How Durell won his first barbecue contest — and cooked for 180 people
From a stick burner at a barrel race to feeding hundreds: pragmatic tricks for bigger cooks, brines that work, and what to do when the smoker breaks.
"I was thrown to the wolves. Sink or swim, brother." — Durell Hogan
Durell says that line about his first contest like a badge. He bought a smoker, seasoned it the day before, and walked into a barrel-racing crowd of about 350 people — his first competition — and came away with two firsts and a second: first for brisket, first for ribs, second for chicken. That accidental start (he dates it to around 2014–15) sets the tone for how he cooks: practical, iterative, and built to feed a crowd.
The one habit that made big cooks manageable
Durell cooks for weddings, reunions and once fed 180 people for a college celebration. His rule: keep it simple and predictable. He leaned into a small set of reproducible moves — watch time, manage temperature, and know when to wrap. That gave him the confidence to scale from home cooks to multiples of pork butts.
A few concrete habits he uses every large cook:
Use seasoned hardwood (he buys hickory by the rack) and cut it to size for long burns.
Track times as if they're appointments: put it in, check the watch, look for drying or color, wrap when the bark hits the target.
For big runs he prefers boneless pork butts (they cook faster — about eight hours vs 12–14 for bone-in).
He admits cooking three to five people still stresses him — but once you learn the rhythm, a hundred pounds of meat becomes easier than babysitting a small dinner. He once ran 120 pounds of pulled pork across multiple smokers and says the crowd cooks are much more manageable.