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Featured Replies

6 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

Based upon putt's content contributions in other forums, spin the bottle.

The bottle isn't the only thing he's spinning.

  • Replies 1.9k
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  • Not bad for my first time. 2nd place out of 69 entries at the Texana Chili Spill. 

  • jimmyjazz
    jimmyjazz

    Probably my best ever:  an attempt to get close to the original San Antonio Chili Queens recipe.  I used less onion and more chile peppers & cumin, but the result was stellar.  I'd say the heat wa

  • elfenix
    elfenix

    3.5 lbs chili grind, 3 or 4 lbs cubed smoked brisket, a bunch of peppers made into paste, powders bloomed in beef fat, bunch of onions + ones floating around the fridge, some serranos and jalapenos fl

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  • 2 months later...

I don't know that I've ever seen a chile seco.

Regarding chipotle peppers -- there are two primary variants available here in the States:

image.png.420af6ac78785913d8fd4dc00af65d56.png

  • 2 months later...

First chili of the season about to go on the stove.

No New Mexico peppers at the grocery today so this will be an interesting mix. 
 

1lb chuck, 1lb sirloin. No pork today. 5 guajillo, 3 ancho, 4 puya. The puya is a little sweeter so I’m hoping the all beef can balance it a bit. Will report back.

IMG_9355.thumb.jpeg.1a050ba51bb2953849402e8d5685bab1.jpeg
 

and it begins. The puyas smelled almost like chocolate when they were rehydrated. 
Do yall still do beer in your cook? We only have Pacifico available.

  • Popular Post

IMG_9358.thumb.jpeg.b40fac46b61eae6812072f1a8c2b76fc.jpeg
 

That is a savory hearty bowl of chili. 

On 9/8/2024 at 3:09 PM, hobbes2702 said:

5 guajillo, 3 ancho, 4 puya. The puya is a little sweeter so I’m hoping the all beef can balance it a bit. Will report back.

Do you take the seeds out?

41 minutes ago, UncleBuck said:

Do you take the seeds out?

Some but not all. Depends on what kinda heat we want. 

That’s interesting. When rehydrating I remove all seeds. I also float multiple fresh jalapeños and serranos. Are you floating fresh ones as well or getting all of your heat from the rehydrated ones?

Just now, Herbie Hancock said:

That’s interesting. When rehydrating I remove all seeds. I also float multiple fresh jalapeños and serranos. Are you floating fresh ones as well or getting all of your heat from the rehydrated ones?

Is there a reason for removing all seeds? We only float Serrano, fresh

Is there a reason for removing all seeds? We only float Serrano, fresh

Honestly, nothing that I’ve got any validation for. I don’t remove the seeds from the fresh peppers, just the ones I’m rehydrating. It’s not scientific, but I feel that I get more heat on the back end from floating a shit ton of fresh peppers and using my rehydrated chiles strictly for replacing the chili powder and not to get any extra heat out of it. I actually forgot to clean the seeds out one time (it was really cold and I was already knee deep in the whiskey) and it was very hot up front. I’ll qualify that by saying I love spicy; it is very rare for something to be too hot for me, but I like to taste my food first and not be immediately punched in the mouth by the heat.



TLDR; idk what I’m doing, I just know what I like
1 hour ago, Herbie Hancock said:


Honestly, nothing that I’ve got any validation for. I don’t remove the seeds from the fresh peppers, just the ones I’m rehydrating. It’s not scientific, but I feel that I get more heat on the back end from floating a shit ton of fresh peppers and using my rehydrated chiles strictly for replacing the chili powder and not to get any extra heat out of it. I actually forgot to clean the seeds out one time (it was really cold and I was already knee deep in the whiskey) and it was very hot up front. I’ll qualify that by saying I love spicy; it is very rare for something to be too hot for me, but I like to taste my food first and not be immediately punched in the mouth by the heat.



TLDR; idk what I’m doing, I just know what I like

When you rehydrate, I assume you dump the water before blending? 

2 hours ago, hobbes2702 said:

Some but not all. Depends on what kinda heat we want. 

Thanks. Thinking about changing my comp recipe from straight powder to a slurry of re-hydrated chiles, or at least a combination of the two, and am looking for a starting point. 

4 minutes ago, Herbie Hancock said:


Yes absolutely

Buddy of mine told me he blended the rehydrated with the water he rehydrated them in. Seems like that would give bad flavor but maybe I’m wrong. How much water do you put back in when blending? I wonder if we are using too much and that’s what’s decreasing our heat level 

6 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

Buddy of mine told me he blended the rehydrated with the water he rehydrated them in. 

