Old Fezziwig
Thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin.
@Whizbang Dustyboots, what's the difference between regular ground beef and chili grind?
Cookin again
- Thread starter Dannyalcatraz
- Start date
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Chili grind means it's a looser grind with bigger strands of meat. It's an antiquated term at this point.
If you look through the ICS recipes, you'll see a lot of changes over time as fashions change, along with major regional variations. In Southern California, where I competed, you can't win unless you're using stew beef or tri-tip, for instance, while in previous eras, ground beef was acceptable.
All this talk about chili had me going and looking at my recipes. They're nuts.
Either of those is like an all-day production.
What you'll need
Ingredients
½ cup water
3 lbs. beef chuck, cut into ~1" chunks.
1 lb. ground chuck
6 strips thick-cut bacon, cut crosswise into ½" lardons
3 dried ancho peppers
3 dried guajillo peppers
3 dried cascabel peppers
3 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, plus a tablespoon of the sauce.
(It may be possible to make substitutions in the chile peppers)
2 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
3 bay leaves, crumbled
2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground coriander
4 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1 tbsp finely-ground coffee
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1.5 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
2 medium-to-large onions, diced or minced (somewhere toward the fine end of that)
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced (or through a garlic press)
1 red bell pepper, cut about as fine as the onions
2 12-oz.bottles or cans of strong dark beer (some sort of basic imperial stout works well, here)
1 28-oz. can of crushed tomatoes (or 1 14.5-oz. can each of crushed and diced, also, I like fire-roasted tomatoes for this)
2 tbsp malt vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste (and/or chili sauce)
2 tbsp lime juice
Tabasco sauce
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
{If desired, 3 tbsp corn starch and 3 tbsp water, mixed to form slurry}
1 ½ tsps beef soup base, in enough boiling water to dissolve
Equipment
A water kettle (or some other way to boil water)
A Dutch oven or a soup pot big enough to cook the chili in, about 7 quarts
A stick blender and/or food processor
What you'll do
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place all the dried peppers on a baking sheet and bake for ~5 minutes. Tear the dried peppers in half, remove seeds and large ribs, coarsely chop. Mince the chipotles. Puree in ½ cup water. Add cumin, coriander, bay leaves, and oregano to make a paste. Set aside.
2. Season the chunks generously with salt.
3. In the pot you're going to make the chili in, fry the bacon over medium-low heat until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp, probably not more than 10 minutes. Remove bacon to paper-towel-lined plate. Remove all but 2 tsp of bacon fat to small bowl or heatprood cup/pitcher.
4. Increase heat to medium-high. Working in batches, brown the meat chunks, adding bacon fat as necessary. Brown the ground chuck last. Reserve all the beef in a bowl and set aside.
5. Lower heat to medium. Add 3 tbsp of bacon fat to the pot, then saute the onions and red pepper until softened, maybe 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chile mixture and saute until fragrant, maybe 2-3 minutes.
6. Add bacon and beef. Add lime juice, tomato paste, soy sauce, vinegar, crushed tomatoes, adobo sauce, beer, cinnamon, black pepper, cloves, coffee, and chocolate. Dissolve beef soup base in just enough boiling water, and add that. Stir to combine.
7. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cook for ~2 hours, or until meat is tender and juices are dark and rich and starting to thicken.
8. If desired, add cornstarch slurry. (We haven’t needed to, ever, cooking it on the stovetop.)
9. Adjust seasonings with generous amounts of salt, black pepper, and Tabasco sauce.
Serve in bowl drizzled with crema and topped with shredded cheese.
Note: You could probably prepare this in a slow-cooker, if that was the only chili-friendly pot you had that was big enough (or if you needed the stove for other things). What you'd probably want to do is perform steps 3-5 in something like a skillet or saute pan, moving the beef in step 4 to the slow-cooker as it browned. Once everything was in the slow-cooker, you'd cook it for ~2 hours on high or ~4 on low, or until done. Since you'd need to cover the pot (because that's how slow-cookers roll) you'd be more likely to need the cornstarch slurry (the chili thickens up fine on the stove, simmering uncovered, or in the oven likewise uncovered).
You can also do the main cooking, once all the ingredients are in, in a 325F oven, stirring every hour or so, until the chli is done. This is how we cook it these days.
