This is an introduction to the way that BBQ is judged in CBBQA and KCBS- sanctioned events.  All team team cooks, assistants and judges should read the 2004 KCBS Contest Rules and Regulations. Click here for the KCBS Rules.

In CBBQA and KCBS sanctioned events, BBQ meats are judged in a blind taste format by a panel of six impartial judges.  Contest organizers use their best efforts to use "KCBS Certified Judges", who are those who have studied barbecue and the KCBS Rules and have completed and passed a KCBS Certified Judging Class. 

Each entry submitted by a team is submitted in a standard white Styrofoam box which is numbered on the top by the KCBS Representatives with the team's number.  The KCBS representative, then covers the team number with another number that only the KCBS rep. knows.  This helps keep the judging blind, meaning that the judges cannot know which team submitted which entry box.  KCBS Cooking Rules prohibit any team from using any means of marking their entries.  

At a cook-off, the judges are organized into tables of six judges each, and each table is headed by a Table Captain, who does not vote but who coordinates the judging process.  Each team is required to submit an entry with at least six separate pieces of meat, so that there is enough for each judge.

For each entry, each judge at a table samples the meat and assigns a score of from 9 (highest) to 2 (lowest) in three categories:  appearance, tenderness/texture and taste.  Judges are prohibited from discussing or signaling their impressions.  Judges mark their scores on a KCBS ballot and may not change their scores.  Judges are instructed to evaluate an entry by considering it a 9 (Excellent), 5 (Average) and 2 (Bad). A score of 1 (one) is reserved for an entry that is disqualified.  

The marks of each judge are entered into the computer, and the scoring programs "weights" the scores so that taste is worth more than tenderness, and tenderness is worth more than appearance.  As a result of this weighting, a perfect score by a single judge totals not to 27 (or 3 marks of 9) but 36.  The scores of each judge are totaled, and the low score is discarded by the computer. 

Thus, a perfect score by a single judge is scored as 36 points.  If each of the five highest judges at a scoring table awards a perfect score, then the total score is 5 times 36, or a 180 Points.  For a detailed description of the scoring, click here.

Judging

These pages describe issues involved in judging contests.  Both novice and veteran judges are expected to know not only the rules of KCBS judging but also the intricacies of barbecue, including nuances of taste, regional differences (and history), as well as possessing a finely-honed taste.

Grand Champion

Submit more than the minimum six pieces

KCBS Rules require that each team submit at least "six separated and identifiable portions of meat" (Rule 18) for judges to sample.  

However, teams are encouraged to submit at least eight pieces or portions, so that not only are there extra pieces for the Table Captain and other volunteers but also so that, in case two pieces of meat have not been completely separated, the team is not disqualified for failing to submit "six separate pieces"