Food & Drink
Battle of the Barbecue
Come join us for a sizzling showdown at the Lake Gaston Lions Club! Get ready to feast on mouthwatering barbecue dishes cooked up by local pitmasters. Taste test your way through a variety of flavorful meats and savory sides. Bring your appetite and your friends for a day filled with good food, good company, and good times!
Battle of the Barbecue is Eastern North Carolina’s ultimate two-day BBQ throwdown — where smoke, skill, and community collide for a powerful cause. This Southern Barbecue Network–sanctioned competition brings together professional and amateur pitmasters, all fighting for bragging rights, trophies, and cash prizes while raising money to provide grocery & gas cards for local cancer patients.
ADDITIONALLY: We are having a free event on Friday. We kick it off with our FREE Kids Q Contest and the fan-favorite Anything Butt Competition, inviting cooks of all ages to get creative. Saturday is the main event with brisket, Boston butts, and St. Louis–style ribs sizzling over the pits, plus chili showdown entries, vendors, live music, family activities, and public taste-testing opportunities.
Free event with Kid's Q Contest and "Anything Butt" contest where contestants smoke a variety or foods, anything except pork butts. Contestants will be selling their creations. See the other eventbrite listing for mor information.
Whether you’re competing, sponsoring, volunteering, or coming hungry — Battle of the Barbecue brings the whole community together for one mission:
Feed Families. Fight Cancer. Love Local.
CONTESTANTS:
We provide the meat in these categories: Ribs, Pork Butts and Chicken Legquarters or thighs. If you are also doing Chili, we provide ground beef, the rest is up to you. We prefer that you stick around for the main event from 2-6 to serve your delicious, award winning Barbecue and Chili and enjoy the festivities.
1. COOK TEAM(S)
A cook team is any individual, group, or restaurant, hereinafter referred to as a team, that prepares and cooks an entry or entries to be judged according to SBN rules at an SBN-sanctioned event. Each team comprises a head cook and as many assistants as required. (Battle of the Barbecue allows up to 5 total cooks to be present during the event. Additional members must pay an entry fee.)
The Contest Organizer of an SBN-sanctioned event may NOT cook in any category in that event.
Each team should have at least one representative present at the cooks’ meeting held the evening before the event. Absent from the meeting, cook teams accept the responsibility for understanding these rules and any changes announced at the meeting.
Teams, including members and guests, are expected, and required to exhibit proper and courteous behavior at all times. Teams are expected to comply with “quiet time” stipulations set by the event organizer.
Teams will be advised of local laws and will adhere to these laws. Failure to abide by these rules of behavior may result in expulsion from the event and may be barred from competing in SBN-sanctioned events. No cook team member of an SBN-sanctioned event may enter the judging or scoring area during the event.
2. SITE LOCATIONS, SANITATION AND SAFETY
Each team is assigned a cook site. Teams’ equipment, including cooker, canopy, trailer, etc., should be contained within this space. If additional space is required, the team should contact the Contest Organizer to make satisfactory arrangements.Teams are expected to maintain their cook sites in an orderly and clean manner and are responsible for the cleanup of their site once the competition ends.
State Health Department regulations prescribe that sanitary practices are to be observed during preparation and cooking. All cooking, seasoning, marinating, or injecting must be done on-site. Plastic or rubber gloves should be used at all times while handling food. A meat thermometer, a five-gallon hand washing station with soap, flowing water, and paper towels shall be available on your site. Each site should have a #10 A-B-C fire extinguisher. Adequate space will be provided to each cook team for this added fire code provision. Contest Organizers will explain local fire codes as applicable.
3. EQUIPMENT
Each team shall supply all equipment necessary for the preparation and cooking of their entry including a cooker and cooking fuel. No team may share a cooker or grill with any other team.
4. JUDGING AND SCORING
Categories of meats sanctioned for judging by SBN are as follows:
o Boston Butt
o Chicken Leg Quarters
o St. Louis Cut Ribs
(Battle of the Barbecue will also have an amateur chili contest. Some SBN rules may not apply)
SBN uses a blind judging system.
