Jim Fair
Brianca Kruse cuts the fat off the meat to prepare it for the cooker. Sascha, her husband, and Brianca are competing as the German Redneck Cookers for the first time in Greer.
Jim Fair
Jim Fair
John Young gives the thumbs up as he is checking his notes to get the timing correct for his cooking.
Jim Fair
It was so hot Friday afternoon . . . that meat left out in the heat threatened to shrink and spoil.
Sascha Kruse was talking smack while his wife, Brianca, was trimming the fat off a pork butt this afternoon.
Kruse is participating in his first Kansas City Society Barbecue (KCBS) sanctioned cook-off at Greer’s Sooie’t Relief BBQ Benefit. He is from Chattanooga, Tenn., employed at the North American Volkswagen manufacturing facility at Chattanooga.
“BMW doesn’t produce a car like Volkswagen,” he said pointing to his Volkswagen van where he will spend the night with his wife and daughter, Joy. “And they don’t produce vans,” he said with a laugh.
Kruse knew he was in the home of BMW’s North American manufacturer in Greer. “I have a lot of German friends and I like Greer. They will be coming tonight.”
All the while, Sascha was taunting his competitors as he was watching over Brianca. “I am teaching (Brianca) to trim the pork butt the German way. After we get it trimmed we will inject our seasoning and blow it up like a football.”
Greg Ray said competing in BBQ contests is, “my golf, tennis and fishing. I grew up in Texas and have been in the food industry all my life.” Ray is a personal chef under his brand “Cook em Horns. Tedd Lane was helping Ray with the cooking and Forrest, Lane’s brother, was learning, literally, from the ground up in this competition.
Michael Stevens of Mountain Grillas traveled from Galax, Va., and his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to compete. “I left some beautiful weather to come here,” Stevens said wiping the sweat from his brow.
Gary Taylor, 2013 champion of the South Carolina Barbecue Association, is competing to gain stature in the KCBS cook-off.
Taylor has been cooking for about four years, the first two with little results. “Then we bought new equipment and everything has been good since,” Taylor said. His team is “All Smoked Up”.
Taylor said of the six butts he arrived with, only 2-3 will be contest quality. Asked the difference between his barbecue and others he said his cooking partner Cole Case has a saying, “We put more love and affection in our barbecue than anybody else.”
John Young, from Winston-Salem, N.C., was going over his notes and information store on his phone. “It’s a process and I am trying to get organized and get the timing down."