The Ultimate Chili thread

[5knives]

It has long depressed and saddened me to learn what some poor deprived souls have been eating, under the mistaken belief that they were eating Chili.

Therefore as an act of public spirited kindness and good will, I have decided to share a few of the secrets of ... CHILI!

Lets start by stating a few simple but iron clad rules.

1. Chili is made from meat, onions, chilies and misc flavorings and spices ... period. Cumin, Garlic, Chili powder and Cayenne are mandatory.

2. Chili is properly made in 5 gallon batches but smaller quantities can approximate the flavor and taste.

3. Chili is an art form, be suspicious of other peoples recipes.

4. NEVER use a Chili recipe from any cookbook that also contains recipes for Tofu.

5. There is no such thing as vegetarian Chili (See rule 1)

6. Chili should NEVER burn your mouth!

7. Chili should warm your belly and cause you to break into a nice sweat about the time you finish the first bowl, even if it's 10 below and you're eating outside with your shirt off..

8. Chili is cooked slow, simmering for a day or two is good, a week or two is better!
A six to eight hour simmer is marginally acceptable ... if you're dying of starvation
and haven't eaten anything except your shoes for at least a week.

9. Chili isn't red, it's a deep rich mahogany color. Even if somebody put tomatoes in it while your back was turned.

10. Never skim the fat off the pot, that's where the spices and the flavor lives. Chili is NOT a low fat health food and never
will be. Treat any such claims or recipes with derision.

A fair starting place for a small batch would be 3 pounds of 1-1 1/2 inch cubed beef stew meat and 2 pounds of pork, cut to same size. Throw in a couple of chopped large onions, 4 or 5 chopped Garlic cloves, a tablespoon or 3 of Cumin, some red pepper flakes, a tablespoon or two of cayenne, and 6 or 8 Tablespoons of GOOD Chili powder. Cut up 2 or 3 of those lovely Ancho chilies, some of those beautiful little red New Mexico chilies, add some hot hungarian paprika. don't forget a splash of vinegar so your body can absorb the calcium from the meat.

After that ... let your conscience and your taste buds be your guide.

When the meat is cooked down to shreds and there's a beautiful oily puddle of shimmery grease floating on the top of the pot contents ... your Chili is ready to taste.

Adjust spices and flavors to suit and enjoy!

Serve with fresh cornbread (southwestern style ... no sugar) or fresh hot Navajo Fry Bread. Beer isn't mandatory ... but it should be!

Refrigeration in lieu of continued simmering is acceptable within limits, good chili needs time to blend 'marry' the spices and flavors..

NOTE: BEANS. beans should NEVER be cooked IN Chili.

Perfectly okay to serve chili over separately cooked beans (even a can or two heated in their own liquid with a little oregano is okay).

Why is this?

Because Chili is wonderful served over your morning eggs, over fried potatoes, wrapped up in a tortilla with some refried beans, lots of ways, but once you add beans to the chili, and refrigerate or continue to simmer, you end up with ... chili flavored bean mush.

NOTE: Tomatoes ... ummm ... okay if you insist, but beware of creating spaghetti sauce. Adding pasta to your chili is an admission that you have indeed created a thick chunky pasta sauce.

No need to thank me for this post, I'm happy to share my hard won Chili secrets with my brothers and sisters in an effort to brighten their lives, correct misconceptions and improve their nutrition!

Regards,
...

[Sanders]

I approve this post.

Some things that taste good, added to chile:

Cocoa powder added sparingly, until there is barely a hint of taste -- just enough to make people wonder, but not able to guess what it is. (shhhhhhh! It's my secret ingredient)

Beer
Tequila
Whiskey
Red wine
(not all together!)

Green chiles for a little added variety. It gives the dish a Christmas feel...

Love to eat my chile with melted cheese on top AND a dollop of sour cream.

I do love beans! Pinto beans, cooked with bacon or salt pork -- just not cooked in my chile. I DO enjoy a ladle full of beans in the bottom of my bowl, covered by chile.

Never, ever cook a dish with ground beef and call it chile. Call it anything else, but do not call it chile! My wife makes something with ground beef and pasta....she calls it "chilimac". But she never tries to tell me it is chile.

If you find a recipe that calls for you to add sugar to chile, then tear up and throw out that recipe.

When you eat it, take a flour tortilla, tear a piece off and form it into a little cone, fill it up and eat it.

[Pogo]

Any chili that doesn't match my recipe is a substitute for chili.

[Railbuggy]

Here is a Cincinnati recipe.
1 large onion chopped
1 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon red (cayenne) pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa or 1/2 ounce grated unsweetened chocolate
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 (16-ounce) package uncooked dried spaghetti pasta
Toppings (see below)

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, saute onion, ground beef, garlic, and chili powder until ground beef is slightly cooked. Add allspice, cinnamon, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, unsweetened cocoa or chocolate, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar, and water. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, 1 1/2 hours. Remove from heat.

