Barbecue – The Rambling New Yorker

Porkin’ in the USA

Mike — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 00:27:00 +0000

Swag from the barbecue competition given to volunteers

October means several things around here. The weather gets cooler. It also starts to rain again although its been unusually dry around here lately. Then there is Octoberfest. I’ve written about it before. Every year around mid-October the town of Cleveland holds a big barbecue competition downtown. Winners go on to participate in the World Barbecue Competition in Memphis. There is also a street fair to go along with it.

Once again I volunteered to assist the judges. The work mostly involved clearing tables and cleaning the rooms where the judging happened. As a perk the officials give free food to those who help out. Thus I had some of the best barbecue seafood, chicken, ribs, pulled pork and beans of my life. Cooking really is an art form. In the hands of a skilled chef, otherwise bland piles of dead animals can turn into pure gold. The South is the home of American barbecue and it shows. Down here, they take it seriously and the results are fantastic. Its one of the major perks of living in this part of the country.

Most folks around here probably see things differently. Octoberfest is one of the few times in the year when people gather and do something not related to Delta State or any of the other schools around here (with the Crosstie festival in April being the other). Sure there’s Otherfest, the big music festival held every year on the edge of town. However you have to be in to live music. Plus most of the crowd is young, which means lots of students. So its understandable why some people would not be enthusiastic about it. The young and hip side of Cleveland, such that it is, is not for everyone.

Bruce Pigsteen and John Mellenpork chillin’ at Octoberfest 2015

In the past I’ve written about how cool Octoberfest is. Within the context of Cleveland it certainly is a great event. There is literally nothing else like it any other time of the year. The Crosstie Festival is similar, but much smaller and there is no barbecue. Its all about art and jazz. Certainly there is plenty going on related to Delta State, especially in August and September. However while the university is a big part of life around here, Cleveland is not entirely a college town. So not everyone wants to attend the Pig Pickin’ or the football games (especially when Mississippi State and Ole Miss are playing – you can’t compete with the SEC around here). But Octoberfest is a neutral event and held right in the center of town between the white and black parts of Cleveland. There’s food vendors, beer, and live music. Arts and crafts vendors line the walking trail. Even though not everyone knows someone on a barbecue team it doesn’t really matter. People who live around here can walk around with their friends and enjoy the festival.

In other words Octoberfest is a release. Cleveland can be very dull at times. Its not that there’s nothing to do, its that the things to do are limited and repetitive. On any given Friday night I can go to Hey Joe’s and drink, go to Delta Meat market to eat and drink, maybe go to a restaurant for and hour or two and … well that’s it. It gets old, especially when your not very sociable in the first place. To be fair I have a strong preference to have pizza and go grocery shopping on Friday which predates my move to Mississippi. All the same the variety of social activities around here is not great. Partly for that reason people tend to stick together because the only other option is to sit quietly at home watching Netflix. Not everyone wants to do so and in any case it gets old too.

Such is life in a small town. Still I’ve managed to carve out an existence. You have to in order to survive. Being part of Delta State helps immensely. So too does having a career in library information technology. A lot of professors can’t easily find a job elsewhere. But that’s how it goes in academia. You go where the work is. Life in Cleveland has its ups and its downs. Soon the damp cold of Mississippi winters will take hold. In the meantime us Clevelanders will bide our time waiting for the next festival.

Cleveland’s Best Kept Secret

Mike — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 01:31:00 +0000

It’s that time of year again. It’s mid-October and so festival season is winding down. Around here that means Octoberfest. You might recall that I wrote about the event last year. Basically, Octoberfest is an annual barbecue competition and street fair spanning two days in the second weekend of October. There’s the usual assortment of fried food (see below) plus live music. On Saturday the crafts vendors show up. It’s a good time where basically the whole town shows up.

Octoberfest really has something for everyone. Friday night is party night. Saturday is shopping day. There’s also the barbecue competition which spans both days. More on that in a minute. As with last year it rained. That seems to be a tradition. This year it was more of the soaking variety which scared away most of the vendors. Saturday ended up being a washout. All the same I had a good time.

Unlike last year, I got to go behind the scenes. Several weeks ago the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce put out a call for volunteers. Option one was the concession stand. But in a past life I worked at a movie theater. So selling soda brings back memories. Besides, everyone helps out at the concession stand. Options two was to assist the barbecue competition. Exactly in what capacity was not clear. But I’ve wanted to go behind the scenes of these barbecue competitions for a while and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. So I took the red pill and jumped down the rabbit hole.

The heart of the action was at this unassuming grey building which once used to be a train station. That’s where the judging happens and where the competition headquarters are located. There are no outward signs of this except some notices not the enter. Actually finding out what I was supposed to do took some work. The judging is all kept under wraps to the point where only people involved know about it. But eventually I located the organizer and was given my marching orders which were to clean off the tables after each round of judging and prepare them for the next one.

