By Luke Darnell, MABA President and Pitmaster of Old Virginia Smoke
BBQ Gives Back was a rousing start to the beginning of the MABA season, and sure didn’t disappoint. The weather wasn’t too bad for the end of March, but was still chilly. Teams from all over MABA-land flocked into Bethpage Campground to try their hand at three different interconnected contests…BBQ Gives Back, The Virginia Grands, and the MABA Cup Championship.
Bill and Mary Jones, and all of their volunteers, have really created a great contest to start off the season in the mid atlantic. Each year this contest gets better and better, and each year generates more and more money for Operation BBQ Relief.
Congrats to the winner of the MABA Cup Championship, Lo-n-Slo BBQ, representing the good state of Pennsylvania!
Congrats to the winner of the Virginia Grands Championship, and the Grand Champion of BBQ Gives Back, Who Cares BBQ!
Also, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give a shout out to Pigheaded BBQ on a hard fought RGC. Great job Ron and team.
Keep your eyes on this event, as it promises to get bigger and better in the next year!
By Luke Darnell, MABA President and Pitmaster of Old Virginia Smoke
The Ironman…where you get to get down and dirty with limited amounts of meat and no electronics. The Ironman…where you can get sun and warmth the first day…but get froze out the second day. The Ironman…where steak contests were born in the Mid-Atlantic.
Traditionally on of the more fun events in the MABA calendar, this year’s Ironman didn’t disappoint. Eric Forrester and his team at Mason Dixon BBQ Supply as per usual did a great job in preparation for the event. On Friday, there was the first ever SCA Steak Cookoff at the Ironman, one of the first steak cookoffs in the Mid-Atlantic. This was great fun for all that participated. Brett from SCA was a joy to be around, and the awards were fun. Congrats to late entrant Mitch on his fantastic steak victory.
The weather was great for steak, but plummeted over night for BBQ. The competition was hotly contested. The Ironman, for those of you that don’t know, is a contest that features teams only cooking 7 pieces of chicken, 1 rack of ribs, 1 pork butt, and 1 brisket. 59 of the 60 teams cooked this format, and Rockin Robyn’s won the day with a 700+ score and for Grand Champion! Congrats!
Look for more information about next year’s Ironman, and look for more SCA cookoffs in the near future in MABA-land.
Comments Off on Interstate BBQ Festival Hagerstown, Maryland April 20-21, 2018
By Mark Gibbs, Pitmaster of Checkered Flag 500 BBQ
The 3rd year of what has become one of the best competitions on the Mid-Atlantic BBQ circuit is in the books. The Interstate BBQ Festival at the Washington County Agricultural Center in Hagerstown, Maryland stacked up 67 tough teams to compete in the last throws of winter weather. The facilities are top notch for the cook teams. Rob Immer and his staff know how to throw a BBQ party for sure.
The weekend started off on Friday with a couple of ancillary competitions and a Kids Que. In the burger category, Dustin Reed and his sous chef Clint from The Inked Pig BBQ brought home top honors. In the dessert category a last-minute decision to enter by 50 Shades of Pork paid off with a 1st Place win. In the Kids Que, tacos were the dish of choice and Brother-Uncle Barbeque’s youngest member put together a mouthwatering dish that brought home a nice GC!
Todd and Donna Spickler of Bone to Bark BBQ hosted a pot luck chicken dinner for all of the teams on Friday night. It was great to see our MidAtlantic friends back on the BBQ circuit after some back problems kept Todd from the tour for much of 2017. Welcome back B2B!
The results of the Pro BBQ competition started off with the triumphant return of Bone to Bark BBQ and a win in the chicken category. Ribs saw a familiar face at the top of the list with Richmond, VA’s Wolf’s Revenge and Chiles Cridlin taking home 1st place. 3 Eyz BBQ out of Owings Mills, MD took home the big trophy in Pork and Piggin’ Whiskey BBQ Team racked up the win in Brisket.
