Rip's Chili Recipe

[wal]

I thought you folk only cook this during the Autumn/Winter season. More of a winter dish.

[Nick Delgadillo]

I thought you folk only cook this during the Autumn/Winter season. More of a winter dish.

We have air conditioning in the USA, so we can eat hot/spicy/winter foods year round.

[Satch12879]

We have air conditioning in the USA, so we can eat hot/spicy/winter foods year round.

If you look at cultural distribution before the advent of global trading, hot/spicy foods tended to show up with increasing frequency the closer you get to the equator. So really, the hotter the weather, the hotter the food. This seems not to make any sense, but it tends to hold true universally, from Asia to Europe and the Americas. There's some speculation that the heat of spices and chilies offers a cooling effect. Again, counter-intuitive. My thought is simply those climates can support the flora that produces such ingredients and it was natural for the populations to use them.

Despite not being a Texan, Rip's method is essentially the same way I make chili on the rare occasions I do so. Instead of dry ground chilies, I will steep dried whole chilies in hot chicken stock and then make a blended paste once they are reconstituted. I have played with small amounts of both coffee and unsweetened cocoa instead of cinnamon. I will stir in a tablespoon or two of tomato paste to the onions and beef before deglazing with bourbon and then adding the brazing liquid, usually beef stock. The method is key here, as long as there are no beans.

[wal]

We have air conditioning in the USA, so we can eat hot/spicy/winter foods year round.

So it is you folk that are causing me to pay more for my energy down here.

I have eaten "chili" a long time ago, a resident from your fair city of Huston cooked me up a batch, but I am sure he used ground beef and kidney beans I think and it was red not brown like Mark made.

Us folk down here rate spicy food from 1 to 10, if you come to dinner and we like you it will be a 1 or 3, if we don't like you it will be a 12. We also keep a bowl of plain yogurt as a fire-extinguisher in case we have over indulged in the peppers.

[k_kws]

I finished cooking a pot this morning and had some for breakfast. Packed some away for lunch as well.

I used the cast iron pot. Justin Small was right, no rust.

[John Watson]

Rip did you literally mean a couple of ounces of oregano in your chili recipe?
I used a kitchen scale and a couple ounces filled up a pint container.
Perhaps a shot glass volume is what was meant?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Just oregano to taste. I guess that is a lot of oregano.

[John Watson]

I should have applied a little common sense. Hating to waste I did manage to eat the whole batch. Haha.
I’ll have to give it another try.