Also, we have sometimes taken to replacing the chuck roast with “boneless short ribs,” which are something like chuck steaks, and are easier to cut up.
Ingredients
½ cup water
3 lbs. beef chuck, cut into ~1" chunks.
1 lb. ground chuck
6 strips thick-cut bacon, cut crosswise into ½" lardons
3 dried ancho peppers
3 dried guajillo peppers
3 dried cascabel peppers
3 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, plus a tablespoon of the sauce.
(It may be possible to make substitutions in the chile peppers)
2 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
3 bay leaves, crumbled
2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground coriander
4 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1 tbsp finely-ground coffee
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1.5 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
2 medium-to-large onions, diced or minced (somewhere toward the fine end of that)
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced (or through a garlic press)
1 red bell pepper, cut about as fine as the onions
2 12-oz.bottles or cans of strong dark beer (some sort of basic imperial stout works well, here)
1 28-oz. can of crushed tomatoes (or 1 14.5-oz. can each of crushed and diced, also, I like fire-roasted tomatoes for this)
2 tbsp malt vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste (and/or chili sauce)
2 tbsp lime juice
Tabasco sauce
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
{If desired, 3 tbsp corn starch and 3 tbsp water, mixed to form slurry}
1 ½ tsps beef soup base, in enough boiling water to dissolve
Equipment
A water kettle (or some other way to boil water)
A Dutch oven or a soup pot big enough to cook the chili in, about 7 quarts
A stick blender and/or food processor
What you'll do
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place all the dried peppers on a baking sheet and bake for ~5 minutes. Tear the dried peppers in half, remove seeds and large ribs, coarsely chop. Mince the chipotles. Puree in ½ cup water. Add cumin, coriander, bay leaves, and oregano to make a paste. Set aside.
2. Season the chunks generously with salt.
3. In the pot you're going to make the chili in, fry the bacon over medium-low heat until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp, probably not more than 10 minutes. Remove bacon to paper-towel-lined plate. Remove all but 2 tsp of bacon fat to small bowl or heatprood cup/pitcher.
4. Increase heat to medium-high. Working in batches, brown the meat chunks, adding bacon fat as necessary. Brown the ground chuck last. Reserve all the beef in a bowl and set aside.
5. Lower heat to medium. Add 3 tbsp of bacon fat to the pot, then saute the onions and red pepper until softened, maybe 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chile mixture and saute until fragrant, maybe 2-3 minutes.
6. Add bacon and beef. Add lime juice, tomato paste, soy sauce, vinegar, crushed tomatoes, adobo sauce, beer, cinnamon, black pepper, cloves, coffee, and chocolate. Dissolve beef soup base in just enough boiling water, and add that. Stir to combine.
7. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cook for ~2 hours, or until meat is tender and juices are dark and rich and starting to thicken.
8. If desired, add cornstarch slurry. (We haven’t needed to, ever, cooking it on the stovetop.)
9. Adjust seasonings with generous amounts of salt, black pepper, and Tabasco sauce.
Serve in bowl drizzled with crema and topped with shredded cheese.
Note: You could probably prepare this in a slow-cooker, if that was the only chili-friendly pot you had that was big enough (or if you needed the stove for other things). What you'd probably want to do is perform steps 3-5 in something like a skillet or saute pan, moving the beef in step 4 to the slow-cooker as it browned. Once everything was in the slow-cooker, you'd cook it for ~2 hours on high or ~4 on low, or until done. Since you'd need to cover the pot (because that's how slow-cookers roll) you'd be more likely to need the cornstarch slurry (the chili thickens up fine on the stove, simmering uncovered, or in the oven likewise uncovered).
You can also do the main cooking, once all the ingredients are in, in a 325F oven, stirring every hour or so, until the chli is done. This is how we cook it these days.
Also, we have sometimes taken to replacing the chuck roast with “boneless short ribs,” which are something like chuck steaks, and are easier to cut up.
