Ever attempted Chili?

floaty · January 11, 2009, 05:45:53 PM

It's cold here in Arkansas. I want some Chili. Has anyone ever attempted Chili in the OBS? If so, how'd it turn out? PS. I don't like beans in my chili.

Gizmo · January 11, 2009, 06:47:19 PM

I have smoke the ingredient that went into the chili and it turns out great. My avatar shows the load that was in the bradley for the chili.

PS. Chili does not have beans in it. Chili is meat. Show up to a competition with beans in your chili and you will be ridden out on a rail.

Chili with beans now, has beans in it. I typically don't go there either. ;)

Habanero Smoker · January 12, 2009, 02:16:10 AM

Quote from: Gizmo on January 11, 2009, 06:47:19 PM
...PS. Chili does not have beans in it. Chili is meat. Show up to a competition with beans in your chili and you will be ridden out on a rail.

Chili with beans now, has beans in it. I typically don't go there either. ;)

You best not come to New York or New England talking that stuff. ;D Chilli is beans; Chile con Carne is chili with meat. But its all good stuff. :)

FLBentRider · January 12, 2009, 03:19:52 AM

Around here, if it has beans in it, it is SOUP. :D ;D :D ;D

My Chili has no beans, lots of heat and meat.

HCT · January 12, 2009, 05:22:42 AM

Quote from: Habanero Smoker on January 12, 2009, 02:16:10 AM
Quote from: Gizmo on January 11, 2009, 06:47:19 PM
...PS. Chili does not have beans in it. Chili is meat. Show up to a competition with beans in your chili and you will be ridden out on a rail.

Chili with beans now, has beans in it. I typically don't go there either. ;)

You best not come to New York or New England talking that stuff. ;D Chilli is beans; Chile con Carne is chili with meat. But its all good stuff. :)

I'm an outcast here in Ct. I don't make my chili with beans. :D :D :D

Caneyscud · January 12, 2009, 07:35:44 AM

If there is any doubt about what the Mexicans think about chili, the Diccionario de Mejicanismos, published in 1959, defines chili con carne as (roughly translated):

"detestable food passing itself off as Mexican, sold in the U.S. from Texas to New York."

So we cannot go back to Mexican History to find what it is. Guess what, we have to rely on Texas History, and in particular my hometown's (San Antonio) history. If you know beans about chili, you know it didn't come from Mexico. Chili was God's gift to Texas - Ya'll are just lucky we shared it with the rest of the world. ;D

Legend - In 1600's a supposedly beautiful nun supposedly wrote down a recipe for venison, onions, tomatoes, and peppers. No record ever found of that though. Notice no beans

Fact - Early Spanish colonists to San Antonio had a spicy "stew" with peppers but no mentions of beans.

Chili as we know it- sorta, probably started in chuckwagons along the cattle drives of the cowboy heyday of the mid-1800's as a brick. The trail cooks were said to pound dried beef, fat, pepper, salt, and the chili peppers together. This amounted to "brick chili" or "chili bricks" that could be boiled in pots along the trail. They supposedly used the native chilis, chilipiquín. If they did, that stuff had to be fiery. Those little red buckshot sized peppers can pack a wallop. The bricks were convenient and would last the trail ride. Again no mention of beans other than for eating as their own dish. About this same time "chili" seeing as it was cheap fare, was being served in the Texas Prisons. Prisons were said to be rated by the "quality" of their chili by the prisoners.

As much as I would like to think that Gebhardt invented Chili Powder in the 1890's - Gebhardt was from New Braunfels a small town 25 miles from San Antonio, it was probably a dude from Fort Worth 20 years earlier.

Chili really started to get popular about that time. Latino women nicknamed "Chili Queens" sold a stew they called "chili" made with dried red chiles and beef from open-air stalls at what was then called Military Plaza Mercado. It was the place that both the Spanish Army and the Mexican Army camped when they occupied San Antonio. They would make their chili at home, bringing it to the Plaza in colorful wagons, They would build (take note WTS) mesquite fires on the square to keep the chili warm, and squatted on the ground beside the cart, dishing out chili to customers who sat on wooden stools to eat their fiery stew - true Texas "RED". Some especially later right before the health department shut them down would serve beans on the side. A couple of people who wrote about the Chili Queens made mention of a meal of chili and beans and a tortilla. Not clear whether they were combine or not. Other writers swear that beans were not cooked in the chili.

