Wednesday, May 23, 2012
By Meredith Goad mgoad@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer
Summertime is barbecue time, and this year Mainers have a record four barbecue competitions to look forward to – three of them sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society.
Chicken will be on the menu at all four barbecue competions, which will keep the local grilling scene sizzling from this weekend into August.
Shutterstock.com photo
Sample ribs at any or all of the contests.
Courtesy photo
Four grill-offs to fan the flames
HERE’S A LOOK at all four competitions and what they have to offer:
SATURDAY
MOOSE LOTTERY BBQ CONTEST
WHAT: This is the first year for this barbecue competition, which will be held in front of Cabela’s. It is not a sanctioned competition.
WHEN: The moose lottery will be held 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The barbecue contest will begin first thing in the morning, with judging at 2 p.m. and winners announced at 4 p.m.
WHERE: Cabela’s, 100 Cabela’s Blvd., Scarborough
HOW MUCH: Free
NUMBER OF TEAMS: Six to eight, all from Maine
ENTRY FEE: None
CATEGORIES: Brisket, pork and chicken
PRIZES: Total of $1,800 in prize money. First-place categories will receive $300; second place, $200; third place, $100.
SAMPLING: A whole hog will be smoked on site for the public to sample.
SPECIAL ACTIVITIES: Check out all the outdoor gear at Cabela’s.
INFO: 883-7400
JUNE 25
SMOKIN’ AT THE BALLPARK HOEDOWN
WHAT: This is a fundraiser for The Ballpark at Old Orchard Beach. The competition was held last year, but this is the first year it’s been sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. The contest is being held in conjunction with the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival.
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
WHERE: The Old Orchard Beach ballpark. It’s located on Ballpark Way, directly behind the police department parking lot just off East Emerson Cummings Boulevard.
HOW MUCH: $10
NUMBER OF TEAMS: Eight have signed up so far, but the organizers would like to have a total of 15.
ENTRY FEE: $200. Deadline is June 20.
CATEGORIES: Chicken, ribs, pulled pork (butt or shoulder), beef brisket and lobster
PRIZES: More than $7,500 cash and prizes total. First place in each category will be awarded $300; $200 for second place; and $100 for third. The grand champion will receive $1,500.
SPECIAL ACTIVITIES: Archery and casting clinics for children sponsored by Cabela’s; live entertainment from JimmyJo and the Jumbol’ayuhs, Beyond Reason and Ray Laboz; a shuttle will provide transportation to and from the Old Orchard Beach pier and the Amusement Center.
SAMPLING: The first 200 people through the gate will be able to participate in a “People’s Choice” pulled pork contest that will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Barbecue will also be available from these vendors: Famous Dave’s, the New England Brisketeers from Pownal and M&M Ribs from the Boston area.
INFO: smokinbbqmaine.com
JULY 23-24
WESTERN MAINE BBQ FESTIVAL
WHAT: This new festival is sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society and the New England Barbecue Society. There will also be a beer tent on site, which is a first for the Fryeburg Fairgrounds.
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Fryebrug Fairgrounds, 1154 Main St., Fryeburg
HOW MUCH: $5; free for ages 10 and under
NUMBER OF TEAMS: 35 to 50
ENTRY FEE: $125 for Saturday; $225 for Sunday; $300 for both days. Deadline is July 9.
CATEGORIES: Chicken wings, sausage, beef ribs and dessert on Saturday; chicken, pork ribs, pork and beef brisket on Sunday
PRIZE: Total purse is $12,500
SPECIAL ACTIVITIES: Learn barbecue from the best by signing up for a $250 all-day cooking class with barbecue legend Paul Kirk. There will be a beer tent to wash down all that ’cue. Children can find fun things to do in the kids zone.
SAMPLING: A $5 fee allows you to participate in people’s choice competitions Saturday (chicken wings and sausage) and Sunday (chicken wings and ribs). Vendors will be selling barbecue on site as well. The vendors are Crazy Dave’s Pit BBQ from Belfast; Jacked Up BBQ from Forked River, N.J.; and Skin and Bones from Arcadia, Fla.
INFO: westernmainebbqfestival.com
AUG. 12-14
MAINELY GRILLIN’ & CHILLIN’ COUNTRY BBQ STATE COMPETITION
WHAT: This is the third year for this competition, which is a fundraiser for the Raitt Homestead Farm Museum. This year, Mainely Grillin’ & Chillin’ is one of 25 competitions nationally that has been chosen to be part of the Kingsford Points Chase, a contest with a $25,000 cash prize.
