason is I did not want other competitors to just copy it. And the other reason
is that barbecue judges look for unique and original entries - they get tired of seeing the same old thing week after week. But, what the heck, I decided to give in and show our turn in boxes. After all, our book is entitled
"Competition BBQ Secrets"... so I think I should expose a secret every now and then. If you are a barbecue competitor, do yourself a favor and use these pictures of turn in boxes only as a guide. Get creative and come up with
your own ideas and give the judges a special barbecue turn in box that will make them say "WOW"!
Just looking over these awards, I see we pretty much have brisket nailed down. We actually cooked our best brisket ever in Waynesboro, GA. We were jumping up and down it was so tender and flavorful. Thought we had a first place for
sure... the judging table we got on didn't think so though. We came in 22nd that weekend. Ironically, we thought our Brasstown Valley brisket was terrible. We took it off early and it was underdone. We dredged the slices through
a little sauce to sweeten them up a bit and we took 2nd - go figure! I wish the judging was a little bit more consistent. Although, I can't think of anything off the top of my head that they can do to improve judging except train
them better as to what good barbecue is. Our pork has been doing well. Our chicken has been about average and our ribs is our worst category. Ribs has always been our specialty, so I am confident we can bring those scores up in
future contests. Same thing with chicken. If we get our scores up in chicken and ribs, we'll start winning some contests for sure!
Sincerely,
Bill Anderson