Page 21 - February 2022 Barbecue News Magazine

Dana “big papa” Hillis
BBQ From Florida
lighthousepointe@ hotmail.com
Professional BBQ pitmasters are from all over and not all are southern but a lot of cooking styles and recipes have some south- ern influences. Let’s see if any of these true stories below ring a bell.
• If you travel to Vegas to cook a BBQ contest with nothing but a cooler and suitcase but the airlines lose both...but you manage to win the Best Ribs in America... you might be a redneck pitmaster!
• If you build your pork turn in box, turn it in with 30 seconds to go, and they tell you it's upside down and they flip it...but you still win first place with a perfect appear-
ance score... you might be a redneck pit-
drinks spilled on you by SKINNY, a cold Budweiser select with Mike from Kick the Tire Light the Fire, Crown Royal with Frank Csomos and Brent Galloway... then you are a lucky redneck pit- master!
• If you lose a BBQ bet and have to eat pickled pigs-feet and your young grandson helps you eat them... you might have you a fu- ture redneck pitmaster!
• If Bigfoot has attacked you at a BBQ contest on more than one occasion while witnesses have seen him slip off into the smokey darkness... you might be a redneck pitmaster!
• If your neighbor comes to you at 4am and says “My cooker broke down and I’ll will never make turn in’s”, but you happen to fix his
master!
• If you actually turn in peeps for your chicken category, you might be a redneck pitmaster!
• If you have a few to many adult bever- ages, fall upstairs, get 16 staples in your forehead, get back way late from the hos- pital but still manage win Grand Cham- pion... you might be a redneck pitmaster!
• If you pick up a brand-new Bubba grill, set up and cook on it for the first time at a competition, during a category 3 hurri- cane, and win brisket category with a per- fect score... you might be a redneck pitmaster!
• If you wake up at 4 in the morning be- cause your neighbor is freezing and starv- ing to death and all you have to feed him is banana pudding and he swears it saved his life but he also wins Grand Champion... HE might be a redneck pitmaster!
Congrats to my neighbor Todd Bender won his first Grand in backyard division at the Lake Wales event.
cooker and manage enough luck win re- serve grand....and your neighbor (whose cooker you fixed) wins Grand... you might be a redneck pitmaster!
• If you blow an axle bearing on the way to a contest and spend the night in a repair shop parking lot and then show up 5 min- utes before cooks meeting but win Grand Champion... you are either a Swamp Boy or a redneck pitmaster!
• If you turn in your chili entry and your partner says “You put way too much cheese on it!” but you win Grand Cham- pion chili while everyone asks “What it tasted like?” and you don't know because you forgot to try it... you might be a red- neck pitmaster!
• If you go by the name Shady’s BBQ, you happen to be from Detroit, and while you are cooking with Big Papa’s you are in charge of people's choice but you put way too much BBQ sauce on the entry and end up winning first place... you are a redneck pitmaster!
• If you take your brisket in your trailer at 3 a.m., wrap it while it happens to be 28 degrees, but when you go back out and Bigfoot knocks you over while tring to steal your brisket, and you land flat on your back without spilling a drop (all witnessed by your neigh- bor)... you might be a redneck pitmaster!
• If you have had big boy drinks with Wooley Bully BBQ, pink drinks with Sweet Smoke Q, Jell-o shots with Donna Ray, fireball shots with the Backyard Bros, Red Bull with Biggi and Doug, Rum
I sit back and remember all the great times we have had out on the cooking trail. Way too many of our historical pitmasters and friends have left us too soon. When we all get to heaven one day, there will be some serious competition reuniting and putting out some heavenly BBQ!
Here is to a safe and healthy and pro$porous new year!
FEBRUARY 2022
BarbecueNews.com - 21
BBQ 2022
- REDNECK PITMASTER STYLE
Feed people BBQ- it makes them happy!
Dana "Big Papa" Hillis