Re: [CH] chili recipe

Dave Drum (xrated@ameritech.net)
Sat, 15 Feb 2003 10:45:58 -0600

At 09:57 AM 2/15/2003 -0600, T Nelson wrote:
>I am looking for tips to make competition style chili as far as the dumps 
>go.  I have a few good chili recipes but all involve real ingredients and 
>dont tend to have the consistency of fine comp chili. any help would be 
>appreciated.

Make the best pot of chilli you know how to make. What do you mean by "Real 
Ingredients"??? If you mean "fresh" then I'd say the only things that you 
need to be fresh are the onion and freshly roasted green chiles. Oh, and 
freshly ground (or at least not stale) cumin. I have a mix of spices I have 
worked up over a number of years of cooking in competitions that works well 
for me. I use garlic granules, onion granules, etc. because they are a 
known quantity and the results are predictable.

Different people have different methods of arriving at their competition 
chilli. What amazes me is that I look around at a cook-off and everyone is 
doing different things in different orders using a wide range of 
ingredients. But, we all seem to arrive at an excellent pot of red come 
turn-in time. At the Winter Freeze ICS Regional Chilli Cook-off in January 
there were 39 cooks and 30 judges split between two preliminary judging 
tables. Everyone got at least some points. No one got skunked.

Biggest tip I can give you is to do your last "dump" about 20 minutes 
before turn in time. That makes the spices fresh and bright when the judges 
taste you chilli. My kicker (final dump) is usually garlic, cumin and 1 
teaspoon of my chilli spice per pound of meat in the pot.

Another note - most cook-offs low-rate greasy chilli. But, you need some to 
carry the flavours. My "at-home" chilli has much more oil than my 
competition chilli. As a result of skimming out most of the oil from the 
chilli you will find that you have to use more spice to get an acceptable 
flavour. But, save the oil from your pot. Take it home and clarify it in 
the oven (get all the water out) and strain the lumps. Then refrigerate 
until you are ready to pop some popcorn on the stove. It makes the most 
wonderful popcorn you have ever et.

And don't worry about being a beginner at competition cooking. The guy who 
won the ICS Intergalactic Championship and the U$25,000 first prize money 
was in just his fifth (I think - some really newby number) competitive 
cook-off. Chilli cook-offs are a lot of fun and socializing and they raise 
serious amounts of $$$ for charity. Even if they didn't award trophies and 
money they'd be worthwhile.

ENJOY!!!

Uncle Dirty Dave's Kitchen
Home of Hardin Cider & Yaaaaa Hoooo Ahhhhh Hot Sauce!!!