The top 10 in each category was separated by 6 points or less except chicken. Everyone was guessing who was going to take home the big prize, but it was a tough one to figure out for sure. Smokestack Redemption hailing from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania got the big call for Grand Champion. They had a great cook and put together a 14th place chicken, 5th in Ribs, 12th in Pork and 7th in Brisket for the win. Shortsville Smokers with Rikk Foringer put together a great effort to take home the RGC as well. This year Interstate hosted the MABA Maryland State Cup for the first time. Dan Hixon and 3 Eyz BBQ brought home the top Maryland honors with a 4th Place finish overall.
If you have not done this contest as a cook, judge or BBQ fan, you need to add it to your list of contests in 2019. This one is quickly becoming one of the top early contests in the nation!
Comments Off on The Great Brunswick BBQ Throwdown Brunswick, MD
By Mark Kenney, Pitmaster of Sauce This! BBQ
The 2nd Annual “The Great Brunswick BBQ Throwdown” kicked off the MABA contest season for 2018 on March 2nd and 3rd! A nor’easter decided to greet it on Friday to make load in a bit of a challenge from time to time. Winds gusted well above 60 mph at some points but BBQ Competitors are a hard crowd to scare off. Thankfully the winds died down good bit over Friday night and the weather remained warmer than last year.
The Steadman-KeenanAmericanLegionPost96 hosted the cooks meeting, a breakfast, some dinner activities as well as opened its doors so the judges would have a warm and comfortable place to do what they do!
The contest is located in downtown Brunswick next to the local train station. The Brunswick Heritage Museum was recently renovated and makes for an interesting side jaunt to see railway history as well as a large interactive model train layout.
The awards were hosted in one of the towns local parks and featured custom made trophies from one of the local supporters of the contest. Out of the 29 teams: Uncle Pig’s Barberque Pit scored a first place chicken, Old Virginia Smoke a 1st place Ribs, Poke N Smoke 1st place Pork and Smoke-aholics finished off the individual meats with a 1st place brisket. The final tally ended with Uncle Pig’s Barbecue Pit taking the RGC and Old Virginia Smoke taking the Grand Championship the second year in the row at this contest with a dominant score! This also earned them the first MABA region Jack draw of the year!
A special thanks to all those involved in pulling off a contest with less than perfect weather. It’s part of what the BBQ cooks expect but we appreciate the hard work and dedication of all those involved in powering through during it. All in all, it was a great kick off to the 2018 MABA season and we can’t wait for next years Brunswick Throwdown!
Comments Off on Sonny’s Smokin Showdown, Orlando, FL
By Brian Walrath, Pitmaster of Brown Liquor BBQ
I was honored to be asked by champion pitmaster Mark Gibbs of Checkered Flag 500 BBQ to tag along and help him cook the prestigious Sonny’s Invitational event in Orlando, Florida. Along with fellow pitmaster Don Wallace of Life if Good But BBQ is Better, we headed down for the event on Wednesday night. Our first destination of the weekend was just outside Atlanta to pick up Mark’s trailer that had been resting there since a recent cooking class at the Deep South Smoker’s headquarters in Cumming, Georgia. Sitting in a pick-up truck with two fellow pitmasters for several hours on the road can lead to some interesting discussion. From rules, to smokers, to the best gas stations to stop at led the initial discussion during this first part of the trek. Throw in several movie quotes from Caddy Shack, Stripes, The Hangover, Animal House, etc…and you can imagine the direction we were headed!
Thursday morning brought us to the trailer and all was well to hook up and go…well, all except one minor detail of Mark forgetting the key. With the handy work “Deep South McGyver,” and a wire, we were hooked up shortly thereafter and on our way for the open road from Atlanta to Orlando. Well, except that Atlanta has quite possibly the worst traffic ever…and I’m from DC!
Our seven hour drive on Thursday took about 12 or 13 but we finally arrived around midnight at Camping World Stadium, site of the event! Many teams were already there. We quickly dropped the trailer, grabbed a beer and walked around a bit to get a lay of the land. It was pretty quiet so Don and I headed over to the hotel…but not before catching Llama Gratis on TV!!!
Friday morning we arrived at the site and got settled in. Two ancillary categories were happening this weekend and Mark turned over the keys to Don and I to do them. First off was one of the new SCA Steak competitions. We had a good time cooking on Sharon Gibb’s new Deep South Mailbox and cooked a might tasty steak. We didn’t fare well in the results, but we had fun trying! Fast forward here briefly to the mystery meat category on Saturday and again we didn’t fare well in the results but our tri tip street taco with cilantro lime slaw topped with queso fresco we thought was amazing!
