Metafilter Chili Cookoff January 23, 2009 5:22 PM Subscribe
This post has inspired an idea: a Metafilter chili cookoff!
So, here's the way it would work. 40 people have until January 30 to sign up. Over the month of February, there will be a tournament-style competition in which voters (who do NOT have to submit a recipe. just let me know if you're interested in cooking and i'll include you. you do need to commit to the whole competition, however.) make a recipe that has been randomly assigned to them and vote on a group of criteria. The top 20 recipes are announced at the end of the first week and sent out to the voters for another round of cooking. Nobody will get sent the same recipe twice. The contest will go over four weeks (40 recipes, 20 recipes, 10 recipes and 5 recipes) will the eventual winner being announced at the end of February. That means that you're committing to making a batch of chili every week. Come hungry!
The prize? Bragging rights. What qualifies as chili? Whatever you want. Just be aware that particularly weird recipes with hard to access ingredients might be voted down accordingly, so simple is not a bad thing here. If you are a vegetarian, indicate that when you sign up and I'll send you a veg recipe as long as there's still a veg recipe in the running. If there's not, you'll have the option to forgo that round.
If there's enough interest in this thread, I'll make a signup page in the next couple of days.
So, here's the way it would work. 40 people have until January 30 to sign up. Over the month of February, there will be a tournament-style competition in which voters (who do NOT have to submit a recipe. just let me know if you're interested in cooking and i'll include you. you do need to commit to the whole competition, however.) make a recipe that has been randomly assigned to them and vote on a group of criteria. The top 20 recipes are announced at the end of the first week and sent out to the voters for another round of cooking. Nobody will get sent the same recipe twice. The contest will go over four weeks (40 recipes, 20 recipes, 10 recipes and 5 recipes) will the eventual winner being announced at the end of February. That means that you're committing to making a batch of chili every week. Come hungry!
The prize? Bragging rights. What qualifies as chili? Whatever you want. Just be aware that particularly weird recipes with hard to access ingredients might be voted down accordingly, so simple is not a bad thing here. If you are a vegetarian, indicate that when you sign up and I'll send you a veg recipe as long as there's still a veg recipe in the running. If there's not, you'll have the option to forgo that round.
If there's enough interest in this thread, I'll make a signup page in the next couple of days.
This sounds like fun. If I sign up as a test-cooker, would I have to make only one batch of chili a week? I'd be up for that, but not for cooking more than one batch per week.
Can test-cookers veto certain recipes? F'rinstance, I don't care for seafood, and I ain't cooking no ginormous batch that serves 20, etc.
posted by Quietgal at 5:59 PM on January 23, 2009
Can test-cookers veto certain recipes? F'rinstance, I don't care for seafood, and I ain't cooking no ginormous batch that serves 20, etc.
posted by Quietgal at 5:59 PM on January 23, 2009
How do you remove the bias of cooking error? Or would part of the judging criteria be easiness of recipe to follow?
I'm really thinking more along the lines of, "this chili is shite because I left it on the stove for nine hours accidentally and it burned a hole through my favorite pot".
posted by backseatpilot at 6:06 PM on January 23, 2009
I'm really thinking more along the lines of, "this chili is shite because I left it on the stove for nine hours accidentally and it burned a hole through my favorite pot".
posted by backseatpilot at 6:06 PM on January 23, 2009
Yeah, it's just one batch a week. And there'll be options on the signup page for ingredients that you're not interested in or allergic to or whatever and we'll match people up accordingly.
posted by youcancallmeal at 6:06 PM on January 23, 2009
posted by youcancallmeal at 6:06 PM on January 23, 2009
backseatpilot- Yeah, one of the criteria will definitely be ease of following recipe. And if someone's chili just completely doesn't come out, they can just opt out of the vote completely.
posted by youcancallmeal at 6:07 PM on January 23, 2009
posted by youcancallmeal at 6:07 PM on January 23, 2009
Also, since there will be quite a few people voting on each recipe, that should allow for some leeway in people's cooking skills / techniques.
posted by youcancallmeal at 6:08 PM on January 23, 2009
posted by youcancallmeal at 6:08 PM on January 23, 2009
I'm in. I'd also like to add that we institute that Nation Chili Cook Off Series rules 23a-c which state, in brief, that a cook must consume one (1) case of beer (bottles or cans, domestic only) before starting to cook.
