Kings of Ribfest.

In keeping with a Meatriarchy tradition I attended the Burlington Ribfest this weekend on both Sunday and Monday. I also attended the Toronto Ribfest on Canada day. The reviews that follow are a combination of ribs I sampled at both events. It is virtually impossible due to time constraints to sample all the ribbers in one weekend.

This weekend I decided to split my days up into two. On Sunday I sampled as many ribs as I could. On Monday I decided I would go for pulled pork. This would be harder as pulled pork is a much bigger serving (even though it is cheaper) and I would be seriously full in a hurry.

But such is my devotion to providing accurate reviews that I am willing to suffer for your pleasure. Stay tuned next year for my review of my quadruple bypass surgery.

Each year features a lot of the same ribbers and also some new ones. Several top class ribbers were conspicuous by their absence at the Burlington ribfest they were:

Crabbies (London, On) but that was ok because they were at the Toronto Ribfest.

Mr. Tibbs (Sarnia ON) – My top pick last year weren’t at any ribfests I attended – hopefully they haven’t retired.

Smokin’ Larry’s (Flint Michigan) who had one of the best sauces and a **mn fine brisket last year.

A couple of pointers before I get to the reviews. The ribs are “sides” or “spares” not baby backs (which are less meaty and don’t take smoke as well). I believe that ribs should be cooked using wood to infuse them with a smoke flavour. You can tell if they have been so cooked by the presence of a pink coloring on the outside of the meat called a smoke ring. If there is no ring they haven’t been smoked. They have been baked in an oven ( or grilled) and smeared with sauce. This can result in tasty ribs; however I could also bake a nice chicken in an oven but I wouldn’t call it Barbecue.

Good ribs should be able to stand alone without sauce. Sauce is often used to cover up bad ribs. The finishing sauce should complement the ribs but not overwhelm them.

The texture of ribs is very tricky. They can be too mushy (like boiled ribs) which is too soft or they can be to tough or too chewy. The happy medium is perfection. The ribs should be tender but have some texture since after all it is meat.

Pulled pork is made by smoking the front shoulder cut of the pig. This is referred to as the “Boston Butt” even though it comes from the front of the pig (the rear quarters are used to make ham). Smaller cuts from the lower part of the front shoulder called “picnic shoulders” are easily found in the supermarkets. The pork is smoked very slowly until it reaches a temperature of about 200 degrees and then is allowed to stand (sometimes wrapped in foil) for about an hour. Then it is pulled apart by hand. Traditional Carolina style calls for a vinegar sauce to be added at this point but a lot of folks just add barbecue sauce. Again you should see evidence of a smoke ring and the meat should be tender. Shredded pork can be harder to chew so it needs to be a little softer.

The final cut of meat in the Holy Trinity of BBQ is Brisket. Brisket is basically the front chest muscle of the cow (it isn’t pork). It needs to be smoked very slowly at low heat for up to 20 hours for the collagen and connective tissue to break down resulting in a tender meat. Very few ribbers do brisket but you can usually find one brave enough to (I did find one).

As I advised last year if you go to the ribfest (any ribfest) be prepared to try many ribbers. Don’t just pick up a 20.00 slab and walk out (unless you read my reviews) but the smallest portion (1/3 rack ) from a lot of places and then decide which one you like best. Remember every one has different taste buds, what I like might not necessarily be what you like.

Anyway without further ado here are the reviews.

Bad Wolf (Toronto, ON)

You can save yourself a lot of time and aggravation by walking into any local Ribfest, plonking down 20.00 at Bad Wolf for a slab of their ribs and a piece of their fantastic cornbread and then walking out. Not only do they have the shortest lineups but they consistently have the best tasting ribs. I have tried their ribs at 4 different ribfests in the past 10 months and they have never disappointed me. Again they were the best ribs I tried a the Toronto Ribfest . Tender and smoky with a great sauce.

This weekend I decided to try their pulled pork. So I lined up in an unusually long line up for them and chatted with the guy in front of me who also thought Bad Wolf was excellent. When I get to the counter I am chagrined – they don’t have pulled pork. However they do have… BRISKET!!! “Gimme some brisket and a slab of cornbread” I practically sing!

I sit down at a table and pop the lid on the Styrofoam container and behold a steaming heap of thin shaved meat with a noticeable smoke ring. I hold a piece up to my nose and take a whiff. It smells great! Popping a piece in my mouth I am immediately aware of the tenderness of the meat. You don’t need teeth to eat it. I am also aware after sampling about 20 servings of pork for two days of the robust flavour of beef, which needs to be complimented with robust flavours. I like a strong rub on my brisket with a lot of chili powder. If Bad Wolf fell down a little it was in the rub. I think it could have been a little stronger or bolder. But that is more of a personal preference. I think a lot of people would be happy with Bad Wolf’s brisket and the serving was so large I couldn’t finish it. It is probably the best deal for 6.00 at the whole ribfest.