What you'll need
Ingredients
½ cup of water (boiling)
About 3lbs. boneless Boston butt (pork), cut into ~1" chunks (starting from 3.5 lbs, trimming excess fat)
1.5 lb. ground pork
6 strips thick-cut bacon (applewood-smoked is nice, here) cut crosswise into ½" lardons
3 dried ancho peppers
3 dried guajillo peppers
3 dried cascabel peppers
3 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced
(It may be possible to make substitutions in the chile peppers)
2 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
3 bay leaves, crumbled
2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground ginger
1.5 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
2 medium-to-large onions, diced or minced (somewhere toward the fine end of that)
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced (or through a garlic press)
1 red bell pepper, cut about as fine as the onions
2 bottles of Paulaner Salvator, Tröegs Tröegenator, or similar amber Doppelbock
1 14.5-oz. can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes (or crushed if you prefer)
3-4 Granny Smith (or other baking) apples, cored and peeled and cut into ½” chunks (about a pound, before coring, etc.)
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp chili sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
Tabasco sauce
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
{If desired, 3 tbsp corn starch and 3 tbsp water, mixed to form slurry}
1 ½ tsps pork (or chicken) soup base (e. g., Better Than Boullion), in enough boiling water to dissolve
Equipment
A water kettle (or some other way to boil water)
A Dutch oven or a soup pot big enough to cook the chili in, at least 7 quarts
A stick blender and/or food processor
What you'll do
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place all the dried peppers on a baking sheet and bake for ~5 minutes, or until you can really smell them. Tear the dried peppers in half, remove seeds and large ribs, coarsely chop. Mince the chipotles. Puree in ½ cup water. Add cumin, cayenne, coriander, bay leaves, and oregano to make a paste. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 300 F. Season the pork chunks generously with salt.
3. In the pot you're going to make the chili in, cook the bacon over medium-low heat until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp, probably not more than 10 minutes. Remove bacon to paper-towel-lined plate. Remove bacon fat to small bowl or heat-proof measuring cup (which will be easier to pour from).
4. Increase heat to medium-high. Cook the ground pork, then set aside; remove rendered fat from pot. Working in batches, brown the pork chunks, adding bacon fat as necessary. Reserve all the pork in a bowl and set aside.
5. Lower heat to medium. Add 3 tbsp of bacon fat to the pot, then saute the onions and red pepper until softened, maybe 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chile mixture and saute until fragrant, maybe 2-3 minutes.
6. Add bacon and pork. Add lime juice, tomato paste, chili sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, tomatoes, adobo sauce, beer, cinnamon, black pepper, cloves, ginger, and apples. Dissolve soup base in just enough boiling water, and add that. Stir to combine.
7. Bring to boil, then cover and place in oven and cook for ~2 hours, stirring every hour, or until meat is tender and apples have broken down and dissolved and juices are dark and rich and starting to thicken.
8. If desired, add cornstarch slurry. (We haven’t needed to, ever, cooking it on the stovetop or in the oven.)
9. Adjust seasonings with generous amounts of salt, black pepper, and Tabasco sauce.
Serve in bowls drizzled with crema and topped with shredded cheese and maybe chopped cilantro.
Note: You could probably prepare this in a slow-cooker, if that was the only chili-friendly pot you had that was big enough (or if you needed the stove for other things). What you'd probably want to do is perform steps 3-5 in something like a skillet or saute pan, moving the pork in step 4 to the slow-cooker as it browned. Once everything was in the slow-cooker, you'd cook it for ~2 hours on high or ~4 on low, or until done. Since you'd need to cover the pot (because that's how slow-cookers roll) you'd be more likely to need the cornstarch slurry (the chili thickens up fine on the stove, simmering uncovered, or in the oven likewise uncovered).
You can also do the main cooking, once all the ingredients are in, in a 325F oven, stirring every hour or so, until the chli is done. This is how we cook it these days.
Ingredients
½ cup of water (boiling)
About 3lbs. boneless Boston butt (pork), cut into ~1" chunks (starting from 3.5 lbs, trimming excess fat)
1.5 lb. ground pork
6 strips thick-cut bacon (applewood-smoked is nice, here) cut crosswise into ½" lardons
3 dried ancho peppers
3 dried guajillo peppers
3 dried cascabel peppers
3 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced
(It may be possible to make substitutions in the chile peppers)
2 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
3 bay leaves, crumbled
2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground ginger
1.5 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
2 medium-to-large onions, diced or minced (somewhere toward the fine end of that)
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced (or through a garlic press)
1 red bell pepper, cut about as fine as the onions
2 bottles of Paulaner Salvator, Tröegs Tröegenator, or similar amber Doppelbock
1 14.5-oz. can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes (or crushed if you prefer)
3-4 Granny Smith (or other baking) apples, cored and peeled and cut into ½” chunks (about a pound, before coring, etc.)
