Remember when BBQ competitions actually tasted like backyard cooking?

I started competing back in '98 and back then everybody used simple rubs and cooked until the meat felt right, not until a probe hit some exact number. Somewhere around 2010 it shifted to injection brines, pellet cookers, and chasing that perfect pink ring like it's a science experiment. Anyone else miss the days when a good sauce and a feel for the fire were all you needed to take home a ribbon?

2 comments

2 Comments

barnes.brian25d ago

Man, I used to be all about the tech side of it. I was that guy with the temperature probes and the scientific approach, thinking the pink ring was everything. But after judging a few of those "backyard style" competitions a couple years ago, I realized I was missing the whole point. The best racks I tasted were from a guy using a simple salt and pepper rub, cooking on a beat up offset smoker, and he pulled the ribs off when the bone told him to, not some app on his phone. It really changed how I look at the whole thing.

ryanburns25d ago

Ha, so did you ditch the thermometer entirely after that?

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