By Heather Mullinix
Assistant editor
—
A group of barbecue cookers from Rosemark, TN, walked away with the grand champion prize in the first Crossville Wheels 'n Squeals competitive barbecue event Saturday.
The competition was a fully sanctioned Memphis Barbecue Network event, which has events in more than 12 states. Each contest is judged by trained and sanctioned judges who score competitors in five areas, appearance of site, presentation, taste, tenderness and overall impression. There is on-site judging and blind judging.
"The Memphis Barbecue Network is an all pork barbecue association, and we're the only one with on-site and blind judging," explained David Rhea, a representative of the organization.
The five teams at Wheels 'n Squeals were all new competitors in the MNB, joining Crossville for the inaugural event.
"We're excited to be in Crossville," Rhea said. "We love to help new contests get going. You've always got to have that first contest. And we're excited about the five new teams. They get to have their debut in the network and we hope they like it."
Two local teams were on hand to try out their barbecue recipes — The Jr. Grillers, a group of local 4-H members, and License 2 Grill with Darrin Stryker.
The Jr. Grillers arrived the night before, setting up their cookers and serving area. They worked through the night to prepare a whole hog, pork shoulder and ribs.
"It's unusual to have a youth team," Rhea said, noting many of the professional competitive teams often have their children as team members, but, "I don't know that I've ever seen this many kids doing the cooking."
The Jr. Grillers have been competing in Kansas City Barbecue Society events in Tennessee. John Teeples, who has worked with the group of 40 youngsters for the past year, said, "They're making a name for themselves in competitive barbecue circles."
The competition team includes eight of the older youth, while the remainder are younger kids learning the basics of outdoor meat cookery.
The competitive cooking team made their debut at the Cumberland County Fair in 2009 where they took first place. They also competed at events in Lawrenceburg, TN, Sevier Co. and Clarksville, TN. In Lawrenceburg, TN, the team took second place for its sauce and fourth in the Anything But category for its seafood gumbo entry.
"We're the only professional youth team," said Teeples. "We compete against the big guys and we're right up there with them in the Kansas City circuit."
The team has created three sauces, a red sauce, mustard sauce and vinegar sauce, that will be bottled and made available for sale at local stores in the near future.
This was Stryker's first competitive cooking event, and he and his family enjoyed cooking for the judges.
Joining the Crossville teams were the Smokin' Studs, Smoke On This and The Limp Briskets.
The Jr. Grillers took first place in the whole hog competition and took second in shoulder and ribs. Smoke On This took second in the shoulder competition. Smokin' Studs won for their ribs entry and took the grand champion title. Smokin' Studs will be invited to the MNB championship to be held next spring.
