The Travels of the Agnew Family

Today was the big barbecue cook off at the Mercedes fairgrounds. John, Carol, Ed and I piled into the truck in search of smoked meat and boy did we find it. An entrance fee of $5 gets you in and allows you to taste a lot of good meat. Last year when John and Carol went they were judges for the smoked ribs, so we headed down to the "judging" building and managed to get in as judges for the ribs --- next year we'll try for brisket. There are four levels of judging. The preliminary (which is what we did) consists of 7 tables of 5 judges. Each table tasted 18 different ribs and rated them on a scale of 1 to 10, using aroma, color, texture, taste and overall appearance as the criteria. A number of ribs will be dropped from the race with the remaining ones proceeding to the next level of judging ---- 5 tables with 5 judges each. The 3rd level has 3 tables of judges and final judging being 1 table. $10,000 of prize money is available to be won.


The "smokers" arrived on Friday and started smoking in the wee hours of Saturday morning. They brought in trailers and smokers of all descriptions. We talked to several of the "smokers" asking lots of questions as Ed and I have decided to buy a smoker and are trying to figure out what kind to get.


Seeing this photo made me realize that I didn't see any female smokers. There were lots of women there on the teams but the men seemed to be in control of the smoking. Very interesting......


The "judging room". Looking at the 2nd, 3rd and 4th level of judging. Each Styrofoam box contains one teams ribs.


One of the ribs we judged. John is concentrating grading the ribs he just tasted.