Business Partners Compete Against Each Other For Charities

Turn-in boxes contained four ribs and enough pork BBQ for four judges to take a sample.

Brew-B-Q

Now in its seventh year, Brew-B-Q continues to set high marks for raising funds for local charities and providing an outstanding format for local pitmasters to compete against each other in two meat categories: pork BBQ and pork ribs. The local charities benefiting from the contest this year were The Salvation Army of Wake County and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Business partners competed against each other for bragging rights.

Pork BBQ and Pork Ribs

Boston butts and ribs were provided to each cooking team for the judging. Three teams of judges followed the blind judging rules of the N.C. Pork Council for its Whole Hog Barbecue Series, although the event wasn’t a sanctioned contest.

Pitmasters await the results of the judging.

 

Subcontractors And Business Partners Compete

Sponsored by the general contracting company Brasfield & Gorrie, the competition pits teams organized by its subcontractors and business partners against each other. In addition to bragging rights, the prizes for winners are huge trophies and gas BBQ grills for the winners in each division: Boss Hog, Hog, and Piglet. Registration fees for these divisions, respectively, were $5,000, $4,000, and $2,000. The big prize for the Boss Hog winner was a 60-by-36-inch grill.

Huge trophies are ready for the winners.

I was a judge in the Piglet division, which had the most cooking teams registered. This event was the third time that I was able to participate; the contests in 2022 and 2024 were also great events.

The top team in each division also took home a highly coveted grill.

Funds For Charities

Brasfield & Gorrie has created an amazing community event that strengthens its business relationships as it raises funds for charities. The judges appreciate the superb organization of the event and the hospitality of the organizers. The atmosphere was lively, and the cooking teams were having as much fun as the judges.

Three tables of judges, with the Boss Hog judges in the forefront. Photo: John Gibbons.

Rutherford College, NC, Creates Barbecue Cookoff Tradition

Pork ribs prepared by the reserve champion, One-Eyed Pig BBQ Team. Photo: One-Eyed Pig BBQ Team via Facebook.

A small town in the foothills of western North Carolina is developing a positive reputation for hosting an important barbecue cookoff. It is Rutherford College, NC, which carries the name of the college that had been located in the community and was closed in 1933. Its population is fewer than 1,500 residents.

Trophies are ready to be awarded to the winning teams.

BBQ Contest In Rutherford College

Although Rutherford College is small, its annual contest sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society is huge for judges and cooking teams. Known as the Pigmasters BBQ Challenge, it attracted 33 cooking teams this year that wanted to showcase their talents for cooking chicken, pork ribs, pork butt, and beef brisket. 

 Caption: Smokin’ Skullies BBQ took top honors. Photo: Pigmasters BBQ Challenge via Facebook.

Smokin' Skullies BBQ Wins

The winning team was Smokin’ Skullies BBQ, which took home a check for $2,000 as the grand champion. The runner-up was One-Eyed Pig BBQ Team, which missed first place by just 1.1316 points. A total of $9,580 was available in prize money plus trophies. 

Chicken by One-Eyed Pig BBQ Team usually scores very high. Photo: One-Eyed Pig PPQ Team via Facebook.

Pigmasters BBQ Challenge Attracts Top Teams

Begun in 2020, Pigmasters BBQ Challenge has survived the social isolation challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and continues as a major event in the fall for teams looking to boost their resumes. The cookoff will continue to attract top cooking teams to a small town in the foothills of western North Carolina.

Returning to Normalcy for BBQ Fundraisers

The plate of barbecue comes with beans, cole slaw, and more.

What a difference a year makes, particularly when the coronavirus pandemic is involved. The pandemic required some barbecue fundraisers to suspend events and others to modify theirs. Now most have returned to their regular schedules, such as the annual harvest festival held by Culdee Presbyterian Church. 

A dedicated kitchen crew keeps the serving line moving.

Annual Fall Festival of Culdee Presbyterian Church 

In the Eastwood community of Moore County, NC, the church has cooked barbecue every November on the first weekend as a fundraiser for its projects and ministries as part of a harvest festival. The festival begins early at 10 a.m. when a “country store” opens and continues until the last ticket is bought for a raffle that starts at 6:30 p.m. Other activities occur throughout the day, but for me the priority is to arrive in time for supper before the barbecue sells out. A plate with pulled pork, slaw, baked beans, and a roll sells for $10. It also includes a homemade dessert and a beverage. 

The dessert table is loaded with homemade sweets.

Schedule for Preparing Barbecue 

The 2022 event was the 35th festival that the church had held. With that much experience, the church has perfected its schedule. Boston butts are taken to the church on the Saturday before the festival and are kept refrigerated until the next Wednesday when they are prepared by washing, rubbing with spices, and wrapping for cooking. At 4 o’clock on the next morning, a volunteer team begins cooking. On the next day (Friday), the butts are unwrapped, and the meat is pulled from the bones. And then all we have to do is wait for Saturday, the day of the fall festival. 

