I know you’re convinced that a little cinnamon improves your chili.
You are incorrect on this conviction.
Put the peeps in the chili make it taste… Bad.
Whatever dude. My chili, my choice.
Dude the election was clear. your chili my choice.
Chili is a tomato based curry and pretty much anything is acceptable if balanced properly.
- cinnamon
- chocolate
- coffee
- oregano
- cilantro
- cheddar
- beer
- bourbon
According to google (and since the name implies it as well I’m inclined to believe it) it’s actually a chili pepper based stew. With or without meat. Tomatoes and beans are common ingredients, but not part of the base.
Sure, but what does that even mean? Because you start with your onion and garlic and build it from there. So in that sense the onion and garlic are the base.
You’re confusing the ingredient list with the cooking order. Chili is a chili based recipe because that’s the main ingredient, the ingredient that needs to be there, on top of which you can add other stuff.
Those are just used as aromatics, they’re not a main ingredient . You can replace them with other stuff or just omit them altogether and you’d still get a Chili. But if you replace the chili, then you just get a stew, can’t really call it chili anymore.
Take beef bourguignon, for example. It’s a stew as well but its main ingredients, or base, if you will, are the beef and the red wine. Can’t replace those and still call it that
Ah okay, thanks for the explanation.
You start adding chocolate and you’re going into mole territory though
Chili is short for chili con carne, not chili con carne y frijoles. I understand competitions demanding a certain “purity.” That said, I will put beans in my chili because that’s what I like.
I say it’s short for Chile con Carne because beans are the baseline chili - I’d eat chili with beans and no meat, Chile sin Carne, that’s a meal by itself.
But chili with meat and no beans, like Chile Colorado, needs to be served with beans and rice, it’s not good by itself. I do make that sometimes but people just call it “meat” when I do. Nobody here thinks of it as chili.
I don’t think any food is pure. Traditions are forever changing.
If you’re chili con carne is “just meat,” you’ve seriously skimped on the star of the show, the chilis. Which most people seem to do… I’ve seen way too many chili recipes that are basically just a tomato, meat, and bean stew with a dash of chili powder.
I don’t think any food is pure. Traditions are forever changing.
I 100% agree. Hence I said I understand the purists and the chili competitions that don’t allow beans, but I’m going to make mine with beans. Also, much of the best foods are fusions. The chilis, the spicy fruits not the dish, are the perfect example. I can’t imagine a world in which Indian, Thai, or just about any Asian dish doesn’t have a spicy kick to it. Yet every single species of chili originated in South America. Same story with the tomato. My favorite cuisine is Cajun which is French cooking techniques using the South American and Haitian ingredients that were available. There are countless examples like that.
Ha, no they call it “meat” but of course there are chiles. Generally anchos & a guajillo and if I have one the smoked oaxacan pepper. rehydrated in the meat broth and blended with onion and roasted tomatillos, not tomato. It’s really good I just cannot think of it as chili.
A guajillo, as in one? You’re proving my point here. And nothing spicy.
Ha! It’s flavorful as fuck actually with the mostly ancho assortment and tomatillos but the venn diagram in my family for people who like meat heavy meals and the people who like very spicy (as in picante) food doesn’t have much overlap - me and the vegan are the only actual chiliheads.
When I make the vegetarian chili, it gets jalapenos, tomatoes, lots of bottled chili powder, some tinned chipotle powder, leftover very spicy salsa, sometimes beer or a splash of whiskey, I keep adjusting it until it seems like it will be good, then leave it to simmer or in the slow cooker. it’s more of a refrigerator stew but always pintos, I don’t like any other beans in there.
Your vegetarian chili sounds better, and I’m definitely more on the carnivore side. I don’t know if I’ve ever made chili with pinto beans. I’m a kidney and red bean man myself.
I put in a pinch of espresso 🤌
I usually don’t have a nice fine ground coffee on hand. Cocoa powder works just as well! Gives a nice earthy depth to the chili!
That sounds delicious!
As long as it’s a shitload of beans on tomato paste, I’ll eat that slop.
