TAMAQUA, Pa. — The most popular event for the East End Fire Company. Folks looked forward to chili and boilo tasting all year.
People pay for a ticket to enter the competition and taste test each chili and boilo. All the proceeds go towards the Tamaqua Carbon County American Cancer Society.
Co-chairmen of the competition, Art Connelly, says they've donated at least $50,000 over the last 10 years to the cancer society thanks to everyone who supports the contest.
"There's two categories. There's the tradition chili which is like the hamburger and beans and then there's a specialty chili, some make it with chicken, cubed beef or whatever," said Connelly.
Apart from your tradition chili recipes, contestants have entered everything from venison, sausage, chicken and even bear and rabbit recipes.
Patty Ramer, a contestant from Barnesville, opted to compete with her traditional Skook boilo.
She says she's holding up the original boilo-making tradition in honor of her husband.
"There's a lot of flavored boilos that don't use the traditional four queens whiskey, and I mean everybody has a little bit of a, you know, they had their own stuff to it," said Ramer.
Ramer's son, BJ Ramer, joined his mother this year for the first time in the competition with his homemade traditional chili recipe.
But he also made a boilo of his own that didn't quite make the cut.
"We had a blind taste test when we made it yesterday, and we had my brother actually pick which one, and she used hers anyway."
At $10 a ticket, people came pouring in to try each chili and boilo. Maybe next year, Ramer will have his own boilo to compete with.