After barbecue has been cooked for many harvest festivals, the schedule has been perfected.

Selling Barbecue Also on January 1 

The folks at Culdee really know how to celebrate with food. On January 1 this year, the church celebrated the start of the new year with a Southern meal of pork barbecue, collards, black-eyed peas, and cornbread. Because the pandemic was still a concern, all meals were to-go. The barbecue then was as good as it was today. Maybe the Boston butts were prepared by the same volunteers on the same schedule. 

Several activities of the fall festival are held outdoors.

Celebrating the fall is a hallmark tradition for many communities, especially if they are more rural than urban. Because they include pork barbecue in their celebration, the festival is very enjoyable.

Charity BBQ Cookoff in Raleigh, NC

Impressive trophies are ready for the winning Brew-B-Q teams to receive.

What is the best way to raise money for charities? Brasfield & Gorrie, a general contracting company, may have the best idea: Recruit companies that do business with them to compete in a barbecue cookoff and have them donate an entry fee for the right to participate.

Cooking teams were set up in the parking lot next to the Woman's Club of Raleigh.

Brasfield & Gorrie Recruits Brew-B-Q Teams

For four consecutive years, Brasfield & Gorrie has raised a lot of money for charities in the Raleigh, NC, area. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, its Brew-B-Q was not suspended. It continues to be very successful and now recruits 40 teams to participate. The charity BBQ cooking contest is its largest outreach program.

Several cooking teams brought large smokers to the contest.

Charity Event for Brasfield & Gorrie

In the Raleigh area for 30 years and with offices in 13 cities in eight states, Brasfield & Gorrie has a revenue of $4 billion annually and 3,000 employees. The cooking teams it recruited were sponsored by subcontractors, business contacts, and other companies and friends in the professional network of Brasfield & Gorrie. The event last year raised $74,000 for charities, which include The Salvation Army of Wake County and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

L.L. Vann Electric, a subcontractor to Brasfield & Gorrie, proudly displays its trophy for winning the Piglet division last year.

Cookoff Divisions

This year a new division — Boss Hog — was added to the contest. The other two divisions were Hog and Piglet. The Boss Hog section was reserved for teams that had placed among the top five teams in the other two divisions last year. It was limited to 10 teams, and each team donated at least $5,000 to enter. The Hog division had 15 teams; each donated at least $4,000. The Piglet division also had 15 teams; each donated at least $2,000.

Winners of each division also received a grand prize.

Judging Activities

Judging activities, coordinated by lead judge Lubin Prevatt who recruited the other 10 judges, were held in the Raleigh office of Brasfield & Gorrie. I judged in the Piglet division with Tim Croom and Owen Jackson, whom I know from previous whole hog barbecue contests. Each judge received a single sample box from each team in the division. Each box contained a Boston butt pork sample and a pork rib sample, and a separate scoresheet was used for each sample. 

Judging activities were held in the conference rooms of Brasfield & Gorrie.

The entries were quite competitive. An unusual surprise in a box was a pickle slice to “cleanse” the palate between sampling pork barbecue first and a rib next. Some boxes came with a green garnish; the most unusual one was a large collard leaf that covered the meat samples. It was intended to be on the bottom of the box. Because the box had been labeled upside down, it was on the top instead when I opened it.

Where's the meat? (Under the leaf.)

Blind Judging

Unlike whole hog contests sanctioned by N.C. Pork Council in its Whole Hog Barbecue Series where judges visit each site to evaluate a cooking team’s results, the judging for this event was “blind.”

Makela, the event coordinator, keeps a watchful eye over everything from team setup to judging activities.

The judges complied with the council’s requirements for blind judging (although the event wasn’t sanctioned by the Pork Council), and they used its blind judging rules and scoresheets. As a result, the judges didn’t know which teams had cooked the samples that they were evaluating. Boxes were randomly numbered to mask the identities of the teams.

Official scoresheets of N.C. Pork Council were used.

The cooking teams were obviously having a great time during the competition. They arrived early and stayed late, and the sounds of laughter and joking continued to echo throughout the cooking sites. The afternoon was a great one for the charities, Brasfield & Gorrie and its business partners, and the judges.

Cooking teams mingle as they wait to learn their scores.

Pik-n-Pig with a Flightline View

Pik-n-Pig in Carthage, NC, is known locally as the place to find excellent barbecue. It has also gained a growing reputation for being the place to fly into for great smoked pork. Not every barbecue restaurant can brag that it serves pilots and their passengers who simply walk over to it after they have landed.

Summer of Cue

My visit to Pik-n-Pig coincided with the Summer of Cue (#SummerofCue) promotion, launched on social media by the N.C. Pork Council to encourage barbecue fans to support BBQ restaurants during the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Although I visited Pik-n-Pig before I realized that the council had featured it on their blog, reading their comments later made me feel like I was visiting the restaurant again. (At the time of the post, fans had visited more than 50 N.C. barbecue restaurants.)

