Question: What food-lovers event down the road from Santa Fe draws 35,000 people, is one of the Top 100 Events in America, won the Tourism Association of New Mexico Award last year, but almost no Santa Feans attend? Answer: The Pork & Brew State BBQ Championship in Rio Rancho. This gastronomical paradox had me piqued, so I snagged my culinary curiosity and a food buddy and Jeeped down to the Santa Ana Star Center to see what type of barbecue hubbub was taking place there.

Good barbecue has long been a culinary quest of mine and, while I've managed to find a few good 'cue keeper recipes over the years, I hoped I might incrementally increase that larder by visiting with some serious barbecuers.

The Santa Ana Star Center parking lot was festooned with humongous white tents and the sweet and tangy smell of barbecue wafted along the first warm day of 2010. I was soon pamphleted with materials that let me know what was really going on here. Our Barbecue State Championship is one of 330 such events sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. You have to love its mission statement:


"Our mission is to celebrate, teach, preserve, and promote barbecue

as a culinary technique, sport and art form. We want barbecue to be

recognized as America's Cuisine."


All right, I'm in. They also made sure I knew what barbecue meant, which they defined as, "To slow cook meats over the heat of hardwood and/or charcoal, 200 to 375 degrees." Well, maybe I'm out.

Whatever, I was now on the trail to try as much 'cue as I could stomach and hopefully snag some award-winning recipes. The first competitor I chatted with was Leonard Trujillo of I-Que-4-You. As soon as I posed a question about what made his barbecue good, I was met with stone-faced silence, as if I was asking an Iranian engineer for nuclear facility blueprints. All right, the contestants aren't about to share their trade secrets, and when I found out there was $10,000 in prize money at this event, I understood their reticence.

To be eligible for the Grand Champion prize — $3,000 and a trophy — you must enter the following four dishes:

1. Pork Ribs

2. Chicken

3. Beef Brisket

4. Pork

There are a number of other prized food categories, like "Anything Butt," which is any dish you want to make that is edible. I like that category. There are also categories for sides, beans, sauce, salsa and dessert. And in a wonderful way to get children involved with cooking, they have separate children's categories for salsa and sauce for kids 10 and under and 11 to 15.

As I left the Que-4-You booth, Leonard whispered, "agave nectar." OK, I was making glacial progress on perhaps snagging a championship recipe. My culinary companion's tummy was thumping "Feed Me" so it was time to jump into the serious business of seeing how good this 'cue was.

While I was starting to lose hope of securing recipes from these pros, I did want to compare their barbecue sauce to the one I make for my Glazed Spareribs and Beans, which is the best I've ever tasted, and I keep going to barbecue joints on a regular basis to see if there's a better one.

The tables surrounding Skin & Bones had 33 barbecue trophies on them and signs further enhancing their culinary reputation to include First Place Ribs, Chillicothe, Mo., 2008; First Place, Brisket, Port Arthur, Ill., 2009; First Place Sauce, North Platte, Neb., 2009; and on and on. I decided to go with the traditional Pulled Pork Sandwich ($6) while my food buddy went for the Tennessee Taco ($6), which was bloated with pulled pork, BBQ beans & skin on a flour tortilla. The Pulled Pork Sandwich was a nice 'cue treat, but the sauce didn't top mine. The Tennessee Taco was very tasty with its unique barbecue-ingredient combos.

We next saddled up to Francis Montaño of Mad Max's BBQ from Rio Rancho, which had taken first-place awards for both dessert and side dish. She even shared with me that their award-winning Pickled Piggie Cake contained Mandarin oranges, pineapple, coconut, with a cream-cheese/pineapple filling and a special icing. It also had "special ingredients" that she wouldn't divulge. Unfortunately, the Pickled Piggie Cake had already sold out, and we opted not to try the award-winning Shrimp Vera Cruz side dish, as we were still stuffed from our first barbecue noshing. As we left, Francis said they usually have both of these dishes on their menu at Mad Max's. Note to self: Never eaten at a Rio Rancho restaurant, return to Mad Max's BBQ.

I then ran into the Head Hog of the Pork & Brew, toting a toque with a large pink pig festooned atop it. Known by day as Art Perez, he's the sports and events coordinator for the Rio Rancho Convention and Visitors Bureau and started this event in 2004. The first year they had the event, at the old Rio Rancho City Hall, they had 37 entries and ran out of space for seven more barbecuers who wanted to enter. This year they had 62 entries from all over the United States. Two years ago the event was one of the top two such events in the KCBS Tour.

Perez said that the city of Rio Rancho spent $87,000 on this year's event. Economic impact calculator: 35,000 x $5 entry fee equals $175,000 x 3.5 dollar rollover = $612,500. That's a pretty nice return on an $87,000 investment, even after incidentals, and it doesn't include retail-booth rental fees. I think the Santa Fe Convention & Visitors Bureau must have been asleep at the wheel when they missed out on this culinary economic development opportunity. (Another wonderful community benefit of this event is that 20 percent of all sales go to support the Rio Rancho and Cleveland high schools' girls athletic programs).

The Head Hog then said, "You've got to talk to Bill Milroy of Texas Rib Rangers BBQ. He's an international award-winner."

As we approached Texas Rib Rangers BBQ, all I initially saw were a bunch of 20-somethings whipping out plates of 'cue as fast as they could. But over by the barbecue pit was Bill, calmly checking on the food simmering away. Bill's a rotund, gray-bearded man with a gentle disposition that immediately makes you feel like a long lost friend. He hails from Denton, Texas, and casually mentioned that during the past 34 years on the circuit he has won 67 national and international championships, three pulled-pork international championships, first-place awards in 29 of the 34 states he's barbecued in and was a five-time winner in the American Royal International BBQ Championship's "1st Place Sauce — Best on the Planet" category.