In chili recipes and in other applications I've seen this done. Only negative I can think of is an added bitterness at the end of the cook, but I'm not sure if it would be enough to really register. 

I always taste the rehydrating water before I blend it back in.  Occasionally it's bitter, in which case I don't use it.  Usually it's fine and just contributes more flavory goodness into the final product.

 

Buddy of mine told me he blended the rehydrated with the water he rehydrated them in. Seems like that would give bad flavor but maybe I’m wrong. How much water do you put back in when blending? I wonder if we are using too much and that’s what’s decreasing our heat level 

I have tasted the water on several occasions and it has a very bitter taste to me, so I only add enough to make it a consistency somewhere between paste and slurry.
5 hours ago, utee94 said:

I always taste the rehydrating water before I blend it back in.  Occasionally it's bitter, in which case I don't use it.  Usually it's fine and just contributes more flavory goodness into the final product.

This is the answer.  Very rarely is it bitter to my taste.  I stem and seed the dried chiles before rehydrating, though, so that might be a little less risky than just throwing the whole chiles in the pan.

4 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

This is the answer.  Very rarely is it bitter to my taste.  I stem and seed the dried chiles before rehydrating, though, so that might be a little less risky than just throwing the whole chiles in the pan.

Oh yeah for sure.  First I stem and seed them.  Then I toast the chiles in the oven for a few minutes, until fragrant.  Then blend them up with some of the steeping fluid until the paste or slurry forms.  

I used to use a tea strainer when dropping the slurry into the pot, but now that I have a Vitamix, there's absolutely nothing left that isn't completely pulverized into liquid form.

 

Edited by utee94

On 9/11/2024 at 11:37 AM, hobbes2702 said:

When you rehydrate, I assume you dump the water before blending? 

Absolutely not. I use all of it, and have never had a bitterness issue. 

Some genuine wisdom on this page. Great to see so much love for dried chiles and the humble bean.

  • 2 weeks later...

I have a cookoff on Saturday.  I have a shitload of ground oryx so that will be the gravy base.  Considering the oven brown option that Jerry did.  Likely 10#

Gonna find chunks of something else.  Fallback position will be chuck roast.

Slurry, need to figure out numbers.  Will taste water for bitterness.

Going higher on veg this time (no beans) just to differentiate.  Would HEB hot pico do well or would the cilantro and lime be out of place?

Surely that all depends on the rules.  It doesn't sound terrible to me, but those two could easily get out of hand.  Any chance you can do a test batch this week?

Cookoff is a neighborhood fundraiser deal.  Basically no rules.  

 

I won last year with a curry based chili with ground axis and chunks of goat.  Served with garlic naan.  Got the idea from the Robb Walsh cookbook.

On 9/24/2024 at 10:34 AM, huge said:

I have a cookoff on Saturday.  I have a shitload of ground oryx so that will be the gravy base.  Considering the oven brown option that Jerry did.  Likely 10#

Gonna find chunks of something else.  Fallback position will be chuck roast.

Slurry, need to figure out numbers.  Will taste water for bitterness.

Going higher on veg this time (no beans) just to differentiate.  Would HEB hot pico do well or would the cilantro and lime be out of place?

Any cilantro and lime type stuff I'd add separately in very small amounts. Not a lot of coming back from those.

First batch of the fall, went from scratch (no powders), not nearly spicy enough but super tasty.  One pound each of chuck and pork, 3/8/2/1 ancho/guajillo/chipotle/arbol, I guess I need to triple the arbol chiles or some such.  Chicken stock for the liquid, 2 T cumin, 1 T Mexican oregano, a half large yellow onion, 7 oz can of mild green chiles, 2 cloves garlic, 8 oz tomato sauce, the usual salt and pepper.  Wife loved it, but I want more heat.  More heat in my chili, too.

image.thumb.jpeg.b8cf3f281f323f959d61a8b6aa0b8766.jpeg

Score it a 9.5. Half point deduction for not wiping the edge of the bowl clean before serving. 

2 minutes ago, Deej said:

Score it a 9.5. Half point deduction for not wiping the edge of the bowl clean before serving. 

I don't even wipe my ass all that well.

#bidet

Score it a 9.5. Half point deduction for not wiping the edge of the bowl clean before serving. 

Fire the expo
2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

First batch of the fall, went from scratch (no powders), not nearly spicy enough but super tasty.  One pound each of chuck and pork, 3/8/2/1 ancho/guajillo/chipotle/arbol, I guess I need to triple the arbol chiles or some such.  Chicken stock for the liquid, 2 T cumin, 1 T Mexican oregano, a half large yellow onion, 7 oz can of mild green chiles, 2 cloves garlic, 8 oz tomato sauce, the usual salt and pepper.  Wife loved it, but I want more heat.  More heat in my chili, too.

image.thumb.jpeg.b8cf3f281f323f959d61a8b6aa0b8766.jpeg

Did you float anything?

1 hour ago, hobbes2702 said:

Did you float anything?

Nope

11 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Nope

I think that’s been my issue with getting any heat lately. Used to float the Serrano and let it pop. Have taken them out a bit early or not floated at all. Def have noticed the heat difference 

14 hours ago, hobbes2702 said:

I think that’s been my issue with getting any heat lately. Used to float the Serrano and let it pop. Have taken them out a bit early or not floated at all. Def have noticed the heat difference 

Update:  it is significantly hotter today.  Not quite where I'd like it, but I think had I even doubled the chile de arbol it would too hot 24 hours later.  I don't understand why chili gets hotter with time, but it does.

Maybe the thing I'll do next time is just add another chipotle pepper.

22 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Update:  it is significantly hotter today.  Not quite where I'd like it, but I think had I even doubled the chile de arbol it would too hot 24 hours later.  I don't understand why chili gets hotter with time, but it does.

Maybe the thing I'll do next time is just add another chipotle pepper.

There's something about re-heating it that causes those small bits that didn't break down in the original cook to break down the second time and release more goodies. 

Edited by UncleBuck

42 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Update:  it is significantly hotter today.  Not quite where I'd like it, but I think had I even doubled the chile de arbol it would too hot 24 hours later.  I don't understand why chili gets hotter with time, but it does.

Maybe the thing I'll do next time is just add another chipotle pepper.

With that pepper mix, is the flavor profile pretty standard? That puya pepper def gave me a slightly different flavor. Little bit sweeter than I would have liked 

Edited by hobbes2702

I thought it was pretty classic, although some would argue that the tomato doesn't belong.  I intentionally went a little heavy on the guajillo vs ancho because sometimes an ancho-dominant chili is just too raisin-y for my taste.

Ok guys

Give me a pepper ratio for 10# meat

I’m doing Oryx

50% burger grind
25% pan sausage
25% backstrap cubesff2c61228070bb24ef28517e46e4b735.jpg


@jimmyjazz

Edited by huge

Man, I don't know.  I have yet to cook with puya or cascabel.  I've cooked with pasilla and found them to get kinda bitter in larger quantities.

I thoroughly enjoyed the general "chile-ness" of the batch I referenced above, so I'd start there for the weight of the mild chiles.  Do you have a scale?  Weigh 3 anchos + 8 guajillos and scale that number up by 5 (2 lb protein -> 10 lb).  Distribute that total pepper weight among the ancho, guajillo, puya and cascabel, maybe a bit heavier by weight on the former because they're not as spicy.  Throw in a half dozen arbol?

Good luck, we're counting on you.

On 9/26/2024 at 2:13 PM, jimmyjazz said:

I thought it was pretty classic, although some would argue that the tomato doesn't belong.  I intentionally went a little heavy on the guajillo vs ancho because sometimes an ancho-dominant chili is just too raisin-y for my taste.

I agree on too much ancho giving the raisin-y flavor.  I’m probably 60% guajillo, 30% ancho, and 10% chipotle morita.

Last batch:

IMG_5617.thumb.jpeg.62f64171d3c17f839969d03d4b9aada6.jpeg

fb4c2f16d3a2de8f1f3bbf42039308c7.jpg
Going for it

16 minutes ago, huge said:

Ok speak slowly. Whats next

OK, so you're at 3.1 oz for 3 ancho and 8 guajillo?  If so, I'd say your "mild" chiles could target 5X that amount, or 15.5 oz, since you're doing a 10# batch (and I did a 2# batch).  But, puya and cascabel are hotter than ancho or guajillo, so be careful.  I'd probably angle for something like 30% ancho (say 4.5 oz), 40% guajillo (say 6 oz), and maybe 2 oz each puya and cascabel.  Then again, I have no idea what I'm doing.

5 minutes ago, huge said:

Going for it

Looks like a pretty solid mix of peppers.  Let us know how it turns out.

Damn, I love football chili season.

Edited by jimmyjazz

6ad2e560c8361d24879620c1592d99be.jpg

Batches of this going into big pot

0d53519c7bb88bd14ac5ec0cecf222e2.jpg

These guys were introduced

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