Depending on whom one asks, McLouth has a population that ranges from 800 to 1,000. But Saturday the population swelled to an estimated 4,000 give or take a few, of course.

And most of them were ready to eat.

Especially the judges.

“This is my favorite category,” said Vicky Johnson, one of the 30 or so judges in the ninth annual competition. “I’m ready and waiting.”

She was waiting for what many of the judges declared to be their favorite part of the taste test barbecued ribs.

The judges themselves are a dedicated lot.

Johnson said she has only missed judging in one year’s events, and that was because of a family event.

“My sister had the poor taste to schedule her wedding on the day of the competition,” Johnson said. “So I sent my husband to come here in my place so we wouldn’t lose our seat.”

Nearby, Glenn Wear, McLouth mayor who has lived in the city since he moved there in 1941 after high school, said crowds were up this year.

He attributed the rise, in part, to the sunny afternoon with temperatures ranging in the 80s.

Wear was a veteran, one might say, in this circle of judges who sat at long tables beneath the blue and white rooftop of a tent.

“The first year they started this, they asked me to help judge, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Wear said.

Participants in the BBQ Blowout ranged from those who’ve never missed a year to those on their maiden voyage, as one barbecuer said.

Russ Muehlberger, who lives in Johnson County, said this was his first year at the event. And he liked it. In fact, Muehlberger said he just likes cooking.

“I cook Monday through Friday as the executive chef at Double Tree in Overland Park and this is what I do on my time off,” Muehlberger said. “Next weekend I’m going to Indianapolis, then after that to Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and across Kansas and Missouri. And of course, when he travels, his traveling smoker the one he built himself travels with him.

At the “Smokin’ Salmons” barbecue tent, Rick Salmon, Olathe, cooked up his favorites, and, as a specialty, served grilled salmon for the judges. Going along with the fun of the day, Salmon’s booth featured a singing fish.

Most of the participants used large smokers, many homemade, most on wheels.

But Chuck and Cindy Johnson, Olathe, at the Cindy’s Little Piggies booth, had four Weber Smoky Mountains cooking along. Chuck Johnson said this gave them the versatility to use different kinds of wood, such as apple, hickory and cherry, to smoke with. Even though this was only the Johnson’s second year as hobbyist barbecuers and their first year to participate in the McLouth barbecue competition, their lack of experience obviously didn’t hurt them as demonstrated when the judges named them first-place winners in the rib competition.

Cheryl Wonnell, one of the organizers of the event, said 34 cookers showed up this year.

“I was overwhelmed by their response,” she said. “Most of them said this is their favorite cook-off and that if they only did one, this would be it.”

The world champion barbecuer, Phil Hopkins, North Kansas City, Mo., agreed.

“People walk around here and talk to you,” Hopkins said. “It makes for a real nice atmosphere. At some of the bigger competitions, you kind of lose touch with the crowd.”

Plus, Hopkins said, this is a family event, complete with ball games, model planes buzzing in the sky, a real helicopter landing on a grassy area nearby, games for kids and a petting zoo.

Hopkins, who works for a metal fabricating company in Olathe, said he’s been seriously barbecuing for five years.

And last year, in 1999, he reached the pinnacle of his sideline job when he snagged the world’s grand championship title at the Jack Daniels barbecue competition in Lynchburg, Tenn.

But that doesn’t mean he’s too good for down-home Kansas cooking anymore. After all, last weekend it was McLouth and this weekend, it’ll be Tonganoxie when Hopkins plans to participate in the annual Tonganoxie Days barbecue cook-off.