Fresh sheet : Grub Rustlers put to the test
While you were sleeping this weekend, The Grub Rustlers were stoking the smoker fires at the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue in Lynchburg, Tenn.
The Sandpoint team won an invitation to the competition after they landed top honors in the Montana State Barbecue Championship in August.
Forget what you’ve seen on Food Network programs of the championship, with a dozen or more sauce-sloshing and rib-smoking team members rushing around. The Grub Rustlers are actually just Phil Glidden and his wife, Lynette. They’re not professional cooks or caterers like many of the other competitors. Phil is a dentist and Lynette works for a pharmaceutical consulting firm.
“That’s what kind of gives us special pleasure in beating some of the other teams,” said Phil Glidden, in an interview from Lynchburg. “We both have day jobs.”
This is actually the third time the husband-and-wife team has competed in the barbecue world championship. In 2004, they received a first place win for their sauce. The following year, they earned a first place in the “chef’s choice” category with a seafood chowder.
Phil Glidden was reluctant to say much about their winning style.
“Attention to details is what makes us consistent winners,” he says. “We don’t necessarily like to disclose exactly what we’re doing. Things are pretty tight-lipped in the barbecue competition.”
Each team must cook a sample in each of eight categories: ribs, pork shoulder, beef brisket, whole hog, chicken, cook’s choice, dessert and Jack Daniel’s sauce.
Two of the meats had to go into the smoker the night before Saturday’s championship. Phil Glidden stays up, while Lynette rests. “You can’t go far from the smokers,” she says.
On competition day, each team has to plate samples of their work in each category 30 minutes apart. There is a 10-minute window for each entry or the team is disqualified.
Phil Glidden says he got his introduction to barbecue in Kansas City, where his wife’s employer is based. Some years they’ll compete in a dozen competitions (although the closest one to home is held in Stevensville, Mont.). This year, the world championship was just their fourth contest.
“We do a little test kitchen work at home, and the neighbors occasionally benefit,” Lynette Glidden said. This year, they made the Caramel Bourbon Cheesecake for the dessert competition and tested it on the neighborhood.
The Grub Rustlers didn’t win any first-place awards from Saturday’s competition, where they faced 60 U.S. teams and 21 international teams. There were more than 25,000 people in Lynchburg for the championship. The town, which is the site of the oldest registered distillery in the country, has a population of 361.