Laurie, MO 2008

Overall - 5th (76 teams)

Brisket - 1st

The Hillbilly BBQ Competition in Laurie, MO, held every first full weekend of August, isn’t Hell itself, but you can see it from there.  Saturday saw upper 90’s for temperature and 102-106 heat index.  Whoa, that’s hot!!!

At Kansas City BBQ Society (KCBS) sanctioned contests, the order of entries and awards are always the same… chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket.  The category last award to be given is first place brisket.  I’ve seen it happen, but never experienced the wait through all of the awards to get a lone “call” as first in brisket.  I was literally ready to get up and start walking to the truck for the long three hour drive home.  To my great surprise, I got the call to the stage for brisket.  After receiving the scores, I learned that my entry was one tenderness point away from a perfect score.  To my knowledge, there are only three perfect scores throughout the whole of KCBS contests this year.  They are very, very rare.  I’m ready to cook another brisket!

BBQ is like golf.  You can struggle for a while and then you hit that one good shot, which is just enough to keep you going for a while longer.  That’s the best I can describe the feeling.