Quick Chili
on 02/02/2012 at 07:50 AM
Drew, I like you, buddy. I agree with what you have to say 99.9% of the time. But I gotta differ with you on this one.
By tradition and <a href = “http://www.abowlofred.com/Tolbert_Rules.htm">rule</a> real chili does not contain beans or other contaminants. Only Yankees and Communists put beans in chili.
Oops - screwed up the “Rules” link. Here it is.
Rules be damned. You just go and try to find a bean free, tomato free chili. Ok, here’s one that’s so pure he doesn’t even add water:
Even the 1896 US Army recipe, which was hardly more than stewed steak, used rice.
Outside of the cocinas of a few purists, everyone slaps in a can or three of beans and a big glug of tomato product. It’s expected, so that’s what I do. It also stretches the meal for just pennies, which is one thing chili con poquito de carne is all about.
Beans and tomatoes have been part of chili for at least 70-100 years now. This recipe doesn’t use rice, but you could just as easily serve it over rice, which would stretch things even further for only about a quarter; you could feed 2 folks more on the same batch.Sure, use chunks of beef or wild game if you’ve got them, but hamburger does almost the same job with a lot less cost, time, and work. And the idea of this chili is that it’s cheap and easy. If I had a couple of leftover pork chops they’d go in too, and that’s the real heart of real chili: use what you’ve got, and if things might be a bit old, throw in another hot pepper or two and hope nobody notices.
Chili without beans is nothing more than goulash made with the wrong kind of peppers. Neither cowboys nor Texans own the core idea; goulash and paprikash have been kicking around Europe since the 1500s. Given that the peppers themselves are native to South America, as are tomatoes and beans, you’d have to translate some Aztec law forbidding cooking the three together before I’ll believe that this wasn’t done all the time way back when, with some llama meat tossed in the pot if any was available.
I generally try to meet the world’s expectations halfway by using pinto beans and slow cooking my chili. The pintos simply disintegrate after about an hour or two but leave body and flavor behind. At least my recipes use really copious quantities of chili pepper, instead of the half teaspoon or so that goes into most recipes.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one.
(Face Palm)
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
True Tex Mex chili is the chili gravy you put on enchiladas and tamales. I can walk into a Mexican place (was called Maria’s before mama retired) in Seguin, ask for chili and they bring me a bowl of the chili gravy with no beans.
Now, the matter of cumin seed. I have never seen the whole seed put into any South Texas Mexican food. If you cannot grind it up in a mocajete or at least smash the seeds you’re wasting a lot of flavor.
On the matter of chili powder...WTF? All chili powder contains is cayenne pepper, cumin (ground) and Mexican oregano. Using the above ingrediants fresh and without the preservatives and anti clotting agents is superior, in my humble opinion. Having lived in the San Antonio area, I think I got the Tex Mex experience to type the above.
That being said, I do put red kidney beans or pintos in my chili stew, but I do not use tomatoes. go figure. (Cincinatti chili confuses the hell outta me, BTW, I mean WHY?)
Bon ape tits everyone.
IMO it’s not a failure to communicate. It’s more like religion. Everyone has their own version, and can’t understand why others don’t see the righteousness of their particular brand.
I have no doubt that Drew’s and Reiuxcat’s versions are delicious, and have relevant history and heritage to back them up. But in the Church of CenTexTim if it’s got beans in it, it ain’t real chili.
However, I am by nature tolerant and benevolent. I won’t interfere with your right to worship as you choose, as long as you grant me the same courtesy.
Except for those freaks from Cincinnati. We need to declare a jihad against them…
Works for me Primo.
I went to high school in Copperas Cove. Are you anywhere near there?
Growing up we lived in Waco, Big Spring, and San Antonio, among other places. Dad was in the Air Force so we moved around a lot. I graduated from high school in San Antonio, spent three years in the Army, two of which were at Ft. Hood. I lived in Copperas Cove for a while back in the early 1970s.
After the Army I graduated from UT-Austin, worked there for a few years, moved to Houston (the Lost Decades), then moved back to Central Texas. I currently live in the country about 40 miles north of San Antonio, near a little town called Bergheim (10 miles east of Boerne). We also have a little weekend place on Lake Buchanan I work three days a week in South Texas on the Texas-Mexico border.
More than you wanted to know…
Not at all Tim,
I’ve been through Bergheim more than a few times (has it changed!). My Parent’s live in San Angelo. I cut across Highway 46 to Boerne to get on I-10 when I don’t want to pass through San Antonio. When I worked and lived in New Braunfels, when we’d go bike riding, we’d take 46 out to I-10 and once we hit that we had several Fm roads we’d take heading south.
I also used to do some canoeing in the Medina river when it was up around the Pipe Creek area.
I was at Cove from 72-77 & then I went off to the better school in College Station.
My Dad went to Jefferson and my Mon went to Burbank a long time ago. I like to meet folk from Texas. Reminds me I need to get moved back to God’s country ASAP.
Stay safe working along the border.
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