Chili historian Everett Lee DeGolyer was the owner of The Saturday Review of Literature, and was also, according to H. Allen Smith, “a world traveler, a gourmet, and the Solomon of the chili bowl.” Here is the historian’s recipe in his own words.

Ingredients

• 4 cloves garlic, chopped

• 1 onion, chopped

• 2½ cups fat rendered from beef suet

• 3 pounds center-cut steak (Trim and cut into cubes of less than ½ inch dimension. Lazy people

• grind meat in a food chopper using only the coarse knife.)

• 2 cups water, or the liquid in which the chiles have been boiled

• 2 to 12 pods of chile colorado [New Mexican], according to taste. If you are muy fuerte, use more. 1 teaspoon of comino seeds (cumin in English, or kummel if you understand it better)

• 1 teaspoon oregano (marjoram)

• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Brown the garlic and onion in the fat, add meat, and cook until gray (not brown) in color.

Add 2 cups of water and let simmer 1 hour.

Take pods of dried chile, wash, stem, and remove seeds. Put to boil in cold water and boil slowly until the skins slip easily, usually 45 minutes. Rub the pulp through a colander or sieve to make a smooth paste. You should now have ½ to 3/4 cup of pulp. Chile powder, prepared commercially, may be substituted for the pulp at the equivalent of one heaping tablespoon of chile powder for 2 pods of chile.

Rub comino seeds and oregano to a powder, toasting if need be. Add chile pulp, comino, oregano, and salt to the meat and cook slowly for 1 hour.

From the famous iconoclast and author of The Great Chili Confrontation, here’s the recipe that infuriated Texans after it was published in Holiday Magazine in 1967. Smith had the gall to title his article “Nobody Knows More About Chili Than I Do.” Once again, the directions are in Smith’s own words.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds chuck, coarsely ground

• 2 or 3 medium onions, chopped

• 1 bell pepper, seeds and stems removed, chopped

• 1 or 2 cloves garlic

• ½ teaspoon oregano

• 1/4 teaspoon cumin seed

• 2 small cans tomato paste

• 1 quart water

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 3 tablespoons [New Mexican] chile powder

• 2 cans kidney or pinto beans

Instructions

Get 3 pounds of chuck, coarse ground. Brown it in an iron kettle. (If you don’t have an iron kettle you are not civilized. Go out and get one.) Chop two or three medium-sized onions and one bell pepper and add to the browned meat. Crush or mince one or two cloves of garlic and throw it into the pot, then add about a half a teaspoon of oregano and a quarter teaspoon of cumin seed.

Now add two small cans of tomato paste; if you prefer canned tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, put them through a colander. Add about a quart of water. Salt liberally and grind in some black pepper, and, for a starter, two or three tablespoons of chile powder. (Some of us use chile pods, but chile powder is just as good.)

Simmer for an hour and a half or longer, then add your beans. Pinto beans are best, but if they are not available, canned kidney beans will do—two 15-17 oz. cans will be adequate. Simmer another half hour.

Throughout the cooking, do some tasting from time to time and, as the Gourmet Cookbook puts it, “correct seasoning.” When you’ve got it right let it set for several hours. Later, you may heat it up as much as you want, and put the remainder in the refrigerator. It will taste better the second day, still better the third, and absolutely superb the fourth. You can’t even begin to imagine the delights in store for you one week later.

Nowadays it’s easy to re-create the chili that Wick used in the first cook-off against H. Allen Smith–just buy some of the famous Wick Fowler 2-Alarm Chili Mix. Or, you can follow the recipe below, which chili legend holds is Wick&rquo;s original version that he cooked in Terlingua in 1967. Remember to remove the Japanese chiles and the chilipiquins before serving. If this chili is too hot, Wick recommended drinking a pint of buttermilk.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds chili-grind beef, mostly lean

• 1½ cups canned tomato sauce

• Water as needed

• 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

• 3 heaping tablespoons chile powder

• 1 teaspoon oregano

• 1 teaspoon cumin seed or powder

• 2 onions, chopped

• 6 or more cloves garlic, chopped

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon cayenne

• 1 tablespoon paprika

• 12 or more whole dried Japanese chiles (very hot)

• 6 to 8 chilipiquins (very, very hot)

• 3 tablespoons flour for thickener

Instructions

Sear the meat in a large skillet until gray in color. Transfer the meat to a chili pot, along with the tomato sauce and enough water to cover the meat about ½ inch, mixing well. Stir in the Tabasco, chili powder, oregano, cumin, onions, garlic, salt, cayenne, and paprika. Add the Japanese chiles and chilipiquins, taking care not to break them open. Let simmer for 1 hour and 45 minutes, stirring gently at intervals.

About 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time, skim off any grease that has risen to the top. Mix the flour with a little water to make it liquid without lumps. Add this paste to ingredients in the pot and blend in thoroughly. Adjust salt and seasonings. Unless you are chili hungry at the moment, let the chili remain in the pot overnight, then reheat and serve. Freeze any chili left over. Serve with sliced or chopped onions and pinto beans on the side.

This chili is often served over spaghetti and is then called chili-mac or TwoWay chili. According to Floyd Cogan, “The proper way to make chili-mac is to place cooked spaghetti (al dente) on a plate and cover it with chili, with grated Parmesan cheese on top.”

Ingredients

• 2 pounds coarsely ground chuck steak

• 1 quart water

• 1 cup chopped onions

• 2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/4 teaspoon powdered allspice

• 4 whole cloves, crushed

• 1 bay leaf, powdered

• ½ ounce unsweetened chocolate

• 3 tablespoons chili powder (or more for heat)

• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar

• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1½ teaspoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons flower mixed with 1/4 cup water

Instructions

Combine the chuck steak and the water and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients except the flour mixed with water and simmer for 3 hours.

Add the flour mixed with water, bring to a boil, and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve.

Joe, the author of probably the best book ever written about chili, included his own recipe in With or Without Beans. “That which is to follow,” he wrote, “represents many tedious, but gladdening, hours in the kitchen, not to mention countless pots of chili.” Joe then presented three pages of description of his chili before revealing the recipe. He modestly stated that it should not be construed as the “best ever” chili, but rather one that satisfied the Coopers’ appetites. “This recipe,” concluded Cooper, “like most all worthwhile others, was conceived out of an uncertain past; born of a belief that no man can live long and prosper without good chili; reared in the confusion of trial and error; and now exists in maturity with the respect of neighbors and friends.”

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 3 pounds lean beef (never veal), hand-chopped into bite-sized cubes

• 1 quart water

• 2 bay leaves (if desired)

• 8 dry [New Mexican] chile pods or 6 tablespoons chile powder

• 3 teaspoons salt

• 10 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon oregano

• 1 teaspoon red pepper [hot Chile powder]

• ½ teaspoon black pepper

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 3 tablespoons paprika

• 1/4 teaspoon cocoa (optional)

• 3 tablespoons flour

• 6 tablespoons corn meal

Instructions

When the olive oil is hot, in a 6-quart pot, add meat and sear over high heat; stir constantly until gray–not brown. It then will have the consistency of whole-grain hominy. Add 1 quart water and cook (covered) at bubbling simmer 1½ to 2 hours.

Then add all ingredients, except thickening (flour and corn meal). Cook 30 minutes longer at same bubbling simmer. Further cooking will damage some of the spice flavors. Skim off the fat.

Now add thickening, previously mixed in some cold water. Cook 5 minutes to determine if more water is necessary (likely) for your desired consistency. Stir to prevent sticking after thickening is added. A fairly hot chili.