Texas gifted the world when the state set up a "San Antonio Chili Stand" at the Columbia Exposition (World's Fair) in Chicago in 1893. From then on copycats the world over have made modifications to the original Texas Red.

The first Chili Cook-off wasn't the popularly recognized Terlingua competition but 25 years earlier at the 1952 Texas State Fair. Supposedly no limit on ingredients except that beans were banned. Not meaning anything about it

Funny thing, my current chili does not resemble a good bowl of Texas Red. Against my better judgement, I have acquiesced to my wife's taste and do a richer and thicker version and a little less fiery being based on tomatoes rather than chilis alone, than from my childhood. But still no bean has ever disgraced my chili pot! ;D

The Official State Food of Texas—Chili
The following song has become the anthem at every Terlingua Chili Cook-Off, where no chili with beans recipes are allowed to compete.

You burn some mesquite
And when the coals get hot
You bunk up some meat
And you throw it on a pot.
While some chile pods and garlic
And comino and stuff
Then you add a little salt
Till there's just enough
You can throw in some onions
To make it smell good
You can even add tomatoes
If you feel like you should
But if you know beans about chili
You know that chili has no beans

If you know beans about chili
You know it didn't come from Mexico
Chili was God's gift to Texas
(Or maybe it came from down below)
And chili doesn't go with macaroni
And dammed Yankee's don't go with chili queens;
And if you know beans about chili
You know that chili has no beans

Habanero Smoker · January 12, 2009, 03:13:57 PM

All this reminds me, I need to get some beans to make some more chili. :)

Smoking Duck · January 12, 2009, 04:53:51 PM

It reminds me of why I don't live in Texas......they take too much credit for everything.....heck, last time I was there, I got lost in the basement at the Alamo ;D

Gizmo · January 12, 2009, 09:30:05 PM

Duck, Shhhhhhh,
That wasn't the basement of the Alamo you were in, it was the jail. ;) ;) Didn't you think steel bars for doors was a little odd even for the basement of the Alamo. ;D

La Quinta · January 12, 2009, 10:25:31 PM

Sorry Kids...I put beans in my beef chilli...lamb chilli...not so much... (WTS...feel free to swat the lob out of the park)!!! ;D

FLBentRider · January 13, 2009, 03:08:29 AM

"it seems we have a difference of opinion regarding the addition of beans into Chili"

Caneyscud · January 13, 2009, 06:19:14 AM

AAWWWwww man - no respect for perfection! ;D I had two ancestors die at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 just so that the perfect chili - a bowl of Texas Red - could be savored for time immemorial! and gifted to the rest of the world. Important fact to remember is that the center of the universe IS Texas and everything else revolves around it! ;D I does lov my peentoes and my ranch or cowboy beans. The two juices - chili and peentoes - they do entwine and perform a sensuous, epcicurean belly dance upon my plate, bordering on existentialism, ceasing to exist as separate entities, giving their all, becoming one with the crumb of skillet cornbread - but ne'er do they yoke themselves unequally in my pot, conjoining - intermingling and assimilating, until the two tastes are swallowed up and become lost in the confused mediocrity of conglomeration!

Shakespeare

FLBentRider · January 13, 2009, 03:56:02 PM

I think I just coughed up a thesaurus!

seemore · January 13, 2009, 06:24:01 PM

Floaty, Seemore and I made some chili a while back and added a little bit of Tasso to it. It - in Emeril Lagasse's word's - kicked it up a notch!
We made the Tasso using a recipe - I can't remember if it was on Time Tested Recipes here in the forum or not. The Tasso was smoked, and was absolutely wonderful in the chili.
By the way, welcome!

Smokin Soon · January 13, 2009, 06:43:38 PM

For me, the best chile I have ever had in my life has been with lefover smoked meat and sausage combined. Could be anything. Think of all those differant spices and smoke flavors combined with the new ones your adding with a nice long cook in a crock pot! Home made linguica and cajun sausage with some chopped up pork shoulder steaks should be a contest winner somewhere. Beans or no beans, I'm no purist, I like both. I've done it with all kinds of beans. Sounds wierd but I kinda like a mix of black eyed peas and white beans as they really suck up the flavors of all the ingrediants.