Our first trip to a barbecue competition

Last weekend, a few friends of ours met my husband and me at the Troy Pigout, an officially-sanctioned KCBA (Kansas City Barbecue Association) festival and competition that’s held in Troy, NY. It’s an opportunity to try out some great barbecue, hear some good live music, and hang out with friends and friends-to-be.

We arrived around 2pm, met our friends, and grabbed some barbecue from Big Moe’s M&M Ribs, a barbecue place out of Boston, NY. From what I can gather from the web (they don’t have a website), they’re just a truck and a barbecue pit in the middle of a gravel lot. Their profit must all be going toward the food, because holy moley was it good barbecue. We had the combo, which was half pulled pork and half pulled chicken on a roll, and it was some of the best barbecue I’ve ever had.

After having lunch, we walked through the festival grounds, enjoyed the live music, and took a stroll through the competitors’ area. This was where all the teams that were vying for top honors had set up their rigs, and were busy cooking some amazing-smelling barbecue. At first, that’s all we thought we’d get to do – smell the competitors’ work – because they sold out of tickets to sample the competitors before we arrived. If, like me, you’ve never been to a barbecue competition, this is how it works:

There are usually several vendors selling barbecue to the general public, but those are rarely the same people competing. It takes a lot of work and concentration to compete, and it would be too difficult to do that AND sell food to the public. So, the only way to taste the food the competitors are cooking is if they hold a “People’s Competition”. They sell tickets (usually they’re about $1 each) that you can then trade in for one rib from any competitor participating in the People’s Competition. It’s a great way to grab lunch too, because you get to try ribs from as many different competitors as you can buy tickets.

As I mentioned, they sold out of tickets before we arrived, so we figured we would just watch the competition. Lo and behold, a friend of my husband’s came along and gave us some tickets so we could try out the competition. Let me tell you, I haven’t been that stuffed in a long, long time. We even got a shot of the Mayor of Troy cooking up some ribs:

There was some really incredible barbecue being prepared for the People’s Choice competition; I can’t imagine how they selected a winner, but they did! The winners of the People’s Choice were:

1. Purple Pork Masters
2. Big Guns BBQ
3. Good Smoke BBQ

Congratulations to all the competitors – you did an amazing job! We’re looking forward to next year’s event!