Mark’s cook went well and we turned everything in on time despite Don figuring out our comp clock was six minutes off!! (Those who know Don well can imagine the anxiety this may have caused!). Everything was solid but the brisket was incredible. The judges agreed and awarded CF500 its sole walk of the day, 10th place brisket. The team finished 27th out of 49 teams with a 690…yes, a 690!! In this field of all past champions, that’s not too shabby! Congratulations to Iowa’s Smokey D’s on GC and Shake ‘N Bake BBQ on reserve.
Special thanks to Mark and Don for a great weekend. I do have note the amazing feat by Mark on the way home. We pulled out of Sonny’s Saturday night around 7pm. Mark drove all night and had us home by early Sunday morning…amazing…perhaps a little foolish, but we made it safe!
Click here for the full results from the Sonny’s Invitational.
Comments Off on Amazing Prizes to be Given Away at the MABA Annual Meeting
Over 30 contests, 3 competition quality smokers, 2 world class coolers, and dozens of other top-notch barbecue equipment and products to be raffled off at the MABA Annual Meeting February 10th in Manassas, Virginia!
Check out this list of leading contests who have graciously donated entries (must be present to win):
The Great Brunswick BBQ Throwdown, Brunswick, MD
BBQ Gives Back, Urbanna, VA
The Ironman Greencastle, PA
Interstate BBQ Festival Hagerstown, MD
Naptown barBAYq Cooking Contest Crownsville, MD
Jiggy With the Piggy Kannapolis, NC
BBQ Jamboree- Double (no power) Fredericksburg, VA
Kings of Q BBQ cook off and Festival Ayden, NC
Salt City BBQ Festival Syracuse, NY
Chesapeake Jubilee BBQ Cook-Off Chesapeake, VA
Que for the Troops Levittown, PA (must not be already registered)
Historic New Castle Colonial BBQ New Castle, DE
Beltway BBQ Showdown Upper Marlboro, MD
Almost Heaven BBQ Bash Weston, WV
Covington Cork & Pork Festival Covington, VA
Chillin & Grillin In The Glades Wise, VA
Rotary Ribs and Rhythm & Blues Auburn, NY
Smoke on the mountain BBQ championship Galax, VA
Smoke in the Grove Spring Grove, PA
13th Annual Recovery Fest Richmond, VA
Currituck Heritage Festival Powells Point, NC
Tilley Harley-Davidson Biker Blues BBQ Salisbury, NC
Butts and Beans BBQ Challenge Newton, NC
Smoke in the Park Lemoyne, PA
Que by the Sea Seaside Heights, NJ
Grillin & chillin BBQ cook-off Waxhaw, NC
Giant National BBQ Battle – Washington, DC
Sun BBQ Fest – Uncasville, CT
York County BBQ Festival – Delta, PA
Que & Cruz Louisa, VA (half entry)
I love Barbecue & Music Festival Lake Placid, NY
Also being raffled off for those attending the MABA Annual Meeting (must be present to win):
Snake River Farms Gift Basket
Tee Shirts from Threadzone
BBQ Bob’s Hav’n a BBQ Rubs and Sauces
BBQ Bob’s Hav’n a BBQ Sponsorship for 2018
Four BBQData.com one year memberships
Old Virginia Smoke competition class free entry
Aporkalypse Now competition class free entry
Flame Boss 300-WiFi Universal Smoker Controller with Universal Adapter
Two Flame Boss turn-in box carriers
Tub O’ Towels all purpose and stainless steel wipes
And much more!
The first cooker is a Monolith Classic with DigiQ DX2 donated by .
The second cooker is a Deep South Mailbox Smoker donated by .
The third cooker is a Traeger Pro Series 34 Grill donated by .
And last, but certainly not least, we are raffling off two 40 quart Grizzly Coolers donated by .
Tickets are $5 each or 5 tickets for $20.
Tickets will be sold on the web until Thursday, February 8, 2018 and in person at the Annual Meeting. You DO NOT need to be present to win.
Your ticket numbers will be generated at random. Your tickets will be input into the drawing which will be held during the annual meeting on February 10, 2018 in Manassas, VA.
