Laura Pfiffer loves beer. Of that there is no question. Always in search of that next great beer, she consumes it with a discerning palate and maintains a blog about those adventures. She’s also known to make some beer at home. So it would only seem a natural fit for Laura to try her hand at making a chicken wing sauce that required the use of beer. Even, perhaps enter a contest to do so at Southbound Brewing Company last month.
That’s just what she did.
I was a judge at that contest. The 2nd annual “Get Saucy” event at Southbound. 11 contestants in all. Ranging from novices to experienced chefs. Each of them making a sauce that would be used with chicken wings being offered for that evening by Savannah’s Bowtie BBQ. The rules were pretty simple: You had to use a Southbound beer to make the sauce. Essentially that was it. The winner would have their sauce made in large batches and offered at Bowtie BBQ during August so the general public could taste it as well. Lucky you.
I won’t sugar coat it, judging some of these contests can be pretty tough. Sometimes it is a nightmare. How so? Sometimes the product you are judging is so good, it’s hard to compare similar yet different products. Sometimes entries can be pretty bad. As in “how could anyone think this was worthy of being in a contest?” Sometimes the sheer volume is overwhelming. As I mentioned, in this case there were 11 sauces. 11 sauces generally mean 11 wings to sample, right? Well, that can escalate quickly when you want to re-visit a sauce or two. It adds up.
No one is complaining. It is what we do. 4 judges in all.
The judging started with entry number 7. We counted up through 11, then went back to entries 1-6. Entirely random. We started with number 7 because it was the first one in the judging room. Pretty simple stuff.
The judging was fun. There was a lot of discussion among the judges as we made our way through the list. One thing I will say is that by the time you get to ‘sauce number 11’ it is very easy to forget about sauce number one. Going first, many times is a disadvantage. However, in this room, we kept referencing number 7.
“That is really good. But not as good as number 7.” was a common statement.
By the time we were done, no one was able to unseat number 7 as our favorite. It was our first sauce tasted and was able to hold off 9 others to be voted “Let’s Get Saucy.” year two winner.
It was Laura Pffifer’s “Knee Deep” a sauce she describes as “Mango Jalapeño. A little bit of sweet with a lot of sassy with an oh so nice bite.” It was made with Southbound’s Transilience Beer – an Imperial Berliner Weisse Ale.
She nailed it. In her first try. Literally. Asked how long she’d been working on the sauce, she said “Not at all. I made it Wednesday. I figured we’d give it a try and I’d enter whatever we came up with.”
Talk about totally winging it.
Her husband, Kevin, standing nearby offered full credit to Laura for her creation. “I was busy juggling our two toddlers and making runs to Kroger for whatever she needed.”
The contents of those Kroger runs are very likely a closely guarded secret, but she didn’t need any additional skill. She had plenty already.
Laura’s “Knee Deep” Sauce is available at Bowtie BBQ through the end of the month. Waiting for you to Eat It and Like It.
See you on TV
Jesse
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