The Inaugural Cosmic Mince Pie Champs
Cosmic’s Christmas Training ‘07
The 18th December saw the last training night of the 2007 season at Kings College for the Indomitable Cosmic Hillbashers. As is now a tradition, the evening has become a fun event (i.e. no hills) which this year saw the return of Coach Ewen Rennie’s famous Accelerator Accumulator to challenge not only our ability to run, but also judging pace and recording times – all very complicated for some of us who failed early on.
So, what was the talk about on this dark, cold and crispy night? Was it about those new trainers Santa has promised to bring or even the latest fashions in technical crop tops for the Cosmetics’ and Gary? No, it was about lard, butter, resting times, alcohol (naturally for Cosmic’s), cold or warm hands, and secret recipes – and what is more, this was seriously technical talk …….
The main event of the night was the Inaugural Cosmic Mincing Pie Compo - a competition over a challenging course of presentation trails, tasting, originality factors and a quick-fire bonus question round held at Elaine’s house.
The initial quick fire round hosted by our own Judge Margaret proved to be a both quick and devastatingly accurate way to sort out who really knew what they were about, and those who had nicked a recipe from their granny.
The second round saw a ‘cat-walk’ event with various takes on the word ‘cat’, whereby our panel moved over to the world renown judging team of Fiona D, Fiona and Sarah. This was where the 'mincing' element came into its own, and clearly some were better than others. Colin rated special mention with his impromptu gravity-induced crash and bounce test, which his special pastry casing was clearly designed to withstand – such confidence in the circumstances!!
The third and final round was, however, where all the points were to be made – this was to prove who were the real athletes with the stamina to take on the competition and win. Chief Judges Margaret and Lois were offered samples to taste. Things weren’t looking too great when the competitors were found to have eaten their own pies before this round and Lois pointed out that she didn’t actually like mince pies anyway, but it has to be said she made a brave effort to conceal this fact. Special mentions must go to Ian who surprised all with a novel cheese element in his mixture, which whilst found to be an imaginative move, was not quite to the liking of this clearly traditional panel. Again, Bob’s brave move from the traditional was to prove to be his down fall having scored highly on presentation and style so far. Sean’s Boy Scout recipe was proving to be truly 'prepared for everything' in that his pastry mixture was so strong that not only is Elaine still reshaping her knife and Dennis still to finish his sample but Stewartie Milne has offered to use it as foundation material for the next housing scheme. (Sean’s mum’s mince meat filling was highly rated but clearly not made by Sean – probably just as well?).
So, what was the out come of this new found competition? Interestingly it looked very similar to what you would expect from a race on Bennachie:
1st Rob Brookes
2nd Colin Larmour
3rd Anita Hamilton
(There been no vet or super vet categories for this event yet)
Special mention for Elaine’s Pastry (although her hands were judged to have been a bit too warm on the day - comment from Judge Margaret).
Interestingly the use of banned substances in athletics seemed to be reflected even in this competition – the mixing of different alcohols, the introduction of strange non-traditional fruits and even cheese don’t seem to have helped the competitors much at all in the end; the panel of five judges all showed themselves to be traditionalists with a clear liking for both homemade pastries and mincemeat, this approach leading to some almost nasty X Factors expulsions from the floor (be warned for next year)
Many Thanks to Elaine for hosting our event and to all the food contributors and not least to those brave competitors who were willing to be judged and have their culinary skills laid open (and mocked) for all to see,
A Very Merry Christmas to you all,
Mike Stone
The 18th December saw the last training night of the 2007 season at Kings College for the Indomitable Cosmic Hillbashers. As is now a tradition, the evening has become a fun event (i.e. no hills) which this year saw the return of Coach Ewen Rennie’s famous Accelerator Accumulator to challenge not only our ability to run, but also judging pace and recording times – all very complicated for some of us who failed early on.
So, what was the talk about on this dark, cold and crispy night? Was it about those new trainers Santa has promised to bring or even the latest fashions in technical crop tops for the Cosmetics’ and Gary? No, it was about lard, butter, resting times, alcohol (naturally for Cosmic’s), cold or warm hands, and secret recipes – and what is more, this was seriously technical talk …….
The main event of the night was the Inaugural Cosmic Mincing Pie Compo - a competition over a challenging course of presentation trails, tasting, originality factors and a quick-fire bonus question round held at Elaine’s house.
The initial quick fire round hosted by our own Judge Margaret proved to be a both quick and devastatingly accurate way to sort out who really knew what they were about, and those who had nicked a recipe from their granny.
The second round saw a ‘cat-walk’ event with various takes on the word ‘cat’, whereby our panel moved over to the world renown judging team of Fiona D, Fiona and Sarah. This was where the 'mincing' element came into its own, and clearly some were better than others. Colin rated special mention with his impromptu gravity-induced crash and bounce test, which his special pastry casing was clearly designed to withstand – such confidence in the circumstances!!
The third and final round was, however, where all the points were to be made – this was to prove who were the real athletes with the stamina to take on the competition and win. Chief Judges Margaret and Lois were offered samples to taste. Things weren’t looking too great when the competitors were found to have eaten their own pies before this round and Lois pointed out that she didn’t actually like mince pies anyway, but it has to be said she made a brave effort to conceal this fact. Special mentions must go to Ian who surprised all with a novel cheese element in his mixture, which whilst found to be an imaginative move, was not quite to the liking of this clearly traditional panel. Again, Bob’s brave move from the traditional was to prove to be his down fall having scored highly on presentation and style so far. Sean’s Boy Scout recipe was proving to be truly 'prepared for everything' in that his pastry mixture was so strong that not only is Elaine still reshaping her knife and Dennis still to finish his sample but Stewartie Milne has offered to use it as foundation material for the next housing scheme. (Sean’s mum’s mince meat filling was highly rated but clearly not made by Sean – probably just as well?).
So, what was the out come of this new found competition? Interestingly it looked very similar to what you would expect from a race on Bennachie:
1st Rob Brookes
2nd Colin Larmour
3rd Anita Hamilton
(There been no vet or super vet categories for this event yet)
Special mention for Elaine’s Pastry (although her hands were judged to have been a bit too warm on the day - comment from Judge Margaret).
Interestingly the use of banned substances in athletics seemed to be reflected even in this competition – the mixing of different alcohols, the introduction of strange non-traditional fruits and even cheese don’t seem to have helped the competitors much at all in the end; the panel of five judges all showed themselves to be traditionalists with a clear liking for both homemade pastries and mincemeat, this approach leading to some almost nasty X Factors expulsions from the floor (be warned for next year)
Many Thanks to Elaine for hosting our event and to all the food contributors and not least to those brave competitors who were willing to be judged and have their culinary skills laid open (and mocked) for all to see,
A Very Merry Christmas to you all,
Mike Stone
posted by Cosmic Elaine at 3:24 PM
0 comments
