Tips for entering, winning a BBQ ancillary category

Find out what a competition BBQ ancillary category is all about with pitmaster tips from a world championship competitor.

Last week, I talked about judging a barbecue competition. Well this week, I’ve been busy prepping and packing for another barbecue competition that I’m going to cook at. But this time things are a little bit different.

It’s not a KCBS comp, which is the four meat competitions that I’ve been talking about. Nope. This one is the SCA World Championships.

What is a BBQ ancillary category?

SCA stands for the Steak Cookoff Association. It’s another sanctioning body, and the main primary focus is cooking ribeyes. They provide you with two ribeyes. You cook those, you turn them into the judges and you get your score.

I’ve cooked in numerous SCA competitions, but my favorite part is actually not cooking steak. It’s the ancillary competitions.

Ancillary competitions are held in lots of different sanctioning bodies. KCBS has them and SCA has them.

What this means is that they give you a category of a food dish that you have to prepare within the certain rules and parameters. You turn those into the judges and you get scored on that.

Sometimes you can have a taco category, pizza, chicken wings, hamburgers. Dessert is a really popular one in KCBS. There is a lot of variety out there.

There are a couple reasons that I really love the ancillary categories. First, I get to be creative. Even though you have the parameters of the category, I get to finally think outside the box and do something that’s a little bit different than traditional barbecue. And I love to cook, so I really love that challenge.

The second thing I love about ancillary categories is you don’t have to be a pitmaster to enter these. You don’t even have to enter the full four-meat category or the full steak category.

If you want to get your feet wet in competition barbecue, you can enter an ancillary for like $25, $50, depending on the competition, and all you have to cook is that ancillary item. It’s just that secondary dish.

So if you want to give competition barbecue a shot, but you’re not quite ready to throw down brisket or ribs. Maybe consider entering an ancillary.

SCA Ancillary World Championships

So the competition that I’m prepping for this week is actually the SCA World Championships. I won my golden ticket up in Utah last year to compete in the World Championships, which is taking place in March this year in Fort Worth, Texas.

With the SCA World Championships we’re assigned a category, a sauce that we have to use, and then we have to turn in our dish.

If we make the top ten in our group, then we advance to the final round where they’re going to name the world champion in the ancillary category.

Before I talk to you about what goes through my mind when I’m preparing for an ancillary category, I want to talk to you about the things to consider and the things to avoid.

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Read the ancillary rules

When you’re considering an ancillary competition, first and foremost, you need to read the rules.

Presentation

The rules are really going to set the boundaries for you. The things that I’m always looking for is how does it need to be presented? Are they going to make me present it in a clamshell Styrofoam box.

With SCA 100 percent that’s usually the case. If it’s a KCBS, however, you may not present it in a box, you may be able to present it on your own platter.

Sometimes the dimensions of the platter has a limitation, and maybe it can only be 18 inches in each direction.

Bottom line is the table captains have to be able to carry it to the judges. So you can’t like make it gargantuan.

So look at those rules and figure out what size you’re going to have for your presentation. That’s going to help you determine the size of your entries themselves.

Portions

For ancillary competitions that I’ve done, you have to turn in six portions for six judges. If you’re turning those and a clamshell Styrofoam box, you have to make sure that those six portions will fit in the box and that the lid closes.

So you can’t do like some big cups of something because then the lid is not going to close, and you can’t do sandwiches that are too big because the lid is not going to close or they’re just not all going to fit.

So first and foremost, like I said, figure out what your presentation is going to be that’s going to help you decide the size of what your entry is going to be.

Category rules

Also, look at the rules based on the category. Each category, especially in SCA, may or may not have its own set of rules.

For instance, if you’re doing a burger, you have to turn in a whole burger, plus one whole burger cut into four. So you can’t do sliders. You can’t just do six pieces of a burger. You have to do one burger for presentation and then four quarters.

So that really is tricky. So when you’re making a burger, if you cut it into four, if you have an egg yolk, for instance, that’s nice and runny, once you cut it into four to put it in the box, you’re not going to get that runniness. It’s just going to kind of be all over the place.

So you have to think about that presentation when you’re deciding what your dish is going to actually be.

Legal garnish

Once you read the rules and figure out the requirements for your presentation and exactly how it has to be portioned, make sure you read the rules for garnish. Garnish is usually optional, but there’s still rules applied to it.

Most of the time the garnish has to be edible, so you can’t, for instance, put a layer of uncooked beans or uncooked rice on the bottom for presentation. It needs to be something that if the judges put it in their mouth and they chewed it, it wouldn’t break a tooth. It needs to be something that they could swallow.

They’re not going to eat the garnish, but just in case they do, it needs to be edible.

