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What Is Chili? |
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HistoricFoodie
Admin Group Joined: 21 February 2012 Location: Kentucky Status: Offline Points: 4940 |
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Posted: 04 June 2012 at 04:14 |
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What, exactly, is chili?
We all think we know, but do we, really? ChrisBelgium's thread on his first attempt indicates that we all know what chili is not. We agree that his first attempt, while tasty sounding, is not chili. And Aspen Hill's last post fits in the same catagory. Despite her categoric statements about what chili must include, I would not consider her recipe chili.
Most of us could post recipes for this iconic American dish. And they would, of course, all be different. But there would be a common theme running through them as well---meat, heat, onions, and spices.
But that isn't enough, because it could apply to far to many non-chili concoctions.
So, other than extensional definitions, does anyone really know what chili is? If you had to describe it, without a recipe, to the mythical man from Mars, how would you do so?
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Rod Franklin
Chef Joined: 17 February 2010 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 921 |
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"Well Mr. Spaceman, Sir, in it's origins Chili is a red meat stew, made red by being spiced heavily with chile peppers. While still called chili, it now takes many forms, some quite unrecognizable from it's origins, but in all forms it is still a rather liquid dish. I hope that answered your question ...I really have to be going... Excuse me."
It's obvious to me anyway, by its name that it was originally all about the peppers. I believe its origins would be that it's chopped or ground red meat, seasoned heavily with dried powdered chiles, lots of onions and salt to taste. All boiled in just enough water to make a thick stew. That simple. How did meat get spiced so? Chiles, and of course salt can be preservatives. Packing all the scraps of meat left over from butchering in ground dried chiles and salt might preserve that meat for quite some time without refrigeration. What's a quick way to turn it into a meal? Well, just boil it with some onions and serve it with tortillas of course! As far as your comment about other things being similar, I would say anyone might make a good chili from bulk Chorizo. Just put it in a pot with onions and a little water and boil it a while. Maybe chorizo is just the seasoned meat scraps as mentioned above packed into casings and smoked as a preservative method. Sounds plausible to me. |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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good idea for a thread, brook -
to me, this visitor from mars can only know what chili is by spending some time in west texas, eastern new mexico, southern colorado - that magical and historical playground of coronado, the comanche, goodnight and loving; in fact, since this martian is hypothetical, i'll go ahead and contend that he must also be able to travel in time, so that he can visit this region during the latter half of the 19th century - chili was born there; or, if not born there, it at least came into its own there, and became what it is.
it's a child of two parents: texas and mexico ~ and a product of two important factors unique to the american experience. the first being the long cattle drives on a dusty trail on the llano estacado, among the mesquite flats or on the high plains, or maybe in the cottonwoods along the banks of a silty trickle of a river. somewhere along these trails, some steer would have died along the way, or a heifer may have stepped in a hole, broken her leg and had to be put down - instant, fresh meat that needed to be consumed.
the second factor would have been some mexican cook who took this meat and turned it into something that was made from the dried or portable ingredients on the chuckwagon, including onions, herbs and spices - maybe some garlic - making a stew that was familiar to his texan colleagues whilst also adding a little bit of his own colourful heritage into the mix. availibilty of ingredients, through stored dry goods on the chuckwagon, or perhaps a supply stop at some fort along the way, would have determined the specific ingredients; but the heart of the dish was of course beef, with onion, dried chiles and maybe a few herbs and spices - i'd like to think that somehow, tomato was involved as well, but that is probably just wishful thinking, barring some fortuitous trade for fresh ingredients in some hamlet along the trail.
this chili would have simmered alongside a separate pot of beans, which are very portable in dried form, and of course a pot of coffee was nearby; finally, i am sure a dutch oven full of freshly-baked sourdough biscuits would have been involved as well, to sop up the juices - or perhaps drizzled with honey as a dessert - great food for the trail, and once again a shining example of using what's available to create good, filling, satisfying food after a long day's work.
but it wasn't simply some one-time, chance meeting of these factors, to be set in stone at that moment and preserved rigidly as a famous chef's legacy or a protected national dish; chili in some form must have existed before these events took place and came about in slightly-varied forms on many trails. having said that, along these trails, chili became interwoven with the american experience, as much a legend of the west as the cowboy or the texas longhorn.
