scooter
Moderator
I've been researching comp chicken trimming for months and have heard several competitors mention they either remove or cut the vein in a chicken thigh and I've seen one perform surgery on a thigh to completely remove a tendon. At first I thought this was crazy. As a judge I expect thighs to contain veins and tendons and never paid them any attention what so ever until I started cooking thighs in competition. I decided that I wouldn't remove/cut any veins or tendons from my chicken thighs.
3 weeks ago Chris and I attended a backyard warmup event with CBJs to test out our new chicken recipe and process. The box went around and all judges took their sample. As I stood there waiting for them to taste and score I noticed one of the judges was sort of tearing his thigh apart. I don't recall if he'd taken a bite yet. It turns out he was looking for the vein and when each of the judges was giving me feedback and it was his turn he pointed to the vein on his judging plate that he removed from his thigh and told me I should remove it. He gave me a 9 in tenderness so there was no scoring down but I thought it odd that he'd go through the trouble of removing it and pointing it out to me if he wasn't going to dock me a point for not removing it myself. None of the other CBJs said anything about the vein. I figured that if he was under the anonymity of the real judges tent, he would probably ding me a point for not removing it so I decided to address the vein in my trimming process going forward.
So fast forward to last weekend at Santa Anita. When I trimmed the thighs up I tried making a small surgical cut with a knife where I thought the vein was and cut it in all the thighs. Well, when the scoring was done, I received five 8's and a 9 in tenderness. I know for a fact that our process produces perfect tender bite through skin in all our pieces so I'm sure the 8's were not from skin. The only 2 things I can think of was lack of moisture (but I had good moisture in all the pieces we sampled) and the other is either the vein and/or the tendon not being cut/removed.
If you guys don't mind sharing, what are your thoughts about removing/cutting the vein and/or tendon in your comp chicken thighs?
3 weeks ago Chris and I attended a backyard warmup event with CBJs to test out our new chicken recipe and process. The box went around and all judges took their sample. As I stood there waiting for them to taste and score I noticed one of the judges was sort of tearing his thigh apart. I don't recall if he'd taken a bite yet. It turns out he was looking for the vein and when each of the judges was giving me feedback and it was his turn he pointed to the vein on his judging plate that he removed from his thigh and told me I should remove it. He gave me a 9 in tenderness so there was no scoring down but I thought it odd that he'd go through the trouble of removing it and pointing it out to me if he wasn't going to dock me a point for not removing it myself. None of the other CBJs said anything about the vein. I figured that if he was under the anonymity of the real judges tent, he would probably ding me a point for not removing it so I decided to address the vein in my trimming process going forward.
So fast forward to last weekend at Santa Anita. When I trimmed the thighs up I tried making a small surgical cut with a knife where I thought the vein was and cut it in all the thighs. Well, when the scoring was done, I received five 8's and a 9 in tenderness. I know for a fact that our process produces perfect tender bite through skin in all our pieces so I'm sure the 8's were not from skin. The only 2 things I can think of was lack of moisture (but I had good moisture in all the pieces we sampled) and the other is either the vein and/or the tendon not being cut/removed.
If you guys don't mind sharing, what are your thoughts about removing/cutting the vein and/or tendon in your comp chicken thighs?
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