WAURIKA — What is it that distinguishes one chili concoction from all the other bowls of red in a competition?
Is it taste? Is it texture? Is it smell? Is it a “secret ingredient”?
All of those factors may have led the two judges at the ninth Big Red Chili Cookoff to place Sheryl Rochelle’s entry ahead of 21 others Thursday evening. But the clincher for the three-time winner seemed to have something to do more with satisfaction and comfort.
“This is the winner,” Earl Weisner said, “because it’s a chili any cowboy would want after a day in the saddle and on a cold night.”
Grinning, fellow judge Pat Varner added, “And it might even do for breakfast!”
It was the first year for the Waurika Sorosis Club to sponsor the annual competition, which coincides with the opening night of the Jefferson County Junior Livestock Show and the County 4-H Food Fair and Poster & Photography competitions.
Weisner, the retired former District Conservationist of Stephens County, and Varner, a Walters resident who’s a Big Red Cookoff veteran, had the difficult “task” of tasting a record-number of entries and then agreeing that one stood above the others.
Ultimately, they were drawn to the soup cooked Rochelle, who had won the 2006 and 2007 Cookoffs while in partnership with Donnie McKelroy. Their Country Cookin’ Cafe no longer exists, but Rochelle used a couple of variations on a recipe McKelroy created to win the Adult Division and then come back to capture a third straight Big Red Chili Bowl as the overall winner.
The reds entered by Rochelle and McKelroy had similar texture, aroma and appearance, but Rochelle said the difference was heat.
“Why mess around with a good thing?” she wondered aloud, but then noted, “Mine is a little milder than his.”
McKelroy, who finished third in the Adult Division, conceded, “She told me mine may be a little too hot.”
“But,” he added, “that’s what chili is!”
When it came down to the final judging, Rochelle’s entry was matched up against the garlic and bean-laced brew cooked up by Jessica Trejo, who was the winner in the Youth Division, and the brown, garlicky entry from the Waurika Volunteer Fire Department, which had won the Business & Club Division.
Jerry Shelton, a two-time winner of the Chili Bowl, took second in the Adult Division, while the runner-up in the Youth Division was Tylr Gunter. The Waurika Senior Citizen’s entry, which was filled with chunks of pot roast instead of ground beef, was second in the Business & Club Division.
Third in the Youth Division went to Hope Henderson, and the Stuart Ranch was third in the Business & Club Division.
Among the record 22 entries were nine different reds in the Adult Division, seven in Youth Division and six in Business & Club Division.
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Winning red
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