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp chili sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
Tabasco sauce
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
{If desired, 3 tbsp corn starch and 3 tbsp water, mixed to form slurry}
1 ½ tsps pork (or chicken) soup base (e. g., Better Than Boullion), in enough boiling water to dissolve
Equipment
A water kettle (or some other way to boil water)
A Dutch oven or a soup pot big enough to cook the chili in, at least 7 quarts
A stick blender and/or food processor
What you'll do
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place all the dried peppers on a baking sheet and bake for ~5 minutes, or until you can really smell them. Tear the dried peppers in half, remove seeds and large ribs, coarsely chop. Mince the chipotles. Puree in ½ cup water. Add cumin, cayenne, coriander, bay leaves, and oregano to make a paste. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 300 F. Season the pork chunks generously with salt.
3. In the pot you're going to make the chili in, cook the bacon over medium-low heat until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp, probably not more than 10 minutes. Remove bacon to paper-towel-lined plate. Remove bacon fat to small bowl or heat-proof measuring cup (which will be easier to pour from).
4. Increase heat to medium-high. Cook the ground pork, then set aside; remove rendered fat from pot. Working in batches, brown the pork chunks, adding bacon fat as necessary. Reserve all the pork in a bowl and set aside.
5. Lower heat to medium. Add 3 tbsp of bacon fat to the pot, then saute the onions and red pepper until softened, maybe 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chile mixture and saute until fragrant, maybe 2-3 minutes.
6. Add bacon and pork. Add lime juice, tomato paste, chili sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, tomatoes, adobo sauce, beer, cinnamon, black pepper, cloves, ginger, and apples. Dissolve soup base in just enough boiling water, and add that. Stir to combine.
7. Bring to boil, then cover and place in oven and cook for ~2 hours, stirring every hour, or until meat is tender and apples have broken down and dissolved and juices are dark and rich and starting to thicken.
8. If desired, add cornstarch slurry. (We haven’t needed to, ever, cooking it on the stovetop or in the oven.)
9. Adjust seasonings with generous amounts of salt, black pepper, and Tabasco sauce.
Serve in bowls drizzled with crema and topped with shredded cheese and maybe chopped cilantro.
Note: You could probably prepare this in a slow-cooker, if that was the only chili-friendly pot you had that was big enough (or if you needed the stove for other things). What you'd probably want to do is perform steps 3-5 in something like a skillet or saute pan, moving the pork in step 4 to the slow-cooker as it browned. Once everything was in the slow-cooker, you'd cook it for ~2 hours on high or ~4 on low, or until done. Since you'd need to cover the pot (because that's how slow-cookers roll) you'd be more likely to need the cornstarch slurry (the chili thickens up fine on the stove, simmering uncovered, or in the oven likewise uncovered).
You can also do the main cooking, once all the ingredients are in, in a 325F oven, stirring every hour or so, until the chli is done. This is how we cook it these days.
Either of those is like an all-day production.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
All of those peppers will make a really rich flavor. A lot of work, but I bet the end result is great.
"A lot of work" is about right. It's usually a couple of hours of getting everything else ready before we start cooking the meat. Worth it, but we need to plan for it.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
We actually put the simplified weeknight version of my chili in the tamales we make at Christmastime, which makes the overall amount of work (spread over two days) kind of nuts, but it's a great payoff at the end. Sometimes, the work is worth it.
Jahydin
Hero
I forgot to mention, what got me down this rabbit hole in the fist place was I read Chili's was no longer serving chili. I didn't even know it was on the menu! Did some digging and turns out that's how the restaurant started, serving beer and chili. That led to others claiming it was "Terlingua" like.
Has anyone tried it? Any good?
Has anyone tried it? Any good?
It’s Lent again, so I’m having to look into my vegetarian & seafood-centric recipes a bit more. (Boo-hoo!)