Plus Bad Wolf in true BBQ tradition offers cornbread. Why do more ribbers not serve cornbread? It is essential with BBQ.

Bibbs (Naples, Florida) : Every ribfest has at least one sample that I eat one bone from and then throw the rest out. I was standing in line at Billy Bones when the wife brought me a 1/3 rack from Bibbs. We both stand in different lines so that we can get more samples out of the way. I tried one and tossed the rest in the garbage. They were so fatty I couldn't taste the meat. Perhaps they were cooked a little too quickly and the fat didn't render out. Perhaps I just had a fatty piece and the rest were good. Either way Bibbs didn't make the grade.

Billy Bones (Fort Erie, Ontario) : The girl serving bragged about all the contests they had won. She didn't tell me they were for "Worlds Toughest Ribs" Ow! My gums hurt!

Bone Daddy (Midland, MI):
I didn’t do their ribs only their pulled pork. Having tried the pulled pork I wish I had tried the ribs. The pulled pork was exceptionally tender and the sauce (which I asked for only a small amount) had a good spicy kick to it. I would recommend the pulled pork highly.

Carolina Rib King. (106 North Fairplay Street, Seneca, SC 29678
Tel: (864) 882-1615)
The head of this outfit is a man named Solomon (or King Solomon) he is a large Southern Black man with touch of grey around the temples and a deep South Carolina drawl. He just looks so **mn authentic. Most of the other booths seemed to be staffed by the sort of teenagers you find at the GAP or McDonalds. This one didn’t have that feel. The line also moved quickly although the staff got several orders confused and bickered constantly. Like most southern barbecue the sauce wasn’t plastered on the food but offered on the side in a large Gatorade dispenser that you helped yourself to. I promptly forgot about this when I got my ribs and was back at the table before I realized that there was no sauce on them. It didn’t matter, they were perfect! First of all they were nice and pink indicating liberal use of smoking wood. Not only that while I was waiting on line I noticed that their grill was fired with copious amount of Maple Leaf brand lump charcoal unlike the propane used by a lot of ribbers to reheat the ribs. These ribs are the real deal baby! Smoky and tender but with some firmness about them that isn’t too mushy. While I was waiting for my ribs a lady came up to the counter and complained her ribs weren’t cooked because they were pink. I tried to tell her that smoked ribs look pink. She didn’t listen. A lot of people don’t listen to me at Ribfest. That is their mistake.
If you only have one to choose from and want to hit a home run step up to Carolina Rib King and grab a slab. YUM!!

Update: on the Sunday I was in line to pick up some of their pulled pork when one of the team arrived at the booth with a large trophy and a mighty shout. It turns out that Carolina Rib King had won “Judged Best Ribs” for this year’s Ribfest.

I concur heartily, move over Bad Wolf and Mr. Tibbs there is a new king in town and it is the King Solomon and the Carolina Rib Kings.

As for their pulled pork it is was good as any I sampled. In fact better than most.

Also they have a very good sauce. Simple not over the top in terms of ingredients basically just ketchup with a few ingredients thrown in. In fact in Texas the sauce they serve with brisket is typically the meat drippings with some ketchup mixed in. Sometimes simplicity works. Sometimes it fails horribly (see Fire Island below)

Crabbies (London, Ontario) : I picked up a 2 liter jug of their sauce last year because it was so outstanding. Then when I ran out I thought I would pick some up while I was on a business trip to London (Ontario) but I couldn't find them anywhere. So this time I picked up two jugs for 20.00. The owner tells me he is trying to work out a deal with Dominion to carry his sauce in 60 stores in Toronto as well as his rub (which I picked up) and some other things. If this happens consider yourself lucky and run don't walk to pick up this great sauce. I use it as a finishing sauce for all meats but it doesn't work so well as a dipping sauce. I think it needs to be heated up to really bring out the flavours. Oh and the ribs are pretty good too. I picked up a slab to take home plus a pulled pork sandwich, which was out of this world!!


Fire Island (Long Island NY)
I hadn’t heard of these guys before so I made them the last stop of the day. The first sign of trouble was their variety of sauces (spicy, honey garlic or regular) I think it is ok to have different sauces like honey garlic or spicy. If you are cooking WINGS!! Then the kid and it was a kid on the gas grill painted my measly four bones with about a gallon of sauce. That would be ok if the sauce was good but it tasted like ketchup. So my last ribs of Sunday were ketchup flavored. Shoulda had the spicy. Oh and the ribs were mediocre and smokeless.

