Posted on 02/10/2022 12:51:44 PM PST by mylife
Back in my 20s, when I was working as a sports reporter, I long-distance dated a guy from Cincinnati.
The first time he said we should “make it a three-way” my eyes bugged out of my head. No, it’s not as dirty as you’re probably thinking. But I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Cincinnati is known for many things. Hosting “Oktoberfest Zinzinnati,” the biggest Octoberfest in the U.S. Its ongoing hatred of Bengals owner Mike Brown And, most importantly, its love for a very particular type of chili.
“Cincinnati-style chili is a big thing,” says Joe O’Brien, a father of three who graduated from Oak Hills High School in Cincinnati in 1994. “People who visit have a binary reaction. You either love it or hate it.”
It’s nothing like Texas chili or any other type of chili. It’s runny. Its Greek-style tomato sauce makes it tangy instead of spicy. It’s made with tiny bits of crumbled-up ground beef boiled in water (or broth) and mixed with an assortment of spices (cumin, cloves, allspice) and tomato paste, among other ingredients, into a sludge-like concoction.
“It almost has a moussaka-like quality to it,” O’Brien says. Others say it looks like diarrhea. (You can read more about the Greek history of Cincinnati-style chili here.)
Some recipes, like the one by Meggan Hill, the executive chef and head of the Culinary Hill Test Kitchen, include apple cider vinegar, chicken broth, brown sugar, and garlic. Regardless of how it’s made, oyster crackers are thrown in to soak up the juices.
“It is so unique,” O’Brien says. “You have to forget the word ‘chili’ because there’s no other style of chili you can compare it to.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thetakeout.com ...
I could not eat that. yuck
That's one hell of a selling point.
I'll pass, I use black beans, kidney beans and garbanzo beans, marinara sauce, ground beef, pork and deer and assorted spices.
Not runny, very thick, spicy sauce.
Cincinnati chili contains cinnamon.... and it sucks!
Because the “chili” part is literally just a gravy or roux made out of peppers and beef broth.
No tomatoes.
No beans.
No corn.
No pasta.
No cheese.
Just a stew base made from pureed chili’s.
That’s what I said when I read how it’s made: It’s spaghetti sauce, not chili.
yup Greek spaghetti sauce
Dinos. McLean and Tutweiller.
... mole ...
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That’s what it sounds like to me, as well. Although the spices sound like moussaka.
I make a chilies/cumin/tomato/beef chili and have added dark chocolate as well as coffee, at times. It deepens the flavor.
Also offer sharp cheddar as a topping.
And, as a Yankee, I add beans. Once had a Mexican woman as a dinner guest and she pronounced it the “best frijoles” she’d ever had. She went into detail about mole culture in Mexican cuisine. Very individualized and competitive.
...a chili suitable for convalescing hospital patients.
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LOL! Cracked me up. That is every Lutheran church chili feed in Wisconsin!!
I learned to bogart the hot sauce and skip the elbow macaroni usually offered as a topping.
We were happy to have it, Dad could not abide anything spicy.
She made it for us kids
I ate at a Cinci themed restaurant in NC and ordered the chili not knowing anything about it.
My first thought when it was brought to the table was, WTF is this?
“I can deal with all of it except the hint of sweet like cinnamon or maybe it’s the clove.”
I’ve eaten baked spaghetti in some Greek places that had a hint of that. I didn’t mind it.
Dad could not even abide ketchup LOL
“I always thought you WAS a guy???”
Not that there’s anything wrong with that...
WELL I is a guy a damn war vet, but sensitive... :)
That looks like a killer baked bean recipe at your link. The only thing different I would do is instead of putting it into the oven it would go into the smoker.
I’m from Indy but lived in Cinci for awhile. This chili is definitely different, but it grows on you the more you eat it. At first I didn’t like it. I do like it now with lots of goodies on it.
That sounds good in tacos. Here is my Taco Blasphemy recipe.
Brown 1lb. ground beef, drain grease.
Add one pack taco mix
1 can pinto chili beans
1 can tomato soup
1/2 cup rice (I like Jasmine because it cooks in 15 min)
12 oz water—I guess. I do it by sight until the mix is just liquid enough to look like the rice will have enough water)
Mom used to make this with chili powder instead of taco mix.
serve in taco shells with grated cheese. Leftovers are good with eggs and grits the next day.
My grandma grew up in London where she learned to make chilli sauce. The spices in this chili makes me think it’s more of an English style chilli. Not Texas style at all.
Oops, Bring to bubbly then simmer until rice is done. Need to scrape the bottom of the pot after about 5 min. because it wants to stick due to being thick.
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