The Terlingua World Championshio Chili Cookoff is this weekend

and I'm on my way.

5 hour drive to the Mexican border to the ghost town of Terlingua

every chili cookoff in the country is a preliminary to garner enough points to qualify for this. 250 chili teams and 20,000 participants

pray for me hahaha. I'll be back with pics in a few days

http://www.chili.org/terlingua.html

prayers sent !!

Have a great time!!

Are you on a team, Quietman? If so...GOOD LUCK!
Have fun, regardless!

nope I'm not on any of the teams. I'll just be sampling them tomorrow when the judging begins

lots of chili and I'm taking two bottles of Maalox just in case

I'm jealous, have fun and let us know how it goes take plenty of pictures.

Heard some of them are so hot you loose your breath at the first bite....

They have one of these in Lansing, every year, but I'm assuming one in Texas would be a little more "professional" as far as the competition goes.

Hope you have a great time. Be sure to wash all that chili down with a few tasty beers.

And steer clear of all humans (at least ones that you like) the next day.

Oh I cant wait to see!


Prayers already sent!



I bet your chili kicks butt.. I have a recipe I love myself.


That sounds like some kinda fun.. I hope you do her up.



Good luck!




10,000 chili pepper salute to ya!

Frank X. Tolbert, who is considered the Godfather of Texas chili, was a columnist for the Dallas Morning News when the first chili-cooking contest was held. Tolbert covered the events at the State Fair of Texas where the contest was held, but made no mention of it in his column. But by December of 1960, Tolbert had caught on to the popularity of chili, and his column, Tolbert's Texas, was headlined "Chili Mail is Hot and Heavy". Obviously, Tolbert had been getting many letters on the subject of Texas chili.

The November 24, 1962 edition of The Saturday Evening Post carried an article by Tolbert titled, "A Bowl of Fire called Chili". After that article appeared, Tolbert's column turned its interest primarily to chili and chili lore.

The 1960's were good years for chili. LBJ was in the White House, and all things Texas were in demand.

First shots fired
In August of 1967, journalist H. Allen Smith (not a Texan, by the way) wrote an article for Holiday magazine entitled "Nobody Knows More about Chili than I Do", and the war of words began. There were weekly salvos from Tolbert's Texas berating Smith as a know-nothing maker of vegetable stew.

In the meantime Carroll Shelby and David Witts had acquired some land around Terlingua in far West Texas, and Tolbert had penned his book, A Bowl of Red. A meeting of great minds came up with the idea of having a chili contest at Terlingua to promote real estate and the written word.

A scenario was concocted for the contest. It would be Texas' best chili chef against some Outsider. Texan Wick Fowler (Newspaper war correspondent, merchant marine, Texas highway patrolman, sailboat designer and political aide were among his credentials.) was the hands-down favorite to represent Texas, as he had been preaching the chili gospel for many years. The original Outsider chosen was David Chasen of Hollywood restaurant fame. Chasen came down with some unspecified illness shortly before the contest, and H. Allen Smith was summoned from the bench to substitute.

At high noon the 21st of October, 1967, the world changed. Chili was on its way to headlines all over the world.

Judges for the chili competition were Hallie Stillwell, Floyd Schneider and Dave Witts. Stillwell voted for Smith, Schneider voted for Fowler. Witts took one taste of chili and began to show all symptoms of gastric distress. After they got him up off the floor, he said his taste buds had been damaged beyond repair and he could not vote. The referee, Frank X. Tolbert, declared the contest a draw. There was no winner at the first Terlingua Chili Cook-Off.

After the 1967 Terlingua chili cook-off, when one of the three judges claimed to be poisoned and the other two judges each voted for a different winner, the contest was called a draw. (In case you missed last month's installment the contestants were Wick Fowler and H. Allen Smith.)

In 1968, the contest again failed to provide the world with a chili-cooking champion. That contest again featured Wick Fowler as the Texas representative and, when H. Allen Smith came down with a case of the shingles, Wino Woody DeSilva from California was called in as a substitute. After all the votes were in and the ballot box was being taken to the referee, a masked man with a rifle took the ballot box and threw it down one of the abandoned mine shafts that dot the area. Again, no winner.

I can find no record of De Silva's recipe, other than it contained sweet woodruff, an exotic herb. Wick Fowler stuck with his standard recipe.

Contest gets bigger
The 1969 cook-off saw an increase in the number of contestants at Terlingua. C.V. Woods Jr. from California and Arizona rode into town in a double-decker English bus with his entourage. Joseph DeFrates of Chilli Man Chilli from Illinois came in to represent the upper Midwest. Wino Woody De Silva was again on hand, as was Wick Fowler.

It was reported by reliable sources that Wino Woody fell into his pot of chili, thereby decreasing his chances of winning.

When the smoke and fumes had cleared, C.V. Woods Jr. was the winner. Fowler claimed second place and Chilli Man DeFrates was third.

C.V. Woods Jr. was quite an interesting man. His chili roots trace back to Amarillo, Texas, thus no beans were to be found in his championship chili. "Woody," as he was known to his friends, was the man who bought London Bridge and moved it to Arizona. He was also the principal involved in building Disneyland. He was married to actress Joann Dru. Woody had the most exotic chili recipe ever followed at Terlingua. The California vegetable influence is evident. His use of chicken stock was way ahead of its time.

