Crowds turn out for BBQ Festival

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Posted May 6, 2014

With the clock ticking Saturday afternoon, members of Pappy’s BBQ scrambled to get their beef brisket ready to be judged.

Members of Pappy’s BBQ team layered shavings, slices and chunks of beef brisket in an intricate order before carrying it off to the judges for the 2 p.m. deadline.

Philip Sloop, Dothan resident and team member of Pappy’s BBQ, said their five-member team led by head cook Jim Ridley submitted entries for barbecue chicken, ribs, Boston butt, and brisket categories within the professional division.

“This is our first experience and we’ve learned an awful lot,” Sloop said. “We’ve learned a lot about presentation. There’s an art to it. It also counts for 25 percent of the score.”

Sloop said Ridley and son, Courts Ridley, started their cooking Friday night and spent the night to get an early start grilling around 5 a.m. Team captain Jim Ridley said they cooked the beef brisket for around six hours, and the ribs for around three hours.

“We have experienced everything,” Ridley said. “We’re the only ones that don’t have a camper out here. We spent the night in our car.”

Ridley said he’s wanted to enter a barbecue competition for over 20 years.

“We went out and bought this big green egg. It’s an extra large cooker,” Ridley said. “My kids convinced me to buy it, and I’ve cooked on it about 10 times in the past month. “

Ridley and the Pappy’s BBQ team were one of over 30 teams to compete in the Tri-State BBQ Festival held at the Houston County Farm Center Friday and Saturday.

But for Heath and Graceson Glass they returned to the Tri-State BBQ Festival hoping to improve on a third place finish two years ago. Brothers, Heath and Graceson Glass along with their friend, Stewart Hallford, competed as the Glass Bros. BBQ team.

“All our rubs and sauces are completely our own recipe,” Graceson Glass said, who is from Dothan. “It’s the just the love of cooking good food. The competition is fun, but you have to have a love for barbecue and cooking.”

Kerry Farrell, of the Main Event, who organized the 9th annual Tri-State BBQ Festival, said the cooking competition of the festival was divided into two major divisions : professional and backyard. Within those divisions each team submits entries for barbecue chicken, ribs, pork and beef brisket.

Farrell said the winner of the professional division advanced to compete in the World Food Championship in Las Vegas, which this year went to Cary Sapp, of Marianna, Fla.

Farrell said they had 28 entries for the professional division and a dozen compete in the backyard division.

Farrell said they set up the sampling for the People’s Choice award a little differently for the 2014 festival. She said they had a tray of samples from 33 of the teams underneath a tent at the festival grounds for people to taste.

“We thought it was a more fair comparison of barbecue,” Farrell said. “I think it’s the reason a lot of people come out here, to try the different barbecue.”

Farrell said last year allowed individual cooking teams to give away samples for the People’s Choice award.

Between 50 to 100 people lined up waiting to try out the different samples of pulled pork barbecue. At the end of the tasting people used the back of the festival ticket to vote and placed it in a ballot box.

Farrell said they try to add something new each year to the festival and in 2014 they added a cooking demonstration area and there was also moonshine sampling and the tavern tent.

The festival also included a kids cooking contest with two divisions of junior ages 8 to 12 and senior 13 to 18 competing for who could cook the best burger. She said a peanut butter bacon hamburger went home as one of the winners.

“It’s been pretty steady all day,” Farrell said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we had 7 to 8,000 people by the end of day.”

Farrell estimated around 3,000 people attended the festival on Friday night. She said they had 77 vendors selling everything from arts and crafts to a variety of festival foods such as funnel cakes and barbecue.

“We actually sold out vendor spaces this year,” Farrell said. “Hopefully they’re all doing good.”

http://www.dothaneagle.com/news/article_2ea289e0-c295-11e3-bf3f-0017a43b2370.html

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Crowds turn out for BBQ Festival

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