Also, there are rules about sauce. You can’t just have cups of sauce in the box, usually.

Sometimes you can use toothpicks, sometimes you can include forks or spoons. But again, it varies by competition. It varies by the rules. So make sure that you read all the rules before every ancillary competition because they may change.

And that way you don’t get a disqualification for something as silly as having a toothpick in the box. If you make an amazing dish, you want the judge to judge you on that and not DQ you.

Can you cook in advance?

Lastly, when it comes to rules, find out what kind of cooking equipment you’re allowed to use and how much of the cook you’re allowed to do in advance.

The reason I say that is because dessert categories, for instance, you can cook them in your oven at home and bring them to the competition, but you’re usually required to assemble them on site.

So you can have all your separate components. You can make a chocolate sauce, a caramel sauce, your cheesecake, whatever else you have. You just have to assemble everything on site.

Also, find out if there are things that you have to make or if can you buy them from the store.

For instance, in the dessert category, you can’t just go to the Cheesecake Factory and turn that in as your entry. You are required to make it yourself.

But for things like caramel sauce, you’re usually allowed to buy those. You don’t have to make them from scratch. I just like to.

But making things in advance is not just a rule that’s allowed for dessert.

Sometimes it can be for other things. So if you’re doing an appetizer or a burger and you want to have some nice pickled red onions on your burger, you can usually make those pickled red onions in advance, pickled jalapenos in advance.

Sometimes you can even smoke meat in advance and bring that in case you’re going to include that in one of your dishes, one of your categories, like a brisket pizza.

You may not have time to make a brisket on site, but you can smoke the brisket at home. Make sure you keep it at a food-safe temperature throughout the time that you bring it to the comp. And then you can put it on your pizza and turn in your pizza.

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Things to consider with ancillary entries

When I’m preparing for an ancillary competition, there are a few things that I consider before I come up with any recipe. I want to share some of those with you.

Flavor

First and foremost, you’ve got to have flavor. It’s got to be something that’s going to stand out. It’s got to be something that when you taste it, you’re like, “This is so good. I want to have another bite.”

Usually, the judges will only take one bite unless it’s that good. And if it’s that good, you’re probably going to get a higher score.

So how do you make something that’s flavorful and craveable? Basically, you’ve just got to touch on all the senses. You want a little bit salty, even if it’s a dessert, just a little sprinkling of salt will help.

You want it a little bit sweet, even if it’s a savory dish, just a little bit. A pop of sugar or honey or something. It’s going to just make it pop and just make those tastebuds really dance.

You want to hit the umami? Even a little bit of spiciness. Don’t go overboard because some judges don’t like too much heat. But just a hint of heat to just make it really shine. That’ll help you out.

Texture

Also think about texture. Texture is another element that just gives it that wow, that surprise and that craveability.

So if it’s like a meatball, you don’t want to just have a meatball that’s soft and mushy. You want to figure out a way to add some pop to it. A cheesecake, maybe you add some peanuts or something crunchy on top.

If you’re doing something like a burger, maybe you’ve got some crisp pickles or crisp bacon. Or if you’re doing an appetizer, maybe fry it so that it’s crispy on the outside and soft inside.

Again, look at different ways that you can think to add texture to your dish, to just add another element.

Temperature

You also want to think about the temperature of your dish. Once you put it in your box or you put it on your platter and it gets delivered to the turn in area and then it gets carried to the judges, and then the judges judge it for appearance and then they finally take a bite, several minutes have gone by.

So if you’ve got something that is ooey gooey and cheesy, but by the time they slice into it or take a bite, that cheese has hardened, it doesn’t have that same runny, stretchy effect that you originally wanted.

You’re just not going to get the points or the score that you wanted.

So think about the temperature. Practice at home where you actually leave it on the counter for 15-20 minutes and then take a bite and see if it still delivers the same way that it does when you get it hot off the grill or hot out of the oven.

Execution

Two other things to consider. When you’re doing an ancillary category are execution and creativity. Execution means that you execute the category properly.

If the category is hot dog and you took a hot dog and wrapped it in an egg roll and fried it, did you really execute a hot dog? Again, look at the rules. Were you required to have a bun or are you allowed to think outside the box a little bit?

Just make sure that you execute your dish as it’s defined in the rules, because execution is a category that they judge on for the SCA.

Creativity

Another category they judge on is creativity. And this is where it gets hard.

You want to be creative. You want to think outside the box. But if you go too far outside the box that you didn’t really fully execute it the way it’s defined, then you go too far the other way.

It’s that beautiful balance of coming up with something that’s a little bit new and fresh still within the definition of the category.

