For good barbecue, the secret is more than the sauce

Walking along the western border of Elmer Thomas Park Saturday morning, you could tell something good was cooking.

Wafts of spices mixed with smoke and the ever beautiful smell of slow smoking ribs carried visitors in what seemed a fugue-like state where your feet don’t touch the ground.

With the Lawton-Fort Sill Juneteenth barbecue competition underway, an already hot morning turned up its heat when you approach the array of smokers and their chefs hanging out under canopied shade. For every chef’s secret, there were the tools of the trade that came in a variety of shapes and sizes, some custom and some came that way.

Woodrow Simon said there’s no real secret to smoking great barbecue ribs.

“Low and slow,” he said. “Take your time.”

A self-proclaimed backyard barbecuer for many years, Simon said the day’s goal was to “be out here enjoying Juneteenth.” He said his real secret ingredient is teamwork with his wife.

“We make this a family thing,” he said. “She makes the sauce and seasoning and I do the cooking.”

Simon’s a smart chef.

“I don’t want to step on her toes,” he said.

Justin Torres entered the competition to enjoy one of his favorite pastimes of the past dozen or so years. He was open with advice for aspiring barbecuers.

“The secret is temperature control, the rub you’re using and your wood,” he said. “I’m using post oak and cherry.”

For his secret sauce, Torres said it’s about “flavor more than heat” with his recipe.

“I use vinegar, sugar and spices,” he said.

Torres kept those spices under his hat. It was a competition, after all.

Working the rotisserie smoker for the Poly HuliHuli RibChic set up, Infeta Veu liberally doused the wood with lighter fluid to get a nice eruption of flames. It’s the family hobby-turned-retirement business for the pastor. He said it’s his wife, Betty, who does the main work and their son, Jacob, pitching in how he can.

“All I do is start the fire,” he said.

The family just opened up two months ago and this was their first competition.

Betty Veu said their secret comes from their Polynesian heritage. It’s been enough of a hit, she said, that they’ve been invited back for the upcoming Freedom Festival.

“It’s our own secret recipe,” she said. “There are two rubs: the main one and a wet one that has some pineapple to give it more of a sweet and original flavor.”

Tonya Mack, Elander Stokes and Theresa Wright grabbed up the reporter and said they knew who the man was to visit. He goes by the name of Armour.

When asked to see what’s cooking, Armour said, “Are you trying to throw off my temperature?”

Immediately, Armour smiled big and opened the door to the smoky delights inside the cooker. The smell and sight was enough itself to cause the women to break out into smiles knowing they were going to taste it when ready.

When asked his secret to smoking it up right, Armour gave the reporter a long look before responding with a measured, “salt and pepper.”

Armour said he started smoking meats about 15 years ago and has been cooking for 25 years. Making the meal is as fulfilling as eating it. It’s almost like a meditation, a way to take your time, enjoy the moment and enjoy the process.

“You have your good days and bad days, you feel me?”

With a good cigar, a cold Modelo in one hand and his trusty silver tongs in the other, for Armour and the other competitors Saturday, it was one of those good days.