Chili Cook-off in a Box Handbook: Everything You Need to Host a Chili Cook-off
By Gina Hyams
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About this ebook
Chili cook-offs, a fall tradition, have exploded in popularity over the last several years. Easy to organize and yummy to participate in, chili cook-offs are a perfect entertaining event.
The booklet in Chili Cook-Off in a Box explains why chili cook-offs matter today, and describes the history of chili from pre-Columbian campfires to today’s vegan versions. It gives instructions on how to organize the event around themes, such as five-alarm, vegetarian, carnivore’s delight, red chili, green chili, etc., and has profiles of chili cook-off winners with prize-winning recipes and tips.
Included in the ebook is a link to download and print the following items, which makes it easy to customize your own materials.
- Sheet to Track Entries (name, type of chili, designated number)
- Numbered Table Tents (so judges don’t know whose chili is whose)
- Scorecards (rating taste, texture, appearance, creativity)
- Judge Badges
- Prize Ribbons for Contest Winners
“It would make a fun gift book kit for a chilihead, and certainly is a must-have for anyone hosting a chili throwdown.” —Shockingly Delicious
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Chili Cook-off in a Box Handbook - Gina Hyams
INTRODUCTION
THE CHILI STATE OF MIND
Chili is America, a true melting pot that still celebrates each individual ingredient.
Tim Sarrantonio, chili champion
NO MATTER WHAT RACE, RELIGION, OR CLASS, ALL COOKS ARE CREATED EQUAL BEFORE A POT OF SIMMERING CHILI.
Citizens across the nation celebrate this rib-sticking spicy stew. Its appeal transcends politics. Republican hunters love it and anarchist vegans do, too. Chili cook-offs are a way for families and communities to unite on common ground. You may disagree on the specifics of what makes for authentic chili, or even how to spell it, but everyone agrees that chili is good.
More than a particular recipe, chili is a state of mind. Or more precisely, as Mike BB
Hughes, founding member of Central Texas Tolbert Chili Group, put it: Chili cooks are crazy.
Thousands of people participate in chili cook-offs each weekend. These contests often benefit humanitarian causes. Chili champion John Jepson explains, What a great hobby—you get to raise funds for charity, travel to interesting places, meet a great bunch of people, and satisfy the need for competition and excitement—all the while eating great chili and having a cold beer.
To be a chilihead is to embrace the spice of life both literally and metaphorically. According to the McCormick spice company, ½ teaspoon of chili powder has as many health-inducing antioxidants as ½ cup of cantaloupe. The real thrill, though, is that chili peppers contain a chemical called capsaicin, which is sensed as a spicy burn and sends pleasure-pain signals to the brain that raise your heart rate and set off happy endorphins, like a runner’s high. You can’t die from eating too many hot chili peppers, but you can develop something of an addiction.
While the competitive chili cook-off world is rife with factions and rivalries, at the end of the day it’s about community. Matt Timms, founder of the Brooklyn Chili Takedown, says that the difference between a good chili and a great one is how much love you put in that sh*t.
He explains, You can follow a recipe to a T and it could easily be meh. But people come to a [chili cook-off] to show everyone how insane their cooking skills are—and when you come with that attitude, you throw all your positive energy into that batch of chili, and people can taste it.
The pursuit of prize-winning chili inspires good times and goodwill. My hope is that Chili Cook-off in a Box, with its prize ribbons, judge badges, ID cards, blue ribbon–winning recipes, scorecards, and chili songs, will make for a happy day for you and yours. Just remember, in the immortal words of chili champion Matthew Lusk: Do not get liquored up when cooking your chili, as your taste buds get numb and you will tend to over salt.
A NOTE ABOUT SPELLING
Generally speaking, chili is the dish and chile means the pepper or, when capitalized, the South American country. Chile powder, however, refers to a blend of powdered chile peppers meant for chili. I’ve also seen the word spelled chilly, chilie, chillie, and chilley. Chiliheads (or chili-heads) can’t agree on how to spell their type of contest either. It’s commonly spelled cook-off, cookoff, and cook off.
For simplicity, I use chili
to mean the dish, chile
to mean the pepper, and cook-off
to mean the contest.
Chili is like an urban legend. There are thousands of stories about it, some truth, some fiction. Chili takes us back in our genetic memory to the time we were squatting around the campfire.
John Raven, Chili Appreciation Society International Hall ofFame Member
The history of chili begins in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, where