`The secret is the sauce-and the smoke,” confided Magdalene Phelps of Palos Park as she moved to escape the smoky plume curling up from her Weber and into her face. On the grill, golden-brown pieces of chicken lay basking and sizzling in the haze.
Phelps and her husband, Clarence, were just one team out of 29 taking part in the 4th Annual Illinois State BBQ Championship, which took place July 9 at King James Barbecue in West Chicago. RVs, colorful tents and vans lined the grassy area next to the restaurant’s parking lot, making it look like a campground. But the smells rising from the grills offered an intensity not matched by any campground cuisine.
Many of the teams had arrived the evening before and stayed overnight, prepping for the next day’s competition. The contest was open to all, and several out-of-state teams were entered. Each team could participate in any or all of four categories, paying a $35 fee for each: Pork ribs, chicken, pork shoulder and beef brisket.
At dawn, the grills and smokers were ready, the meat coated with dry rub, the cooks fortified with coffee. This barbecue is serious stuff.
“Slow cooking is essential,” said Jim Lawshe of the Wild Irish Q team from Addison. “And it should be cooked in an offset way with the wood off to one side. When we do a whole hog, we get the cooker to only about 250 degrees and cook it for about 22 hours to let the smoke flavor the meat.” Lawshe and his team prepared a whole pig for demonstration only because there were no other entries to make up a whole-hog category.
But the other teams spent only a few hours cooking ribs, shoulders and briskets. By 11:30, the first round of judging started. The contest rules followed those set by the Kansas City Barbeque Society. Carolyn Wells, representing the society, laid out the do’s and don’t’s for the judges.
“First, if anything comes to your table garnished with anything except lettuce or parsley, it’s out of the running. Those are the rules,” she said. “You’re looking for great barbecue. That means moist meat and even smoking. It may have a red ring just below the meat’s surface. That’s OK. Smoking does that. But if the meat is charred, score it lower.
“OK, everyone stand up and repeat after me.” She raised her right hand and the judges followed her lead.
“I do solemnly swear to objectively evaluate each barbecue meat that is presented to my eyes, my nose and my palate. I accept my duty to be an Illinois State BBQ Championship judge so that truth, justice, excellence in barbecue and the American way of life may be strengthened and preserved forever.”
Sworn in, the judges, including this writer, dug in. Ribs were first, followed 30 minutes later by chicken, then shoulder and brisket. No talking was allowing during judging. Just chewing. By 2:30, they had scored all the entries and wiped their sticky fingers.
“That was some mighty fine barbecue,” said one judge, when the talking could start. “Some had a smokier flavor than others, but they all tasted pretty good.”
But when the scores were tallied, they created an out-of-state sweep for the Happy Hollow BBQ team from Kansas City, led by Ed Roith. The team won the grand prize of $1,000 and also placed first in the ribs, poultry and shoulder categories. Second in overall points was Head Country II, a team from Ponca City, Okla. Third was Bonesmokers, led by Ray Lampe of Willowbrook. The local Wild Irish Q team won first place in the brisket category. Roith insists he didn’t win the competition just because he was from Kansas City, considered one of the country’s barbecue capitals.
“Actually I changed my recipe a bit for Illinois and added just a touch of honey to the sauce,” Roith said. “We like it spicier in Kansas City.”
While secrets abound (no one reveals the exact ingredients that go into their seasoning rubs or their sauces), the barbecue pros are a congenial bunch, trading jokes and tales of barbecues past. Many see each other at other contests throughout the year and become friends, according to Jim Burns, owner of King James Barbecue and “pitmaster” for the competition.
“They’re a good group of people. It’s a real barbecue culture.”
