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Founder's Corner
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Founder's Corner
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Welcome to Founder's Corner, where we present our observations on BBQ. When you drive several hours to an event, and/or stay the night next to a cooker, you have lots of time to reflect, and we use this page to share some of what we have learned. Click below on the topic of interest. Topics: |
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We have wondered about the differences for some time, both are contest organizations, you can visit www.kcbs.us for Kansas City or Memphis-in-May for MIM. Here are what we think are the big differences in the contests.
Click here for the MIM judging handbook (2002) for contestants.
The judging process is very different in that MIM
requires each judge to select a winner, of the entries they judge. There is no ranking per se in the KCBS, each entry is evaluated independently so you can have same overall scores for 2 or more contestants. Think of MIM as NASCAR, KCBS as Gymnastics.
In some KCBS events, the winner is determined by a "flip of the coin" because two or more teams have the same score. This same problem happened at the recent world championships in San Diego. Contestants putting 2 - 5 days into these events don't like the flip-coin option for deciding the winner.
Bring your Sunday china for MIM events. The most obvious difference in the two organizations is that MIM has the judge visit your site. Have things set up, from the ground to the decorations. (Click here for one picture). Have nice china for your presentation, be able to discuss you cooking process. There is a blind testing phase as well, but judges do visit all sites. In KCBS you just submit in a white box, they taste and announce the results.
Obviously the KCBS is less tense, but many of the people we talked with like MIM events. Lets face it, if you invest the time and money to have a nice rig, you probably want to show it off! On the other hand, KCBS has a lot less pressure, easier to entertain friends who want to visit you at the contest.
There is a second round for most MIM events, which means that if you think your team is good, then you better have fresh ribs, shoulders or chicken for a final round of judging. Also, better have seating for up to 4 judges, they will all be visiting your site at the same time. Clearly the expense is higher for MIM events in that you must have food for the blind tasting, up to 4 individual judges visiting your site, and a group of 4 judges if you make the final round.
Expect to have your meat inspected when you first arrive at a MIM event. The one event we participated in had a welcoming team that visited our booth. (They didn't stay too long!) We were in the back yard division, so we didn't have all the MIM rules to deal with.
Most MIM contestants have their rub and sauce available for tasting by the judge but didn't apply sauce to meat being given to them. Some contestants provided an entire rack of ribs for each judge, others used just a part of a rack. Same for shoulders, most cooked a minimum six shoulders in case they got to the final round.
One last item, do you need water in these cookers? Tom and I discuss this all the time and want to take this opportunity to introduce "Tom Disagrees". This is where we give Tom the opportunity to explain his perspective (although it is usually wrong!) Many of the cookers have water pans built in, typically directly above the fire box, with room for the smoke to get to the meat. Frankly, if you have a good smoker, having water is not necessary [Tom's View]
Last Updated: 04/09/2005 |
