Where’s The Beef!

The cut and texture of the mighty bovine that you choose to use to make your chili can make all the difference in how well it does on the judging table. As the world currently turns in most cook-offs you have the choice of what type of meat you use and how it is prepared (texture), cut, ground or a mixture of both. There are also many cook-offs where the type of meat that is to be used in the chili is defined such as Chili Grind Only or Cut Only so make sure that you know what you need before you go to the cook-off. If it were up to me and thankfully its not, all cook-offs would define one texture of meat (Cut or Grind) to be used in that contest. Some will ask why you would want to limit the entire cook-off to one texture of meat. The answer is simple, if all chilis are to be judged blindly / equally and fairly they should all look similar. If only one contestant in a specific cook-off cooks cut meat and all the others cook grind how hard would it be to spot that one chili on the judging table and it works the other way around as well. Now we all expect that our cook-offs are fair and on the up and up but having one chili on the tables that is different than the others is to me a potentila mark and a potential problem. What is a mark? A mark is something that can potentially be used to identify a particular chili later on the judging tables. There are many ways a chili can be marked, the cup is filled too full, the cup is filled too low, different type, texture or combination of meat / meats, items in the chili, beans, chunks of vegetables or other items that stick out like a sore thumb or by just plain marking the cup or lid in an unnoticeable manner. Any of these can be used to later identify a particular chili during the judging process. It is the job of the primary round table monitors to inspect each chili and catch these types of potential marks and get a ruling from the head judge before these chilis get on the judging table. We currently have rules for the content of what we can or cannot put in our chili except for the texture of the meat that is used unless the promoter defines it prior to the cook-off. If it was my world the texture of the meat would have to be defined by the promoter prior to all cook-offs that way all chilis on the judging table would look the similar and thus eliminate the chance of using the texture of the meat as a potential mark. Now I can come down off my soap box, since I have said my two cents worth on this subject.

Size Matters!

 So for now what type and texture of meat that you use is up to you unless the promoter has defined it in writing prior to the cook-off. I suggest beef cut or ground it makes the best chili for competition and you will not offend anyone with it when it is made properly. For cut the top choices are chuck / mock tender and the tri tip / bottom sirloin butt. The best way to prepare and cut the meat is to partially freeze it, slice it and then cut to the final size chunks. The meat is much easier to work with when partially frozen and will be easier to cut to the proper size more consistently. The size that you make your chunks is up to you but I suggest that they be between 5/16" to 3/8" when raw, this will make the chunks about 1 /4" when cooked. Size is important but consistency is more important all the chunks should be about the same size. Why is this important? Because if all the chunks are the same size they will cook at the same rate of doneness. If the chunks are different sizes some will cook faster than others and you will have part mush, part done and part chewy. To get a good consistent chili all of the chunks need to cook at the same rate and you would like that to be between 2-3 hours so the size of the chunks will determine how quickly the meat will get to the desired doneness, firm, not chewy or mushy. Make sure that you look through the meat very well looking for gristle, veins, tendons and muscle liner. You want good clean consistent chunks of meat!

Have an ax to grind?

 Chili grind the other red meat. For those who that dont care for the work that is required to properly prepare cut meat there is chili grind. Chili grind is ground beef and there is a verity of it at the market to choose from. The same rules for cut apply to grind you want good clean quality meat. Many commercial chili grinds are made from a poorer quality of meat and scraps so be careful to inspect the meat before and after cooking to get the bad stuff out, otherwise it will end up in the judges mouth, it never fails. The best way to avoid this is to buy good meat trim it and have it ground for you, if you have a good butcher they can take care of this for you at a minimal charge. But remember it is your chili, whos looking out for #1, you are! I choose to do it the simple way, buying quality ground meat (tube meat) and turning it into chili grind by cooking it then cutting it into chili size chunks after cooking. This is not easy, but not as difficult as hand cut either, but it insures that you have good quality meat and less chance for trash to get into your chili. Grind can be over cooked just like cut and you will end up with mush so establish a cooking time and stick with it!

Here are links to some great information on how to get started cooking competition chili!

Chili links

·             Recipes From Past TICC Champions

·             Recipes From Past ICS Champions

Chili rules

·             CASI rules

·             ICS rules

·             Tolbert rules

Chili Cook-Offs

·             CASI Cook-Offs

·             ICS Cook-Offs

·             Goat Gap Gazette all cook-offs and BBQ

Chili News

·             CASI HOT NEWS

·             Goat Gap Gazette

·             ICS News