Sometimes being in the news media has its advantages. Such as when I’m called to judge a food or cooking event. An enthusiastic “Yep!” is my usual response.
On Saturday, I again enjoyed judging the annual Chuck Wagon Cook-off sponsored by the La Plata-Archuleta Cattleman’s Association. This is the 13th year of the event. I’ve lost count, but I’ve judged quite a few of those years if I’ve been in town that weekend.
Fifteen local judges are divided into five groups to evaluate beef, beans, bread or biscuits, potatoes and dessert, which this year featured canned peaches. One year I think we had apricots. Along with local beef from sponsor Sunnyside Meats, this year we got to eat local beans, as in really local, from La Plata County. They were grown by Josh and Candace Wood, and organizers said this was the first time in years there’s been enough of a local bean crop to serve at the cook-off.
Sitting with Phyllis Ludwig of Bayfield and another nice judge from Durango in the Extension Room at the La Plata County Fairgrounds, we gals were in agreement – we wanted to judge dessert.
A few minutes before our judging started, Sandy Young came up with a selection of cards with the food category on them, held out and upside down so we couldn’t see them, like a deck of cards for a trick. I took one – dessert!
I swear I didn’t cheat.
Then we had to choose a lead judge to add up our scores we would give to each dessert in three categories: appearance, taste, and texture. Math is not my strong suit, so I nominated Phyllis.
This being peaches, we were expecting cobblers and pies, and we weren’t disappointed. The entries came in eight boxes, one dessert from each wagon. There were two pies, five cobblers, and one rice pudding with peaches. One pie came in a little bitty Dutch oven.
Young said we couldn’t count the oven’s appearance in the judging, but she did agree with us it was awful cute.
We also were asked not to discuss the entries with each other as we judged, and we were provided with green grapes and bottles of water to cleanse our palates between samples.
Now if you’re like me, unlimited amounts of peach pie and cobbler invoke a big “yum!” and we tucked in.
First we judged appearance. I thought the pies were more attractive than the cobblers. Most of the cobblers still looked awfully good, except for one that oozed all over. That’s a problem with cobbler.
After tasting them all, I liked five of the desserts. Cobblers and pies are generally made with the same ingredients, so the judging came down to personal preferences. To me, two seemed awfully sweet, to where it overpowered the peaches. Another cobbler had an abundance of almond flavoring, which really isn’t my favorite, and I thought it masked the fruit flavor.
I wrote those comments on my judging card, along with a positive comment about each entry.
I like rice pudding and was pleased to see someone try something besides a cobbler or pie.
Now here is where it’s funny to see where our different individual tastes come into judging these contests.
After we had turned in our scores and comments, we chatted among each other. I said I thought the two were way too sweet and I didn’t like the almond one.
Phyllis said she liked the sweet ones, and she thought the other versions tasted flat.
The other judge loved the almond flavoring.
I added that I liked the peach rice pudding, and they both gave it a thumbs down.
So there you go – I think my choices were outvoted. I did like both of the pies. One received a “Bravo! Best in show!” on my remarks, the other scored a strong second place rating.
Full of peaches and cinnamon-flavored crust, I looked over at the next table, which was judging potatoes.
“Which one did you like?” I asked a judge, and he pointed to a version with bacon and green chiles. Ready to taste something besides sweetness, I grabbed a clean fork and scooped up a taste. It was excellent.
After the judging, we selected supper from one of the wagons and ate it outside under the cottonwood trees. I saw lots of people I know and enjoyed chatting with old friends.
Recipients of the Cattlemen scholarships volunteer to help at the event. I’ve covered many of them in 4-H and sports over the years, so it is fun to see how well they are doing in college. They’ve all seemed to grow from nervous kids showing their steers to well-spoken young entrepreneurs who are ready to move into farming, ranching, or ag-related businesses.
The other sponsors of this year’s event were Bank of Colorado, Basin Co-op, Coca-Cola, First National Bank of Durango, First Southwest Bank, LPEA and Vectra Bank.
At the end of a long day of covering events and after my fill of peach dessert and dinner, it was time to head home.
I hope to see you at next year’s cook-off.