Entries are submitted in an approved turn-in container with no garnish or decorations. Only samples for judging are allowed in the turn-in container. That is the only authorized container for sample turn-ins. Any turn-in container that inadvertently becomes damaged or could be considered as “marked” can be replaced by the SBN Event Representative. Marking is defined as any handwritten or mechanically made mark inside or outside the turn-in container that could identify the submitting team to a judge. The contents of turn-in containers become the property of the SBN at the moment they are placed at the receiving table.
o Meat may be sauced or un-sauced. The sauce cannot contain large chunks (e.g., pineapple chunks in a teriyaki sauce). Chunks can be no larger than a fine dice, 1/8 cubed. No side sauce containers will be permitted in the turn-in container.
Pork must be cooked intact. Money meat cannot be separated before doneness. A minimum of eight (8) separate and identifiable portions per turn-in container are required.
o In the case of the shoulder, the sample size is a minimum of 2 ounces of pork per serving. The sample presented can be in any form: pulled, chopped, medallions, etc.
Samples submitted for the turn-in category must be the only protein in the turn-in container. Other proteins or stuffing may not be used in a supporting role (e.g., bacon-wrapped, moistened bread, or sausage-stuffed) unless explicitly defined by the contest (e.g., “Anything Butt,” or “Kids-Que”)
The Contest Organizer establishes turn-in times. SBN allows a ten-minute window: five minutes before and five minutes after.
Battle of the Barbecue Fest Turn in Times:
Professional Turn in Times:
o Pork: 9:00 AM
o Ribs: 10:00 AM
o Chicken11:00 AM
Amateur Turn in Times:
o Pork 9:30 AM
o Ribs: 10:30 AM
o Chicken: 11:30 AM
o Chili 12:00 noon
Each entry is judged and scored using SBN’s criteria of appearance, taste/aroma, and texture/tenderness. SBN utilizes a one-decimal point range scoring system from a low of 1.0 to a high of 10.0. Winners with the highest average scores are awarded first place; the team with the next highest average score receives second place, etc. Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion are teams with the highest sum of average total scores in the specified meat categories in the event. SBN’s scoring procedure determines the final score in the event of ties.
5. DISQUALIFICATION
● SBN’s Event Representative is the only person who can disqualify an entry. Any sample found in violation of a rule is a box disqualification and is to receive a score of 1 by the entire judging table.
o Evidence of Marking or sculpting. Sculpting is defined as the carving, decorating, forming, or shaping of a meat sample contained in a turn-in container, which could identify the submitting team to any judge. A box turned upside down is considered a “Marked” box. If a box is identified as upside down at the turn-in table, the cook team has two resolutions
First, the team can turn the box over and submit the entry. Secondly, they can request a new box, repack, and submit it before the turn-in deadline. o No garnish of ANY kind is allowed. Garnish is defined as items used to add decorative or savory touches to a sample.
Examples of garnish include, but are not limited to, herbs, vegetables, fruits, other meats, or dairy items.
o No foreign material is allowed in the turn-in container. Foreign Material is defined as any non-edible item. Bones with no meat, brush bristles, toothpicks, sauce containers, and aluminum foil are examples of foreign material.
o No other proteins or stuffing may be used in a supporting role unless explicitly defined by the contest (e.g., bacon-wrapped, moistened bread, or sausage-stuffed).
o The box contains less than eight (8) individual SEPARATE samples. Judges are not allowed to cut or otherwise separate portions in the box.
o Evidence of blood, such as the meat, is prepared below the State Health Department’s safe consumption guidelines.
o Entries turned in after the designated turn-in time will be disqualified for that category.
o “If a cook team is disqualified for violating the event’s published rules, SBN will abide by the event’s decision and the actions they impose.”
6. INTERPRETATION OF RULES
The interpretation of SBN rule(s) are those of SBN’s Event Representative at each event, and their decisions are final. Violation of the rules may result in disqualification from an event.
