Chowder-off; Pie Eating Contest/Match (1884, 1886)

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CHOWDER OFF

   Another "-off," although much less popular than "bake off" or "cook off"
or even "rib off."  There are 57 total Google hits, not all of them relevant.
   I was reading Brooke Dojny's THE NEW ENGLAND COOKBOOK (1999) and "A
Chowder-Off" is on page 68.

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PIE EATING CONTEST/MATCH

   "Pie eating contest" has 8,760 Google hits.  It came before Nathan's "hot
dog eating contest."  Pie-eating usually features messy faces.
   The contest is as American as apple pie.  Did it originate in New York
City?
   Regional newspapers should be good at this, and there were lots of
hits...There appears to be no scholarship on this American contest.


   22 August 1886, BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, pg. 2:
   PIE EATING contests are not so popular as the ingenious gentleman who
started them hoped they would be.  I attended the first pie eating match of
importance held in New York, on Third avenue, a few years ago.  It was called a
tournament, and a fair sized crowd had collected to see it.  Six men and two half
grown boys sat in a row on a small stage with their hands behind them and
expressions of more or less embarrassment on their faces.  A negro was among them.
 He smiled with a futile effort to appear at ease and the revelation in the
way of mouth that accompanied the maneuiver, made him a prime favorite in the
pools ar once.  The others were asked to smile by the spectators but they did
not respond.  The conditions were simple; a long board table with eight
divisions made by nailing as many sticks across the table at regular intervals was
placed in front of the contestants with four apple pies before each man.  The
one who ate his pies first was to receive the munificent prize of three dollars.
 The others were allowed to keep their pie.  When the word was given, the men
ducked their heads forward and ravenously attacked the pie.  It was not a
refined spectacle nor was the match close, for the negro won in a canter.  Before
the others had got themselves into working shape he had finished and was
waiting for more.  It took the heart out of the others, and they stopped
incontinently and looked on with lowering faces while the cahmpion received his reward.
 I was reminded of all this by meeting the negro in the office of a high
railroad official a few days ago.  He is stenographer and private secretary to the
railroad manager, receiving the very comfortable salary of $30 a week.  His
master says he's as quick, accurate and industrious as any man in the company,
and invariably good natured and polite.  The circumstances of the man have
changed, but his smile has not.  It is as vast and cheerful as ever.  He hasn't
been spelled by success either, for I was anxious to see whether I was not
right in identifying him with the pie eater, and I leaned over his desk on my way
out and asked him if he had ever been on the stage.  "Once," he said,
revealing the smile suddenly in all its bewildering ramifications, "and once only.  It
wasn't a cake walk, but a pie eating match, and (proudly) I won it."

   20 November 1887, BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, pg. 16:
   Arthur Kraft won the sack race, potato race and pie eating match.

   24 March 1889, BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, pg. 9:
   _A GREAT PIE EATING CONTEST_
   Mentioning the railroad pie brings to mind the story of a pie eating
contest which is recounted by the hero of the affair.  He is a gambler hero named
Burlingame, but he is besy known by the sobriq  uet of Appetite Bill.  Almost
every sport in the country knows him, and anyone who has ever seen him at
dinner knows how well he deserves his nickname.  Bill prides himself upon one
gastronomic feat which gave him the championship as pie biter and by which he broke
many betters, (,,,)


   27 February 1884, CHESTER TIMES (Chester, PA), pg. 3?, col. 5:
      _Pie Eaters on the Stage._
   Another grand entertainment will be given in National Hall this evening by
the Kickapoo Indians.  The features of the evening will be a grand pie eating
match which everybody should see.  The admission will be the same as usual,
ten cents, and those who want good seats had better come early.

   22 October 1885, WAUKESHA FREEMAN (Waukesha, Wisconsin), pg. 5?, col. 4:
   Pie-eating Contest--Paul View, 1st; Charlie Lewis, 2nd; Ernest Sweet, 3rd.

   12 June 1886, TRENTON TIMES (Trenton, NJ), pg.1, col. 2:
   A summer night festival and pie-eating match are to be held in the Opera
House this evening, by Dayton Camp, No. 5.

    29 June 1900, FORT WAYNE NEWS (Fort Wayne, Indiana), pg.4?, col. 5:
   In addition to these events there will be a balloon ascension, afternoon
and night, band concert afternoon and night, a base ball game, a tug of war,
afternoon and night, and a pie-eating contest, and everything can be seen free
of charge.