That’s why I love ancillaries so much because it just allows me to be creative. It allows me to just kind of let my ideas flow.

Don’t go too far, don’t go too crazy unless, you know you can nail it with that flavor and that texture and everything else and the execution. Just have fun with it.

You’ll see as you do ancillary categories, when you start to push the envelope a little bit too far, and when the judges kind of tell you to steer back into the the normal path direction. But don’t be so normal that you don’t get those high creativity scores.

It’s hard. It really is. But that’s what makes it fun.

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What to avoid

So I’ve talked about things to consider. Let’s talk about one of the things that I usually avoid and that is polarizing ingredients.

I love fig jam and blue cheese on a burger, but I know that there are judges out there who aren’t fans of blue cheese. It’s a polarizing ingredient. So is cilantro. Some people think it tastes like soap, so is goat cheese. Even raw onions are sometimes polarizing.

So talk to your friends who compete on the ancillary circuit. Ask them what ingredients they found to be polarizing and consider leaving those out of your dish.

Sometimes it’s hard because sometimes those ingredients are really good. They make it creative. But again, if you land on a table with one judge who just no matter how good the dish seems doesn’t like blue cheese, you’re just not going to get a high score.

There are also judges out there with different spice tolerance levels. I’ve sat next to judges before where I’ve had a jalapeno popper. I thought it was amazing. The guy next to me thought it was really spicy.

Don’t go too spicy. Don’t go too sweet. Don’t go too polarizing.

Judges come from all walks of life. So I recommend that you sample your dishes to your friends, your family, your parents, your grandparents, people with all sorts of palates.

And you want to find a combination that’s satisfying to the majority of them. And then most likely you’re going to satisfy the majority of judges.

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How I’m prepping for the championships

All right. Those are my ancillary tips in a nutshell. I want to talk to you a little bit real quick before I sign off about my prep for the competition this weekend.

So at the World Championships, the ancillary category is appetizer. We can do anything except for dessert. So any type of dish that we want.

We have to do six portions and turn them into the judges. They have to fit into that clamshell box. So they have to be kind of bite-sized portions. We also have to use a sauce.

Croix Valley, is the sponsor for the SCA World Championships, so we have to use one of the five sauces that they’ve identified in our appetizers.

We have sauces like ancho blackberry, pineapple habanero. I think there’s like an apricot chipotle, maybe a teriyaki ginger garlic. And there’s one other that I can’t remember, but they’re pretty sweet with just a little mild kick of heat.

Finding a dish that works with one of those sauces has been really challenging, but also really fun. Appetizer, though, is hard because you want to be creative.

The thing that was hardest for me was to figure out my vessel. And what I mean by that is what is it that makes it finger food that you can pick it up?

So you could go with an egg roll. But again, not very creative. You could do a chicken wing. But would that be creative enough?

You could do an endive piece of lettuce, but does a barbecue judge really want lettuce? Maybe. But I’m not going to go that direction.

I had a pretty good overall concept of what I wanted the main filling or portion of my appetizer to be. But I went through five or six iterations of what the vessel would be. Again, I was looking for that crunch, for that flavor, for that creativity.

So I would say that was the hardest part.

Once I did figure out my vessel and refined what the inside of that vessel was going to be, I had to think about the incorporation of the sauce.

I had to think about texture. Did everything have enough crunchiness and softness so that it had a good combination?

I had to think about the garnish and I had to think about the presentation.

A lot went into it and if you follow me on social, you’ll get to see it after I turn it in.

For the appetizer category, I think they’re going to break us into four or five groups and then the top ten will advance to the finals, which is the following day.

That category is burgers. So we’ll have to turn in one whole burger and one burger cut into four pieces in the clamshell box. And this time, we have to use the Croix Valley brat sauce, which is more of a mustard-based sauce.

So you have to incorporate that into a burger. I have been playing a lot with burgers. You can do any type of protein. It can be a smash burger, it can be a big fat, juicy burger. You can do any condiments. But think about the fact it has to be cut into four. You can choose whatever bun you want.

Creating this burger has been fun. I’ve got my protein on lock. I’ve got that taken care of. I’m playing around with my condiments and my toppings just a little bit because I again want to make sure that there’s acid in there.

I want to make sure that there’s crunch in there, but I need it to satiate. I need them to drool and to want to take another bite and wish for more. That’s always my goal.

The appetizer category is on Friday. The burger category is on Saturday, and that’s when they will announce the SCA ancillary world champion.

So again, tune into social and we’ll see how things go. I hope this has been helpful for you guys. I hope you’re enjoying these BBQ tips. I’ll see you guys after the World Championships. Until next time, happy grilling.

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