I asked him the $64,000 culinary question, "What's the secret to your barbecuing success?" His response: "My wife. She encouraged me to quit my corporate job with Anheuser-Busch and pursue what I loved doing — barbecuing great food, meeting wonderful people, traveling the country. I have the best job in the world." Said like any artisan who has a passion and carries it out.

With such amazing success on the KCBS Circuit, I asked what his future culinary goals were. I then learned the business side of Bill Milroy. "I'm developing a complete food line for the Professional Bull Riders Association; developing the barbecue sauce for sandwiches at all of the 7/11 stores in the country; doing the pre-cooked meat line for Jack Daniels; and I handled the food at six NASCAR track events last year." Milroy is going to be a very rich man.

But, it still gets down to that ultimate taste test. Would my barbecue sauce still be able to whip Bill's Best on the Planet sauce? My buddy and I each ordered a whole slab of ribs and drenched them in Bill's award-winning sauce. As I bit into those ribs the sauce was smooth, velvety, delicate and sweet — a true culinary champion. I'd been bested and my recipe would have to scurry back to its recipe-box home knowing it's no longer the best in the land.

Besides great barbecue, what makes this event so much fun is how delightful a place it is to take a family with children. There's nonstop musical entertainment from a main stage; magicians; wood chainsaw sculptors and our favorite: the pig races of Ham Bone Express. The race stands were full with a standing-room-only crowd as the starting gate opened. Pot bellies and half-pot bellies are the speedsters and they circled the oval track at a pretty fast clip. You'd run fast, too, if you were there — and were a pig.

Right next to these tiny oinkers was a sign advertising "1,000-pound Arkansas Pig" with the chance to see it for $1. I'd never seen a 1,000-pound porker, so I forked over the four bits. And a beautiful, white Hampshire/Yorkshire laid serenely on the ground, while the kids, as well as I, patted his coarse skin.

There are also a large number of very interesting nonfood vendors at this State Championship, ranging from The Water Hole, to Pure Profit Fundraising, Southwest Billiard Tables, Factory Direct Cigars to a surprising Hookah Lounge, featuring 82 varieties of flavored tobaccos, such as Smelly Navels. But seriously, what's this popular event doing in Rio Rancho? Shouldn't this business be in Santa Fe or Albuquerque?

As my companion and I slowly made our way back to our vehicle, we were overstuffed from the whole racks of St. Louis-style ribs we consumed, but vowed to come back next year and do it all over again. If you love good barbecue, you need to keep this on your culinary radar. The 8th Annual Pork & Brew State BBQ Championship will take place next year on March 25-26, 2011.

While I failed in my naïve mission to snag some award-winning recipes from these competitive barbecuers, I'm more than willing to share two of my favorite barbecue recipes. They have earned neither money nor ribbons, but I guarantee you that they're lip-smacking, finger-lickin' good.


GLAZED SPARERIBS AND BEANS

3 lbs. pork spareribs, cut in 3-inch pieces

2 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

Coarse-ground black pepper

2 cans (16-oz. size) pork and beans with tomato sauce

1/2 cup thinly sliced apples

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/3 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons molasses

Rinse spareribs in cold water. Place in large saucepan with water, salt and 1/2 teaspoon coarse black pepper. Bring to boiling, reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours; drain.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Turn beans into shallow baking dish, sprinkle with 1/3 teaspoon coarse-ground pepper. Place apple slices here and there on beans. Arrange spareribs on top.

In a small bowl combine vinegar and mustard until smooth; stir in ketchup and molasses. Spread over spareribs.

Bake for 40 minutes until spareribs are glazed.

Makes 4 servings.


BOLD & SPICY CHICKEN WINGS WITH CRANBERRY GLAZE

1/3 cup frozen cranberry juice cocktail concentrate, thawed

3 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2-3 teaspoon Tabasco

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

6 whole chicken wings

Salt and black pepper

Preheat broiler with oven rack 5-6 inches from the heating element. Line a baking sheet with foil and coat with nonstick spray.

Whisk together concentrate, mustard, brown sugar, Tabasco and Worcestershire in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until mixture becomes syrupy, 5-8 minutes.

Cut tips from chicken wings and discard. Cut each wing in half at the joint to make 2 pieces.

Season chicken with salt and pepper, place on prepared baking sheet, and broil 10 minutes on one side. Flip chicken and baste with cranberry glaze. Broil an additional 6 minutes, flip again, and baste the uncoated side. Broil until chicken begins to brown and caramelize, about 3 minutes. Chicken is done when an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the wing meat registers 160 degrees.

Makes 4 servings.

BEST BBQ

The winners of this year's 7th Annual Pork & Brew State BBQ Championship:

Grand Champion: Sweet Peppers, Albuquerque,

Sauce: Grillers in the Mist Colorado, Florence, Colo.

Salsa: Big Pig BBQ, Oakley, Calif.

Anything Butt: Q, Albuquerque

Baked Beans: Twin Oaks Smokin Crew, Stillwater, Okla.

Side Dish: Mad Max's BBQ, Rio Rancho

Dessert: Mad Max's BBQ, Rio Rancho

Chicken: McFrankenboo BBQ, Glendale, Ariz.

Pork Ribs: Burnin Bob' Butts N Bones, Morrison, Colo.

Pork: Sweet Peppers, Albuquerque

Brisket: Bub-Ba-Q, Woodstock, Ga.