[MikeLM]

I'd heard so much about Cincinnatti Chile that we went well out of our way on a trip to go into downtown Cincy and try it for ourselves at Skyline, apparently the leading purveyor of the dish.

It turned out to be soggy, overcooked spaghetti in a puddle of watery sauce, covered with a ground beef chili of no distinction whatever, plus chopped onions (the onions weren't bad, actually) and some grated, nothing orange cheese.

The whole thing wasn't much above room temperature.

We will not be visiting Cincinnatti again any time soon, at least not for chili.

If it was well-executed with quality ingredients, it sounds like a fairly nice combo.

Mike

[henry]

Something I've been doing for quite a while is to rinse the ground meat through a colander with hot water to get rid of the grease. Makes it a little leaner without a greast slick floating on the top.

I also add 1/4 tsp or so of cinnamon (I love the Penzey's Vietnamese) for an underlayer of flavor.

[MaryB]

Cinnamon in chili is just wrong to me. I prefer something closer to Texas chili. The Mom's original recipe sounds like typical Midwest, very little spice and way to much tomato. It resembles a hamburger/tomato soup more than chili.

I brown my beef in some of the fat I end up with after cubing the chuck. Render it down and remove the crispy bits. If I don't have enough fat I use bacon to add on.

[Ramlatus]

Okay everyone here is what I've come up with so far, with all of your help of course.


Render 3-4 pieces of diced bacon in your chili pot, and then remove the bacon pieces. Sweat 2 small to medium diced yellow onions, 4 or more cloves of minced garlic cloves, 1 minced seeded jalapeno and then remove the softened vegetables. Brown 1 lb of course ground beef (chili grind) and 1 lb of course ground pork (chili grind) and then add the vegetables back into the pot. Put in 4 tbs of chili powder blend, 1 tsp Cayenne pepper, 1 tsp of ground Ancho chiles and bloom them. Add 2 cans of drained and rinsed dark red kidney beans, one 12oz can of tomato sauce, and beef base liquid until it covers everything in the pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 1-2 hours salting to taste.


The chili powder I'm planning on using is 3 parts chipotle (cayenne for a hotter version), 1 part garlic powder, 1 part black pepper, 2 part cumin. Does this sound anything close to good?


Now the I’m getting close to honing the recipe by cooking it and making changes.

[MaryB]

Mexican oregano is a must. Start at a tsp and add to taste.

[shel]

Originally Posted by Ramlatus

Render 3-4 pieces of diced bacon in your chili pot, and then remove the bacon pieces. Sweat 2 small to medium diced yellow onions, 4 or more cloves of minced garlic cloves, 1 minced seeded jalapeno and then remove the softened vegetables. Brown 1 lb of course ground beef (chili grind) and 1 lb of course ground pork (chili grind) and then add the vegetables back into the pot. Put in 4 tbs of chili powder blend, 1 tsp Cayenne pepper, 1 tsp of ground Ancho chiles and bloom them. Add 2 cans of drained and rinsed dark red kidney beans, one 12oz can of tomato sauce, and beef base liquid until it covers everything in the pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 1-2 hours salting to taste.

Add the cayenne and ancho and bloom the spices before adding the meat.

Definitely use Mexican oregano as Mary suggests. Mexican oregano, Lippia graveolens, has a different flavor profile than Greek, or Mediterannean (sp?) oregano.
shel

[phatch]

Do the vegetables after the meat so they release the meat's fond from the pan, essentially deglaing it. Lots of good meat flavor left in the pan otherwise.

Phil

[boar_d_laze]

Originally Posted by phatch

Do the vegetables after the meat so they release the meat's fond from the pan, essentially deglaing it. Lots of good meat flavor left in the pan otherwise.

Oh, well played sir. Well played. You've got the sequence.

You're not only right about beginning the deglaze, BUT (BIG HUGE BUT) the meat won't properly brown if it goes in after the vegetables. Why? Because the vegetables sweat and release too much moisture which interferes with the chemical reaction that is meat browning.

Ideally, she should take the meat out, refresh the oil, and cook the aromatics on the fond -- but most folks just throw them on top of the meat -- especially if the meat is ground rather than diced.

Speaking of well played -- Mary hit it with Mexican oregano. It ain't "red" without Mexican oregano to offset the chili and cumin.

BDL

[teamfat]

Originally Posted by phatch

Do the vegetables after the meat so they release the meat's fond from the pan, essentially deglaing it. Lots of good meat flavor left in the pan otherwise.

Phil

Well, that depends. If you do your browning and sweating in a seperate pan, yes. If you do it in the same pot that the whole batch goes into, nothing gets left behind. I may have been the one in this thread who said it was okay to do the veggies first, then the meat. Last night while fixing dinner which involved browning chunks of chicken breast then doing some veggies I was thinking that I always do the meat first. So do what I do, not what I say

As for browning, relax. It can be tempting to always be fussing about and stirring things around, but let it be. Give the meat time to form a nice crust, then shuffle it about to crust up another side, leave it alone for a while to crust up that side, and so on until the bits are nicely browned on all sides. Do it in batches if needed, crowding the meat will hinder the release of moisture, steaming or braising it instead of browning it.

Using tongs instead of a spoon or a spatula can be helpful in getting all the pieces on the proper side at the proper time, at least when dealing with cubes. For ground meats, it isn't as much of a concern, though non-crowding and non-fussing still apply.

mjb.