BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?

Subject: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: Beccy
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 12:38 PM

Since we're on the subject of Chili, does anyone out there have a good Cincinnati style chili recipe?

Beccy

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 02:11 PM

find my post on the Mexican Chili thread....

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 02:13 PM

Well, while we're at it, let's add in another regional chili recipe known as Cincinnati Style Chili. There are about a zillion joints in Cincy all serving this flavor of chili, the best known being "Skyline Chili." Note the addition of things like nutmeg, cinnamon, cocoa, and allspice. It's an acquired taste, but probably half of the chili I make now is done in this way, I just add a little habanero pepper sauce to mine to give it a bit more kick. The ways of serving "traditionally" in Cincinnati are listed as well below.

Ingredients
2 tbsp oil
2-1/2 pounds ground beef
1 quart cold water
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
2 large onions (diced)
1-1/2 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp Lea & Perrin Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic (crushed)
2 tbsp chili powder
5 bay leaves
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1-1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
Salt & pepper to taste


Instructions
In a heavy gauge pot, heat oil, add beef until brown, add onions and water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add tomato paste and all other ingredients and let simmer 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Adjust with salt & pepper to taste. Remove bay leaves before serving.

In Cincinnati the true enthusians have their Chili 1 to 5 ways:

1. Plain 2."Two Way" - Spaghetti & Chili
3."Three Way" - Chili, Spaghetti, and Cheddar Cheese
4."Four Way" - Chili, Spaghetti, Cheddar Cheese, and Onions
5."Five Way" - Chili, Spaghetti, Cheddar Cheese, Onions and Kidney Beans


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 04:07 PM

Sounds like hamburger soup with a little added chile powder.

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 05:57 PM

and nutmeg and cocoa and cinnamon and allspice...........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 06:45 PM

If ever you're in Cincinnati, you can find:

Dixie Chili, Skyline Chili, Empress Chili, Gold Star Chili, and several others. These are available in chili restaurants, in cans, as frozen meals. When I lived there I tried several different brands, but they all seemed pretty much the same to my uneducated taste buds.

I do have a recipe; if I can find it I'll post it.

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 07:36 PM

The ancestor of this recipe was one that my mother-in-law clipped out of the Cincinnati Inquirer many years ago.

Over the years I have gradually but drastically modified the amounts of spices called for.

At the risk of a tongue-lashing from Spaw I must confess that I like my version of CC way better than anything I've ever eaten in Cincinnati.

Brown about two lbs. of beef in a separate skillet.
(I prefer small cubes of top round to ground beef)

In a very large pot briefly sauté:
(I prefer the celery to maintain a bit of crunch)

        1 medium chopped onion

        1 medium chopped green pepper

        2 medium-to-large stalks of celery

        1/4 tsp (heaping) minced garlic

Add browned beef to sautéed veggies

Also add

        2 cans crushed tomatoes

        1 large can (about 30 oz.) red beans

To the simmering mixture created above add the following (all spoonfuls should be heaping)

        1 tsp cinnamon

        1/2 tbsp allspice

        1 tsp white pepper

        1 tsp black pepper

        2 large bay leaves

        1 tsp cayenne pepper

        1 tsp paprika

        1 tbsp chili powder

        3 tbsp cumin

        1 tbsp sugar

        1 tbsp white vinegar

        1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Add some water and to make the mixture a bit soupy then then simmer uncovered until the mixture has thickened to a good chili consistency.

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 07:38 PM

By the way, I don't remove the bay leaves. According to my wife the tradition is that whoever gets the bay leaf gets to sleep with the cook.

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: Beccy
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 09:11 AM

I read on a CC website that you shouldn't add onions to the chili whilst cooking it. He said that onions should be added as a condiment (as in 5 way). That just didn't seem right to me. I figured the guy just never knew onions were cooked in (as in minced beyond recognition for some picky-choo eater who wouldn't touch it if they could see onions.)
Any thoughts?

Beccy

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 02:26 PM

Spaw and Russ, I have a recipe that is MUCH better than yours! I'll not go into it right now as Beccy has a question that I can answer by explaining the proper way to eat Cincy Chili.

