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2006
Wing Joint of the Year Contest
Cluckbucket Recommends:
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How to
judge a chicken wing
By Steve "The Vanilla Cluckilla"
Roth
As co-founder of the Cluckbucket as well as a certified and trained KCBS
(Kansas City Barbeque Society) judge, I am more than happy to share my
wing judging techniques with you. There are three main criteria when
judging a buffalo, or hot wing:
Using a scale of 1-5 "drummies", wings are judged for the following:
1. Appearance - this should be the easiest to judge. Does it look
appetizing? A wing should not be negatively judged because of personal
preference. Meaning, if you don't like breaded wings, but that's what
that restaurant serves, they shouldn't be downgraded. You may not go
back because of that, but it doesn't make them a bad wing. Wings should
be crisp, but not look like fried chicken either. Wings should have
sauce on them - buffalo wing sauce should have an orange-ish tint to it.
Also, whether the restaurant serves just wings, just drummies, or just
the wing attached to the drummy should be noted, but shouldn't change
your scoring. However, if you are served a combination of wings and
drummies, there should be fairly equal portions of both. A batch with 15
wings and 5 drummies may be downgraded on all three categories. Size of
the wings also comes into play here - they don't need to be "wings on
steroids", but they should be good-sized. A good rule of thumb is a bit
smaller than a standard business card in both length and width.
2. Texture/Tenderness - this should also be fairly easy to judge.
Wings should be crispy on the outside, and juicy on the inside. That is
the whole point of frying a wing. Whether they are naked or breaded
should not matter, but you need to look for different things depending
on which. With naked wings, often times the skin is rubbery - this
should be a downgrade. Also, with naked wings, often times the wing
sauce falls off, pooling at the bottom of the plate or bowl. Some sauce
loss is expected, but there should still be a fair amount of sauce on
the wings. For breaded wings, the breading will absorb the sauce. If a
breaded wing is dry, it is either severely overcooked, or not enough
sauce, or both. This is a downgrade. Bone breakage also comes into play
here - bones should not be broken. The two wing bones can be torn apart
at the ends by the judges, but no bones should be broken in the middle.
One in a batch is ok - more than that and you can start to downgrade.
3. Taste - this is the most subjective. Heat should only be a qualifier
if they are significantly hotter or milder than advertised. Assuming you
are a person of normal taste heat tolerance, and you order mild wings
and you have to drink five glasses of water just to get the wings down,
that can be a downgrade. Same goes if you order hot and can barely taste
the hot. But if you order atomic wings and can't get through them
because of the heat, you can't downgrade them. Butter can come into play
here as well. Usually that is what is used to lessen the heat of hot
sauce or Tabasco. But too much butter is a no-no. If you can taste the
butter, it's too much. Butter should be used to lessen the heat, not
remove it's flavor (unless of course you ordered butter-flavored wings).
DO NOT USE RANCH OR BLUE CHEESE WHEN JUDGING A WING! Once you're done
judging, feel free to eat as many wings with either condiment, but while
judging, just the wings. You may use some celery to try to remove the
taste between each wing, or saltine crackers, or water. Try to stay away
from other beverages during the judging process. While the actual
chicken meat under the skin shouldn't have much taste besides chicken,
it should compliment the flavor of the hot sauce. After that, it is up
to your own personal taste!
Putting it all together: Each of the three categories should have
a weighting. Appearance should be weighted as .10, Texture/Tenderness as
.40 and Taste as .50. Thus, a wing that had an appearance score of 3, a
T/T of 4, and a Taste as 5 would be judged a 4.40. The formula works
like this - (3 x .10) + (4 x. 40) + (5 x .50) = 4.40.
Enjoy your next batch of
wings, and submit your own review to the Internet
Hot Wing Database!
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