A couple months ago I announced that I’d begun development for a chili starter — a sauce that you could simply add to ground beef, allowing you to make T-Rev’s Stiff Willi Chili in a fraction of the time it would take to prepare all the ingredients from scratch using the recipe on my spice mix label.

But then, after putting the first sample batch of chili starter to the test, I decided it would be better to offer a starter sauce for my Texas-style competition chili instead. I thought, rather than just giving customers a simpler way to make the same kind of chili they can make by using my spice mix today, why not give them the option to make an entirely different version just as simply!

For the past two years, customers have been able to use my spice mix to make my chili w/ beans recipe that won People’s Choice at the ICS World’s Championship in 2009. However, by offering them the option to make my Texas-style version, they can replicate the chili that’s responsible for starting it all — my competition batch that won the DC101 Chili Cook-Off in Washington, DC earlier that same year.

So it was back to the drawing board with the manufacturer. I asked them to whip up my Texas-style sauce and they did a very good job. I gave it a quick test and, aside from needing a bit more salt and chili seasoning, it was spot on. Sadly, however, everything pretty much went to hell once the company sent me the manufacturing costs. I’ll spare you all the details, but suffice to say I’d have had to charge you, dear customer, at least 8 or 9 bucks per jar. And what was worse, the manufacturing costs alone — to say nothing of label or freight costs — priced me out of being able to ship through my distributors.

So I was pretty bummed for a good couple weeks. I knew it would be expensive to ship glass containers, and the costs of packaging them so they wouldn’t break easily weren’t going to be low either. But it was a risk I was willing to take in order to allow customers to make my chili right out of a jar.

But then I had an epiphany. I was discussing all of this with a friend at work a few weeks ago, and she asked me why I didn’t just want to offer the chili starter in dry mix form. “I already offer a dry mix,” I said, “plus I didn’t want people to have to add any extra ingredients.”

And then she said something that, if I’m being honest, I’m pretty embarrassed I didn’t just realize on my own.

“If people already have to brown the meat in order to add the sauce, what the hell’s so hard about adding some onion and tomato sauce too?”

Technically, it’s tomato puree. But OK, I got the point.

I couldn’t wait to get home that same night and test out a Texas-style recipe using my dry spice mix as the base. Turns out all I really had to do was tweak it with the right amount of salt and figure out how much water I’d have to mix it with to make the gravy the right consistency.

In all honesty, even with the research involved during the cooking process, I think it took a whopping 20 minutes from beginning to end. That shouldn’t be too surprising if you knew how many freaking batches of chili I’ve made over the past two years, but my point is this: If it only took me 20 minutes to figure out the proportions of all the ingredients, it will obviously take you much less time if all you have to do is read the instructions off the back of a package.

Here’s the chili that will soon be made by all using the best Texas-style chili mix on the planet. Well, fingers crossed anyway.

I taste-tested the batch using my wife and three(-almost-four)-year-old as guinea pigs, and I was literally ecstatic as we devoured it. My son had to put about three tablespoons of sour cream in his bowl to tame the heat, but the blend was perfect. I couldn’t believe how closely it resembled my competition batch that takes about two and a half hours to cook; I couldn’t believe how perfectly the gravy complemented the meat; I couldn’t believe it took this long to figure out this was the direction I should go (I also regret that I had to waste the sauce manufacturer’s time while I figured it out); and I couldn’t believe how affordably I’d be able to offer this to customers.

I couldn’t believe I’d pretty much just invented the best damned Texas chili mix in the entire country! (Did that sound pretentious? Wasn’t supposed to.)

The only drawback to this new product will be that I’ll probably have to manufacture it myself if I want to be able to compete with the rest of the market, afford distribution, and have a shot at getting it into larger supermarkets. And the manufacturing itself won’t be nearly as much of a pain in the ass as having to go through the headaches of getting licensed by the state to prepare the chili mix myself, with all the regulatory hurdles and whatnot. But hopefully it will be a small price to pay in the long run.

Some of the biggest benefits, however, are that I’ll be able to ship in paper or plastic packaging, which will be much lighter and therefore much cheaper to ship than glass jars. And instead of having to absorb the expense of elaborately padded cardboard boxes — costs that eventually get passed on to customers — I’ll be able to toss the packages right into padded envelopes and send them on their way to eagerly-awaiting Stiff Willi fans.

Best of all, I made two gallons of this super-quick Texas-style chili for the Solomons Beach Bash this past weekend, and it was a huge hit. I’m not just saying that because I’m trying to sound cool in a blog post; people were literally asking me for entire bowls of it instead of the 2-ounce samples I was giving away in souffle cups.

So hopefully you’re as excited about the forthcoming T-Rev’s Stiff Willi Chili Texas Chili Mix as I am. Feel free to share any thoughts or questions in the comments.