Cincinnati chili lovers order their chili by number. Two, Three, Four, or Five Way. Let your guest create their own final product.

Two-Way Chili: Chili served on spaghetti

Three-Way Chili: Additionally topped with shredded Cheddar cheese

Four-Way Chili: Additionally topped with chopped onions

Five-Way Chili: Additionally topped with kidney beans

[10 Bears]

I cannot add anything constructive, to this thread.
Reckon I'll just read and drool!

[Desert Rat]

Pasta in chili?

Kidney beans in chili?

Those notions could get a fellow shot dead in my part of the world.

You need to introduce them peeps to cornbread. They will think you're a saint or at least a wizard.

[5knives]

Sanders Cocoa addition works, or ... a couple of squares of bittersweet bakers chocolat and maybe 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, just enough to take the edge off the bitter chocolate and give the tiniest hint of the caramelized taste of the brown sugar. Once it blends, you shouldn't be able to identify the presence of either one. Not in a couple of gallons of chili anyhow.

Nothing at all wrong with cheese or sour cream on a serving either. Pretty tasty. Both cut the spicieness a little bit though.
Oh yeah, in case anyone finds your chili a tad hot. Let 'em drink milk, half and half or cream. Never Beer, Soda or water all of which make the bite worse. The fat in the dairy drinks coat the mouth and tongue and eases the hot sensation.

Regards,
...

[Desert Rat]

We had some chili the wife unfroze tonight. Twern't no flies on it. I still feel like a tick on a dog's ear.

[Hunter07]

Never, ever cook a dish with ground beef and call it chile.

Occasionally I buy a roast. Throw it in the freezer for a couple hours to 'firm it up', then cut it up following the fat.

Once cut into several bigger chunks, trim most of the fat off, then cut the chunks into cubes about 3/4" square, then brown.

Works pretty good doing it this way and a heck of a lot cheaper than buying packages of 'stew meat' from the store.

[baboon]

Originally Posted by 5knives

Sanders Cocoa addition works, or ... a couple of squares of bittersweet bakers chocolat and maybe 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, just enough to take the edge off the bitter chocolate and give the tiniest hint of the caramelized taste of the brown sugar. Once it blends, you shouldn't be able to identify the presence of either one. Not in a couple of gallons of chili anyhow.


...

Your making chili or mole sauce?

[5knives]

Originally Posted by baboon

Your making chili or mole sauce?

I'm not making sauce, but I've tasted chile made with the tiny bit of bitter chocolate and, done right it gives the chili a fuller taste, and rounds out the chiles sometimes thin taste.

No way can you taste the bitter chocolate or the sugar.

Not a requirement if you cook the chili down the way you really should.

Regards,
...

[5knives]

Originally Posted by Hunter07

Occasionally I buy a roast. Throw it in the freezer for a couple hours to 'firm it up', then cut it up following the fat.

Once cut into several bigger chunks, trim most of the fat off, then cut the chunks into cubes about 3/4" square, then brown.

Works pretty good doing it this way and a heck of a lot cheaper than buying packages of 'stew meat' from the store.

I referred to stew meat as most folks are to busy (or lazy) to cut up a roast to size. Sorry to hear you're disgarding the fat (pure energy) but that's okay as long as you make it 1/3 pork to 2/3 Beef, venison, antelope etc.

You can make a passable chili with ground meat ... IF it's "Chili grind"), i.e extremly coarse ground, some butchers know what you mean, most do not.

Ordinary hamburger as sold is ground way too fine to make good chili.

Regards,
...

[AKWARRIOR]

Knives,

Dammit you left out my key ingredient!BEANS!!!!Also,I don't see any tomato paste and chopped tomatos? Looks to be a great recipe,I would just add a few things to the pot is all.

[10 Bears]

Yep, he left out the Lima Chili Beans! ::

[5knives]

Originally Posted by 5knives

1. Chili is made from meat, onions, chilies and misc flavorings and spices ... period. Cumin, Garlic, Chili powder and Cayenne are mandatory.

Ahem ... may I call everyones attention to the lack of beans in this listing of the true ingredients of real chili?

Also, there is no reference to tomato, tomato sauce, tomato paste or ketchup.

Real chili doesn't have any. The debate continues, but the consensus remains, no tomatoes in REAL chili!

Even an otherwise GREAT chili can be turned into spaghetti sauce by the simple addition of tomato or tomato products.

Making chili for myself, no tomato, real chili. Cooking for other people who never tasted real chili and because they expect some taste of them ... I've been known to add tomatoes, but cooked down to where they are unidentifiable except as a trace flavor in the taste.

Regards,
...