WHEN: 5 to 8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
WHERE: Raitt Homestead, 2077 State Road, Eliot
HOW MUCH: $5; free for ages 6 and under
NUMBER OF TEAMS: Last year, 43 barbecue teams competed. This year, festival organizers hope to top 50.
ENTRY FEE: $200 if registered by June 30; after July 1, there’s a $50 late fee
CATEGORIES: Chicken, pork ribs, pork and beef brisket
PRIZES: More than $6,000 in prizes. The Kansas City Barbecue Society portion of the contest has $3,260 in prizes.
SPECIAL ACTIVITIES: On Friday night, there will be a “Chillin’ with Chili” contest with a free people’s choice component. Barbecue expert Ardie Davis, Maine’s own barbecue king DennyMike Sherman and Jean Kerr, editor of Northeast Flavor magazine, will be giving cooking demonstrations from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday. Shipyard Brewing, which will be hosting a beer garden, will do a cooking-with-beer demo Saturday. Barbecue teams will compete in an Iron Chef-like “wild side challenge” Saturday afternoon in which they have a limited amount of time to develop a side dish with a mystery ingredient. Twenty children ages 6 to 15 will compete for cash and prizes Saturday in their own “EZ Grill Kids Que” competition.
SAMPLING: There will be a people’s choice competition for a small extra fee on Saturday (chicken wings and pork). There will be three vendors: Cluffy’s Roadside Cafe & Catering from Rochester, N.H.; M&M Ribs from Boston; and a turkey leg vendor from Pennsylvania. Some of the barbecue teams may be vendors as well.
INFO: 748-3303; mainelybbq.com
Teams from Maine and the rest of the country will be competing for thousands of dollars in cash prizes and the right to enter one of the national competitions as a Maine state barbecue champion.
Barbecue is getting hotter every day, but is just now starting to catch on in Maine. The Kansas City Barbecue Society, the largest organization of its kind, saw a 22 percent increase in membership last year.
For Mainers, these local festivals are an opportunity to taste what all the fuss is about, and to learn from some of the masters who will be on hand doing cooking demonstrations.
DennyMike Sherman, whose barbecue sauces and rubs have won national competitions and who will be participating in all the Maine festivals this summer, is thrilled that his fellow Mainers are beginning to take barbecue seriously. Three sanctioned competitions in one summer sets a new bar, he said.
"I think it's huge," Sherman said. "Finally, the culinary transformation is taking place. Up here, it was all Yankee pot roast or New England boiled dinner or something like that. You never talked about barbecue.
"(The competitions) give us an opportunity to bring people into it and show off a little bit. Really, it's all about the food and the social aspects of barbecue."
The fun starts this Saturday with a small barbecue competition during the Moose Lottery at Cabela's in Scarborough. (I'll be a judge at that competition.) The following week, there will be a barbecue contest at the ballpark in Old Orchard Beach. In July, there will be a huge new barbecue competition in western Maine, at the Fryeburg Fairgrounds. And in August, the Mainely Grillin' & Chillin' Country BBQ State Competition returns to Eliot.
Perhaps the most anticipated event is the new barbecue festival in western Maine, which will host 35 to 50 barbecue teams and offer prizes totaling more than $12,500. The event was originally supposed to be a small barbecue in the park at Moose Pond organized by the Denmark Lions Club. When one potential competitor said he would come if it were held at the Fryeburg Fairgrounds, the planning took off, and clubs from Fryeburg, Bridgton, Harrison, Brownfield, Naples, Massabesic, Falmouth and Freeport got involved.
The organizers attended a dozen different barbecue events up and down the east coast to see how it's done, and they took a class to become certified barbecue judges. Then they volunteered at the national championship in Kansas City.
Now they're bringing everything they learned back to Maine.
"This is going to be a pretty big thing," said Bill Sanborn, one of the organizers of the festival. "We've got the whole Fryeburg Fairground. We've got music on two stages. We have a mechanical bull, and knife and ax throwing. We're going to have four pavilions filled with exhibitors."
Toss in a classic car show, a motorcycle show and a cooking class with the "Baron of Barbecue," Paul Kirk, and you have a real barbecue festival.
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at: mgoad@pressherald.com
Follow her on Twitter at: Twitter.com/MeredithGoad
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