Hacksburg will be competing in the 2019 VT CRC Chili Cookoff. This page documents the details and our plans for the competition.
Contents
Basic Info
- Date: Wednesday, October 2, 2019
- We will be preparing our chili the night before, Tuesday October 1, during or after the regular meeting
- Location TBD, possibly an individual's kitchen or the Blacksburg Community Center kitchen
- Location: The Plaza between 1900 Pratt and 1861 Pratt Drive
- Rules
Chili Recipes
The rules specify a red "homestyle chili" including meat and beans. The rules suggest one 16 oz serving for judges and 200 3 oz. servings for the public.
- Serious Eats-Best Chili Ever
- Wholesome Dish-Best Classic Chili
- Sugar Spun Run - Best Chili Recipe (with bacon)
- Medieval Chili - not an actual thing, fits with theme below
- Real Deer Meat Chili (Lytton C., New River: bonnets, apple butter and moonshine. 2010, pp. 74-76):
General Suggestions
- Start with dried kidney beans. Soak overnight with baking soda to degas, then partially cook.
- Sweat the onions and peppers, set aside.
- Brown meat under broiler on a baking tray.
- Use stew meat instead of ground, for the texture
- Save all fat and drippings
- Combine meat, peppers and onions, beans, and some tomatoes; season, and bake at least until beans are done
- Ideally, use a heavy dutch oven or similar. You want the high thermal inertia.
- This may also be doable in a slow-cooker, but moisture should be watched carefully.
- Secret sauce for good chili: unsweetened chocolate and black coffee.
- Bean-containing chilis are best after they've been allowed to cool and then reheated.
Ingredients quantities
- A cow's-worth of stew meat
- Absurd amounts of canned tomatoes (petite diced or crushed)
- Ridiculous numbers of onions
- Crazy quantities of poblano peppers
- Far too many red kidney beans
- Some coffee
- A bit of bitter chocolate
For serving:
- Sour cream
- Green onions
- Shredded cheese?
- Cornbread?
Hacksburg Chili 1.0
Recipe
- 10 parts/pints/cans total x 4 crocks
- 1 part stew beef
- 2 bags frozen diced onions
- 1 bag frozen diced green bell peppers
- 1 part crushed tomatoes in tomato juice
- 1 part diced tomatoes
- 4 parts dark red kidney beans
- 2 parts black beans
- V8 (to taste)
- Crushed garlic (to taste)
- Cooking oil (as needed to saute onions)
- Cumin (to taste)
- Cayenne pepper (to taste)
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- Smoke flavor (to taste)
- Cold coffee (to taste)
- Bitter/bakers chocolate (to taste)
Feedback
- Only served ~2.25 crocks worth of chili, could probably get away with 2 in the future
- Wear gloves when chopping jalapenos
- People liked having a mild chili they could customize to their level of spice with jalapenos. Also bring red pepper flakes next time?
- Thaw onions and peppers beforehand, took a significant amount of time to thaw before they could be sauted
- Possibly also saute beforehand
- Blacksburg Community kitchen is pretty small and not super well equipped, was suitable but a personal kitchen would work just as well
- Chili seemed generally well received at competition, did not place in top 3
- May have added too much coffee and chocolate, there was a very bitter aftertaste
- Some people said it didn't seem very meaty; finer diced stew meat or more ground beef?
Booth Decoration
It appears that booths were decorated and competitors wore costumes in previous years. We were thinking of a medieval theme for our booth given what we have on hand.
- Cauldron of chili (using smelting furnace and cast iron pot)
- Need a pot, something like this or a dutch oven with legs
- Do any of the members have something they can contribute
- Costumes
- Dragon Knight (Cameron-confirmerd)
- Wizard (John-confirmed)
- Wands from wand competition
Other Hacksburg themed decorations could include
- Scrolling LED sign (James)
- Turned wood bowl (Nick)
- Wood carved serving implements