Next to jazz music, there is nothing that lifts the spirit and strengthens the soul more than a good bowl of chili. – Harry James
One of the things I really missed on the road was my own cooking. I don’t mean that in a vain sense, as though my cooking was better than everyone else’s; what I mean is that I am, as I reminded y’all on Tuesday, a creature of habit, and it feels weird to go that long without cooking. It’s part of the rhythm of my life, something that shapes my days, and my husband and Grace will both attest to the fact that no matter how tired I am or how busy my day, I insist on preparing a proper evening meal for my family unless I’m either too ill to stand up or we’ve already planned to do something else. In fact, when I arrived home a week ago today I insisted on fixing dinner, despite having just driven for more than eight hours; it was part of the process of re-orienting myself to my normal life. That’s not to say that Grace couldn’t have done it; she’s a competent cook herself, and though her repertoire is very limited she does what she does very well. Today I’d like to share her recipe for chili; though I’m the one who cooks it for us nowadays, she developed it all by herself over 20 years ago and in my opinion it’s the best chili ever.
3# (1.4 kg) ground beef
2 (8 oz/225 g) cans tomato sauce
2 (6 oz/170 g) cans tomato paste
2 sauce cans water
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies (Ro-tel tomatoes)
1 medium onion, minced
¼ cup butter (½ stick)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) chili powder
2 tablespoons (30 ml) brown sugar
1 tablespoon (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons (10 ml) paprika
½ tablespoon (7.5 ml) black pepper
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
1 teaspoon (5 ml) granulated garlic*
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) prepared brown mustard
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) sage
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) mace
Tabasco sauce to taste
*If you don’t have granulated garlic, use half as much garlic powder or twice as much finely-minced garlic or garlic flakes.
Brown ground meat thoroughly in a large, deep skillet, then add onions and saute until tender. Transfer to a large pot and add all other ingredients, stirring well after each addition. Simmer over low heat for one hour, stirring occasionally. Serve with crackers.
You will notice that the recipe contains no beans; that’s because we prefer beanless chili. If you like beans, there is an additional step which must be performed first: in a large pot cover one pound of pinto beans with water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and boil for two minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for an hour. Then drain the beans completely and add two liters of fresh water; bring water to boiling, then reduce heat to medium and cook for 90 minutes. At the end of this precooking process, drain the beans again and add them to the chili with all the other ingredients; increase the chili’s cooking time to 90 minutes or until the beans reach the desired degree of tenderness (it won’t hurt the chili to cook longer).
One thing that’s really good about this chili is that when prepared as directed it’s spicy, but not blisteringly hot; however, it’s really easy to turn up the heat if so desired. You could use the hot Ro-tel tomatoes instead of the original ones, use a hotter type of chili powder (or increase it to three tablespoons), use hot Hungarian paprika instead of the mild Spanish variety, substitute red pepper for the black, substitute horseradish for the brown mustard or increase the amount of Tabasco…or if you really like to live dangerously, all of the above. The recipe makes enough for six people (nine if you make it with beans), but it also freezes well so don’t hesitate to try it even if there are only two of you.
Blasphemy!
You Americans really can’t help yourselves can you?
At least there’s no chocolate sauce in it.
My chilies are pretty hot and I find they get better the longer they have been frozen. The effect of the heat seems to move from your mouth and throat and instead hits you in the pit of the stomach in a most satisfying way.
I must point out that since chili peppers originated in the Americas, our way of doing things with them would have to be considered more “authentic” if I believed in such a thing where a dish like chili is concerned.
Which I don’t. 😉
So nice to see the weights in metric from an American author who realises the world in not only the USA.
I think if you’ll look around – a lot of Americans online are starting to translate. We don’t live in a vacuum and the internet has made the world smaller. At my work – we only use metric. Actually I hate metric distances – I can’t visualize. As a Submariner – I like “make your depth 400 feet” … rather than 121 meters. I don’t like metric gym weights either. For recipes … I’m fine with metric. For tools – I LOVE METRIC!!
