Where There’s Smoke:
Barbecue Team Tries to Cook Up Winning Recipes
By Donna Cornelius
Journal Features Writer
Attention amateur grill masters: Ever wanted to pit your skills against the big boys of barbecue in a competitive setting?
If so, don’t wrap your contest entries in aluminum foil. Avoid the temptation to garnish your food with the dreaded red-tipped lettuce.
And most of all, don’t forget the brisket.
Andrew Waits, a Hoover accountant, and his barbecue cooking team had to hone their grill skills before competing in Kansas City Barbeque Society events. But they also had to learn that, hey, even in the laid-back world of outdoor cooking, it pays to follow the rules.
The team, called Worth the Waits, competes in events certified by KCBS, which bills itself as the world’s largest organization of barbecue and grill enthusiasts.
“Different organizations have different rules,” Waits said.
The Niceville, Fla., native was a student at Samford University when the idea to form a competitive barbecue team came up during a conversation with several Pi Kappa Phi pledge brothers, Waits said.
Other team members are Tyler Fuqua of Homewood, Heath Tipps of Hoover, Henry Coker of Birmingham and Brian Cook and Justin Knighten of Decatur.
“We were sitting around one night and talking and thought, that sounds like a fun thing to do,” he said. “I love to cook. I headed it up and got everything going.”
Waits said fellow team member Cook was familiar with Decatur’s Riverfest, which includes a barbecue contest.
“Our first competition was in September 2011 at Riverfest,” Waits said.
That event, like most contests, has two divisions—professional and backyard.
“Backyard is chicken and ribs only,” Waits said. “With professional, you do chicken, ribs, pork and briskets. We decided to compete in the professional category because we wanted to see where we stacked up against the pros.”
The team had to familiarize itself with KCBS rules.
“At the beginning of the competition, they have meat inspections,” Waits said. “Your meat has to be at a certain temperature and not already cooked—you have to cook it on site.”
Teams are assigned numbers, he said.
“That’s how they track your team,” Waits said. “It’s for blind judging. Nobody knows who’s cooked what.”
Each of the four categories has its own set of judges certified by the KCBS, he said, and teams present their entries in boxes.
“The judges just get a taste of your food—you wouldn’t want to eat a full plate of barbecue from every team—so you have to make sure you pack in the flavor,” Waits said. “We use lots of brown sugar with our ribs, for example, to give them a good flavor profile.”
Waits said entries are judged on scale of 1-9, with 9 the highest possible score. Points are deducted, Waits said, for such sins as using aluminum foil in the boxes or, for some reason, including red-tipped lettuce.
“You also can’t ‘sculpt’ your meat,” he said. “That’s because judges might be able to identify your food if it was cut a certain way every time.”
The Worth the Waits gang learned another lesson: It’s important to enter all four categories.
“At our first competition, none of us had ever cooked a brisket,” he said. “With brisket, it’s tough to get the flavor infused. Also, they cost about $40 or $50.”
So the team decided to go brisket-less for their competitive cooking debut.
“It turned out we were the only ones out of 80 teams not to do a brisket,” Waits said.
They soon realized the error of their omission.
“People would come up to us and say, ‘You’re the team that didn’t cook a brisket!’” Waits said, laughing. “Also, we came in last because 25 percent of our score was zero.”
While Worth the Waits may not have gotten off to an auspicious start, the team improved before its next Riverfest competition.
“The second year, we were in the top third in three categories,” he said.
Most competitions have entry fees of $300 to $400, Waits said.
“But there’s good money to be won,” he said. “You could win $5,000 to $6,000.”
There’s an overall winner, Waits said, and winners in each of the four individual categories.
Worth the Waits participates in two or three contests a year.
“This year, we’ve already done one in Tennessee and will go to Decatur in September and another contest in October,” he said. “The main time for competitions is spring to fall. They have them all over the country, and often they’re held in conjunction with a fair or music festival to attract more people.”
These competitions aren’t the kinds often hosted by churches or civic groups where event-goers get to sample the food, Waits said. Only the judges get to taste the barbecue.
Waits’ team travels to contests in its camper, taking along grills, several Big Green Eggs and a smoker dubbed “Old Bess.” The group usually arrives at contest sites on Friday for Saturday events.
“On Fridays until about 10 or 11 p.m., it’s fun,” he said. “Then it gets serious. There’s very strict timing. You have to have your chicken ready at noon, ribs at 12:30, pork at 1 and brisket at 1:30.”
There’s a lot of prep work. Team member Heath Tipps spends two to three hours just trimming chicken thighs, Waits said.
The team uses chicken thighs because “they have more flavor,” Waits said. “And with ribs, most people do spareribs. We do, because they have more fat and are juicier.”
While casual cooks often strive for meat that’s falling off the bone, that’s not the case with pros, Waits said.
“You want it tender, but not falling off the bone,” he said. “Falling off means you’ve just cooked it until it does that. You have to hit the sweet spot.”
The team prepared to enter the competitive barbecuing world by practicing dishes at home and serving them to willing guinea pigs—family and friends.
“We tried making our own sauce at first, but there are just so many good ones out there,” Waits said. “You can add to them.”
In contests in the Carolinas, he said, people like vinegar-based sauces.
“In Alabama and Tennessee, they expect a sweeter sauce,” Waits said.
Waits said his team quickly realized that many of their fellow competitors don’t take the contests lightly.
“We didn’t know how serious some people are,” Waits said. “Some spend hundreds on their meat alone. People who win compete every weekend. They have fancy equipment. You’d be surprised at all the expensive grills and the RVs they travel in.
“People get really serious. Everybody’s friendly—but their don’t share their secrets.”
Waits, however, was willing to share some tips for those hoping to cook up some contest-worthy July 4 barbecue. A smoker is a must, he said.
“Practice and know how to use your smoker by researching on the internet,” he said. “There are tons of awesome videos on YouTube and websites that give you tips. That really helped me when I was starting out.”
Andrew’s other advice includes:
Try different spices and rubs to see which you like best.
Stay in the 200-250 degree range when you’re cooking.
Get a meat thermometer to see how hot your smoker is.
And of course, if you’d like join Waits and his friends at honest-to-goodness competitions, make sure to cook a brisket.
