The Jack Dessert: Don’t Make the Same Mistake I Did

Pitmaster Christie Vanover loves entering the dessert category in BBQ competitions. She usually takes first place with a perfect score.

But she made one critical error when competing at the Jack. Find out what that was and how to avoid it at your next competition.

GCG Updates

Hey, guys, I know the last two weeks I’ve started the show with some sad news. Well, that is not going to happen today. I’m sorry about that. It’s been a it’s been a rough month, but now I have so much exciting news that’s piled on top of each other.

I just can’t wait to get all this information out to you.

GCG Rubs

Let’s start with my rubs. My rub labels have been ordered. The blends are complete, the labels are getting printed and shipped off to the bottler, and they should hopefully be bottled in the next two weeks.

Which means they will be available hopefully for purchase in like three weeks. I plan to have them at the Jack for sale at the Hardware Store. That’s kind of been the ultimate goal is to meet that deadline, and as of this afternoon, it looks like we’re going to make that happen.

If you visit girlscangrill.com and you click on that shop button, as soon as they are available, you’ll be able to buy them there. I am also working hard to get them on Amazon.

Holiday Grilling Cookbook

The second piece of exciting news is that my cookbook is also complete. Fully shot recipes are done, fully edited. Now it’s just time for me to get it uploaded onto Amazon so I can get it for sale for you guys.

I do need to wait for a draft to be sent to me, so I can just double check that everything looks beautiful, but I’m super excited.

It will be called Holiday Grilling. It’s got 111 recipes for you for your holidays, and it will be available by the holidays. It’ll hopefully be available early to mid October.

So you’ll be able to stock up on my cookbook and my rubs making it a great gift for yourself and gift for all your friends who love to grill.

And as always, you can already get my two other books that are on Amazon. One helps you keep track of your competition barbecue scores, if you do KCBS, and the other one helps you keep track of your steak scores, if you do steak cookoffs. You can get those on Amazon now.

BBQ Jackpot State Championship

But I’m not done with the exciting news. Okay, so also this past week I got two letters, two manila envelopes from the government.

One of them I was pretty much expecting, the other one I wasn’t sure, and I was a little nervous. You know, like when the government sends you something, it’s usually like a tax bill or something. Well, neither of them were tax bills.

The first one was from the Nevada State Governor, and it declares the BBQ Jackpot competition that I’m organizing in December as a Nevada State BBQ Championship, which means it is officially a qualifier for the Jack.

I’ve already sent the certificate to both KCBS and the Jack. They have accepted it. And so it is check mark done, certified state championship. Anybody who wins the BBQ Jackpot will for sure get a bung for the Jack for the State of Nevada.

GCG Is Now Trademarked!

The last piece of exciting news I have was also from the government. Again, big manila envelope. Not sure what it was going to be. Well (trumpet sound), Girls Can Grill finally has its registered trademark so Girls Can Grill has a little circle R by its name now.

It has taken me like 18 months to make this happen. I should have started it a long time ago, but it’s done. It is official. It is now a registered trademark. So so much exciting news. Rubs, cookbook, a couple weeks out, then they’re going to be here. BBQ Jackpot, state championship. And now Girls Can Grill is trademarked.

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The Jack: Dessert Category

For today’s main topic we’re going to continue talking about the Jack ancillary categories. We’ve already talked about the sauce and we’ve talked about the cook’s choice and home cooking in the heartland.

Well today we’re going to talk about dessert, which is one of my favorite categories. I’m going to talk to you about the rules. I’m going to talk to you about what some teams have turned in in the past when I’ve been a judge.

And I’m going to talk to you about the two desserts that I turned in in 2022 and 2023 and how those scored.

Dessert Rules

So let’s start with the rules. One of the coolest rules is that you can make your dessert at home. So just like the sauce category where I said you might as well do it because you can make an advance and bring it. Same thing with dessert.

You can make everything at home, and you can bring it to the site and then turn it in, or you can cook it on site. It’s whatever your preference is.

One of the major no nos, though, is you cannot buy a store bought dessert. So don’t think about going to Costco. Don’t go to Cheesecake Factory and get one of their whole cheesecakes. You need to make it yourself.

There’s no store bought. No other bakery can make this dessert for you. It’s something you need to make yourself at home or on site, and then turn it in.

Presentation Rules

Some of the other rules is that you can either turn it in in a nine by nine styrofoam clamshell that they’ll provide, or you can turn it in on your own platter. If you want to even think about placing, don’t turn it in a styrofoam box. I don’t think you’ll get a nine in appearance. I could be wrong, but just go big.

Otherwise, why are you at the Jack? Wo if you’re going to turn it in on a platter, you can garnish it.

Your garnish does not have to be edible. I’ll talk to you about some of the garnishes that people have done in the past. When it comes to the platter, same thing as Cook’s choice.

There are no size dimensions per se. You just have to make sure that it can be carried by just one person. Nothing so big that it requires two people or a really, really strong person.

It should be a platter that can easily be carried by a team member who’s turning it in, as well as the table captain who’s going to present it to the judges.

When it comes to decorations, you also need to be mindful that none of the decorations should identify your team.

So if you’re an international team, for instance, don’t put a German flag on a German chocolate cake because they’ll know that the German flag signifies that it’s probably the German team. So it’s supposed to be blind judging. So make sure nothing identifies your team, either country, state, or team name in anyway.

Dessert Turn-In Time

Dessert turn in is at 2:30 p.m. It’s the last turn in of the day. So right after your brisket, you’ll have a 30 minute time period to get that dessert turned in.

And just like every other entry, you have a five minute window plus or minus that 2:30 time. So that gives you some time to transport it. So 2:25 to 2:35 is basically your turn in window.

When you do carry it to the judges, there is a requirement that the judges aren’t supposed to be able to see you or your dessert.

If you haven’t been to the Jack, it’s unlike any other barbecue competition in that you can actually see the judging. They in fact have bleachers, so you can sit there and watch the judges judge.

So the desserts aren’t really that anonymous. If a judge can watch you walking and carrying it and turning into the judges. So what we’ve done in the past is we’ve had team members like, hold a sheet up to block it so the judges can’t see us.

Other people just surround themselves with their team members to kind of hide it. Or you can just kind of try to walk sideways, but try to try to keep it blind so that the judging is completely blind.

After you turn in your dessert, make sure that you head back to the judges tent before 4 p.m. to pick up your platters. Any platters that are left there after 4 p.m. are going to be discarded, so if you want to keep them, make sure you get back there by 4 p.m.

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Examples of Dessert Entries

Let’s talk about what other teams have turned in in the past. There’s a big variety of flavors. There are some consistent flavor profiles.

I will say. And there is one consistent dessert that seems to score in the top over and over and over again. And I’m sure this has happened at every barbecue contest in the country that has the dessert ancillary.

But judges love cheesecake. Let me just say that again. Judges love cheesecake. It blows my mind. I mean, I love a good cheesecake too, but I’m kind of over it.

Like, I wish, I wish there was another dessert out there that would stand out. But be that as it may, judges love cheesecake. So people don’t always say what they turn in.

Sometimes you’ll find out afterwards on social media, someone will post their dessert and you’ll know if they got first place or what place they got and what they actually cooked.

Sometimes the, the announcer will ask them what they made, and some teams will say that they turned in cheesecake. A lot of times teams will say that they turned in cheesecake.

So if you make a good cheesecake, then by God, turn in cheesecake.

Arrangement on Platter

When it comes to the arrangement of the cheesecakes that are turned in, it really varies. Some teams will do really mini cheesecake. Some are like more like medium round, like six inch cheesecakes.

Others will do a whole cheesecake, like elevated on top with slices of cheesecake around the bottom. Others will just do slices of cheesecake.

I think I’ve even seen like a whole cheesecake that’s sliced, but still kind of assembled as a whole cheesecake. So there’s a lot of ways to turn in cheesecake.

Common Flavor Profiles

In addition to that, there are so many different flavor profiles that you can do with cheesecake. I’ve seen a lot of fall dishes when it comes to the Jack so apple flavors, pumpkin flavors, those seem to be really popular, but also banana pudding flavors because banana pudding and barbecue go so great together.

Chocolate desserts. Although it doesn’t seem like chocolate scores as well, at least from what I’ve seen, probably because it’s so heavy that the judges are getting so much meat, and at the end they just want something kind of light and refreshing.

But definitely chocolate cheesecake, chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. Chocolate Oreo cheesecakes. Honestly, if you want cheesecake inspiration, really go to Cheesecake Factory and just look at their varieties and you can get some ideas.

Again, don’t buy your cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, but maybe use that as some inspiration.

Non-Cheesecake Desserts

Some other desserts that have been turned in are like more traditional cakes cobblers like apple cobblers, berry cobblers, peach cobblers.

And again, presentation, sometimes they do them in little skillets, sometimes in bowls. I’ll put some links to some Amazon dishes similar to what I did for Cook’s Choice to just kind of show you some different presentation ideas that you can do for your desserts.

