All competitors used the same St. Louis Style ribs provided by the same Purveyor. Voting is done by the folks visiting the event with the desire to try some ribs. No judges, no experts, just common folks who like ribs and cast a vote.
All were very good, cooked to a perfect pull off the bone. My favorite was from a Memphis Style. The competitor owned several large stainless steel smokers with horizontally rotating racks, ribs hung vertically. Ribs finished on a long grill to apply a light glaze. Smokers vary in size with the largest holding 147 racks of ribs.
We've talked to this gentleman 2 years in a row. He has 3 of the 8 large stainless steel smokers made by his uncle. An interesting fact...during the 5 day event, this vendor cooks 900 racks of ribs/day. So a lot or ribs are sold to a lot of people. We go during the week to avoid the huge labor day weekend crowd.
We enjoyed the event. It's quite an operation. If this one vendor/competitor is typical of the 20 plus competitors, they sell a ton of ribs during the 5 days at this commercial event. 900 x 5 = 4500 x 20 = 90,000 racks of ribs. Many sold 3 ribs at a time in a sampler container.
Ribs were great but I still prefer nice thick loin backs.