The order station outside the restaurant while interior dining is closed.

Family-Run Business 

Pik-n-Pig is truly a family-run business from the pitmaster to the servers and others in the kitchen that draws on four decades of smoking experience by three generations of the Sheppard family. They are well known in the Sandhills area for serving great food in an amazing atmosphere. The restaurant is located by the runway of Gilliam-McDonnell Airfield, which is privately owned but open to the public. (If you plan to fly in, be alert to the 75-foot trees that surround the airport.) Whether it’s time for lunch or dinner, you can always count on a few private planes to circle the airport, do touch-and go’s, or land and join the crowd eating barbecue.

My barbecue plate with two sides and a corn muffin.

Barbecue Restaurant 

To make their pulled pork, Boston butts are slowly smoked for up to 10 hours over hickory coals. The meat is always tender and juicy, and two sauces – one spicy, one sweet – were available. My pulled pork plate came with two sides—red slaw and butter beans (brown!) with corn—and a corn muffin. The choices of sides are extensive. The red slaw is unusual for this region of the state; it’s more traditional in western areas. I always order the plate, although I’m usually tempted by the BBQ sundae—pulled pork layered in a jar with baked beans and coleslaw—which has been served at the N.C. State Fair for years.

Normally served in a mug, the banana pudding is in a takeout container (the dishware of the pandemic).

Although Pik-n-Pig is first and foremost a barbecue restaurant, I’m not the only person who also comes for the banana pudding. It’s the perfect complement to a barbecue meal, whether it’s a sandwich, plate, or sundae. If only every barbecue restaurant would serve banana pudding that’s so good! Maybe it’s another reason that people fly here!

My wife's Pie Tin Nachos with pork and cheese.

With the coronavirus pandemic still not under control in this state, the inside dining area was closed. Not a problem for Pik-n-Pig! The covered patio outside is more than adequate and is the best spot to watch planes land and take off, and extra tables are next to it on the lawn. My wife and I usually eat outside anyway on a weekend to enjoy music by a local group, such as The McKenzie Brothers.

A photo taken in 2016 during quieter moments shows the covered patio with windsock and nearby aircraft hangers.

Watching the windsock near the covered patio flap in the breeze is also entertaining and a reminder than the airport has no control tower, so pilots have to be vigilant not only of the wind direction but any local traffic as well. After two planes had parked while we were eating, their pilots and passengers walked over for lunch. What a way to find a place to eat!

Smoking meat for hours over wood coals earns Pik-n-Pig a coveted sport on the N.C. Historic Barbecue Trail.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve eaten at Pik-n-Pig. In recognition of how Pik-n-Pig cooks using the old-fashioned pit method, it has been added to the N.C. Historic Barbecue Trail of the N.C. Barbecue Society. Visiting it is definitely worth a drive (albeit only a short one for me) or a fly-in.

A daily menu board supplements the regular menu.

Giving Back at Urbanna

Bill Jones, contest organizer and OBR
lead for Virginia, serves Brunswick
stew on Friday to early arrivals.

BBQ Gives Back is appropriately named. Held in Urbanna, Virginia, the cookoff generates funds for Operation BBQ Relief (OBR) and also supports a local food bank.

OBR is a group of volunteers who respond to disasters throughout the United States and feed victims and first responders. All net proceeds of the event are donated to OBR, and a voluntary collection of funds for OBR is also held. Last year, in its inaugural event, the contest contributed $6,500 to OBR.

In addition to the meats the teams cook for the contest, each competing team cooks a pork butt that is provided to the Team Thanksgiving Food Bank, based in Churchview, Va. After the contest was held in March last year, 500 pounds of cooked meat were donated to the food bank that it then gave to families in need through September 2017 without its having to buy any additional meat. The contest also held a voluntary collection of dry and canned goods, and cooking teams and judges willingly contributed.

The recreation center at Bethpage was the site of judging activities.

Although the purpose of the cookoff is to “give back,” the focus of each cooking team is on preparing winning barbecue. In the contest’s second year of being sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, 75 teams competed for a total of $11,000 in prize money. Held at the Bethpage Camp-Resort on the shores of the Rappahannock River, the contest has ample room for the cooking teams. Because so many teams were competing, 11 tables of judges were need to evaluate all the entries. It’s one of the largest cookoffs that I’ve attended.

Judges relax inside the recreation center before the first entries arrive.

Urbanna, a historic colonial port town, brags that it has more boats than people and that it is the home of Virginia’s Oyster Festival each November. It has gained also a reputation as the site in March where barbecue cooks and judges demonstrate their generosity and community spirit.

Awards await the winning teams.

BBQ Gives Back is fittingly named. Everyone enjoys participating in an event with such a noteworthy purpose. Being able to judge great barbecue is also a benefit for the judges.

Bethpage Camp-Resort is popular with both cooking teams and judges.