Gina Hyams - Chili Cook-off in a Box: Everything You Need to Host a Chili Cook-off

What youre holding in your hands is obviously not a box. There are some items from the box version we just couldnt include in an e-book: the judges ribbons, prize ribbons, score cards, and pot ID cards pictured here.

Go to www.andrewsmcmeel.com/contestinabox/ to download and print facscimiles. Use your imagination in duplicating these materials for your own chili cook-off!

Also by Gina Hyams

Pie Contest in a Box

Chili Cook-off in a Boxcopyright 2012 by Gina Hyams. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

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For my chilihead brother, Kris Bolling

The Chili State of Mind

A Brief History of Chili

Anatomy of a Chili Cook-off

Chili Cook-off Themes

The Zen of Judging Chili

Prize-Winning Recipes and Tips from Chili Cook-off Champions

El Conquistador Chili with Garlic Crme Frache and Candied Bacon Topping

by Julie Renz

Chili Ingredients Mail-Order Sources

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 hobbyyou get to raise funds for charity, travel to interesting places, meet a great bunch of people, and satisfy the need for competition and excitementall 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, teaspoon of chili powder has as many health-inducing antioxidants as 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 runners high. You cant 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 its 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 areand 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 ribbonwinning 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. Ive also seen the word spelled chilly, chilie, chillie, and chilley. Chiliheads (or chili-heads) cant agree on how to spell their type of contest either. Its 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 chile peppers were integral to the indigenous diet. The Nahuatl (ancient Aztec) word for pepper was chilli. The fiery fruit was worshipped as part of native creation mythology and some tribes believed chili plant spirits protected the harvest.

The American meat stew that we know as chili today originated in Texas during the 1800s. Hardscrabble chuck wagon cooks found that tough wild cattle tasted better when it was long simmered with onions and chili peppers.