Tues., Sept. 30 03 -- 25th Beef Cook-Off Draws Thousands of Competitors

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In a checkoff-funded effort to boost beef demand, the American National CattleWomen held their 25^th National Beef Cook-Off in Fort Worth last week. Jill Ginn [pronounce hard G as in “game”] of Hereford, Texas is president of the Texas CattleWomen, which hosted the Cook-Off this year. According to Ginn, narrowing down many thousands of recipes to find the best ones is no simple task.

Cut #1       :24            Outcue: "...things of that nature."

The 20 finalists came to Fort Worth, where a panel of judges awarded more than $100,000 in cash prizes.

Cut #2       :17            Outcue: "...across the United States."

The Cook-Off has several different categories of beef dishes, but Ginn says they all start with the same cuts and have the same purpose.

Cut #3       :15            Outcue: "...for their families."

According to Ginn, winning recipes must be consumer-friendly.

Cut #4       :25            Outcue: "...for the consumers to use."

Lori Welander [WELL-n-der] of Richmond, Virginia was the winner of this year’s $50,000 “Best of Beef” Prize, using a recipe for Grilled Steak Balsamico [Bal-SOM-ico]. To see the list of Cook-off winners and their winning recipes, visit Web site www.beefcookoff.org. This year’s Cook-Off was sponsored by America’s Beef Producers through their $1-per-head checkoff, in partnership with Albertson’s.