Blitzkrieg BBQ Wins Top Honors at Southern Smokers BBQ

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Blitzkrieg BBQ took Grand Champion honors, with Big Papa’s Country Kitchen taking the Reserve Grand Champion spot at the 2012 Southern Smokers BBQ competition in Dundee, Florida. BBQ Smoker fans, it couldn’t have been written any better if issued from a Hollywood Studio!

Photo Credit: Florida Bar-B-Que Association

See, last weekend, the roles of these two competition BBQ teams were reversed with Big Papa’s Country Kitchen taking Grand and Blitzkrieg BBQ taking Reserve at the Fort Pierce, Florida Cowboys Pig Out BBQ Competition. If I’m not mistaken, this weekend’s event counts as Tommy’s first Grand Championship – officially putting Blitzkrieg on the map of a team to watch out for!

I had the pleasure of meeting with and talking with Tommy and his family in Dundee this weekend, and they’re a great family! Actually, one of the things I love most about BBQ competitions and the BBQ Smoker community as a whole is that family is at the heart of what they are all about.

I’m trying now to get a spotlight post on Tommy and his team worked up, so stay tuned for it. Always a pleasure to highlight the accomplishments of good folks!

Judging this Event

I’ll start this section by stating openly that I am not a BBQ Smoker Competition Cook. I have taken classes in BBQ. This said, I do try very hard to stay informed about the BBQ competition process. I talk with BBQ cook teams, cook with BBQ cook teams, build BBQ smokers with them, and have taken a great BBQ cook class by none other than Mr. “Rub” Bagby (see Swamp Boys BBQ for details!).

I judged this event and had a blast. It was my 2nd FBA judging event, and I loved it. What made it truly cool was that I got to sit next to none other than mister Jady Hill of Florida Boys BBQ Team. Jady has been cooking competition BBQ going on 16 years now – and sits among maybe a handful of teams nationally that have been cooking that long. Those of you who know Jady know that any amount of time spent with him renders gut busting laughs and eye opening BBQ commentary.

BBQ Chicken

On the whole, I’d say the BBQ smoker rendered product we judged on the day were fairly good to great. The chicken entries at our table were pretty good. All entries were thighs, with several having the bones completely removed. One entry was basically gray in color, save for some sauce and another didn’t quite get all the fat rendered out of the skin – resulting in a bit of a rubbery bite.

BBQ Ribs

Ribs were a tough category on this go ’round. A couple of entries were dry and a bit burnt, but there was an especially great entry that had perfect bite texture – leaving the bone nice and white soon after the bite. It also had a great flavor profile with both rub and sauce playing nicely together.

BBQ Pork

We had a good selection of pork entries. The one thing I noticed is that there was an entry where the money muscle portions were cooked nicely with great bark on most of them. However, the cook included some tubes or tube strands that were a bit dry. As judges, we evaluate whatever is in the box as a whole. So, where they’d have received high marks on the money muscle pieces, the tube strands brought the overall score down a bit.

BBQ Beef Brisket

Off the bat, we had two phenomenal BBQ brisket entries. The burnt ends were great, with no discernible fattiness but nice moisture and a great mixture of sweet and spicy flavor. The slices on each were good too. Each had great beef flavor, which was allowed to take center stage. There was one entry that was overdone. These are easy to see off the bat, as the slices are typically wafer thin. Taste confirms the fact.

One thing I think is worth mentioning. We know that burnt ends come from the point of the brisket. They are served up browned on all sides. One turn in box had what appeared to be thick cubes of brisket flat cut to “appear” as burnt ends. As a judge, I think it’s best to leave these out. Again, you have to account for your scores being based on the entirety of what you put in the box.