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Feature article
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Barbecue team scores with Cheerwine sauce
By Fred Sauceman
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| Iron Chef Bobby Flay (right) congratulates a member of the audience in Nashville for eating a whole habanero pepper raw. |
The Porker Stars, a barbecue team from Kingsport, received some unexpected attention Saturday during the third annual Fiddlin’ Brewin’ Bar-B-Q’N competition on the grounds of the Gaylord Opryland Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville.
After the fires had cooled down and before the trophy presentation, Bobby Flay of the Food Network performed a grilling demonstration. While juggling spice-rubbed, mango-sauced grilled shrimp, grilled corn with basil butter and salmon in a homemade barbecue sauce, Flay took questions from the audience of some 400 people.
“You need to go over and check out this barbecue sauce made with Cheerwine,” a member of the audience told Flay.
I took the recommendation myself, not knowing the Kingsport connection. A steady line of barbecue fans lined up to soak a cracker or a finger in the sauce, made by Kristy Loflin of Kingsport.
“This is the first time I’ve made it,” Kristy told me, “and I hope I can remember what I did, because I didn’t write down any measurements.”
Cheerwine is a cherry-flavored, non-alcoholic soft drink made in Salisbury, North Carolina, since 1917.
The Nashville competition was the first on the Kansas City Barbeque Society circuit for the Kingsporters. “We placed really well,” Kristy said. “In the shoulder category, we were 19th out of 78.”
KCBS contests are held all over the country. Over $30,000 in prize money was up for grabs in Nashville. Some 60 judges sit six to a table and evaluate chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder or butt and beef brisket based on appearance, taste and tenderness.
On the evening prior to the official judging, contests often involve an “anything but” category, which encompasses foods other than the ones to be judged the next day. At our table on Friday night there appeared barbecued rabbit, grilled shrimp, a ground meat patty that we were guessing was a combination of buffalo and a more juicy meat, smoked catfish and salmon covered in dill sauce.
Judges don’t have the opportunity to taste all the entries, so I missed the Porker Stars’ grilled pizza, which placed eighth out of 31.
“We grilled everything, including the crust,” says Kristy. “It was topped with corn, eggplant, roasted red peppers and shrimp, all grilled, and finished with a cilantro pesto.”
Kristy says since Saturday she’s gotten several calls from people wanting to buy her Cheerwine-laced barbecue sauce.
Now the pressure’s on to remember the recipe.
Other members of Porker Stars in addition to Kristy are: Tom Loflin, John and Christy Stout, Ken and Julie Mitchell, and Tom Mikkelson.
Some Quotations from Bobby Flay’s Nashville demonstration:
“America is finally demanding full-flavored food.”
“Sweet and heat.” (Describing his shrimp dish.)
“I like Tennessee. There’s good spirit here.” (After a swig from a bottle of Jack Daniel’s sour mash whiskey.)
“Basil is the herb of choice.” (He mixed it with butter and slathered it on the grilled corn.)
“I like layers of flavors.”
“The greatest invention of all is the chimney starter.” (The device you put newspaper under and fill with charcoal to start a fire.)
“Once a year, when you change the batteries in your smoke detector, get rid of all your old spices and buy new ones. Spices lose their flavor after about a year.”
--------GoTriCities--------
Food writer Fred Sauceman, author of the book “The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South — from Bright Hope to Frog Level,” is senior writer and executive assistant to the president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University. E-mail him at sauceman@etsu.edu.
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