My initial fear was that all of the people at the competition would be super insular and unfriendly. Nothing could further from the truth. Everyone I met there were very nice and willing to answer my questions. The officials were very happy that someone was willing to step up and help. The only other folks who’d come to do so were some athletes from Delta State who’d been voluntold by their coaches. Possibly for that reason everyone thought I was a student.

The barbecue competition works as follows. There are three different levels. Patio is the little leagues. These folks are just starting out or only in it for the fun. Above that are the Challengers. These people have moved up and are working on going pro. The Pro division is at the top. These are the people who will go on to The World Barbecue competition in Memphis. Having three divisions allows regular folks to get in on the action and still stand a chance of eventually working their way up.

Food wise there are a number of categories. Friday night was sauce, beans, chicken, and seafood. This was the more laid back day. Saturday was when the real action was. I was assigned to help check in barbecue samples from Patio teams. Here we had pulled pork, ribs, and loin. The Challenger and Pro Divisions had slightly different categories such as whole hog and pork shoulder. There is also a decoration division for those teams who wish to decorate their setups. Teams have a choice of which category to submit to although most seemed to put entries into all of them. The Grand Champion gets to take home this massive trophy.

The actual judging is done by plain, ordinary folks. The process of becoming a judge, at least around Cleveland, is not hard. All one has to do is take a class and join the Memphis Barbecue Network as a judge. There are four criteria: flavor, appearance, texture, and overall experience. Texture primarily means not too tough or mushy. In other words not over-cooked or under-cooked. Everything else is up to the judges (of which there were more than forty for all divisions combined). There are rules surrounding how food must be submitted, but much of the competition is free form.

And that food was good. Some of the officials knew teams and I was able to have the most amazing pulled pork and ribs of my entire life. Much of the leftovers are donated to the local police and fire departments and volunteers could pick a little too. There is a world of difference between this and that poorly seasoned, somewhat dry stuff that gets sold to spectators. It really makes me want to get my own smoker and cook some pulled pork and ribs not to mention sausage.

These sorts of experiences make life in Cleveland worth it. You really have to know the right people in order to get by in a small town. However I have found that being willing and eager to help others will go a long way to making friends. Asking questions helps too since it shows interest. Of course there is only one Octoberfest per year. But having to wait just makes the experience all the more sweeter.In the mean time you can check out more images of Octoberfest here.

BBQ

Mike — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 23:07:00 +0000

One of the things people strongly associate with the Deep South is barbecue and with good reason. As you probably noticed from my previous posts it is something they take seriously down here. One can find some of the best pulled pork, ribs, and smoked sausage you’ve ever had. And the best part is that barbecue styles, especially the sauce used, vary immensely by region. Here in Mississippi it seems to be closer to the classic ketchup and molasses based sauce most people think of when they hear the word barbecue. But over in North Alabama the sauce is white and loaded with Mayonnaise and you can find sweet and mustard based sauces elsewhere.

An important point, however, is that barbecue is not about the sauce. The word really refers to how the meat is cooked and oftentimes it is served with no sauce at all. The typical ingredients are pork or beef (although that can vary) and they are cooked over wood in a smoker for as long as a day. That’s where you get that great smokey flavor from. The sauce is an addition. For me it’s an important one. I’m a huge fan of sauces in general because they add flavor beyond the simple taste of meat. But others may beg to differ.

The equipment is different too. This is another misconception people have concerning barbecue. Up North we tend to equate the word with grilling over an open flame. However grilling is not the same as barbecuing. The basic difference is that the former is done over a fire where as the latter is more about smoking meat at a lower temperature. So the barbecues down here look sort of like oil drums with exhaust pipes. And they never use propane. No one has told me it’s sacrilege, but you would not get the same flavor with gas.

So by now you are probably wondering where the best barbecue joints are around the Delta. In the last week I’ve been to two one down in Greenville called the Shotgun House and another on the edge of Cleveland called Airport Grocery (at one time it was located over by the airport hence the name). They did not disappoint. At APG I had ribs so tender the meat practically fell off the bone as I bit into them. They cook there’s St. Louis style which means the sauce is one the side and the ribs are cooked with a dry rub. You’d think ribs cooked without sauce would be dried out but they were actually really good. Sadly I did not take a picture (yes I know shame on me!). The Shotgun house also served their pulled pork with sauce on the side. That definitely seems to be the style around here. It tends to emphasize the flavor of the meat and the smoke above all. It’s also less messy.

With warmer weather approaching there will no doubt be more barbecue. And there will be festivals. With any luck I’ll be invited to one of those parties. Even if that is not the case a competition needs judges. In the mean time here are some pictures of place I’ve been to.

This little place is on Highway 49 just South of Jackson. The food was amazing.