30th Annual American Royal BBQ Competition

This weekend was the American Royal BBQ competition, and we got to participate as judges! The event runs Friday through Sunday, with the competition being held Saturday-Sunday. Saturday was the Invitational Meat judging (you have to be certified to do this, and we plan on being just that next year!) as well as the Sides and Dessert judging. That one we did get to participate in, judging veggies, beans, potatoes, and finally...DESSERT! You also get to take home your leftovers. Saturday we came home with a bunch of desserts. I would show you a photo of them, but well, you know...

On Saturday, we were there very early, so we walked around to see all of the exhibits. Jared did a little smoker shopping.

This charming display was set up at one of the competitor's stations. Yum.

Even big names compete and/or sponsor here. They call it the 'World Series of BBQ'.

This is where the competitor's runners would take the entry when it was due. The volunteers would put up to six boxes with a minimum of 6 servings in each box in those red baskets, then hand them through the curtains to other volunteers. These volunteers would then give them to table captains to take back to their tables to be judged.

Here are the runners bringing their teams' entry up to the pass to be judged.

This is the line to get into Sides/Desserts. There were probably 200 people in line that day, and we guessed less than half actually got in. Good thing we were early! The meat day they needed more judges, and it looked as though everyone standing in line got in that day.

Here we are taking our BBQ oath. Yes, there is such a thing as a BBQ Oath. These people take their BBQ seriously! (Note: here is where the quality of my photos goes down. I had to sneak photos with my camera phone because we weren't allowed to take pictures. I told you they were serious!)

Here is Jared sitting at his table, ready to judge some food! Married couples weren't allowed to sit at the same table. But, that means we had lots of different items to bring home!

This is a judging plate. We get up to six submissions (meat day sometimes had 7 because there were 500 teams competing!) and put our servings on these divided mats. Then we judge them on appearance, tenderness, and taste and write our scores on scorecards.

Here is the brisket round on meat day! On meat day (Sunday) we judged chicken, ribs, pork, brisket, and sausage. I took one bite per submission and that was enough to be full by the end!

TLC had a camera crew there, filming for a new show about BBQ competitions around the country. It is supposed to start on Dec. 3rd, so we'll have to check it out and see if we made it onto TV!

All of the judges on meat day. There were 100 tables of 6-7 people. We think everyone made it in this day, unlike the Sides/Desserts day.

Here is where the awards ceremony would be held (this is the same place that Art Unleashed was held a couple of months ago).

And these! These are all of the bags of meat that we brought home with us after it was all done. Looks like we'll be eating BBQ for the next couple of nights! (Which, by the way, is perfectly fine by us!)

It was a fun event, we ate some delicious food (and a couple of not-so-delicious foods), met some fun and interesting people...we'll definitely do it again next year!