HSBBQ Rules

All categories will be prepared/made and cooked on-site during the competition by teams of at least 1 and no more than 5 students. See each category for individual rules.

No finished products are to be shared, and dessert recipes must be different for teams under one school.

You can use gas or electric starters or torches to start the wood for your pit, but you may not use them to cook, brown, or finish meat products.

ALL meat products are to be cooked on wood products from start to finish.

The cooking area will be approximately 20’ x 20’. The area will be roped off and only students will be allowed to be in this area while the competition is taking place which begins with the meat pick-up at 6 a.m. until 3:10 p.m.

All adults must remain behind the tape until ALL TEAMS HAVE TURNED IN THEIR BRISKET (3:10 pm). Violators of this state championship rule could disqualify their team. 

No adults will be allowed in the cooking area once the competition has officially started. If an adult, or any body part of an adult, enters the cooking area during the competition the team may be disqualified from the competition. The only exception to this rule will be in the case of an emergency. 

 The team must maintain the cooking area in a clean and sanitary condition. 

An HSBBQ board member or designee may disqualify a team for unsanitary conditions or entries. 

Prior to the competition, the HSBBQ Board will determine the turn-in times. The turn-in times will be sent to teams in the Regional information email and announced during the Cooks Meeting.

Standard turn-in times for competing are: 

• Dessert – 9:00 am
• Beans – 10:30 am
• Chicken – 12:00 pm
• Ribs – 1:30 pm
• Brisket – 3:00 pm 

Teams are responsible for making sure they know the turn-in times for each competition they compete in. 

All meat will be furnished on the morning of the competition and will be prepared from scratch with the time constraints of the competition.  

THERE IS TO BE NO LIKE-MEAT BROUGHT TO A COMPETITION THAT COULD BE MISTAKEN FOR COMPETITION MEAT. THIS WILL RESULT IN DISQUALIFICAITON. (Examples of meat approved for lunches would be chicken legs, hamburger patties, hot dogs, and sausage)

No pre-marinating, pre-soaking, or pre-spicing prior to the official start time is allowed. 

Meats:

• Chicken – Each team will turn in a whole 1/2 chicken that is cut in half, fully jointed with skin on, and meat side up.  The wing tip may be on or off. The chicken must fit in the tray with the lid closed. 
• Ribs – Each team must turn in seven fully cut-apart pork spareribs. The ribs must be placed in the tray horizontally and accordion-style from the hinge side of the box down.
• Brisket – Each team will turn in seven full slices, with the ends on and no thicker than 3/8” and no thinner than 1/4”.   The brisket must be placed in the tray horizontally and accordion-style from the hinge side of the box down. 

                                               No meat will be allowed to leave the team’s site area. 

When preparing meat products for turn-in, nothing may be added to the meat after it has been placed in the tray. 

While at the Turn In table, if needed the team will be instructed to correct their turn-in, if sauce or juice is added to the meat the team will be given a paper towel to soak it up. 

All garnishes are prohibited. 

No markings on the box, ticket, or foil is allowed. Foil cannot be folded, torn, etc.  

Beans will be started at the competition site from dry pinto beans.

Each team must use only dry pinto beans but may add additional ingredients. 

After the Cooks Meeting, beans may be soaked in WATER ONLY, overnight. No additional ingredients may be added to the beans until 0600 Saturday morning. Doing so may disqualify the team from the bean entry and/or from the competition.

Once the beans are put into the turn-in cup, all additional ingredients must be smaller than the diameter of a dime or small marble.  

No markings on the cup, ticket, or foil  is allowed. 

Desserts:

• Must be prepared from scratch and cooked on-site  ***NO BAKE ITEMS ARE NOT ALLOWED***
• Schools with multiple teams may not use the same recipe for the team. Each team must submit a different recipe.each team; each
• A team should wisely use the 2-2.5 hours they have for this category.  The time is from prep to plating, and students are encouraged to choose a recipe that showcases their talents.
• Must contain at least 5 individually purchased ingredients
• It must be made from scratch, except for the crust, which can be chosen from the approved item list (See list for approved items).
• No cake mixes, cookie mixes, or pre-made mixes/fillings will be allowed
• No puddings or custards of any type are allowed
• No premade icings/pastry cremes/whipped toppings/toppings, etc. These items must be made from scratch.
• Hand-made, on-site tortillas must be made from scratch
• Fresh fruit must be used. 
• Canned/jarred, jellied, or frozen fruit may not be used. (For example, maraschino cherries are jarred fruit.)
• Dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, etc.) are allowed as a garnish
• Powdered/dehydrated fruit is not allowed
• An accurate recipe must be submitted with each entry. The recipe must include its proper name,  prep & cooking times, ingredients & method (i.e., We cooked it on the pit; We used a propane oven...). Put the following in the UPPER RIGHT-HAND CORNER: Prep Time; Cook Time; How it was cooked (pit, propane oven, dutch oven, etc)
• Place the PRINTED (not handwritten) recipe in a Ziploc bag and bring it when you turn in your entry. DO NOT WRITE the team’s name, school, or anything on the baggie or the recipe.
• Do not tape it to the container.
• Decorative paper is not allowed. You may use the tinfoil provided if it is needed.
• Garnishing is allowed in this category. Topping items (such as cookie/candy crumbles which are placed on top of a dessert) may be used to garnish BUT DO NOT COUNT AS PART OF THE 5 INGREDIENTS

NO PRE-MADE DESSERTS ARE ALLOWED. 