Here is his recipe:



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C. V. Woods Jr. Winning Recipe

* 1 3-pound chicken
* 1-1/2 quarts water
* 1/2 pound beef suet
* 1/4 cup finely chopped celery
* 7 cups peeled, chopped tomatoes
* 2 teaspoons sugar
* 5 pounds center cut pork chops, thin
* 4 pounds flank steak
* 3 medium onions, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
* 3 green peppers, cut in 3/8-inch pieces
* 1 pound Jack cheese, shredded
* 6 long green chiles
* 1 teaspoon oregano
* 1 tablespoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon MSG
* 1 tablespoon black pepper
* 4 teaspoons salt
* 5 tablespoons chili powder
* 1 teaspoon dried cilantro
* 1 teaspoon dried thyme
* 1 cup beer
* 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* juice of 1 lime

Cut chicken into pieces and combine with water in large saucepan. Simmer 2 hours then strain off broth. (Find something else to do with the chicken.)

In a 2-quart saucepan, combine the celery, tomatoes and sugar and simmer slowly for 1-1/2 hours.

Boil the chiles 15 minutes until tender, remove seeds and cut in 1/4-inch squares.

Mix the oregano, cumin, MSG, pepper, salt, chili powder, cilantro and thyme with beer until all lumps are dissolved.

Add tomato mixture, chiles, beer mixture and garlic to the chicken broth.

Melt suet to make 6 to 8 tablespoons of drippings. Pour 1/3 of the suet drippings into a skillet. Add half of the pork chops, which have been trimmed of all fat and cut into 1/4-inch cubes, and brown. Repeat for remaining pork chops. Add pork to broth mixture and cook slowly 30 minutes.

Trim all fat from flank steak and cut into 3/8-inch cubes. Brown the flank steak in remaining drippings, about one-third at a time. Add to the pork mixture.

Return to simmer and cook slowly about 1 hour. Add onions and green peppers, simmer 2 to 3 hours longer, stirring with a wooden spoon every 15 to 20 minutes.

Cool for 1 hour, then refrigerate for 24 hours.

Reheat chili before serving. About 5 minutes before serving time, add the cheese. Just before serving, add the lime juice and stir with wooden spoon.

There we have one of the world's most famous chili recipes. Of course, it is impractical to refrigerate the chili overnight, so that step was omitted at Terlingua.

Woods commissioned a Jim Beam figural bottle with his likeness and the recipe on it. These have become desirable collectibles among chili devotees.

Wick Fowler finally got his due recognition in 1970, a year that also marked the first appearance of a female chili cook at Terlingua. Janice Constantine of Midland, Texas, came in to contest the men. The Terlingua contest had always been "men only" affairs. Janice struck a blow for women's rights early on. She was consigned to the sidelines of the cook-off area, and it is said she was arrested for "Being a woman while cooking chili". There is no record I can find of how she did in the competition.

Also in the Firsts department was the first Native American to enter the contest. Chief Fulton Battice of the Alabama-Coushatta nation in East Texas joined the fray.

Back for another try for the title was Joe "Chilli Man" DeFrates and one or two others who are lost to historical record.

Wick Fowler finally got his World Championship trophy. Second place went to Chief Battice and "Chilli Man" placed third.

Who got to play?
After the first two two-man cook-offs, I'm really not sure how contestants were chosen or by who (or is that whom?). I think, in any case, some credentials were required. DeFrates was in the chilli business. C. V. Woods had enough money to play anywhere he wanted to.

The party got so popular that people who were not invited showed up, set up shop and cooked chili. I don't think these chilis were judged.

When I first got connected with the chili world in 1973, Frank Tolbert pretty much decided who cooked in Terlingua. When there was a cook-off that had a decent number of cooks and was getting some media attention, the winner could be invited to Terlingua, if Tolbert approved.

Tolbert told me that if I wanted to cook at Terlingua, I should cross either the Oklahoma or the Louisiana state line and set up and cook chili at the first roadside park or other convenient place and then declare myself the champion of that state and I would qualify.

best of luck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYs2iYTacLE


and with that I'm on the road

see ya'll in a few days

Have a great time and don't forget the TUMS !

Can't I just buy a package of Carol Shelby's chili mix and some hamburger?

Brother, I've been there...envy you this weekend. Anyone like us who love this...shouldn't miss it on their bucket list! Those that settle for chili in a can...God help 'em! Enjoy your a$$ off!

Wow imagine you win the whole darn thing! That would be so cool!

Good luck!

Good Luck and have fun.Just make sure u bring Tums.Sounds like your really going to need them.

Thats is some awesomely cool Texas history. LOVE IT!!


Sounds like a bang up time. You make me wish I was there myself.
Last Valentines day I coulda entered a contest in Florida. I fantasized about it, but was completely strapped for time, and unprepared.

Gee! Keep us posted!

See ya when ya get back robin!!

it sounds as though all of the outsiders kept coming up with excuses not to go up against the texans.