If not present, arrangements can be made with the supplier for pickup/shipping. Any costs for customization or upgrades to the models donated, taxes, shipping costs, and/or other crating costs are the sole responsibility of the winner. Limit one win per person.
Again, you DO NOT need to be present to win this drawing.
Comments Off on MABA Well Represented at the KCBS Banquet
by Luke Darnell, MABA President and Pitmaster for Old Virginia Smoke
2017 was another fantastic year for MABA teams at the upper levels of the KCBS rankings. This region continues to thrive year in and year out, and has become a force to be reckoned with in the BBQ world. Congrats to all that heard their name called at the KCBS Banquet in January, and good luck to everyone in the upcoming year!
Wondering what others do during the BBQ “off season”, aside from taking classes and practicing their craft with family and friends? Team 270 SMOKERS and team MEAT COMA offer an inside glimpse on what happens at their respective team HQs during the off-season.
Team 270 SMOKERS
By Stephanie West
My first reaction to this topic was to chuckle, “Off-season? What’s that?!” In our early years competing, our 1st event was Memorial Day weekend and the last was mid-October. Now our season starts the 1st weekend of February and it’ll end the 3rd week in December. We’ll travel 25,000 miles in a F350 Dually pulling a 5th wheel (39′ Raptor with dedicated competition kitchen) — typically without a real vacation during the season.
So during the short “off-season”, we have 2 primary goals:
1. Decompress and rejuvenate — mentally and physically. After the last comp of the year, we steal away for a week (2 if we can), preferably in a warmer climate, to hike in the mountains or camp on the beach. After a few days of “a whole lotta nothin'”, and 10 days or so of hiking/walking, we’re in the right frame of mind to re-engage with the world and think about the next season!
Part B to this goal is longer-term, intended to counter the occupational hazards of being BBQ road-warriors (yes, battling “the BBQ physique”). The sugar-laden rubs and sauces and other tasty amenities of a BBQ life – coupled with endless stretches of windshield time – will take it’s toll on most any waistline, let alone knees, hips, backs, etc. Refined sugar and processed foods cause inflammation, increasing the risk for diabetes, heart disease, and brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s. That’s serious stuff. So this is our window to “recalibrate” our habits — dial back our sugar intake (ideally, to less than 20 grams a day) and focus on creating interesting nutrient-dense, fiber-rich foods, moderate portion-sizes, and more exercise for non-comp days. Far from absolute, we just try to be mindful and strike a better balance — “everything in moderation, even moderation!” We have much more stamina, and alot less pain, for the competition season and beyond.
2. Minimize chaos. When Terry takes “a day off”, it is inevitably spent in the toolshop building “stuff to hold our stuff”, gadgets to streamline our cook process, or ways to ease loading up for a trip…in short, to reduce chaos so we can just focus on the ‘q. He is a wealth of ideas on creating better ways to execute BBQ and BBQ-related travel. He keeps a mental list as the season is winding down, and we review what items we truly used in the trailer during the year (aiming to remove anything that wasn’t and consolidate the rest). Last year he created our new burnt ends jig, which really improved rendering our brisket. He also converted the bed rails in the cook bay to hold caddies for our knives, rubs, and supplies – at a push of a button, they’re lifted out of the way or brought down to a readily-accessible height. With that, we shed at least 3 bins that always took up valuable space on the counter. He has at least 10 projects on the slate for this winter. If you see us at a comp, never hesitate to swing by to ask Terry “what’s the latest in your trailer?!” – he’s eager to share ideas that may help another team. And if you left home without a tool, it’s a safe bet that Terry has one that you can use. As we say around our place, “MacGuyver was a rookie!” Indeed.
Team Meat Coma-Off Season Prep
By Amy Overbey
When the idea of co-writing an article about pre-season prep came up, my initial response was to sit back and let others volunteer because as an all tent team we don’t have that much to prep. Then I thought, you know what, we are not the only team on the circuit cooking out of tents. So, I unmuted my phone and said, sure I’ll do it! So here goes…
Whether you are a tent, trailer or a super fancy RV team you have prep to do before every season and before and after every comp. For us, while we are unloading our rented trailer and putting everything back in its rightful home in our garage or kitchen pantry we are taking inventory on things we need to replace, replenish or no longer take with us. Because we do that each and every week we compete, our pre-season “physical” prep is basically done with our end of year unload.