i don't have a "chilipedia" sitting right here, but i bet that's close to the origins and the essence of chili, and to me, that's what it is ~
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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i should note that no one should feel put out by this debate - we bat things around here for discussion; it's just what we do ~ i think brook was saying that chili is different things to everyone and everyone has definite ideas about what it is. but when you strip it down to its common denominators, what is it?
my description above is from my own point of view - as an historian, i tend to look at origins of something, including the food i cook, and try to use that as a base. but my take on it is only the beginning of the story, not the end, a stripped-down, no frills sketch of a dish that came from a need to have portable ingredients on a hot, dusty trail after a long day of herding cattle to some destination far to the north. i am sure, even positive, that herbs such as cilantro would have been used by the mexican cooks who developed chili, it was surely available to them in dried form, and may have been acquired fresh at a stop along the trail, as well - same with tomatoes in some form, which i believe are essential to chili but may not have been in the "original" dish. in my scenario, there probably wouldn't have been chickens around on the trail, but in some sleepy town on the tex/mex border, there would have been chickens (much more available than beef among the mexican population) in the front yard - and tomatoes from a garden, as well - and they would have gone into the chili. the bottom line, though, is that chili has become so many good and comforting things, that regardless of its origins, it's going to be many different things to many people, based on background, preferences, regional quirks and all sorts of factors - and all of them are good things. chili is a work of art, created on a canvas of some kind of meat, with onions, chiles, herbs and spices, maybe tomates, maybe beans - beyond that, the COLOURS that are applied are up to the artist/cook!
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Hoser
Admin Group Joined: 06 February 2010 Location: Cumberland, RI Status: Offline Points: 3454 |
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I think Hawgheaven over at the other forum came up with the best answer in this bit of verse:
Chili a mutant stew that makes me poo can peel the paint off the walls this evil goo sometimes hard to chew burns hair off the back of my balls |
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Go ahead...play with your food!
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AK1
Master Chef Joined: 10 April 2012 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 1081 |
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Here's an interesting history of Chili;
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HistoricFoodie
Admin Group Joined: 21 February 2012 Location: Kentucky Status: Offline Points: 4940 |
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As the Bard never said, Google is your friend. So I did a search for definitions of chili. Result: As I stated at the beginning of this thread, everybody knows what chili is, but nobody can actually define it in a meaningful way. It’s sort of like salad in that regard. For those who compete, the ICS (International Chili Society) has a list of rules and regulations for cooks at the World’s Championship, State, Regional and District Cookoffs. You’d think they’d provide some insights. But, in reality, they’re just as vague as anything we’ve said here: Anyone interested in all the rules can find them here. The following “definition,” from About.com, is pretty much how all the identifiers I’ve found are worded: Definition: Chili is a popular dish of beef stewed with seasoning and chile peppers. Although chili -- or chili con carne -- probably originated in Texas, variations are cooked and enjoyed throughout United States. Some variations on the traditional Texas chili include chili with beans and other types of meat. Pronunciation: CHIHL-ee • (noun) Also Known As: Chili con carne, chili con carne with beans, bowl of red. One site stresses that only “mature” meats are used in chili. I have no idea quite what that means. Another adds to its definition that onions are almost always included, but garlic is rare. Almost universally, chili is identified as a stew, and one site actually differentiates it from soup by the amount of liquid used. So, at base, all we can say is that chili is a stew which includes meat, heat, onions, spices, plus whatever your little ol’ heart desires. Which still leaves the open question: How far do you follow your heart’s desire and still have chili? When does the choice of ingredients take the dish to the point where regular chili eaters, in all it’s variations, no longer recognize it as such. That takes us back to the beginning, where only an extensional definition will do. You make two dishes for the man from Mars. One of them is chili, the other isn’t. That, I believe, is about the best we can do. |
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ChrisFlanders
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 01 March 2012 Location: Flanders Status: Offline Points: 343 |
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I found this great article on chili con carne and I thought it was interesting enough to copy it entirely to this post. It's historical facts followed by a recipe written by the author, all well worth to read. Source of this article; http://www.texasescapes.com/CFEckhardt/National-Dish-of-Texas-Chili-Con-Carne-Recipe.htm
