Hot Chili

Almost every small town has, or has had, a drive-in or cafe that serves a secret-recipe hot-dog chili.

Corbin had The Dixie Cafe on Main Street.

Don Edwards, a retired Herald-Leader columnist, grew up in Corbin and spent many afternoons at the Dixie with his high-school buddies. He wrote a column about the chili a few years before the restaurant closed in August 2005.

Edwards said many persons have claimed to have the Dixie’s secret recipe, and he quoted April Gilbert who said: "The real secret is the proportions of the ingredients. It's just that simple." Gilbert, who is the daughter of the last owners Ted and Marsha Trosper, always made the “Dixie dogs.”

The chili was served on a bun lightly coated with mustard and lined with finely chopped onion. “It tastes just a little different from any other chili,” Edwards said.

The “Dixie Dog” was the stuff of urban legend. “When my sister was in high school in the late 1940s, kids heard that the original owner (the Halcomb family) had said he’d turned down $10,000 for the recipe.”

Jimmy Lawson, a member of the second family that owned the place, said, "I used to watch it being made in, oh, say 1960. I always heard it had beer or (non-alcoholic) ‘near beer’ in it, but I never actually saw any. I did see them skim the fat off and add crumbs to get the right consistency.”

Winchester also claimed a famous chili-maker.

Russell Chism, who died in 1990, sold chili-smothered hot dogs at The City Club, a Winchester poolroom that he operated for decades. No women were allowed in the poolroom, so he installed a walk-up window so women could also buy the hot spicy chili.

Chism also made the chili for civic and charitable organizations and when he sold the pool hall in 1972, people still requested Chis’ chili. His daughters, Linda Ormsby and Brenda Mastrean wanted their father to make the chili and sell it. “They wanted me to market it, and I said no. They changed my mind by aggravating me to death,” he said in 1986.

Chism made the chili for several years until ill health forced him to stop making it commercially.

The recipe was created by accident. “I just threw it all together and it
worked,” Chism said. He did say the way to make a perfect hot dog is to use mustard, onions, Chis’ chili, a wiener and steamed bun.

In his column, Edwards shared a Dixie-type chili recipe, allegedly from the original Halcomb's, that his mother copied down many years ago. “I can’t say it’s the original, but I can say it’s good.”

Don Edwards' chili
Combine 3 pounds lean ground beef, 1 can or bottle of beer, 3 teaspoons of salt in a skillet and simmer 40 minutes.
Add 1 10-ounce can tomato puree, 6 teaspoons of chili powder and 1 cup of crushed corn flakes (equivalent of 2 cups not crushed). Cook an additional 20 minutes. Serve over hot dogs or as chili buns with mustard and onion.