However, that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface on the pre-season prep for us and many other teams. The “mental” prep that comes along with starting a new season may be the most difficult and time consuming process. We started talking about next season the second last season ended. Those talks have come and gone throughout the off season and now with the season looming upon us, we are talking about it constantly. We talk about it amongst our team and with other teams who we have built strong relationships with along this journey. We discuss every aspect of BBQ, from fun to serious and from probable to impossible. For the purposes of this article I will share a few of the biggest topics for us, choosing a comp, cooking tweaks and practice.
First, choosing a comp, simple question right? Wrong, so wrong!!! This used to be easier when we first started because there weren’t that many comps within a reasonable travel distance for us and we typically chose based on travel time. Because we are a tent team, we have to pick up our rented trailer on Friday mornings, pack that trailer, make the drive, unload the trailer, start drinking (errrr I mean setting up and prepping) and then get cooking. We now have a vast selection of amazing comps within our geographic area so this process has gotten increasingly more difficult for us. We now choose based on geography, dates that work for child and dog sitters, our historical performance at an event, who else is doing the comp (we are quite the social team) and finally, cost to enter and payouts. This process is a difficult one each year and one that we spend a lot of time talking and, honestly, best guessing about. We would love to compete more, but just can’t swing it with our schedules. The recent addition of Tier 2 for MABA ToY’s has added an extra layer to this whole thing as we want to compete enough to qualify, but not go over the limit to be back up against the big boys and girls of BBQ.
The next thing we focus on is what things about our cook should be tweaked from last season. First we look at what categories were our best (thanks BBQData.com for making this process so much easier), why were they our best, what should we change, why should we change? Again, being a Tier 2 team impacts this aspect greatly. As such, we only have a small batch of sample data to rely on and we all know that is really not very reliable at all. We try to do the best we can and we talk to other teams and judges to see what they are doing and what worked for them. For some teams this may also include taking a class. We have done that in the past and certainly hope to work more into the mix in the future. This season we have decided to make the most changes to Chicken and Brisket. They have been our 2 best historical performers, but we feel they need to be a bit more consistent and we made changes to Pork and Ribs last year so it’s time. Secret alert…I have always de-boned, removed the skin and continued to scrape all the fat from each and every one of my 18-21 chicken thighs. This process takes me more time than I have and/or care to spend on this activity, on a Wednesday night of comp week, so I will no longer be doing all of that. What am I doing…you will have to wait and see!! (Come on, you didn’t think I was going to tell you…did you??) As for Brisket we are playing with the various ways the meat can be divided prior to, during and after the cook to see if that has any effect on the consistency of the cook time and the end product. It has to right? Right! The real question is, what is that effect and which end product will the judges like most. Only time and turn-ins will tell.
Finally, and this kind of goes hand in hand with the tweaks above, is practice. Practicing these changes is obviously important, but perhaps even more important is who you test the practice on. We already know we cook the best BBQ in our neighborhood and we challenge anyone to come and take that title from us, but that doesn’t seem to equate to cooking the best BBQ at each comp we compete in. So, we have friends from other teams come and try our food and give honest feedback and we are planning to have judges come to taste our practices to provide additional real time feedback. We realize each contest and set of judges will produce a different response, but we feel we can gather some real insights from those who are tasting and cooking this stuff week after week. We also know we are our own biggest fans and certainly worst critics, so we are working hard to take each call or non-call with a grain of salt and keep looking forward to the next comp. We can celebrate our victories and rest on our laurels or sulk in our losses and change it all every week, but what fun or point would any of that be?? The answer is, it wouldn’t and if I have learned anything over our 7 year career in BBQ it is this…if you aren’t having fun while doing this, you are doing something wrong. No off season prep needed for that, just sign up, give it your best and enjoy this upcoming BBQ season with family and friends!!!
If you’ve read the minutes of MABA Board meetings this year, you’ve likely been delighted to see barely a mention of regulatory or legal matters. Once we got our house is order near the end of 2016, it enabled us to get back to business “Making MABA Fun Again”! Indeed!
