Posted on 02/13/2014 4:00:26 PM PST by nickcarraway
Chili tastes are highly personal, often inflexible and loaded with preconceptions — the political party of culinary offerings.
For some people raised in Texas, the notion of beans is akin to cat food, dismissed with derision as filler. Some chili cooks believe flavor rises and falls on cumin levels; others say the story begins and ends with dried chiles. Some like a rich beefy stock, and there are those who extol the entanglement of bacon.
Poultry and venison have their place (beef purists blanch), and vegetarian chili is met largely with guffaws except by the people who smilingly bring it to potlucks, an act that seems to stem from their childhood issues often associated with snack cake deprivation.
Serving rituals vary.
Oyster crackers on the side? Some have never heard of it, but maybe. Rice? Often! My Texan mother-in-law always served chili over spaghetti, a bit of Cincinnati craziness that confused and unnerved me, but I am perfectly at peace with chili dumped over a bag of corn chips, known as Frito pie. (Some regions refer to this as a “walking taco,” but I would prefer you do not.)
Yet just as much of our nation craves bipartisanship on the major policy debate of the day, so, too, do many chili lovers wish to end the crazy decades of rivalries. They believe it is time for us to embrace every form of this warming bowl of red soul food, be it venison-laced, processed cheese-topped, bean-adorned, beer laced, spicy or mild. My husband has even learned to live with beans. He just does not discuss it.
“I don’t disagree with anyone’s chili,” said Robb Walsh, a Texas food historian, the author of “The Tex-Mex Cookbook” and a restaurateur.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You can make perfectly good chili with ground beef, for home use but not for a competition
Oh it is easy for me to mess up just about anything I cook.
My late wife did not know how to cook anything but pizza when we got married but she developed into a very good cook. Some of us just aren’t very good at some things.
Buzzard’s Breath Chili .... pretty good stuff!
Hey...there’s chocolate in it also!!
“NEW YORK TIMES”?
Get a rope.
heh
fajita meat would be allowable then?
The best chili comes from chili-powder made from ground campfire flames frozen solid by a Blue Norther.
“Chili comes from Texas (red) or New Mexico (green).”
My New mexican mother makes outstanding chili (con frijoles) with New Mexican red chilis. I think that makes all the difference. Texas chili is also fine by me! I die for her chili verde and eggs.
30+ posts and not a single recipe?!?!
My uncle in Houston only used shredded chuck steak in his.
Me neither and I’m a Texan.
People don’t want to giver out their recipe.
Doubtless, I would, as well.
Personally, I have no objection to con frijoles.
My favorite are the Chimayo chilis. They have a smoky quality that makes them not only distinctive, but extraordinary.
“I make a mean chili. And I put beans in it. I don’t care what the Texans may say.”
Yeah, bet you do. I’m guessing you put kidney beans in your chili. Or better yet, maybe Lima beans? :)
It’s chili from the chili peppers in it. It doesn’t contain beans.
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