Barbecue lifestyle puts teams in hog heaven

Barbecue is a labor of love. Smoke Shack team member Scott McDaniel can certainly attest to this. After saving $2,500 for an engagement ring for his girlfriend, he saw a smoker for $2,499.

“I asked if instead of buying a ring, I could buy a cooker,” McDaniel said.

She agreed to receive her ring later on, and they are still happily married.

“You gotta be crazy to do this,” said Alvin Meyer, who is one half of the husband and wife team Quenut. “It’s a very expensive hobby.”

These teams have cooked in rain, sleet, snow and even tornadoes.

The Deep Roots Festival’s annual barbecue cook-off drew quite an eclectic crowd to Milledgeville this past weekend. Teams from around the Southeast came to compete to prove that their barbecue reigned supreme.

“We spent $800-900 to prove we’re the best,” Meyer said. “The prize money won’t offset the expenses.”

In addition to entry fees, the cost of the meat makes a huge dent financially. Jay Weems of J&J Southern Smokers had approximately $300-400 of pork to prepare.

“You’ll spend $1,000 easily just going to contests,” Weems said.

Some of the teams attend up to 40 competitions in a year all over the country; others just enter a few.

Clearly money is not the motivation for the hardcore hog-cookers. They come with trailers equipped with full kitchens, complete with a convection oven, refrigerator and multiple sinks.

“Some people say it might be nicer than most people’s kitchens,” Meyer said.

The atmosphere is often very laid-back, as competitors set up tents and tables where they relax while the meat is cooking.

“It’s like a big tailgate party that travels,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel’s trailer sat on Jefferson Street, and just beside sat Rufus the fiberglass Hampshire pig, his team’s mascot.

“Rufus is a pimp daddy hog. He gets more action than any man here,” McDaniel said. “Kids love him, dogs bark at him.”

Some people had laptops, others enjoyed a smoke or a beer and basked in the mild weather, hoping that the rain would avoid them this time around. They stayed there through the night Friday, as some teams had to maintain the flame on their smokers.

“I love it, except for when the sun’s coming up, because then you think ‘I’ve been up all night,’ ” said Otto Stoy, who took the night shift for Jurassic Pork, a team from Norcross.

Barbecue is not a full-time job for most of the contestants. Their professions vary from concrete contractor to loading trucks at Hallmark. McDaniel, who came from South Carolina to compete, owns a heating and air company.

After two to three days of preparation, the teams were judged on Saturday. Approximately 70 judges graded the teams in three categories: shoulder, ribs and whole hog. Personal preference has little to do with judging the barbeque, as Memphis Barbecue Network standards are used.

“I like a rib that falls off the bone, but I have to count off because it’s overcooked,” judge Dwight Wilhoit said.

Judging is an unpaid position and those that do it have to take classes to learn to judge.

“Every judge that comes in teaches us something,” said Kevin Sturgeon of Ivey Rack & Q.

In addition to cooking for the trained barbecue judges, the teams cooked for the people’s choice competition, judged by the palates of the Deep Roots Festival attendees.

They also competed in ancillary categories, where their sauce, stew, hot wings and other appetizing dishes were judged.

The labor paid off for Dixie Que, the overall winning team of the cook-off. They were the grand champions, along with winning first place in shoulder and whole hog.

“Everyone did a hell of a job,” team member Rick Godfrey said.

So it’s on to Memphis for Dixie Que and Jurassic Pork, and other competitions for the other teams, because the barbecue circuit continues year-round.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 30 2009. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry