I just subscribed to that channel. Its awesome.

Though they did cook too much of the meat together in the chili causing insufficient browning.

Could you share your carnitas recipe?

sure

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Co...as/Detail.aspx


double all the spices though, other than that, I copy the exact recipe.

DoTheMath, quick question. How much cinnamon is enough? That seems like an ingredient that I definitely do not want to go overboard with.

very little. no more than 1/3 how much cumin you put in IMO.

made el d's second batch and have to say it was delicious!

what are we talking about though, tablespoon? teaspoon?

well I mean that depends on how much of everything else you have which is why I gave a measurement in relation to the cumin.

But according to the measurements in your earlier recipe with 1 lb of ground beef, I would say something like a small pinch or about 1/10 a teaspoon will do you.

That's what I did on my last batch - 1/3 as much as the cumin. In my case it was one teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and 2 teaspoons ground cumin, but I think my ground cumin was a little old and weak. However I think you need to balance the cinnamon against not just the cumin but other ingredients as well. Note that I used 3 tablespoons of chili powder, some crushed chilis, 2 teaspoons of paprika and some other seasonings as well. The habanero I used turned out to be even hotter than usual. The cinnamon is one of the smallest contributers to the overall flavour. A bit more cinnamon would not have been out of place. In fact, next time I think I will try adding more.

The more hot or sweet ingredients you add, the more cinnamon you can also add to balance out the flavor profile. Cinnamon complements sweetness and can smooth out hotness. If you really like the taste of cinnamon in chili, you could even go higher. There is no right answer, but most chilis are not known for having a pronounced cinnamon taste.

My usual advice is: put in less than you think you will need, cook it for a while, taste it and see, then adjust as required. Seasoning is not about exact amounts. The amount of flavour can vary with age and source of ingredients.

cool, thanks.

I chopped up all my **** tonight, gonna make it tomorrow. I re-looked at my recipe and I think the number of cans of beans was a misprint. Pretty sure its 2 per pound of meat.

I'm more than fine with people putting beans in their chili but I really hope they have tried it once without beans and cooked with all the spices.

If I don't have bourbon on hand, is Jack Daniels ok?

That makes a lot more sense. It's still about a 2:1 ratio of beans to meat by weight. (I think the weight of beans, not counting the liquid, in a 15 fl. oz. can is about a pound.)

Only if your're making Tennessee chili. (jk)

Yes, it should be OK. There is even an argument that Tennessee whiskey is better than bourbon in chili because of the sugar maple charcoal filtering process it goes through.

TY very much.

this can't be right, can it? "a pint's a pound, the world around" so if the can were all water it would be less than a pound, and the liquid is non trivial in a can of beans. and i'm not sure i think that canned beans are much heavier than water? idk, just seems wrong, i haven't played with chili yet so maybe there's less fluid and beans are way denser than i remember.

Oh goodie! Measuraments!

Well, I did say "about a pound", so if soaked beans had the same density as water, and if 16 fluid ounces weighed about 16 ounces - a pound, then a 15 fluid ounce can of beans would probably be about 1 ounce of liquid and 14 ounces of beans weighing about 14/16ths of a pound, which is close enough, for me at least, for "about a pound", when talking about rough ratios of beans to meat.

However...

Despite the rhyme, a pint is not a pound the whole world round. In most of the non-American English-speaking world, "A pint of water is a pound-and-a-quarter." In fact, obth are approximations - just like I was approximating.

An Imperial pound is 16 ounces avoirdupois. An Imperial fluid ounce of water weighs 0.22% more than an ounce avoirdupois. There are 20 fluid ounces in an Imperial pint. So an Imperial pint weighs just over 1.2555 pounds.

However, I had understood we were talking about US fluid ounces. These are larger than Imperial fluid ounces. A US fluid ounce of water weighs 0.041 ounces avoirdupois more than an Imperal fluid ounce, so 15 of them wiegh more than half an ounce more than 15 Imperial fluid ounces. And 16 of them, a US pint, weigh more than 2/3 of an ounce over a pound. So 15 US fluid ounces are closer to a pound than 16.

Apparently British cooks approximate more precisely than American ones.

All this is only relevent, of course, if beans have the same density as water. Do they? My canned beans tend to sink, not float. I assume therefore that a fluid ounce of beans weighs more than a fluid ounce of water. How much more?
I had no idea.

So, what I did was, before replying to ThaSaltCracka, I went to my pantry and looked for a can of beans. I didn't have any 15 ounce cans, but I did have a 19 fluid ounce (Imperial) can. I put it on my el-cheapo kitchen scale*, which told me the can weighed 1 pound 7 ounces. So I figured then when you deduct [4 ounces + the fluid + the can], what was left over probably weighed about a pound.



* not to be used for mixing delicate chemicals or anything requiring precision finer than 10%.

Sick thread guys, it inspired me to make a chilli last night with my housemate...

1. Browned meat - 1Kg Minced Beef, 0.5Kg Diced Beef, 6 Rashers Streaky Bacon. Bought the fatty mince so ended up getting a **** ton of fat off this which was mostly drained...



2. Put meat aside, browned veg - 2x Onion, 4x Mixed Peppers, 2x Celery Stick. Also made a paste with the Chillis (1x Scotch Bonnet, 1x Finger Chilli, 1x Birdeye, 6x Mixed Chilli iirc???), 5x Garlic Cloves, some Habanero Tobasco, some Chilli Sauce and a splash of oil which I fried a lil...



3. Didn't have any Cumin Powder so had to crush some seeds with the P&M...



4. Chucked the meat back in and mixed in the paste. Added most of a bottle of Dark Ale (poss to much, not sure about this)...



5. Added the Tom Puree, 2x Chopped Toms, Chicken Stock with prob 150ml of water, prob some spices then added a couple shots of Bourbon...



6. Grated in some nutmeg at some pt...



7. Chopped finely and added 1 1/4 squares of Dark Choc...



8. Poured in some White Wine Vinegar, actually ended up adding a bit extra down the line somewhere...



9. Looks like all the ingredients have been added and it's been cooking for around 2hrs here. Added quite a few crushed up Tortilla Chips near the end cause was getting hungry and it was still quite liquid, would have also added Corn Flour if I'd had it.



10. Served with Rice (probs get berated for this but it's how I've always had it in England), Sour Cream, Cheddar, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...



11. Put into portions and banged it in the freezer, should do us for a while ...



Here's the list of ingredients:

Mince Beef, Diced Beef, Bacon, Celery, Onions, Peppers, Chillies, Streaky Bacon, Tom Puree, Garlic, Red Kidney Beans, Chilli Flakes, Chilli Powder, S&P, Cumin, Paprika, Cayenne, Chilli Sauce, Brown Sugar, Nutmeg, Bourbon, Bottle Dark Ale, Canned Toms, Chicken Stock, White Wine Vinegar, Dark Choc, Crushed Tortilla Chips

Served with Rice, Cheese and Sour Cream

Was pretty awesome, although I'll prob have a think and another read of this thread before making the next batch to see if there are any alterations I wanna make.

Looks pretty damn good. Chili is fine with rice or pasta.

LOL reminds me of when I made some chili off a bodybuilding website. I ended up with like 5 gallons of the stuff (should of know when it called for TWO 46oz containers of V8 and 4 lbs of ground beef).

ull hate me for this shortcut but if you do it youll be happy...in a pinch.

browned ground beef+cumin+fresh chopped jalepeno+can of stagg vegetarian chili.

15 min. cheese/chopped onion on top. eat. smile.

(this said i love making it from scratch and cutting ribeye into .25 inch cubes but sometimes i dont have all day)

I think I mentioned this earlier in the thread and finally got around to making it this weekend. Really good, I've eaten it 4 times in a row now. Cross posted from OOT cooking thread:

This one is a must have imo. No-Cook Chili



1 quart(2 pints) of you favorite pulled pork and the bbq sauce that comes with it.
3 cans you favorite beans. I went Garbanzo, Kidney, and Frijole Negros. Rinse beans.
1 lg can diced tomatoes
1 package chili mix. Imade a real one, but Old El Paso works too.
1 chopped sweet onion
2 T chili powder
1/2c brown sugar
1/2 can tomato paste
1/2 jar jalapenos drained
3 T fresh chopped cilantro

mix together and let it sit overnight. i put it right in the crock pot i'll cook it in.

cook on high until simmer, then 30 minutes.





A+ chili and the no cook part is great too.

this thread has been a really good resource for my chili cooking repertoire. I just made some tonight for a few other people since I had the day off.

Nothing really surprising in my recipe, it was pretty standard peppers, beans, meat, onions, and spices, but this time I was able to make it with basically all organic ingredients. I don't know how much of a difference that makes, but I suspect its a net plus regardless. I think out of all the recommendations in this thread, cinnamon has to be the very best. I wasn't able to add beer this time (gluten free guest), so it lacked some of the sweet richness, but it was still great. No pics, sorry.

One quick mention, the beans I used was actually a combination of five dried beans (dubbed chili bean mix) and I think it added some good variety. It contained black, red, pinto, kidney, and one other (speckled?). I would definitely recommend this if you have the time to soak them and cook them long enough.

It also ended up being incredibly thick, maybe due to the beans. There was 3 medium to small onions and four bell peppers included (two jalapeños as well).

Chili season is arriving, time for a bump.

If i use a can of whole tomatoes, will they break down over a few hours of cooking, or should I cut them up beforehand?

They should break down. I made chili a few days ago though which still had some biggish bits in after a lot of cooking so I'd probably just mush them up in the can beforehand.