Chris Sargent reported from East Randolph this week that his Howling Hog barbecue team had its best cooking season ever, ending with a strong showing at the New England Barbecue Championships at the Harpoon brewery in Windsor, July 28-29.

Other team members are Sargent's wife, Jenn Colby, their 10-year-old son, Connor, and Jenn's aunt and uncle, Mame Ramey and Hank McKee of Duxbury. They were joined this year by "a gentleman named Bob," a friend of Ramey and McKee.

The Harpoon weekend features two separate competitions, on Saturday and Sunday. There is plenty to do for spectators, too, as teams also vend foods, the brewery sells beer, and "live bands are cranking out good tunes," Sargent reported.

After 10 to 14 hours of cooking Friday night, teams enter their barbecued goods on Saturday in a variety of categories, including chicken and pork in different cuts.

The first tasters, however, were the team's sponsors, "Doctors Without Boundaries," who received a good-sized package of ribs, pulled pork, beans, cornbread,, and dessert on Friday night.

"It's our way of showing appreciation for their support of what we do," Sargent noted. "Competition barbecue is an expensive hobby. "

In Saturday's competition, Howling Hog's entry in the brisket category took 5^th place out of the 42 teams competing.

"It turned out that we had several additionally solid scores, coming in 13^th in chicken and 14^th in pulled pork," Sargent explained. "With those scores, our over-all rank among the best 42 teams in New England was 16!

The next day, Team Howling Hog had a big win in the Summer Sizzler Grilling Competition, in the Chef's Choice category. The only requirement in this division "is that you us some sort of Harpoon beer in a sauce, said Sargent.

"The team decided to use the ladies' strong skills at dessert and they grilled up apple cake with a Harpoon Munich Dark caramel sauce."

The spice cake, beautifully garnished with fresh raspberries and lemon slices, was actually "baked" in the team's grill.

"When the submission left our booth, I had little doubt it would win us an award," Sargent related. And indeed, the result was a first place trophy.

"Out of the six cumulative scores, three of them were statistically perfect!," he marveled.

"At our first event (Harpoon 2005) we came in second to last," Sargent said. "We are very pleased with how far we've come in only six barbecue competitions. As team captain, I couldn't be happier."

When all the scores were in, Howling Hog stood in 10th place among Sunday's 36 competitors.

Sargent recommends slow-cook barbecue as a fun and tasty pasttime and "sport" for fellow "foodies."

"If you're really into cooking and food, and like to camp, and like to hang out with people, it's the perfect sport," Sargent said.

Howling Hog's improvement has come from "lots and lots and lots and lots of practice," talking with others, and online research, he said.

His team has a good grill and smoker, but anyone with a Weber-type grill, and the willingness to tend a small fire for hours on end, can try barbecue at home.

For fuel, Howling Hog uses lump charcoal, and cherry and hickory wood, Sargent said.

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