Local News
BBQ team shooting for big bucks next weekend
Pallavi Agarwal | Highlands Today
Published: October 7, 2012
SEBRING - The Everglades Seasoning BBQ team will be hard at work outsizzling and outsmoking 49 other teams next weekend for bragging rights at a national barbecue championship and a shot at a portion of the $150,000 prize purse.Published: October 7, 2012
The Sam's Club National BBQ Tour, set for Saturday in Bentonville, Ark., has the Sebring team competing along with a team from Winter Haven and Lakeland.
The national tour kicked off in Tampa in February. A total of 677 teams competed in 25 local contests and five regional competitions, and 50 teams prevailed.
Sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, the Sam's Club BBQ tour is the only such continuous barbecue tour in the world, stated a news release.
Each team will submit chicken, ribs, pork and brisket entries, using meat from Sam's Club. A panel of 48 KCBS-certified barbecue judges will give its verdict on taste, tenderness and appearance.
Everglades pitmaster Jimmy Brod is all pumped up.
Tuesday, Brod and his team of five barbecuers will hitch up their 36-foot trailer, complete with cookers designed to roll out, and hit the road.
Ten years ago Brod made his cooking debut at the Sebring Firemen's Pigfest. Since then, they've grown in stature and experience and have notched several barbecue prizes, although the Sam's Club cook-off is undoubtedly one of the biggest because the competition is "so stiff."
Brod said his secret is to make the meat taste like good average barbecue, and yes, they combine Everglades Seasonings' seasonings and sauce with their own secret ingredients.
In fact, that's how the relationship with the company that's based at the Sebring Regional Airport started.
Brod, who is an aviation mechanic who also works at the airport, would frequently stop by and pick up their spices and sauces.
When they realized he was using their products, Everglades figured it made sense to sponsor the team.
At 9 a.m. Friday, the team will start prepping its meat, which will go on the grill at 10 that night and sizzle all night.
The secret to good barbecue is tenderness, Brod said.
"Tender but not mushy," he explained. "There is a lot of time and a lot of technique involved."
If they win the grand championship they will go back home with not just a lot of respect but $50,000 in prize money, which Brod said he'll use to pay off his trailer and squirrel some away in the bank.
So far, they have already won $2,000 at Sam's Club's local contest in Tampa and $2,500 at the regional contest.