Garnish Ideas

And then when it comes to garnishing, most teams will turn them in on some sort of wooden platter, either like a rectangle or square around wooden platter. Sometimes it’s elevated, like I mentioned, and most of the time it’s decorated with fall foliage.

So either like fall leaves or even fresh flowers like some fall mums or yellows and oranges and just really beautiful colors of fall are usually kind of scattered about throughout the desserts.

Sometimes people use these little mini LED lights to add a little pop of light and color to it. Just get creative because that presentation, it just really wows the judges.

And then as long as your food tastes good, you’re going to you’re going to get that 999.

And like Cook’s Choice, a lot of teams will use a Jack Daniel’s theme in their garnish and their presentation. Either they will have the Jack Daniel’s toothpicks and napkins, or they will have little mini bottles of Jack.

They have some sort of Jack representation. A lot of times teams will actually use Jack in their dessert, giving it that little whiskey flavor profile.

If you’re going to do that, I recommend playing around with Jack Honey and Jack Apple. Both of those have those nice sweet flavors that go really well with dessert.

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My Dessert Entries

All right. Let me talk to you about my two dessert entries. So in 2022, when I was cooking the Jack for the first time, I said, you know what? I’m not doing cheesecake. I just stood my ground. I said, I want to win this, but I don’t want to win on cheesecake.

I want to mix things up. So I thought to myself, as a judge, what do I want to eat for dessert? After eating all that meat? And immediately ice cream popped in my mind. Well, turning in ice cream is a little bit challenging because it could melt by the time it gets to the judges.

My 2022 Boozy Milkshake

So I thought, why not do a milkshake, a boozy milkshake? The judges have been sitting there. They want to drink some Jack. They want something nice and cold and refreshing. So that’s what my concept was.

Unfortunately, you can’t really make a milkshake in advance, so that was hard because I only had that 30 minute window and things got a little hairy.

So let me talk to you about the construction of my dessert and the presentation. I got some really nice glasses, and I made a whiskey buttercream icing, and I smeared that around the edges with some caramel sauce, and I rolled that and Frosted Flakes.

Then the milkshake itself was basically a vanilla milkshake, but I added some Jack Apple and some Jack Honey to it, along with some apple caramel sauce inside of that.

I poured that in the glass, and then I made a whiskey whipped cream that went on top. But that piece de la resistance was that I made smoked cotton candy, and I added the smoked cotton candy right on top of the milkshake to give it a really fun presentation.

And then it was supposed to have a really thick straw in it. So then the judges could just drink it up, enjoy it. It was whimsical. It was playful with the cotton candy, but it was honestly too much.

I was outside making the cotton candy because you really can’t do that in advance. I was also whipping the whipped cream because I can’t do that in advance.

Kita was in the trailer making up the milkshakes feverishly. I mean, I only have one blender and we had to have seven, so we had to make them really fast, but also try to keep them cold.

We got them all assembled, running literally to the judges tent with like 60 seconds left. And I realized that I forgot the straws. It was really important to have straws with the milkshake because, you know, it’s got the whipped cream and the caramel and all this stuff that, you know, I wanted the straw so they could just enjoy it and get that refreshing sip.

So Kita, hero that she is ‚thank you Girl Carnivore‚ she runs back to the trailer to go get the straws. Definitely she’s the fastest one on the team, right girl for the job, but she’s running back with the straws because of course I threw them somewhere where she couldn’t find them.

She got there and the window had closed. So we didn’t get to add the straws to the glasses, but it sure was a fun memory. Maybe not for her since she had to do all the hard work, but still, it was a good memory.

But the judges unfortunately didn’t get the full experience. I didn’t have those straws and I know my presentation definitely could have been cleaner because we were just frantically trying to get everything put together.

I ended up in 35th place with a 172. I did get a couple perfect scores, but I also got an eight in appearance, which I totally get because it was kind of a mess.

I got several eights in taste, which honestly, I can’t even critique because I don’t even know if I taste it at all composed once it was done because we were in such a hurry.

And then I think I got like a seven in tenderness. Who knows, the milkshake might have melted by then, I don’t know.

Ultimately that is a dish I do not recommend you make. Now, granted, maybe you can make a better milkshake and not add so many components to it.

I think that was ultimately my problem, and I do still think as a judge, I would love to have a boozy milkshake after eating all that barbecue. But I just put too many things together in one dish.

And the smoked cotton candy, while it was really cool and people loved coming by and eating some of the cotton candy afterwards, it was too big of a risk.