Hard and fast rule: you never, NEVER, NEVER mix your chili into your spaghetti! You spread your chili out over your spaghetti, take a bite of your chili with the big spoon provided, swallow a bit and then twirl up the spaghetti where you just scooped up the chili and then put it in your mouth, with some of your chili still in it. Reason, you want to taste all the flavors of the chili first, seasonings, beans, cheese, and.......onion. That's why you never use cooked onions for your topping. EVER! Use only sweet, slightly tangy onions. Fresh ones, no left overs from the day before and never, NEVER use the reconstituted de-hydrated ones. You eat slowly, letting a few seconds pass between bites. If you have to leave left over food, don't ever leave the chili, leave the spaghetti.

I lived in Cincy over a year and would go back there in a New York minuit if I could.

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: Beccy
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 02:38 PM

Okay, Walking Eagle, ya big tease. Howza bout that recipe now? I understand the not using cooked onions for the topping... but can make the chili with onion in it or not?

Beccy

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 02:56 PM

No. The onion would absorb the spice taste too much.

Their ( Russ and Spaw )recipes are really good. I don't happen to have mine handy at the moment as I'm @ work.

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: Beccy
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 04:36 PM

Okay- Another request. Does anyone have a really good chili pepper hot fudge recipe? Or maybe a hot pepper brownie recipe? Or any sweet dish recipe that calls for chili peppers in any variety? Craving time. Bail me out, folks. You haven't failed me yet!

Beccy

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 12:34 AM

I have another Cincy chili I prefer BTW, but it makes a monster pot and I fear the cutdown would be tough. Also, I copied that one without change although I have modified it a lot over time.....I never use water, but V8 juice instead and have also upped the weird spices by a bit on each, especially the nutmeg.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: Beccy
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 09:10 AM

Please share that one, Spaw. Hubby and I made your recipe two nights ago and let it mellow in the fridge one night before eating it (5 way, I might add.) We loved it!!!! I wouldn't mind making and freezing up a huge batch as I have a little one on the way and I'm trying to get ahead on quick meals.

Beccy

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: clueless don
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 11:25 AM

I had a bowl of Cincinnati chili at one of the Skyline Chili restaurants in Cincinnati, back in 1981. I remember liking it a lot, but it's too long ago for me to remember exactly how it tasted.

My wife tried making some from a recipe in "The Frugal Gourmet cooks American". It wasn't BAD, exactly, but I would say that it wasn't RIGHT.

Here in the Washington D.C. area there is a chain of restaurants called "Hard Times Cafe". They do their own version of Cincinnati chili, and I would say that it is my favorite food (not counting dessert!) They sell boxes of their spice mix so you can make your own, and we have tried making it with TVP instead of beef, resulting in a very nice vegetarian Cincinnati chili.

Of course, I don't know what a Cincinnati native would think of Hard Times's version.

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 11:33 AM

Why in gods name serve it with Spaghetti? what a cruel and horrible thing to do with Chili!

The rest sounds great.

though by preference chili (no starchy underbase!) with cheese and onion topping it and maybe a little sourcream on the side.

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 01:04 PM

Beccy - a friends mom used to make a jalepano-peanut brittle. It was excellent - but I never did get the recipe.

She developed it during a Cordon Blue class she was taking.

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: Tweed
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 06:13 AM

MMMMMArio, If you haven't tried chili with spaghetti
in it you oughta check it out, it's good! Wish I had some right now, I'd have it for breakfast. Throw a handfull of corn chips in the bowl and chomp it on down. Yowzah!

Tweed

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: Beccy
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 08:35 AM

MMario- That's what I thought, too, until I saw the crazed look in people's eyes when they described how much they loved it on a eat your way across American kind of show. They were fanatically devoted and I figured I'd give it a shot if they were all that crazy for it. It's REALLY good.

By the way, GUEST, any ideas on how she made that jalapeno peanut brittle? I must have some.

Beccy

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 08:46 AM

whoops! That was me...
no I don't know how she made it...but there ARE recipes out on the web. Not quite like she made (because I know hers didn't have *diced* jalepano in it...but she's no longer around to give us her recipe...

I can't think of ANYTHING I would like better with Spaghetti. I used to make my mother give me my share of the sauce in a bowl when we had spaghetti - skip the spaghetti.

I like other pastas - just don't care for spaghetti - and yes, I *KNOW* they are virtually identical.

Now toss that Chili and onion and cheddar on top of penne or rotelli and I would probably enjoy it - but not as much as I would without the carb base.

Subject: RE: BS: Cincinnati Chili recipe anyone?
From: M.Ted
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 02:32 PM

Years ago, back in elementary school, they used to serve this same chili for lunch, both with and without spaghetti--and it was good!