Their hard work brought a third place finish for showmanship in the state BBQ cookoff held this year at Benson's Mule Days Festival.
| When Carteret Correctional
Center Superintendent Charlie
Meeks talks about pit crews,
he's not talking about cars. But
Meeks and a pit crew made up
of his wife and granddaughter
were in a grueling competition. Their hard work brought a third place finish for showmanship in the state BBQ cookoff held this year at Benson's Mule Days Festival. |
"Showmanship is the way you set up your site," Meeks said. "My wife designed what we call A Touch of Class--a five-foot table with pink tablecloth and china."
Of course, the table is decorated with pigs. Other decorations are added based on the cookoff's theme. They add pumpkins, mums and gourds to their display and with a recent tobacco celebration theme, several sticks of tobacco were hung around the site. Meeks took first place in showmanship in a recent cookoff in Wilson.
Meeks has been cooking pigs for the last 15 years and has been competing in six to ten cookoffs a year over the last five years.
"I like the competition and the challenge in cooking a good pig, having it judged by people who know good pork and being rated against people who cook good pig," Meeks said.