Posted by News Observer, NC on June 08, 2008 at 10:53:09:
Published: Jun 08, 2008 12:30 AM
Cookoff hopeful is in hog heaven
Meiling Arounnarath, Staff Writer
RALEIGH - Russell Snider, the man with the red, white and blue Cadillac of cookers, has been competitively marinating pigs for state championship cookoffs for 11 years.
He has won second place five times.
But never first.
This year should be the year, he thought. Then, he'd take a year off and become a cookoff judge himself.
"I'm not cookin' a hog the whole year," he said.
Snider, 59, drove his custom cooker and trailer from Halifax with his wife, Carol, to compete in the 24th annual N.C. State Championship Barbecue Cookoff on Saturday at the N.C. State Fairgrounds.
His Pot Belly Pigs team was one of 25 competing this year. The teams range from extreme hobby barbecue cookers to professional caterers. Most hailed from the east side of the state, including seven teams from Newport, and cooked Eastern-style barbecue with its vinegary sauce.
Four judges, certified by the N.C. Pork Council, visited each tent to assess the meat for such qualities as moisture, brownness and skin crispiness. They also judged appearance -- was the pig still intact? -- and overall condition of the site, including cleanliness of the cooker and the cook.
There were also five celebrity judges, including WRAL-TV news anchorman Ken Smith, NBC-17 meteorologist Bill Reh, and cookbook author Fran McCullough -- who scored the teams based on blind taste tests.
A special prize, the Crispy Skin Award, was given to the 'cue with the best texture and crackling sound.
Snider's trailer had a sink with running water, a two-eye gas stove and a small grill. He presented the judges with the hog on the cooker and a table laid with four place settings, complete with silverware. Each place mat was set with a glass of sweet tea, banana pudding in a glass with a pig-shaped spoon and a pink plate edged with a pig's face and ears.
Friendly banter was exchanged between the camps when the judges lingered at Snider's tent over their banana pudding and their sweet tea.
"Y'all don't worry about that banana puddin' over there," Chris Garner of the Big Daddy's Cook'n Team called to the judges. "Y'all come over and get some pecan pie!"
After the on-site judging was over at 10 a.m., all 25 hogs were ready to be chopped up, combined and sold to the public. The proceeds from this year's sales will go to the Wake Tech Culinary Technology program and the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.
The N.C. Pork Council, which puts on the cookoffs, moves the championship to a different place each year. The cookoff raises between $6,000 and $9,000 each year for local organizations, said Kim Decker, marketing specialist with the state agriculture department. Organizers hoped to turn out about 2,000 barbecue sandwiches and about 500 pounds of barbecue sold in pints or quarts.
This year, the competition was held in conjunction with the first Got to Be N.C. Festival, a four-day event celebrating North Carolina's agricultural heritage.
Many teams return to the cookoff year after year. Snider retired this year and now sells his barbecue pork and chicken at the Lake Gaston Flea Market in Henrico. Snider loves cooking pork so much that he and his wife were married in 2004 at a pig pickin' contest in Newport.
"Some folks like racing horses, some folks like fishing; I just love to cook," said Snider, who stood in his gray T-shirt in the 96-degree heat Saturday morning.
Despite his confidence and double-grated cooker with two stainless steel "Trans-Am" exhaust pipes, Snider didn't win anything. So he'll enter again next year.
"I'm gonna come back," he said. "I'm gonna cook till I get first place."
WINNERS
CRISPY SKIN AWARD
Leslie Deaton, The Carolina Cooker, Roanoke Rapids
SHOWMANSHIP
1st place ($500): Michael Shane Hemenway, My Sweet Hog, Newport
2nd place ($300): David Burke, The King Cooker, Margarettsville
3rd place ($100): Joe Peterson, Down Home Cookers, Roanoke Rapids
CULINARY DIVISION
1st place ($2,000): Joe Peterson, Down Home Cookers, Roanoke Rapids
2nd place ($1,000): Leslie Deaton, The Carolina Cooker, Roanoke Rapids
3rd place ($500): David Burke, The King Cooker, Margarettsville
4th place ($300): Charles E. Chestnut, Three Little Pigs, Murfreesboro
COMPETING TEAMS
Edgar Hargis, Smokin' Porkers, Burlington
Lewis McDougald, Big Hawg Catering, Clinton
Mark Johnson, Orange County Cookers, Durham
Danny Blackmon, Just 4 Fun, Four Oaks
Russell Snider, Pot Belly Pigs, Halifax
Greg Seawell, High on the Hog, Indian Beach
David Burke, The King Cooker, Margarettsville
David Grandy, Lazy Dayz Cookin Team, Morehead City
Wayne Futrell, ACE Cookers, Murfreesboro
Charles E. Chestnut, Three Little Pigs, Murfreesboro
Bobby Prescott, B.P.'s Country Cookin, Newport
Charlie L. Meeks, Captain Charlie's Cooks, Newport
Chris Garner, Big Daddy's Cook'n Team, Newport
Greg Bowen, Family Traditions, Newport
Larry Sweet, The Hog Smokers, Newport
Taylor Gregg, Daddy's Footsteps, Newport
Richard Baylis, Trimmed Out Cookin Team, Newport
Michael Shane Hemenway, My Sweet Hog, Newport
Leslie Deaton, The Carolina Cooker, Roanoke Rapids
Joe Peterson, Down Home Cookers, Roanoke Rapids
Tim Carroll, Ziggy's Catering, Tarheel
Arthur Williams, Trade Mart Traders Hess, Washington
Don Taylor, Road Hogs, Wilson
Larry Snead, Granny's Pit Crew, Youngsville
Roy Parker, Old Hickory, Zebulon