Barbecue judging downtown Saturday afternoon

[August 27, 2011]  In town for the Kansas City Barbeque Society competition, Mary and Ron Cato, of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., are representatives for KCBS and will be judges at the event.

While you slept last night, the competitors were starting up their grills, preparing their meat selections for cooking and counting the hours until they would turn in their entries. Most contestants start the cooking process between midnight and the first two hours of the new day. 

Chicken is to be turned in to the judging site by noon, pork ribs by 12:30, pork by 1 p.m. and beef brisket by 1:30. There is a window of five minutes before and five minutes after the appointed time in which entries will be accepted. An atomic clock is used to determine the time. Judging will take place in the former Lincoln Courier building, at the corner of south McLean and Pulaski. Winners will be announced at 4 p.m. today.  

Ryan Williams, a Logan County Department of Public Health inspector, tests the temperature of rib tips at Tom Payne's Fat Boys Bar-B-Que stand. Williams was visiting vendor sites on Friday to check food safety conditions at booths set up for the Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival. Payne did not enter the Kansas City Barbeque Society competition but was a contestant at the Main Street-sponsored event last year. He won second in chicken and first in pulled pork, but his most prized recognition was the People's Choice Award.

[By MARLA BLAIR]