Visualizing is a matter of habit. If you speak in non-metric to me, I’ll translate to metric (I can do the usual distance units and roughly pounds) or look confused (you’ll lose me with volumes, especially given the difference between the US and the UK, though both will confuse me equally). By the way I bet Submariners who work in metric would make their depth 120 metres rather than 121.
workmen working on the house preferred imperial units. Measuring they said was easier to a tenth of an inch then a milimeter. They could distinguish the tenths of a inch in poor light, while the could not see the millimetres on a ruler.
Why would they have to work in poor light? And also, why not work to 2 mm, which is much closer to 1/10 in?
Measuring up in poorly lit old houses in the UK. Yes measure to 2 mills,but you still have to count the 1 mills on the ruler. I have no experience of this, this was only mentioned to be by a fitter who measured in Imperial, had to convert to metric to order the good.
Mills are imperial for .001 in, mm is the correct short hand for millimeters.
Only a third of my readership is in the US, so I try to make my recipes accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, I’m stuck with US package sizes for canned goods, butter, etc, because those are the ones I know about, but I figure at least readers can adapt if I give the proper volumes.
I bought a lovely set of spoon and cup measures while I was travelling in the states.
The effort is appreciated.
Side note: Apparently, “1 stick” of butter is 113g, according to the “butter converter”: http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/butter_converter.html
No beans in the chilli …
Man, I am SO “with you” on that one.
What’s the point of chili without beans?
Gotta keep them saddles blazing.
Exactly. The last time I made chili for my entire family, my Dad was able to start a brushfire with his ass alone! 😀
My Mom had a “way” of eliminating the gassy properties of beans. I just don’t like beans – I hate beans. I had red beans and rice at least twice a week when I was growing up and I hated them. Now they are considered some kind of wonderful Southern delicacy. They were just a meal made by people who didn’t have a lot of money to buy meat for every meal.
In the New Orleans airport, in one of the restaurants- my wife, who is not from the South – said … “Hey look! They have red beans and rice for seven bucks!” I told her … “I’ll give them seven dollars to KEEP the fuckers!”
Plus – they have a lot of carbs.
I do, too; that’s what the hot soak is for.
Beans are great during the winter, especially up here. It sticks to your bones AND if you get cold, a little energy directed out of the poot-shoot warms ya right up. 😀
Maggie kindly sent me this recipe a couple of years ago, and I tried it out (on the kids). Some of the ingredients aren’t available in the UK, such as the Ro-Tel tomatoes—well, I’ve never found them, though there are a dozen or so brands of tinned tomatoes available.
I did add the sugar, and only one onion, though I’d usually use more, and more tomatoes.
It certainly tastes very good, though next time I won’t add any sugar; perhaps US onions or whatever are much more bitter than those available here. It’s well worth trying.
I added beans, and the whole is an enormous pot! I guess portion size is another US/UK difference.
I used red kidney beans. These were always sold dry here, but in the last few years I’ve only seen them in tins. There’s a bit of sludge in the tins, so they need to be well rinsed, but they can be used immediately, no need for all the faffing around. (You do know why this is necessary for dry beans, don’t you?)
An au pair did once make chilli senza carne: it was ‘different’ 🙂
I’m basing it on eating JUST chili, with crackers, as an entire evening meal. Obviously if you have a bunch of side dishes, salad, etc the portion size would be smaller.
Just now made the recipe, following the instructions to the letter. Oh my goodness, this stuff is good, bordering on addictive.
I’ll let Grace know you like it! 🙂
[…] both pass my primary test – do they go well with chili (see Grace’s Chili with removal of one can of tomato sauce, adding a can of Rotel tomatoes, removing the onion, […]
Peasant food (i.e. beans and rice) often becomes the next generation’s delicacy. I will have to give the whole pre-boiling and drainage thing a try, though it looks like a lot of work. I’m tempted to skip it and just take Beano.
I’ve thought for some time that if I were cooking chili for a bunch of people, I would cook up some beans separately and let those who like them add them. But then, when do I ever cook for a bunch of people?