I have a pulled pork sandwich in the fridge but haven’t tried it yet. I will up date when I sample it. Ok, I sampled it and the sauce isn’t as bad when on pulled pork so their pulled pork is better than their ribs. But they aren’t close to perfection yet (by a long shot).

Gator BBQ (Everglade City, Florida)
Last year Gator was in the middle of the pack for me. They were decent enough but the sauce was really think and seemed to have a little too much molasses. I make it a point to try and sample each ribber every year just to make sure that I didn’t hit them on an off day and also to see if they have changed anything – or if my palate has changed. Gator also had a shorter line up and while we were in line they opened a second line up. This gave them bonus points in my book. I grabbed a third rack and sat down. The first thing I noticed was that the sauce was much thinner than last year. In fact it was a little too thin almost the opposite extreme from last year. The smoke flavour was muted although there was evidence of a smoke ring. I think they suffered a bit from me having just sampled Carolina Rib King and most places wouldn’t taste very smoky after that. The ribs were tender but not too soft and certainly would be good for those who don’t like their ribs too smoky. Gator BBQ: Nice Recovery!!

I didn’t try their pulled pork.

Kentucky Smokehouse (London, Ontario)
Yes they are from London – not Kentucky so don’t let the authentic sounding name fool you. This outfit boasts the longest lines at all the Ribfests. I think that people assume they must have the best ribs and also with the cool sounding name they must be good. Today when I arrived (about 12:30 pm ) I noticed that their line was relatively short. So I thought I would sample them again (last year I don’t remember being that impressed with them. I stood in the line for a while and nothing happened. I mean the line just didn’t move. At all. I stood in that line for over 45 minutes before getting to order ribs. And then it took forever to get them. Not that they were disorganized but the fellow who was manning the grill wasn’t exactly in a hurry.

At least the ribs were hot. Other than that they aren’t much different than what anyone can make at home by boiling your ribs for an hour and then throwing them on the grill for five minutes. Sure they were tender – mushy in fact and some people like that. But trust me these ribs haven’t seen one wiff of smoke. They were as grey as if they had just come out of a pot of water and no hint of a smoke ring. The sauce was thin and without much flavour.

Don’t brave the long line up for this one.

I didn’t try their pulled pork.

Ol Camp 31 (Paris ON)
Camp 31 does everything in authentic fashion. They smoke their meats and they don’t even fire the grill with charcoal. That’s honest to goodness wood logs they have on that fire.

They were in the top three for ribs with me last year and have a solid following among amateur smokers in the Ontario region. They have a restaurant in Paris, Ontario where you can go and get your authentic pork fix any time you please. I made a detour there a couple of months back but had a slab of very tough ribs. This knocked them down a couple of pegs for me. So while I was standing in line for a pulled pork sandwich I decided I would have a couple of bones to see if I would be swayed back over to the Camp 31…. “camp”.

The ribs were tender and had a nice rub on them. They were a smoky but the smoke flavour was very light (maybe they were using a lighter wood like maple or oak instead of hickory or apple wood). Also the sauce was non-existent. A little sauce is ok and you should be able to taste it.

Their pulled pork was the other extreme. It was drenched in sauce that tasted like the sauce you get out of a can of baked beans. You know that salty sugary tomatoey stuff?
Yuck! I made a mental note to ask other places to go easy on the sauce. The pork was probably good but I couldn’t taste it. Texture wise it was tending towards the tough side.

Camp 31 also gets a special award for having the ...um... "healthiest" girl on the cash.

Ole Hickory (Toronto, ON) :
As a newcomer they had no trophies or awards displayed (that I noticed) and there weren't a lot of people lining up for them. This was too bad as many people missed out on the real sleeper of the bunch. For one they obviously know how to cook with hickory wood (thus living up to their namesake) because these ribs had a nice pink smoke ring (the outer layer of the meat should be a pinkish colour from the smoke) and a wonderfully strong smoky flavour. The sauce was non-existent but good ribs technically don't need sauce. The main complaint I had about their ribs was that they had a heavy dark "bark" (the black outer coating) on them. A bark will occur on meat that has been cooked slowly for 8-12 hours. Boston Butt (pork) and Brisket often will have this but I don't think ribs should because ribs are cooked for a shorter period of time (typically around 4 hours of course I could be wrong). I think what happens at these ribfests is that people come thinking that ribs are cooked on an open grill like their burgers are. But in reality the ribs are cooked in big industrial smokers, which are kinda like big outdoor ovens. Then when someone orders a rack they throw them on the fire for a while to heat them up and to put a glaze on them like most people are accustomed to. This often leads to burnt ribs though as the sauces have a lot of sugar in them. Why not just take 'em off the smoker and let ‘em sit in a big warm vat of sauce? I think it would have the same effect