I didn’t even think about the fact that it almost always rains at the Jack. Had it been raining, that cotton candy would have just completely dissolved on my way to the tent.

So probably don’t do cotton candy unless you can make sure you can get it to the tent that it’ll be dry, just in case of the event that it does rain.

My 2023 Apple Caramel Cheesecake

So fast forward to 2023 and I wised up. And guess what I made? I made cheesecake because darn it, if you can’t beat them, join them.

I decided to go with an apple flavor profile, and you can bake your desserts in advance. So that’s what I did on the Wednesday as we were driving to the Jack, I baked them at an RV park where we were staying, so I had my cheesecakes ready.

I had my caramel sauce ready, I made some spiced pecans. I made some caramelized bruleed apples to go on top. I had mostly all of the components completely ready.

Then, after my brisket was all turned in, I had plenty of time to assemble my desserts. I took the cheesecakes out of the fridge, put them on the little coasters because those were the perfect size.

I added that Jack Apple caramel sauce on top with the bruleed apples, spiced pecans, a little bit of sea salt, and a little sprig of mint because I always like to have something green to kind of brighten up the dish.

Everything looked beautiful. In addition to that, I thought I might as well turn in some Jack. So I had these cute little like mini wine shot glasses with round ice cubes inside, and then little bottles of Jack Apple to go along with the dish since it had the apple flavors.

And then I garnished the whole platter with some leaves, and I think I put some lights in there and some cinnamon sticks, and it was a really pretty presentation in my mind.

I turned everything in and it was a lot less stressful than 2022. And I was really happy with my dessert. I went back to the trailer and I tasted it, and I thought, oh, wait a minute, this is good, but this isn’t as good as I remembered.

And then I just kind of said, okay, it’s it’s been turned in. That’s fine. Whatever. And I went on doing my things, cleaning stuff up, you know, kind of getting things packed up.

And then I would say about an hour later, everybody was kind of chill and just relaxing. And I said, hey, I got extra cheesecakes. Does anybody want any extra cheesecakes?

So we started eating the cheesecakes and everybody was raving about how good they were. And I thought, wow, that’s cool. I’m glad they liked them, but I, I felt like something was off when I took a bite. So then I took a bite of one of the cheesecakes and it was so good.

The Mistake I Made

When I turned in my cheesecake, I made a fatal mistake. A mistake that anybody could make in a dessert category at a barbecue competition.

I’m going to help you avoid that mistake by telling you exactly what I did wrong.

I took my cheesecakes straight from the fridge and turned them in. They were cold. They didn’t have that soft, supple texture that you want from a cheesecake, but once it sat at room temperature for an hour, the cheese just was melty.

And as soon as you took a bite, it was just so smooth and almost pudding like. Exactly the texture that you want. The tenderness score would have been a nine had I let them sit on the counter for just that extra hour.

But because I didn’t do that, I got three eights in tenderness and I got two eights and taste. I did get three perfect scores from three different judges, but I only ended up with a 175, which was only good enough for 26th place.

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Why You Need a Perfect Score

When it comes to dessert, you have to get a perfect score to win the dessert category, and even then, you may not win.

In 2023, the top eight scores were a perfect 180. In 2022, the top seven scores were a perfect 180. So your dish has to be phenomenal. It has to stand out. If you’re lucky, go for that perfect perfect. Then you might be like at least in the top three.

And it comes down to the luck of the draw. But you can’t make any errors when it comes to dessert. So leaving that cheesecake on the counter for an extra hour I think would have done it.

Because a couple weeks later, I made the exact same dessert at a local barbecue competition in California, but I left it on the counter for an hour and I won first place with a perfect perfect.

So I always recommend going back and tasting your food, thinking about what you can do differently to make it better next time. Practice on the regular circuit so that when you do get the chance to compete at the Jack or the Royal or the KCBS Invitational, that those dishes are really, really fine tuned.

Every time I made that cheesecake at home, I did let it sit on the counter before I tasted it. So it sat there for a while because I was taking pictures. I was shooting video, so of course it tasted great, but when I was practicing at home, I didn’t do it exactly the same way that I did at that competition.

And I think that’s what got me. I hope these tips have been helpful for you guys. If you’re going to do the dessert at the Jack, I can’t wait to taste it.

As a judge, I’m sure there’s going to be so many delicious entries. That’s that’s one of my favorite categories because I have such a sweet tooth. So I’m excited to see what you guys turn in this year again.

I hope this has helped you out. Let me know if you have any additional questions. Anything I can do to help you guys, I’m here for you.

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