They’re out to prove that all barbecue is not created equal

When the Brinkley family fires up their grill, you can bet some serious sizzling will be going on.

This family of barbecue buffs – Kerry and Stacy and his parents, Jim and Charlotte – travel to barbecue cook-offs across the state and into Kansas. Things heat up when these teams from all over the country collect for the showdown.

“It’s a hobby,” said Charlotte. “We love to compete. See if we can cook a little bit better than somebody else. We’re not professionals in any way – professionals get paid money. But we’re good at what we do.”

Last year at the American Royal, the world’s largest barbecue contest, they placed seventh out of over 300 competitors.

“We were thrilled to death with seventh place,” said Kerry. “We went up against teams that are ranked among the best in the world.”

The Brinkley family has been formally competing since 1997. At first they went out about every weekend. Since November, when they started up a restaurant at Landmark called Big B’s Country Place, they get away about once a month. They just came back from a contest at Marshall where they took third.

Brinkley’s Barbecue almost always comes away in the top five. Prizes are awarded in plaques, ribbons, and sometimes cash. The team won between $500-$600 at one contest.

They’ve always loved to barbecue. They grill in their backyard about five days a week, summer and winter.

Kerry got a propane gas tank and cut in half to make a cooker. It is complete with thermostats, two stainless steel tables, two stainless steel sinks that run hot and cold water heated by a firebox, and a warming oven on top. The cooker was made on its own trailer.

“We always wanted a big smoker because we have big family cookouts,” said Charlotte. “We had this dream to build a cooker to cook a whole hog on. That’s what we thought at first. We cooked for the family, and all of a sudden, we decided that it just couldn’t sit out there and do nothing.”

They thought barbecue cook-offs sounded like a fun thing to do and the odyssey began.

The Brinkleys attend competitive cook-offs only, as opposed to commercial or fund-raising. The contests are sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS). They don’t sell barbecue to the public. The affair is intended to find out who is the master barbecue chef of that day.

The cook-offs take place on Friday and Saturday.

“We go in on Friday evening and get set up and the fires going,” said Charlotte.” We start cooking late Friday evening. The judging is usually between 11-12 noon on Saturday.”

A blind judging system is used to keep things fair. The cook stays anonymous up until the end. Six judges sit at each table. How many tables depends on the number of teams competing.

“You have to put out a good product; luck takes over from there,” said Kerry. “You send the barbecue to a table of judges. Maybe one table likes sweet. The other people at the next table might like it a little spicy. Catching the right table, that’s where the luck comes in.”

A lot of hot, hard work is involved in the cook-offs.

“You have a day of cleaning, loading up, getting ready to go,” said Charlotte. “You do your cooking, then you come home and clean it all up. You have to clean inside the grill as well, and you know how much fun that is. It’s a lot worse than going to a family picnic.”

When they first started, it took a pickup and two car loads to haul all their stuff. The family bought a bread truck and customized it to suit their needs. It has a freezer, metal cabinets, and holds a canopy, tables, and all the cooking utensils.

“It’s a rolling kitchen,” said Kerry.

The KCSB competitions have four main categories to enter: chicken, ribs, pork and brisket. Sausage is optional at some of the contests. Brinkley Barbecue enters all of the categories. It takes a bit of know-how to cook all the different meats on the same grill.

“Timing is the big thing,” said Kerry. “You have to know when to put each category on to get it done for turn-in time. Not undercooked or overcooked. You have five minutes before or five minutes after deadline. If you’re late, you’re out.”

The whole team pitches in to keep the ball rolling. Kerry does the cooking and attends to the timing. Charlotte and Stacey concentrate on appearance.

Appearance matters.

The contestants are given a Styrofoam container to send to the judges. The six individual pieces of meat have to look as appetizing as possible. Only certain types of garnish are allowed. The judges use no knives or forks. They reach in and pick it up with their fingers. Sauce puddling in the tray is bad.

“It’s a challenge,” said Charlotte. “That’s why we like it.”

Besides the time and the planning, barbecue cook-offs can be an expensive hobby. There’s food, drinks and entry fee, just for starters.

“Meat is a big expense,” says Kerry. “Some teams pay $100 for briskets. We don’t do that.” Those teams have corporate sponsors, Charlotte explains. It’s not unusual to see advertisements displayed at the contests for a certain type of barbecue sauce, for instance.

The Brinkleys save on motel bills by sleeping in the bread truck.

“We don’t get any sleep,” says Charlotte. “We’re up cooking, watching the fire.”

Kerry says he’s seen some big rig mobile homes at these events and top dollar commercial cookers that could easily run into tens of thousands of dollars. He takes considerable pride that a local family can give these barbecue behemoths a run for their money.

“We built our cooker as a family and we can compete with anybody out there,” he said. “People stop by at the competition and give good comments on our cooker. It looks good, operates good.”

What’s the secret to great barbecue? Is it the spices, the rubs, the mops or the sauces?

“It’s a combination of all kinds of things,” says Charlotte. “Everybody has their own secret recipe. We have a dry rub we like to use. We don’t tell anybody what it is or anything about it. Once you win, you stick with the recipe.”

Kerry uses a combination of oak, pecan, cherry wood and charcoal.

“Every contest is different,” he said. “The farther south you get, the more smoke they like.”

Arriving at the winning combination is a matter of trial and error.

“We experimented until we got to where we know what we like to use, and that’s what we stay with,” said Kerry.

The Brinkleys may be serious when they compete. But when they get together as a family it’s just to have some fun. And it’s not always to barbecue.

“Last year we raced cars,” said. Charlotte. “This year it’s boating and fishing. We don’t get stuck on one thing.”

They also do charity work. They cooked for the Relay for Life at Hamilton. Proceeds went to a cancer fund.

The Brinkleys already have an impressive record as barbecue chefs. They still look to do better.

“We always strive to improve,” says Charlotte. “Go for number one.”

“You gotta like doing it,” says Kerry. “Or you wouldn’t be there. The same people go. I can drive up to a competition and tell you who’s going to be in the top five. It doesn’t matter how good you are. There’s always somebody there that can beat you.”

Brinkley Barbecue won for theme decoration at Blue Springs with the Roaring 20’s. Pictured when they defended their title, and won again the next year, with Prehistoric BBQ. The cooking area was landscaped with a paper mache’ dinosaur. Stacy and Kerry’s children, Katie, sitting, Keygan, Shea, left, and McKenzie, right, dressed up in cavemen outfits with boiled bone necklaces.