Chili Ingredients
I find chili interesting from a cultural perspective. Most everyone knows what they mean by chili but it’s fairly common for us to mean different things. One person’s ideal chili is another person’s waste of time. For some, chili has beans, for others (like me) beans are just wrong. I suppose there really isn’t any one chili recipe that can be called “authentic” to the exclusion of all others. That’s not to say there aren’t ingredients that are inauthentic, even if they happen to be traditional in particular places. For instance, cinnamon is certainly traditional in Cincinnati but it’s not particularly authentic. As far as I’m concerned, pasta and beans fall into this category. Chili, to me, never has beans in it. You certainly can put beans in chili but as far as I’m concerned, it ceases to be chili as soon as you do.
Chopping The Beef
Anyway, this is what I put in my chili. We start with about 5 pounds of chuck roast. You can use ground beef but I prefer to start with a known entity. I chop it up pretty fine but you could easily cut it into fairly sizable chunks, since it’s going to fall apart by the time you’re done. The next ingredient is not authentic, I’m pretty sure, but I like to add some salt pork. You could easily use bacon or pancetta if that’s what you have. I cut it up into fairly small (0.5cm) pieces and then cook it until it’s a bit crispy. I add the beef, a little at a time, to that. It’s important to turn the temperature up to high so you get some good browning of the meat. At medium temperatures you’ll just stew the meat.
Onions, Peppers, and Spices
While that’s happening, coarsely chop the onions and put them in a food processor with the peppers, minced garlic, fresh thyme, ground cayenne, cumin, oregano, coriander, and salt. Shown here are large, dried Ancho and smaller Chipotle chilis, which are smoke-dried jalapeños, as well as fresh Anaheim chilis. Not the hottest combination but the smokiness of the dried peppers is important. You can control the heat with the ground cayenne. Shown here is a little less than a quarter cup, which means this will be a mild chili (you have to gauge your audience). A full quarter cup or more, or perhaps a chopped up scotch bonnet (Capsicum chinense) or two and you can bring the heat up as high as you like.
Two More Hours and It’s Done
For this amount of chili, I needed to process it in two batches because my vintage Moulinex La Machine II won’t hold that much all at once. If you find that it’s too thick to chop well, pour in a bit of the beer. Once it’s been given a good whiz, add it to the meat that’s been seared in the pot. Add the rest of the beer (or all of it if there isn’t any in the onion mixture). I find that using a pot that’s way too big is easier than one that’s just barely big enough so I use a great big pot. At this point, you can cover it well, turn the heat down to low, and let it simmer for a couple hours. In this final photograph it’s just started but in a couple hours it’s going to be a rich, dark color and really yummy.
That’s about it. For this batch, Dorothy asked me to add two cans of chopped tomatoes, which is fine. Or you can blend that with the onions so there aren’t any tomato pieces. Or leave it out entirely. It’s up to you. If you must add beans, then I can’t stop you, but it won’t be chili, as far as I’m concerned. I prefer to eat chili with fresh, chopped onions, grated cheese, and sour cream.