posted by Science! at 6:44 PM on January 23, 2009
posted by Science! at 6:44 PM on January 23, 2009
I only eat chillis grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:30 PM on January 23, 2009
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:30 PM on January 23, 2009
Cool! The cooks and voters won't be given the name of the recipe-submitter, right? It's easy to imagine bias either way. Another thing: what kind of judging system/criteria are you going to use? Scale of 1 to 10 in five areas, or up/down?
posted by aquafortis at 7:37 PM on January 23, 2009
posted by aquafortis at 7:37 PM on January 23, 2009
Yes, but who will call meal?
posted by ardgedee at 7:37 PM on January 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by ardgedee at 7:37 PM on January 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
Aquafortis: Nope. Everything will be anonymous. Which means that I can't vote or submit. There will be five to seven criteria and you'll give a score of 1-10. We'll add up the scores and rank the entries with the top half advancing on.
posted by youcancallmeal at 7:43 PM on January 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by youcancallmeal at 7:43 PM on January 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
Otis24 and I will be cookers/voters! Count us in.
Fyi, he's a chili-lovin' chef.
posted by iamkimiam at 8:44 PM on January 23, 2009
Fyi, he's a chili-lovin' chef.
posted by iamkimiam at 8:44 PM on January 23, 2009
So if I submit a recipe I have to vote and cook a pot of chili every week? Hm....Not sure I can commit to cooking a weekly pot o' chili, but I would definitely be available for one or two weeks of the competition for voting/cooking!
posted by Grither at 12:28 PM on January 26, 2009
posted by Grither at 12:28 PM on January 26, 2009
I'm telling you: Mentos, green Kool-aid, eyeglasses screws, and Campbell's tomato soup, seasoned with powdered dishwasher detergent = best chili evar. Sorry, I'm sitting this one out; though I'd love to be a taster, I stray from recipes and would throw the curve way off.
posted by not_on_display at 12:30 PM on January 26, 2009
posted by not_on_display at 12:30 PM on January 26, 2009
I have the same problem as not_on_display. I treat recipes like written music for a jazz ensemble, you get the general idea of the song and the instruments you need to use, but after that it's all improv baby! So, yeah, not only can I not be a taster since I can't follow recipes without straying, I'm not sure I can even write down a recipe since I don't use them.
I do make good chili though.
posted by schyler523 at 3:16 PM on January 26, 2009
I do make good chili though.
posted by schyler523 at 3:16 PM on January 26, 2009
Here's the link to the signup sheet. If someone would do me a favor and post a new MetaTalk thread with this update, that would be awesome since it's fallen off the front page in the Great Metafilter Hack of 2009 and I'd love it if people were actually aware of this and could get involved.
posted by youcancallmeal at 7:12 PM on January 26, 2009
posted by youcancallmeal at 7:12 PM on January 26, 2009
Al (can I call you Al?), I signed up but I'm getting an invalid user/password error when I try to log in. My user name is Quietgal and the email address is the same as in my MeFi profile.
Anyway, I'd like to be a test-cooker but have no epic chili recipes to contribute (I'm hoping to score a couple here, actually).
*puts on apron, sharpens can-opener*
posted by Quietgal at 12:40 PM on January 31, 2009
Anyway, I'd like to be a test-cooker but have no epic chili recipes to contribute (I'm hoping to score a couple here, actually).
*puts on apron, sharpens can-opener*
posted by Quietgal at 12:40 PM on January 31, 2009
Count me in as a taster (cooking voter).
Does the sign in sheet give a positive feed back as to whether the application was received? I also didn't see what level of participation one was entering into.
posted by Mag Plug at 2:42 PM on January 31, 2009
Does the sign in sheet give a positive feed back as to whether the application was received? I also didn't see what level of participation one was entering into.
posted by Mag Plug at 2:42 PM on January 31, 2009
There wasn't enough interest this go-round. We'll try again next month. Prepare those recipes!
posted by youcancallmeal at 2:56 PM on February 1, 2009
posted by youcancallmeal at 2:56 PM on February 1, 2009
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posted by youcancallmeal at 5:23 PM on January 23, 2009