BBQer Cookoff Adventure

The

National Championship

Barbecue Cookoff

http://bbq.htcomp.net/

Last month I read in the Wacoan about a National BQQ cook-off in Meridian, Texas…. A city only about an hour’s drive from Waco. I have never been to a cook off—not as a cooker or as a foodie, but I had always wanted too… just could never get off in time for one. So for this one I put in a request off nearly a month ahead- and the stars aligned; No Baylor Game, No Big Caterings, and nothing going on with the family. So I was all set and ready.

Meridians National BBQ Cook-off has been around since 1989. It was created in an effort to promote the communities of Bosque County. It is an invitation only event for cookers who have won or placed in a recognized barbecue cook-off during the past year. I believe last year over 200 cooking teams competed for roughly $19,000 in prize money.

For the general admission, which was only $6, you are enabled to quite a bit of fun stuff; You can sample several of the cookers Q and vote for your favorite (for people’s choice), you can be picked to judge one of the main Q’s (Chicken, Ribs, and Brisket- apparently they are always looking for general judges), you can watch the tractor pulls, there is live music, and several venders you can hit up.

I went down with my friend Lunar and cousin Nick. They decided to come along at the spur of the moment… which was most excellent. It was a great day for it too, not too hot, not really humid, had a nice breeze all day. As we pulled up you see a thick plum of white smoke covering the area, you step out of your car and the beautiful aroma whacks you upside your head… LOVE It. We couldn’t wait to get in and start the day.

One of my favorite parts is not really trying the Q, but checking out the types of rigs people use. You see people with the simplest oil drum smokers, some with the ceramic eggs, and a few with these monstrosities of a smoker. You have people who have built their own, who have turned them in to creative designs and those who have bought pre-made ones and put a wicked customized paint job on them.

I did try some of the Q, mostly the pulled pork samples and the ribs. There was some really good pulled pork out there…. But sadly to say, one of the items I ate had something in it that I’m apparently very allergic too and it caused my throat to swell (Go Figure). No fun at first, but I coped with it. Lunar and Nick did plenty of eating for the three of us. As I mentioned earlier, you can sign up to judge the meats; Lunar was able to judge Chicken and Brisket, Nick was able to judge the Brisket. They pigged out, judging 18 chickens & 19 briskets, and all the cooks samples, they were too stuffed to judge the ribs.

But before the throat problems one of the last tents I hit was a porker. They had a badass buffet line; Pulled pork sandwiches with home-made sauce on the side, spicy buffalo wings, baked beans and Adult snow cones (they doused the snow cones with a liqueur of your choice). It was all pretty good. Their smoker was pretty cool too, as they made it to look like a pig- they were smoking ribs on it. They also had a full bus painted up like a pig, and one of the team members kid was wearing a pig suit… yes I took a photo with him/her. Did I mention I love pulled pork? It’s by far my favorite BBQ; second would be brisket then pork ribs.

There were other cool teams as well; There was one team that had there station all pimped out with a dance floor, TVs, speakers & mic system, a huge pit and for 2 tickets ($1) you could get a sample of their ribs and a beer. A lot of these guys partied pretty hard the night before, as I heard one guy admit he could barely stand he was soo hung-over. Awesome.

After checking out most of the BBQ teams, we headed over to the vendors section; picked up a National BBQ Cook-off koozie, listened to some live music, watched some wicked modified tractors, and watch a “gun show”. Later on I met a real nice lovely girl, Laura, who just moved here to Texas and she was working the snow cone stand. Talked to her for a while about BBQ and why she wasn’t fond of Dr. Pepper. Good times. There was also a live blacksmith, working his magic with cast-iron making all kinds of stuff. Nick picked up a bracelet from him and john wanted a ring, but they were all too small (he has big ole Goliath hands)

Over all it was a great experience and will be going to these more often and hopefully soon I’ll be on the contestant’s side rocking my BBQ skillz and new barrel smoker. John and Nick are ready for me to put a team together (which they want to join), a team name, make shirts and find a local event that we can enter into it. These other BBQers won’t know what hit them, that’s for sure!!!