Chili that’s worth the wait

A friend of mine was talking to me the other day about the new movie “Ford vs. Ferrari” (I haven’t seen it yet), and he mentioned Matt Damon’s portrayal of automotive legend Carroll Shelby.

I told him that while most people hear “Carroll Shelby” and think racing, I hear “Carroll Shelby” and think chili.

In the winter of 1984–85, I was fresh out of college, living in Wagoner, Oklahoma, rooming with my college friend Kendall Durfey and working at the Durfey family’s AM radio station. I discovered that the grocery stores in Oklahoma carried something called “chili grind” beef. If you imagine regular ground beef as strands with the thickness of yarn, “chili grind” beef is ground into strands the thickness of a ball-point pen. It’s designed for longer-cooking dishes, such as slow-simmered Texas chili.

I also discovered two products designed to be used with chili grind beef: Wick Fowler’s 2-Alarm Chili Kit and Carroll Shelby’s Chili Kit.

At the time, the two products were competitors, and they looked different than they do today. Carroll Shelby’s kit came in a small brown paper bag. Wick Fowler’s came in a cardboard tray wrapped in cellophane. Today, both products are made by the same company, Reily Foods, and both come in identically-sized cardboard boxes.