It was a time of fairly intense examination for the Board as we aimed to understand how our organization had gone so far off the tracks from a compliance and accountability perspective; we needed to ensure we laid a stronger foundation for the future. To this end, it was imperative to overhaul our Bylaws (clarify roles and responsibilities, delineate the authority of Directors, ensure adequate checks-and-balances were in place), and get our non-profit status reinstated with the IRS. Bylaw changes required a two-thirds majority of the Board for approval (6 of 9 Board Members).
Here’s a summary of key improvements adopted.
Article II – Purpose, Objectives, Operation – Confirmed our organization is structured as a Social Club, consistent with Section 501(c)(7) of the Internal Revenue Code. Officially added North Carolina to Area of Operation
Article III – Membership – Clarified thenumber of votes per class of membership, consistent with prior elections and dues structure. We have 4 classes of Membership.
Regular – 1 vote per person
Family – Up to 2 votes per family (no more than 1 per person)
Corresponding – Resides outside MABA region, does not have voting rights.
Corporate – No more than 3 named individuals per Corporate membership, each of the 3 named members have voting rights
Section 8 – Member termination for non-payment of dues –Added a grace period (i.e., no more than 30 days) for non-payment of dues.
Section 13 – Member Voting. Given our provisions and practice of electronic ballots, the provision for proxies was deleted.
Section 17 –Member Inspection Rights. Added provision that allows members to inspect the Financial Statements.
Article V – Officers and Directors
Language cleaned-up to be consistent with Article VII – Committees
Section 4 – Duties of Secretary – inserted guidance that minutes of the Board and membership meetings be published within 7 calendar days. Added responsibility to publish an annual master calendar of key filing dates for the association (such as the IRS and PA State Corporation Commission filings).
Section 5 – Duties of Treasurer – added responsibility for filing annual income tax return (i.e., 990-N or 990-EZ) with the IRS as well as any other required IRS notices. Clarified requirement for minimum financial reports to include a Monthly Financial Report that conveys Revenue and Expenses of the association for the prior month and the current year to date, with a comparison to prior year and to budget. (Requirement of an Annual Operating Budget was already in the Bylaws.)
Section 7 – State Representatives –due to the geographic diversity of our Board and committees, we eliminated the requirement to have State Representatives.
Section 11 – Board Meetings – Changed required frequency from “monthly” to “no less than 9 times per year”. Inserted provision for the Board to call a restricted meeting, which is not open to the general membership.
Article VI – Election of Officers and Directors
Section 1 – Inserted provision “To facilitate a smooth transition of the Board from year-to-year, the continuing and newly elected Directors may be notified in confidence of the election results in advance of the annual meeting. This enables a proper handoff of all Board documents and responsibilities no later than the Annual Meeting, aiming to optimize the effectiveness of the new team of Directors on “Day 1” of their responsibilities.”
Section 2 – Standing Committees
Sanctioning Committee – clarified language that MABA sanctioning is for contests not already sanctioned by KCBS, NEBS, or another sanctioning body. Added provision that host is responsible for carrying liability insurance for the event and naming MABA as an additional insured on said policy if we are sanctioning the event.
Finance Committee –Clarified responsibility for preparation and oversight of budgets, monthly financial statements, and annual IRS filings.
Article VIII – Deeds & Contracts
Section 1 – Instruments –Consistent with other sections of the Bylaws, clarified that a two-thirds majority vote of the Board is required before any Officer can obligate the Association to a contract, deed, etc.
Section 2 – Drafts – Reduced threshold for petty cash from $500 to $250. Added requirement to confirm whether requests for expenditures above $250 are in the operating budget, prior to bringing those items to the Board for approval. Note, items above $2500 require advance approval by a majority vote of the Membership.
Please email the MABA Board at maba@mabbqa.com for a complete copy of the bylaws.
Comments Off on MABA President Luke Darnell Teaches at Traeger Headquarters
Earlier this month, Luke Darnell, president of MABA and pitmaster of Old Virginia Smoke, had the opportunity to teach a BBQ shop class at Traeger Headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.
There were fifty eager people to sit down for four hours and get some tips and tricks to make great BBQ. Here are some pictures from the event–