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Pies
• Cakes
• Cupcakes
• Cookies
• Brownies

NO-BAKE DESSERTS ARE NOT ALLOWED.  (All desserts are to be cooked on site)

ADDITIONAL ITEMS NOT ALLOWED ARE:

• Canned pie fillings
• Canned pastry fillings
• Canned or packaged whipped cream
• Puddings (of any type)
• Premade icings/pastry cremes/whipped toppings, etc.
• Chocolate, caramel, etc., drizzles may not be canned/jarred. (Example: Ice Cream/Dessert toppers)
• Canned fruit, fruit in a jar, frozen fruit, dehydrated fruit...
• Canned  (pre-made) Crescent Rolls or Biscuits **These do not qualify as "pie crusts" as approved below**
• Pre-made Tortillas

APPROVED PACKAGED (PRE-MADE) ITEMS TO BE USED FOR CRUSTS:

• Pillsbury Pie Crusts (Other brands comparable to this are acceptable.)

               The pie crust must be unrolled and hand-formed into a pie pan.

                Piecrust cannot be purchased pre-formed in a pie pan.

• Honey Maid Graham Crackers (Other brands comparable to this are acceptable.)

                Graham crackers will be crushed to make a crust and hand-formed into a pie pan.

                Graham cracker crust cannot be purchased pre-formed in a pie pan.

• Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Frozen Pastry Dough Sheets (Other brands comparable to this are acceptable.)
• Dynasty Egg Roll/Spring Roll Wrappers (Other brands comparable to this are acceptable.)

Bread Pudding Clarification:

An authentic traditional Bread Pudding with fresh fruit will take nearly two hours to make from scratch. If it does not then please choose a different recipe or make the bread on site.

***BREAD PUDDING IS NOT A PUDDING.***

Pudding refers to a type of dessert.

Traditionally the Brits use the word "pudding’" for what Americans call "dessert".

Traditionally, long ago, "puddings" referred to bland and rustic desserts that were eaten by the lower-class citizens,  and "Desserts" were sweeter and more decadent and were eaten by the upper-class citizens.

No markings are allowed on the box, ticket, or foil. Foil cannot be folded, torn, etc.  

All fires for cooking meat must be wood or a wood product.

ALL meat products are to be cooked on wood products from start to finish.

You can use gas or electric starters or torches to start the wood, but you may not use them to cook, brown, or finish meat products. 

Once the meat has been placed in the pit, you may not restart your fire with gas or electric starters/torches. 

Any commercial-made, homemade or shop-made pit may be used.  All pits must use only wood or wood products.

Pellet smokers and guru-style fans are NOT allowed for HSBBQ competitions.  

Teams may NOT share a pit/smoker.   A school may have two pits/smokers on one trailer, however, there must be a separation of areas for the two teams using the pits/smokers to work. No combined workspace is allowed.

• A taped ticket will be affixed to the top of each tray. 
• Once in the judging area, each tray will be assigned a box number and to a table. · Entries will be judges by at least five judges who are 18 years of age or older. 
• All entries will be judged on their appearance, taste, and texture.  
• Single-Round Judging – The scores will be used to determine category placement. Once all five competition categories (dessert, beans, chicken, ribs, and brisket) are scored, the computer program will add the scores together to determine overall placement. 
• Damaged trays may be returned to an HSBBQ Board Member or representative for replacement ONLY if the original ticket is attached.  
• If the ticket is lost, the ticket will not be replaced and the team will receive a score of zero for that category. 

All entries will be submitted in identical containers which have been assembled and brought to the site by HSBBQ. The container for dessert, chicken, ribs, and brisket is an approximately 9” x 9” hinged styrofoam tray. 

Each team will be provided a piece of foil for each turn-in by HSBBQ and may not be substituted with any other foil. The foil supplied is to be placed in the bottom of each tray.  You may choose not to put foil ONLY in the dessert tray. However, all meat categories must have foil in the bottom of each tray. 

A styrofoam cup and lid will be provided by HSBBQ for the beans.  

Brisket will be the first tiebreaker. If there is a tie in points, the team that finishes higher in the brisket category will be placed higher.  If there are still ties then the ribs will be the next tiebreaker; then chicken; then beans; and finally the dessert.

There will be an additional 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after the turn-in time. This allows each team time to have their product checked in and correct any mistakes before the window closes.

If a team misses the window, the product will not be accepted and will not be judged.  

                                                          It is important that teams watch the time!

All teams, teachers, mentors, and parents will be expected to conduct themselves in a friendly, courteous, and professional manner. 

Any team, teacher, mentor, or parent who does not conduct themselves professionally may be given one warning and then disqualified and possibly expelled from future competitions. This includes disrespecting or speaking ill of other teams, students, mentors, teachers, HSBBQ board members, judges, or anyone on site. 

Cheating will result in disqualification from a category or the competition.  A team may lose their State qualification and must re-earn the opportunity to attend State.  The HS's Principal will be notified of why the team was disqualified and the HSBBQ Board's decision for the infraction.

Adults who do not follow the rules can also disqualify the team, or the adult may be removed from the competition and asked to stay off-site until the awards are over. 

The outcome of the decision by the HSBBQ Board is final.

This is a teaching environment; all adults are expected to be positive role models to the youth they are mentoring and modeling professional behavior at all times.  

Coaches, mentors, and all other adults will not be allowed within 20 feet of the cooking area after the meat pick-up has begun at 6:00 a.m. and must remain away from the cooking area until ALL TEAMS HAVE TURNED IN THEIR BRISKET (3:10 p.m.). Violators of this state championship rule could disqualify their team. 

The purpose of this rule is to let the students work independently of their coaches/mentors. 

All teams are responsible for their site. Trash must be picked up and placed in the dumpsters, and the area (asphalt, gravel, etc.) must be free of trash and ashes PRIOR to the awards. 

Board members or their representatives will police the area to ensure everything is clean before the awards ceremony. Awards will not take place until the grounds are clean.