There is something about putting meat over an open flame that we as a species are drawn to. It is a siren song of smoke and ash that can be traced back hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years, when humanity was in its infancy. You could say that we have grown up with barbecue or that the course of human history hinged on our earliest ancestors perfecting the art of a slow cooked meal.

Traces of that ancient DNA can be seen today in backyard barbecues and community cookouts across the country, and as much as good food brings people together, our desire to be the best at something can be equally as motivating. Much like one tribe of our ancestors waged war against another, regional factions have sprung up across America’s “barbecue belt.” However, civilization has come a long way in the past several hundred thousand years and rules must be established to govern the dry-rub, brisket loving Texans and the patient Southerners, with their “low and slow” cooking method, equally.

Randy and Carol Bigler found nexus of these two ideas — community and competition — in the Kansas City Barbecue Society. Carol said they were living in a small efficiency apartment in Huntsville, Ala. having just relocated from Pennsylvania when Randy stumbled across a newspaper ad for a class to become a barbecue judge. 

The two have now been involved in nearly every aspect of competitive barbecuing, from judge to competitor and everything in between. Now they spend most of their time as instructors, teaching others the finer points of the KCBS rules and regulations. In February, the couple led a KCBS judging class on the campus of St. Bernard Prep School. Thirty-six new judges and 16 table captains left certified in preparation for the 8th Annual Bernard Blues and BBQ which returns in September. 

KCBS divides its competitions into four distinct categories: chicken, pork, pork ribs and beef brisket. Each one is judged based on appearance, taste and tenderness using a numbered scale of five through nine. A score of two is reserved for if a judge finds their sample to be inedible, while a score of one can only be submitted by a contest representative and calls for elimination. 

Carol said she understands how people can often have passionate opinions about a food that is so deeply entrenched in local culture. She said that is why barbecue can get more competitive than other regional culinary rivalries. Each area has its own nuance, such as the thick sweet and spicy sauces of Memphis versus the tangy mustard based ones found in the Carolinas. The terminology may be different, but overall the actual practice of barbecuing stays the same.

“A barbecue in Pennsylvania was like hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad that kind of thing. You would go to a barbecue. That’s not to say I didn’t know how to cook barbecue. The terminology was different, but we knew what the art of barbecuing was,” Carol said. 

Things like taste and appearance can easily be subjective. There can even be misconceptions about what is considered “tender” within the confines of KCBS rules — Carol said she was surprised to learn that ribs that fall off the bone should be docked points rather than praised because they are considered overcooked. This is why she said she is adamant to teach her students to “Judge by the standards, not by what you like.”

Carol said judging can be a perfect way for those who may not enjoy actually cooking to still be involved in the barbecue culture and even though KCBS also offers cooking classes, she has found that many competitors will choose to enroll as well. She said understanding the rules will more often than not lead to improvements in their final product. 

“You become a much better cook if you take the judging class, and you become a much better judge if you take the cooking class. They really just go hand in hand and are one in the same really,” she said. 

Carol said this overlap between judging and competitors has made for more than a few friendly rivalries during her time with KCBS. These are the type of rivalries that are built on the principal of wanting to compete against each other at their best and focus on building each other up instead of tearing each other down. “If someone were to do something like drop their tray of chicken before they could cook it, the other competitors would usually come together with anything extra they had and make sure that person was still able to compete,” she said. 

These kinds of relationships can at times make for the fiercest competitions and while Carol said everyone wants to win, it is much easier to accept your losses when it is a friend who won. It is the type of civility we could all learn a thing or two from. After all, if our ancestors are able to teach us anything, it’s that in many ways, civilization itself has been built on barbecue.

“I have been involved in a lot of different organizations,” Carol said, “and this is by far one of the most tight-knit communities that you’re ever going to find. It’s very competitive, but you meet a lot of good people and build a lot of friendships that last a really long time.”