Purple Pig (Toronto, On): They have two restaurants in Toronto. I sampled them at Toronto’s ribfest and here is my review in case you forgot: Puny little baby backs with a sauce that tastes like salty apple juice. Need I say more? No but while I was waiting in line there was an older lady standing in front of me. She notices me looking at a bottle of the Purple Pig's sauce that was selling for 5.00 and asked me what it was.

"It's their sauce their selling it for 5.00"
"Oh," she said with a rather stunned look on her face.
"If you want really good sauce try Crabbie’s they have the best1"
"Oh I am buying these ones (Purple Pig) because they are from Canada and the rest of them are from America"
"No Crabbies are from London Ontario"
"Well most of them are from America"
"No, Bad Wolf who have the best ribs here are from Toronto, Kentucky Smokehouse if from London, Billy Bones is from Canada, Camp 31 has a restaurant in Paris, Ontario..."
She just looked at me dumbfounded and walked off.

Sticky Fingers (Providence RI):
At the Toronto Ribfest these guys had the tenderest ribs I have had in some time. I mean falling off the bone tender and moist. If I didn't have two other's who were my faves I would have gladly taken home a slab of their stuff.

This time around I decided to try some of their pulled pork.

It was a decent if not spectacular effort. The sauce had a strong hint of molasses which was not too heavy and the pork was nice and tender. I wouldn’t die for it but I wouldn’t throw it out either. Good solid effort from a consistent group.

Silver Bullet.
I had a reader leave a note in the comment section that these guys were good. So I wanted to try them. Bad news they had a HUGE line up. D’ya think people were reading my blog? Although as I ambled down to the ribbers row after my sampling of Gator I noticed they had taken a cue from Gator and opened up a second line. I happily jumped in and grabbed a third rack, which was actually 5 bones in instead of four. So they get a bonus for the largest serving of the day. I would describe their ribs as easy eating. They weren’t too smoky and were very tender the sauce was ok but reminded me a little too much of Purple Pig’s (which tastes like salty apple juice) I would like to see a little more smoke and a little bolder sauce to put these guys into the top of the heap. But again they aren’t crappy so I am sure most people who sampled them would be happy.

Last year I seem to remember them having a very good sauce - on the spicy side but it didn't seem so spicy this year.

I didn’t try their pulled pork.

Turtle Jacks (Burlington, On) : Something is clearly wrong with these ribs. First of all I am always suspicious of a roadhouse style restaurant that enters one of these contests. I have eaten at Turtle Jacks before and am partial to their "chicken wing sandwich" but nothing on Turtle Jack's menu suggests they are at all knowledgeable in the ways of traditional barbecue. So could they make a believer of me?

Nope. No Smoke ring whatsoever; grey soggy ribs with a slather of what seems to be store bought sauce infused with liquid smoke. Turtle Jacks; I challenge you to prove you are smoking ribs and using a proper sauce. Otherwise I call CHEATER!!!CHEATER!! CHEATER!!!

Uncle Sams (Albuquerque, New Mexico): I seem to remember last year that I felt Uncle Sam's was average but not great. I thought they were on the verge of moving from good to great. Alas they have slipped a notch. Uncle Sam's has one thing going for them. They have the smoke think down pat. Their ribs always have a good smoke ring and the flavour is decent. But they were completely without any sauce and they were on the stringy side. I rated them average to below average and am still willing to give them one more chance. Otherwise head back to New Mexico guys.

After sampling many ribs and much pulled pork plus brisket here are my picks for this summers Ribfests.

Ribs:

1st Carolina Rib King;
2nd Bad Wolf (consistency counts baby).
3rd Crabbies Never at Burlington Ribfest they are worth making the drive to the Toronto Ribfest for a slab.

Honorable mention:

Gator BBQ; Sticky Fingers and Ole Hickory

Sauce
1st Crabbies
2nd Carolina Rib King
3rd Bad Wolf

Pulled Pork:
1st Crabbies
2nd Carolina Rib King
3rd Sticky Fingers

Brisket:
Bad Wolf by default (the two sweetest words in the English language).

I still haven't found me a good chili cookoff.....

Source:http://meatriarchy.blogspot.com/archives/2004_09_05_meatriarchy_archive.html