[ChefKeith]

cumin!- don't tell them the secret ingredient!!! I purposely left that off the list.

[Poser]

The real secret is knowing the difference between powdered chilies and chili powder. If you use chili powder that comes out of a can, your chili will taste like it came out of a can.

For those in the Northeast who have never tasted anything but spaghetti sauce with kidney beans, I recommend the following interim solution:

Go to the store and buy a Carroll Shelby or Wick Fowler chili kit. Follow the instructions to the letter. Pay careful attention to the amount of powdered chilies that mix with only two pounds of meat. You will find that the sauce is NOT a tomato sauce, but a pepper sauce. The redness comes from the chilies, NOT the tomatoes.

These kits are reasonably good, but, they are to great chili, what spaghetti sauce from a jar is to great spaghetti sauce. The real thing is an order of magnitude better.

Real Cincinnati chili is interesting too. It is full of cinnamon and nutmeg and is poured over spaghetti. It is not to be confused with real chili, but is worth a try.