I decided to dust off one I hadn’t made in while: crab salad. In case you can’t guess, that’s essentially just like a tuna, shrimp or lobster salads, but changing the main ingredient. Works well on salad greens, sandwiches or crackers.
The kind I was aiming for was more like a typical tuna salad, made with the canned stuff.
I can say that it did NOT work out well, but it could have been soooooo much worse.
I opened my first can of Chicken of the Sea canned crab, and found that it had a LOT more water in it than I expected. Looking at the label, it was 1/3 water by weight. So I had to get more cans out than I had already grabbed from the pantry. This was problem #1.
I made it with a mix of mayo and my usual assortment of spices and took a taste: even without adding any, it was VERY salty (#2)! Worse, the crab meat itself had almost no crab flavor whatsoever (#3). I worked for a while to make the mix edible, and the final product was creamy and herbal…but still oversalty and under-crabby.
I’ve made this mix before, so I know it can be “good eats”. THIS was barely edible. I’m going to work on finishing it off, but I’m probably not buying Chicken of the Sea canned crab again any time soon. Maybe never.
How could it have been worse, as I implied above? The as-yet untold averted disaster goes back to the very start of the process. For over a decade, when I make meat or egg salads like this, I use a 50/50 mixture of mayonnaise and plain Greek yogurt, in order to cut down on salt. I’m an extremely salt-sensitive hypertensive, and that mix gives me a great texture, flavor and visual appeal while cutting the salt nearly in half. Most people don’t even know I’m not using straight mayo when it’s combined with all those other flavors.
This time, I opened my Greek yogurt, stirred it up, and- in a departure from my usual routine- I licked the mixing spoon. It was at that moment I looked at the container and realized I had made a terrible mistake: it wasn’t plain Greek yogurt, it was VANILLA!
I’d never had vanilla Greek yogurt before, so it was a pleasant surprise that it tasted so good- almost like frosting. But I guaran-damn-tee you that it wouldn’t have worked in crab salad at all!
Especially one that was already very herbal and too salty.
I decided to dust off one I hadn’t made in while: crab salad. In case you can’t guess, that’s essentially just like a tuna, shrimp or lobster salads, but changing the main ingredient. Works well on salad greens, sandwiches or crackers.
The kind I was aiming for was more like a typical tuna salad, made with the canned stuff.
I can say that it did NOT work out well, but it could have been soooooo much worse.
I opened my first can of Chicken of the Sea canned crab, and found that it had a LOT more water in it than I expected. Looking at the label, it was 1/3 water by weight. So I had to get more cans out than I had already grabbed from the pantry. This was problem #1.
I made it with a mix of mayo and my usual assortment of spices and took a taste: even without adding any, it was VERY salty (#2)! Worse, the crab meat itself had almost no crab flavor whatsoever (#3). I worked for a while to make the mix edible, and the final product was creamy and herbal…but still oversalty and under-crabby.
I’ve made this mix before, so I know it can be “good eats”. THIS was barely edible. I’m going to work on finishing it off, but I’m probably not buying Chicken of the Sea canned crab again any time soon. Maybe never.
How could it have been worse, as I implied above? The as-yet untold averted disaster goes back to the very start of the process. For over a decade, when I make meat or egg salads like this, I use a 50/50 mixture of mayonnaise and plain Greek yogurt, in order to cut down on salt. I’m an extremely salt-sensitive hypertensive, and that mix gives me a great texture, flavor and visual appeal while cutting the salt nearly in half. Most people don’t even know I’m not using straight mayo when it’s combined with all those other flavors.
This time, I opened my Greek yogurt, stirred it up, and- in a departure from my usual routine- I licked the mixing spoon. It was at that moment I looked at the container and realized I had made a terrible mistake: it wasn’t plain Greek yogurt, it was VANILLA!
I’d never had vanilla Greek yogurt before, so it was a pleasant surprise that it tasted so good- almost like frosting. But I guaran-damn-tee you that it wouldn’t have worked in crab salad at all!
Especially one that was already very herbal and too salty.
Alas, I haven’t had Chili’s chili in forever. I remember it being decent, but those memories are so old and vague as to be unreliable.
Jahydin
Hero
Reminds me of the time my wife and I got condensed milk and evaporated milk mixed up. Our "dessert" mac n' cheese was so gross we haven't made the same mistake again!
