Nobody Knows More About Chili Than I Do

If you've never heard of H. Allen Smith, then this would be a good place to further your abysmal education.

"When I was a boy of ten in Decatur, Illinois, my mother gave me twenty cents every morning, half of it for carfare to school, the remaining dime for my lunch. I could have spent that dime on candy or ice cream, but I can’t recall that I ever did, because it was at this magic and benign moment in time that I discovered chili.

Day after day I went to Chili Bill’s joint a couple of blocks from the school, sat at a scrubbed wooden counter, and for ten cents got a bowl of steaming chili, six soda crackers and a glass of milk. That was livin’!

My brother Sam believes that he should be given the Nobel Prize for chili-making. He and I didn’t speak for a year and a half because of our clash of view on chili-making. Word got to me that Sam was telling people that our pop had called him the greatest chili maker in all Christendom. I knew this to be a falsehood; my father has said that I was the greatest. My sister Lou tried to de-escalate our feud by saying that pop actually had remarked that he was the greatest chili-maker in the civilized world.

Brother Sam has gone along for years making chili without so much as a whiff of cumin seed in it, and cumin seed is an essential to chili as meat is to hamburger. I was at Sam’s house once and in a moment of fraternal feeling ate a spoonful of his foul chili. I remarked helpfully that it had no cumin seed in it and Sam said that I could leave his fireside and never come back. “One bowl of your chili,” said I, “would pollute the waters of the Great Salt Lake.” And off I stomped.

Thus began the feud and it came to an end only after news reached me that Sam was warring on another chili front. He and I both believe that proper chili should be soupy, with lots of broth. He has a friend named Van Pelt who composes thickened chili, Texas style. My chili and Sam’s chili are eaten with a soup spoon; Van Pelt eats his from a plate with a fork. Sam and Van Pelt broke off relations for a while after a highly seasoned argument over thin verses thick. Van Pelt contended that Sam’s chili should be eaten through a straw and Sam said that Van Pelt’s lava like chili could be molded into balls and used to hold down tent flaps in a high wind. I was proud of my brother after that; he stood firm against the wretched sort of chili that is eaten from a plate with a fork."
http://www.chilicookoff.com/History/History_Started.asp
:-)

Made with beans in it and served over spaghetti.

not one I'd take him up on though. I don't know beans about chili.

and use a pre-mixed chili seasoning and then pop in a few chipotle to stew in the chili for a few hours to add heat and smokey flavor, but I can't get the chili seasoning mix. Can you share a few secrets?

You can read about Wick Fowler in H. Allen Smith's "The Great Chili Confrontation".

but I'll check Smith's stuff out :wave:

Use garlic or garlic powder. Ditto onion. Cumin, lots of it. Add some dried oregano, preferably Mexican. Add beaucoup de powdered chiles. NOT chili powder, powdered red chiles. The varieties dictate the heat. Powdered mild New Mex chile is the base. Add cayenne for heat (better still, add de Arbol if you can find it.) Mix this all together.

Use either small cubes or ground meat (better still, a combo of both.) Brown the ground meat, sear the cubes. Once this is done, add the spice mix and blend. Throw in some chipotles. Add water or beer to cover, let it cook until reduced, and then add enough liquid to be about two inches over the meat. Simmer for hours, adding liquid if it gets too thick. Cook chili for at least three hours. Better still, cook for three hours at a simmer, let cool and refrigerate overnight. Much better on day two.

CUMIN that's the one I always forget about!

I also have Jane Butel's "Chili Madness."

So there.

He puts bell peppers in his chili.

Nothing green belongs in chili.

by us TRUE aficionados.