The National Dish of Texas by C. F. Eckhardt Chili con carne is the national dish of Texas. It was invented in Texas by Texas natives-literally-and it's made right only in Texas. The first commercial bowls of chili ever sold were sold on the streets of downtown San Antonio, beginning in the early 1880s. San Antonio's Chili Queens were a fixture in downtown until 1943, when health concerns-mainly on the part of Army medical personnel-shut them down. There is very little similarity between the chili made by the mission Indians and Chili Queens and what is served as 'chili con carne' by restaurants that serve true chili. The best chili, however, is home made. This is how to make it. Put just enough olive oil-or lard if you choose-into a heavy skillet so that you'll coat the bottom of the skillet. Tear up an ancho pepper-the big, dry, dark red one-and add the skin but not the seeds to the pan. Then take about half a tablespoon of whole comino-cumin seeds-not ground cumin, and crush them by rubbing them between your hands over the skillet, letting the broken and crushed seeds fall into the skillet. Turn on medium heat beneath the skillet and add the meat, stirring and turning it to get all parts of it into the oil you've seasoned with ancho pepper skin and crushed comino. Now you decide how hot your chili's going to be. The RoTel tomatoes will give it a base of chemical heat, and that may be enough for some people. The idea is to make the chili hot enough that you feel the heat about halfway down your esophagus, but it doesn't burn your mouth. If it burns your mouth, you've overdone it. In my chili, I add-sparingly-dried chiles pequeños or chilipitines, as they are often called. A half-dozen or so, broken and added to the ingredients, is about right. If you don't have chilipitines growing in your yard and you can't find the dried ones on the grocery shelf, about half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper will be enough. Once the meat is brown on all sides, add it to the pot or cooker. Check to see how thick the mix is once you've stirred it. A large spoon should stand at first, then slowly topple if it's thick enough. If it's too thick and the spoon doesn't topple, add about half a tomato can of either water or beer. Cover the pot or slow cooker and put the on a back burner with a very low heat under it or turn the slow cooker to low. You'll have to watch the pot fairly closely over the next four or five hours, but if you're using a slow cooker just forget about it for about 12 hours. The slow cooker's not going to burn the stuff, but if enough liquid escapes the cast-iron pot over a fire or electric element, the stuff inside will burn. If, after you remove the chili from the fire, it seems a little thin, there's a right way and a wrong way to thicken it. The right way is to take masa-either corn or harina (wheat), though masa de maize works best-add enough water to it to make a thick but flowable mixture, and add that to the chili, stirring it in thoroughly. Then put the chili back on the heat for another half hour or so. OK. It's twelve hours later and you've turned off the slow cooker. Now it's time to eat the chili, right? WRONG! This is where all chili-cookoff chili and 99 out of every hundred pots of home-made chili are not exactly ruined, but are denied the opportunity to taste as good as they can taste. Don't eat that chili yet! Let the iron pot or slow-cooker liner cool, then put it in the refrigerator for about 24 hours. This sets the spices and allows the full flavor of the chili to develop. Then reheat it and serve it. The only additions to the chili are the traditional one-saltine crackers, crumbled and stirred in-and a non-traditional but popular one. That's Fritos corn chips, crumbled and stirred in. What about the other 'additives'-in particular macaroni and spaghetti? These seem to be strictly a Yankee invention. It's pretty much certain that the inventors of chili, the mission Indians and poor soldiers of the presidio, had no idea what either was. During the Chili Queen period macaroni was mostly 'macaroni and cheese,' served in homes. Spaghetti was found only in Italian restaurants, of which there weren't a lot in Texas in the period. Northern-born soldiers, having served in San Antonio and at other South Texas bases often fell in love with chili. It's by no means impossible that they took ingredients for chili back home, gave them to Mama Italiana, and said "Can you make stuff with this?" Mama Italiana, being Mama Italiana, is going to add either spaghetti or macaroni to the concoction, both to stretch the meat supply and because spaghetti and macaroni were and are staples in Italian homes. It wouldn't be a far step from that for the same stuff to show up in Papa Italiano's corner café, at which point Northerners are going to get the idea that chili is supposed to have macaroni or spaghetti in it. |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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just for the heck of it, i posed exactly the same question at a couple of other forums.
here are the more intersesting replies:
and, my favourite:
leave it to the government to take all the romance and mystique out of an iconic american tradition..... |
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AK1
Master Chef Joined: 10 April 2012 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 1081 |
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I think basically, we have whittled it down to; Chili is a thick stew made with meat & chili peppers.
Honestly, I believe Chili is one of those foods that really does defy definition. When you have it, you know you've had chili. There is something in the combination of ingredients, preparation, and finally taste & texture(mouthfeel?) that tells you, yes that is chili.
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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for some good information, here's a great reply that i got today from "garth beaumont" at cheftalk.com
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