Does this forum ever have a cookoff?

So many possibilities for something like this, but just curious in the past if there has ever been anything contest related.

Best breakfast, best sandwich, best ethnic, sooo many possibilities.

Hi,

There have been no contests between members. The only community pot luck was our picnic last year. Almost 100 people brought interesting food for everyone to sample, though nothing was juried or prizes awarded.

I expect this years picnic will be even better attended.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:There have been no contests between members. The only community pot luck was our picnic last year. Almost 100 people brought interesting food for everyone to sample, though nothing was juried or prizes awarded.

This is not to say that one can't be planned and organized. Planning events is open to anyone willing to step forward.

Best,
Michael

HI,

There have been contemporaneous comparisons of Italian beef sandwiches, soup dumplings, Chinese ducks, bagels and such, then they were ranked and commented about on this board.

If it was cook it yourself and bring it in for evaluation, then none to date. I have competed in county, state and regional cooking contests, where they had people who review the finished product on merit. A people's choice competition I personally would shy away from because it evolves into popularity contests.

Mike G, Steve Z and I juried a pie contest in McHenry with over 40 people breathing down our necks. The criteria was borrowed from a 4-H competition, which really helped divine the winner. The organizer was pleased to get judges from out of town because there had been accusations of favoritism by disgruntled losers. We were perfect because we knew absolutely nobody!

I look forward to your ideas. Thanks and good luck!

Regards,

One thing I've been wanting to do is to have a biscuit bake-off. It would be a competition between recipes. This would involve making biscuits with different fats and liquids or even flour/baking powder formulae to determine the best biscuit recipe a la Cooks Illustrated. Jim in Logan Square would be the obvious choice for a judge, but, as he warned me, we must be prepared to hold a contest that potentially has no winner. I could deal with that in the interests of science, of course. I would just redouble my efforts to achieve that Platonic ideal of biscuits and eventually, I would at least get close.

Josephine wrote:One thing I've been wanting to do is to have a biscuit bake-off. It would be a competition between recipes. This would involve making biscuits with different fats and liquids or even flour/baking powder formulae to determine the best biscuit recipe a la Cooks Illustrated...

It's harder than that: where are we baking this bisquits? My oven, your oven, whoever's ovens, you're not going to be able to compare 14 variations at the same perfection of just leaving the oven.

MrsF uses one of the Cooks Illustrated recipes, using butter as the shortening. Delicious, but don't rise as high as a solid vegetable shortening would.

JoelF wrote:It's harder than that: where are we baking this bisquits? My oven, your oven, whoever's ovens, you're not going to be able to compare 14 variations at the same perfection of just leaving the oven.

Actually, I was going to offer my oven (which has a convection option). We could mix up a bunch of batches and compare the results. I certainly would not suggest that people bake and transport the biscuits. However, you may be suggesting that one oven's results are not the same as those of the next oven. I guess we would just have to live with that.

JoelF wrote:MrsF uses one of the Cooks Illustrated recipes, using butter as the shortening. Delicious, but don't rise as high as a solid vegetable shortening would.

I have noticed this. One of the recipes we try should be the shortening version with a bit of butter for flavor. I find this works well for pie-crusts. I have been saving a jar of lard that Bruce generously gave me this summer. We should try lard as well. And I know that Cathy2 has a supply of White Lily flour.

I vote for a pastrami cookoff. Competitors would smoke the pastrami at home. The judging could be held somewhere where the pastrami could be reheated. I could Fedex my pastrami up to Chicago or, even better, everyone could Fedex their's to me and I would be an impartial judge.

Bill/SFNM

Bill/SFNM wrote:I vote for a pastrami cookoff. Competitors would smoke the pastrami at home. The judging could be held somewhere where the pastrami could be reheated. I could Fedex my pastrami up to Chicago or, even better, everyone could Fedex their's to me and I would be an impartial judge.

Bill/SFNM

Bill,

I volunteer to come and help you judge. I will be impartial too, as long as you let me eat at your house.

A

Antonius wrote:
I volunteer to come and help you judge. I will be impartial too, as long as you let me eat at your house.

A

A,

You know you're welcome any time.

Doesn't seem to be much interest in a pastrami cookoff so I guess we're on our own. I'll smoke the pastrami and bake a loaf of rye; you bring the mustard and the Lipitor.

Bill/SFNM

Not much interest?

Hell yes there is! Indeed, if A is bringing the mustard and Lipitor, someone--and here I'm not shy about volunteering (after all, a third judge is needed to break ties!)--must bring the latkes and cole slaw. At least that's the way it's eaten in my neck of the woods (via Lapichi, a shtetl southeast of Minsk, where I suspect my grandfather had more potatoes than pastrami). With tea and lemon. Or in my grandfather's case, a cube of sugar between the teeth or, for special occasions, a little strawberry jam right in the tea. And spilled into the saucer (presumably to cool it a bit) and then drunk therefrom.

Gypsy Boy wrote:Not much interest?

Hell yes there is! .

I'm with you Gypsy Boy!

So...we have latkes, coleslaw, the pastrami....now we need dessert. Pie!?

I'll keep my eyes peeled to this post and see what develops. If anything does, I volunteer to bring either a slaw or a pie.

-messy

messycook wrote:
I volunteer to bring either a slaw or a pie.

-messy

I think I can get the Heart Association to sponsor the cookoff - so I think cheesecake would be the appropriate dessert.

No?

Bill/SFNM

Bill/SFNM wrote:

messycook wrote:


I think I can get the Heart Association to sponsor the cookoff - so I think cheesecake would be the appropriate dessert.

No?

Yes I can do that instead!