Sweet VS Spicy

I have a bunch of the BBQ contests that are shown on Food Network stored on my Tivo. And last night I was watching some of them. I usually watch them because I love BBQ and I watch to get some tips and tricks that are being used by people who compete. One thing I noticed last night that a lot of the people who place in the top ten with ribs and chicken are shown pouring honey and brown sugar on their ribs and chicken before they foil them. I usually make my ribs and chicken with more spice than sweet. In the two contests I have taken part in my ribs took 8th and 12th place. My chicken has taken 4th place. I was wondering if I would score higher if I were to make my ribs and chicken more sweet than spicy. What are your opinions on this? Does sweet beat spicy in a competition? Let me know what you think!

There's something about the American palate (yes, that includes me) that thursts for sweet. Just ask my corner chinese cook, who will tell you that to make the average American eat chinese food, just add sugar.
Of course, he's exaggerating a bit and playing on stereotypes, but it is one image on the American palate that seems to be a conventional wisdom of sorts.

You would think a judge, who supposedly would have a more discriminating palate, wouldn't be fooled by simply lots of sweet, but maybe not. And maybe the competitions you've been to, were simply not the type of BBQ competition that best fits you.

You could add some sweet with honey or brown sugar and adjust the spices accordingly and see if you get higher marks. But in the end, if you like your style, then you should cook your style. Heck, maybe it'll catch on and be a big hit and the "new wave" in BBQing.

I think southern bbq tends to be on the sweet side, as do many things southern. Think pecan pie, bisquits and honey, sweet tea. (Hey! I was brought up in the south!) So, if you are competing in the south, I would say go sweeter.

Hello All,
ddog27, sweet always beats spicy for me when it comes to bbq.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

a little bit of each is the best way to go! why have to choose?

ddog,
for some real help on this subject go to www.BarbecueNews.com when you get there go to forums and then to being the best which is the comp cooks discussion area.
what i have found from comps in my area, and we were #2 in brisket at the 2004 florida state championships,is as floows:

1- judges
i came from a background of doing comps under the american culinary federation guidlines. all judges were certified chefs and were able to judge many different cuisines on their own merits. what you will find in the florida bbq association (and to some degree the kcbs. lotta talk on the various forums of judges there packing food into to go boxes to take home) are judges that are there strickly for a free meal. we even had one judge, an elderly lady, who attempted to eat the orange wood pellets that were were passing out. when she was advised that they were wood she got upset. i asked her why and got this response "i don't cook, i don't want to cook, i could care less about cooking, i am only here to eat"

2- sweetness
this is where a lot of people make a mistake. winning bbq is not necessarily good eatting bbq. everything is done to hit the judges. refer back to item 1. let's see an uneducated palate and years of smoking. hey better be something but it better not be spicy. might upset their tummies don't ya know.

but since you want to compete i cannot recommend the national bbq news highly enough. there are lots of good people there and they really try to help each other out
hope it helps some
jack

I've also noticed the competitive bbq scene seems to be overrun by gloppy sweet additives -- grape jelly on ribs was a particularly memorable and revolting image -- but this seems to be an unstoppable American trend along with the inexorable expansion of waistlines. I recall seeing television ads for some chain place (TGI Fridays, maybe) featuring a slo-mo shot of honey pouring over ribs. No doubt sold like hotcakes given the ongoing infantilization of the collective national palate.

That said, in any food or beverage tasting where only small samples will be used, sweet (and salty) wins every time. Just ask Coca-Cola -- that's why they came up with the New Coke fiasco after losing panel after panel to RC Cola (which usually won) and Pepsi.

rjb,
comp bbq is a whole nother world. i guess as a professional chef what shocked me the most was a total lack of professionalism within the judging ranks. while i did not expect the judging to be on the same level as the american culinary federation i certainly did not expect it to be what i found. after last years judging at the fba state championships in minneola we dropped our membership in that group. any further comps we do will be kcbs. while mtheir judging isn't perfect and they are having strong agruments over rumors of judges throwing the food into to go boxes and just dummying up the scorecards it has to beat the fba. one comp i will have to try is memphis in may rules. we were extremely fortunate enough to cook right next to myron mixon and davey from jack's old south and he told us to give it a try. was a nice compliment but then again him and davey are good people

For over 10 years in my restaurants and at home I've been making "Desperado Sauce" which is a basic BBQ sauce with the addition of chopped chipotles in adobo. Zman always says, "make extra!" and he literally dunks the grilled BBQ chicken right into the sauce, it's that good.

Sweet and Spicy, but definitely on the sweet side for my BBQ sauce.

guys
not to be jerk or anything but look at ddog's question.
that's why i sent him to the comp cooks area of national bbq news where he could get straight info from guys are laying out the money doing it.
just to give you an idea of what one comp costs here goes;
1-entry fee all four catagories (and you have to enter all 4 to be in the running for grand champion where the real money is.) that fee varies from a low of 175 to a high of 250 dollars.
2-meat. figure you will need 2 slabs of ribs 1 1/2 downs at 3 bucks a pound. brisket choice grade buy only one if you are brave at 2.50 a pound for CAB. better be whole packers too. average weight 14 pounds. pork butts, figure 2 minmum at 2 bucks a pound,weight in the 12 pound area each. oh and be good friends with the butcher so you get the untrimmed ones. chicken thighs. seems ez enough but figure you will need 12 identically sized ones. better see your butcher buddy again. while there ask how his kid is doing in college. you have a vested interest in that since you are paying for his education.
ok now figure in gas cost at 3 bucks per gallon and towing a rig of any size should yield about 7 to 10 mpg. don't forget the ice and your special spices and rubs and sauces. opps almost forgot. you might like to eat or drink something since you are going to be there for 48 hours. i would throw in motel costs but briskets get scared being alone so you will have to sleep on the floor to alleviate their worries.
our average comp costs are in the area of 800 to 1000 bucks since we also have to kennel 2 greyhounds for 3 days.
oh and a lot of comps won't let you vend so no way to recoup that loss if you don't hit the top two in each of the 4 classes.
bbq comps are serious business due to the serious money involved and for that reason i sent ddog to where he could get the most help.
i tried to keep this in a humorus vein and i sure hope it was taken that way but my main gripe about the foodnetwork has always been they only show half the story.

prisonchef,

WOW, thanks for the eye opener. i never considered the real cost involved.

xannie,
thanks!!!!
right after i posted it i was well and truly afraid that i might have offended someone.
i sure am glad to see that that was not the case

prisonchef and others,

Thanks for the eye-opener. I have often wondered why some Q that I have tasted and thought to be really good hasn't fared well in competition, and why some truly wretched bbq sauces have scored very highly. I hadn't thought it out, but now I understand!


Tom

I just had some new Lays K C Masterpiece Hot N Spicy BBQ potato chips. They are sweet and spicy, and not bad. Buddyroadhouse, you need to be in potato chips!
Joe

I'm ready when the chip makers are.

Buddy

Sweet and spicy is the way to go for me! I like a good balance with just a bit more sweet than spice. If its only sweet, its too much. If its only spice, than there isn't something to play off of.

I mix them together along with some mustard sauce.

John