Kansas City teams showed why it's called the Kansas City Barbecue Society with strong showings at the Smoke on the Water USA Barbecue Championship in North Little Rock, Arkansas, earlier this month.
The contest has the largest purse in the country, with $100,000 in prize money awarded to the competing teams. This year, Kansas City's Pellet Envy -- the 2009 KCBS team of the year -- walked away with the grand championship. And Burnt Finger BBQ -- the inventors of the Bacon Explosion -- were called to the stage for placing in three categories.
Fat City recently caught up with Jason Day of Burnt Finger to talk about the competition on March 19 and 20 and the team's cookbook.
Jason Day, Aaron Chronister and Bryant Gish are the three members of Burnt Finger, which began competing in earnest in Kansas City Barbecue Society events last year. Jason's up early to make sure the temperatures and smoke are right, while Aaron and Bryant take the late shifts. Smoke on the Water was their test of a brand new barbecue rig, competing for the first time with running water and a refrigerator.
The Bacon Explosion has made major headlines, but is competing about showing that you're more than just latticed bacon?
That's the recipe that put us on the map, but we'd love to be seen as all-around good cooks. That's why we take the competition side pretty seriously.
Do you approach each competition with a specific set of goals?
We want a judge to open up a box and say, "That looks so delicious I have to eat it." The key for us is to be happy with all of the meat we cook within a given weekend because that's product we're going to be taking home to eat and enjoy.
Is your barbecue reflective of Kansas City or do you have a different style?
We're a Kansas City flavor profile. We use a sweet, thick sauce that has a nice smoky flavor. That's where we grew up and live currently. That's the barbecue we like to eat and that's what we like to cook.
You placed 8th in pork, 18th in ribs, 32nd in chicken and 221st in brisket (out of 227 teams) for a finish of 103rd overall. Is that disappointing?
We tried a new recipe on the brisket and it didn't turn out. But overall, this was a fantastic competition for us -- we were thrilled. With a better finish in the brisket, we might have been looking at a top five or ten finish, which would have been unbelievable.
Your cookbook, BBQ Makes Everything Better, comes out May 4. What's the latest with the book?
It's a collection of all our recipes from cooking in the backyard to tailgaiting. The book has been finalized and submitted to the publisher. It should be getting ready to print. We're in the process of setting up events around town to launch the book. So people should keep an eye out for the Bacon Explosion and the book.
Images courtesy of Megan Day.
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