Rib Fest 2013

RibFest is a glorious time of year! What could be a better break from school & work than tasting some delicious ribs for charity?!? You're right...NOTHING!

Lorax at RibFest!!!

We were introduced to the ROC-City RibFest last year via med school friends. It is an annual BBQ competition for chicken, pork, ribs, and brisket held at Lake Ontario Park (where we take all visitors to see the "beach" when the weather is nice). To be a volunteer judge, all you have to do is pay $20 and bring an empty stomach! The judging proceeds are donated to the Ronald McDonald House here in Rochester, so it's all for a good cause. :0)

Now you may not know this, but BBQ judging is very serious and highly regulated. There is an official process all laid out by the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS - Go MO!), and they have representatives at the competition to explain how things work.

BBQ Judging Basics:

1) DON'T LICK YOUR FINGERS...until you've picked up all your samples. Don't want to contaminate all the other ribs.  In fact, it is recommended to wash your hands with wet paper towel between each sample, or with UNSCENTED hand wipes if available.

2) First you judge all the ribs based on "Appearance" - how excited are you to eat these things based solely on looks.

3) Once you've looked at all 6 samples then you pick a sample from each entry and place it on your placemat next to it's corresponding entry number, which is actually DOUBLE-BLINDED so neither you nor the contestants will ever know who judged which ribs. Pretty sneaky...

4) Once you've graded appearance it's time to grade the Taste and Tenderness of each entry. Always take at least 2 bites so you can fully appreciate the complexity of the flavor and the ribs texture. A "properly cooked" rib should resist a little when you bite off and leave a nice clean bite mark down to the bone. Falling off the bone, mush-in-your-mouth is actually OVER-COOKED according to the KCBS. 

5) Do not talk to your neighbors or compare scores. Put down only your opinion.

6) Judge every rib individually - not compared to the others. 

7) Once you write down a score, you CANNOT change it. Take your time...think it through. There are no erasers on the pencils anyway...lol.

8) After you've finished your scores it is time to chow-down!!! Eat all your samples and try to get extras. :0)

Official Score Sheet and Placemat

If you would like to become a certified KCBS BBQ judge, you actually have to take a class and pass a test! Super legit. Then you can sign up to be an official judge at competitions all around the country! You don't get paid or anything. People just do it for the love of BBQ. There was a certified judge giving instructions at every table during our volunteer judging session to make sure we were doing things correctly.

And our volunteer judging scores really do matter! They are truly factored in to deciding the rib winner and the overall winner ($15,000 for first-prize!).

Here are a couple pictures from last year's RibFest:

Category-specific trophies

Great name!

Judging at RibFest has become a new annual tradition for us since we had such a great time last year. This time around we got the old crew from last year plus a couple new recruits to join in on the fun - Ashley and her sister Beverly representing the great city of Philadelphia, which is apparently famous for Wing-Bowl, an annual wing eating contest, so these girls were ret to go!!!

Ashley and Beverly killing time in line with great stories.

Gettin' our judge on! Gotta be ready with water & saltines to cleanse the palate in between ribs.

YUM!!!

Overall, I think the ribs we tried this year were better than last year. There were some really interesting sauces (which I loved but my comrades weren't digging) and most of our samples were cooked really well. Our second table of judging friends had some real contenders but also ran into a "pterodactyl rib" - humongous ribs that were speculated to be cut wrong and having extra non-rib bits (use your imagination). You never know what you're going to get!

 Always a great time at RibFest - maybe next year we can get in on the bacon contest. Look at that belt!!!

 ~The Lorax~