Stock Show barbecue champ shares secrets for blue-ribbon ribs.
Stock Show BBQ champ shares hints for blue-ribbon ribs
Anything can happen in competition barbecue, and for San Antonio’s Corey Flores, his biggest moment caught him, shall we say, indisposed.
As the rib results were called out at the 2018 San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo Bar-B-Que Cook-Off & Festival, Flores figured his ribs weren’t about to take any of the prize money, so he figured he would take a restroom break. And then, within earshot of the microphone, the winning ticket matched the numbers he held in his hand.
“I couldn’t believe it, but I ran up there as fast as I could ... it was like a dream,” Flores said.
Steve Grams, chairman of the BBQ event, had to give Flores a moment to compose himself and button up his Levi’s jeans fully before allowing the championship moment to proceed. After claiming the banner, Flores’ cooking camp space turned into an all-night party that stretched into the a.m. hours with about $400 of beer consumed.
Flores had beaten more than 300 of some of the best barbecue cooks in the world at what is billed as the largest sanctioned barbecue cook-off in Texas. The rib victory was also enough to give Flores and his cooking partner, Richie Cunningham, reserve grand champion honors (barbecue speak for second place overall), with cash and prize money totaling more than $3,000.
Flores and Cunningham will have their work cut out for them in coming weeks, when the 2019 San Antonio Bar-B-Que Cook-Off & Festival kicks off Jan. 25 on the Salado Creek grounds near the AT&T Center. More than 300 teams are again expected to compete, and the event sold out of cooking spaces the first five days they were on sale.
“It’s the type of achievement that can be career-defining for a barbecue cook,” Grams said. “Those guys have operated a little more discreetly, but now their names are on the walls, and everybody will be gunning for them.”
The competition barbecue world is filled with grizzled veterans, and Flores said he’s still considered somewhat of a rookie on the circuit. But he couldn’t have had a better start.
Rookie or no, this is a guy who knows ribs. And here’s what he says you should do:
Keep clean smoke: Before putting the meat on the smoker, make sure its churning out clean heat with smoke that is either invisible or barely noticeable. Grey and blackened smoke leads to skunky meat.
Don’t oversmoke: A rack of ribs doesn’t need more than two hours on the smoke. After that, there is a risk that it will overpower the pork flavor.
Avoid complacency: Once you develop a successful rib formula, stick to it and resist the urge to skip steps for the sake of time or convenience.
In 2012, Flores and Cunningham, who own and operate separate construction businesses, decided to enter their first competition cook — the Wild Hog Explosion event in Bandera — with their massive steel smoker, “Big Girl Bertha.” They were just a pair of backyard cooks trying to have some
fun, although Flores’ family had a history of owning several San Antonio area Mexican restaurants.
“We didn’t know anything about competition barbecue,” Flores said. “We didn’t know how to set up a camp. We didn’t know how the awards were given out. We just knew we had tickets in our hands.”
The final result was a secondplace finish with chicken, thirdplace finish with ribs and a firstplace brisket that was enough to run away with the grand championship at the event, besting more than 35 cooking teams. A latenight poker game inspired the name of their team: Texas Poker Smokers BBQ.
The team competes in about 20 competitions annually, and has taken first-place honors multiple times in all of the meats, but ribs have always been the moneymaker. Flores can best be described as a barbecue tinkerer, always on the lookout for the latest products and cooking devices that can keep the winning calls coming.
“Big Girl Bertha” is still used, but most of the cooking is now done on the modern Traeger pellet grill systems that are taking the barbecue community by storm. They offer solid command of pit temperature and the opportunity to get some sleep by not having to wake up and tend to a fire.
If there’s a new spice rub, spritz or other secret ingredient, Flores will make a point to buy some and test it out. He admits to having more than $1,000 in seasonings boxed up inside his house, and he cooks so much test barbecue, even his neighbors have had enough of his leftovers.
“I don’t know if there is a guy more serious about this,” Cunningham said. “Corey is the one that sweats over every detail and does the exhausting research. I’m the helper.”
One recipe that doesn’t get much tweaking is the famed ribs. Flores said he’ll cook them the exact same way at this year’s rodeo as he did in 2018.
Last year, Flores used ribs harvested from Duroc pigs, an older breed of domestic pig that is known for a muscular frame and reddish-brown coloring. The pigs he used were originally raised on an Iowa farm and were hand-fed. The ribs have consistent fat that intertwines with the muscle tissue and the bones are less curved for better appearance for the judges.
“What Wagyu is to beef, these pigs are kind of the pork equal to that,” Flores said.
Flores said that the rib technique he uses is adapted from videos and recipes used by the legendary Texas barbecue competitor Johnny Trigg, a Texas native nicknamed “The Godfather of Barbecue.”
“The key to the ribs is always about tenderness and the ability to hold in the juice,” Flores said. “I’m always looking for a flavor that starts with the sweet and ends with a little bit of heat.”
To get to the final table at the San Antonio rodeo event, meats that come off the pits can go through up to five separate rounds of judging, with 300 or more boxes of food whittled down to the final 10. That can take a lot of time, so the meat is usually tasted traditionally lukewarm if not cold.
What separates ribs from the other meats in competition barbecue is that the preferred flavor profile is still a bit of a mystery.
“Everybody goes into the judging knowing what a good chicken and a good brisket is supposed to taste like here in Texas,” Grams said. “My theory is that not everybody knows what a great pork rib is supposed to taste like.”
Flores is a firm believer that he has found the answer.
He’s gunning for a rodeo repeat, and plans to cook up to 15 briskets, 20 to 30 pork butts and 30 to 40 racks of ribs and is opening up his camp to the public food tastings and cold beer for donations that will benefit a scholarship fund for kids.
Flores also has plans to make Texas Poker Smokers a full-time business, taking his brand-new trailer on the road for a taste of competition barbecue in the next few months. He already does catering events.
And two things are guaranteed to happen when the award-winners are named: Flores will take his restroom break ahead of time, and if he wins, the San Antonio “Rib King” title is all his.