Operation Chili

[Jester]

I really, REALLY hate it when I turn on the wrong burner.

"Gee, why isn't the meat searing like it should?"

[Barracuda]

Here you go--more information on the fat skins, or "cauls". I have read you can find them in some Asian groceries, as well as more high end butchers. You can also buy them online.
http://oneblockwest.blogspot.com/200...fs-friend.html

[Jester]

No high end butchers or Asian groceries in my neck of the islands.

Not sure how I would use that in my chili, either.....hmmm....

[MystyGlyttyr]

Well, I'll be honest, the chili me and my dad make typically stains bowls (we likeses our heat), buuuuut...I did just spend a year in culinary school, so lemme think and randomly regurgitate various things that got covered (I might be telling you a bunch of stuff you already know, but I need to be trying to remember all this stuff the government paid for me to learn)...

Red wine's been mentioned, but...something that really baffled me was seeing my dad toss a couple spoons of my white cooking wine into his chili, but it REALLY worked. Not just as a marinade, but as an ingredient, it really brought out a lot of the flavors.

Something I did in class was make liver chili and once fish chili, buuuuut that's probably a bit outside the range of what you want. It was good though, and definitely an unexpected flavor.

Fresh ginger or wasabi is always good for adding a little touch of kick...

Something else we did...high-heat searing our meat before adding it into the chili. That gave the meat a nice little flavored crust to them without toughening it up too bad.

OH, mushrooms! Everything's good with mushrooms! ...well in my opinion...

And, again, this is just me...people are always so intent on degreasing their chili, but personally, I LIKE a good greasy chili. Grease has so much good flavor to it and it really brings out the heat, it's worth the health-hit to me.

Like I said, you probably already knew all this, but I'm experimenting with my own memory, heh.

[Jester]

I love chili. I love mushrooms.

But mushrooms in chili? Oh, hell no! Maybe if it's a veggie chili (which I've never tried my hand at), but in a meat chili? Oh HELL no.

Thanks for the other comments, though. Some I've done, some I'll consider for future, but at the moment, the chili is in its fifth hour of simmering on the stove, and anything I was going to do to it is, for the most part, pretty much done.

At least, I hope so!

[MystyGlyttyr]

Suit yourself, heh.

I have to admit I've gotten slightly addicted to mushrooms (and not the fun kind, just the nommy kind), and I've taken to trying to stick them into anything possible. Caramelize them real good, then chunk them in the chili, om nom nom. But considering I come from a family where one member eats habeneros like popcorn, one member melts chocolate over her ranch corn nuts, and at least two members frequently make entire meals out of some kind of boiled seed, I don't think I'm that weird. (Oh, or the member who mashes up vienna sausages with hot sauce and spreads it on bread.)

[Jester]

A near disaster!

I was planning on simmering my chili for only so long, but definitely taking it off the heat before I crashed. I figured I'd watch the first episode of the new season of Worst Cooks in America on my DVR, then take the chili off the heat to cool, then crash. Well, somewhere in the middle of WCA, I dozed off, probably around 3 am-ish...and didn't wake up until 8 am, 45 minutes ago.

PANIC!!!

Worried I might find two smoldering pots of ash, even though the warmers had only been on "warm," I flew into the kitchen to find....two happily simmering pots of chili. WHEW! So, rather than simmering for a few hours, the chili actually ended up simmering for over TEN hours. And seems to be none the worse for wear.

Now it's just a matter of cooling it down, letting it hang out in the fridge for a week, and letting the magic happen. (fingers crossed, praying to the chili gods....)

[Caffienated_Caramel]

You mentioned a light beer and I thought of Samuel Adam's pale ale. What would that do? (pure amateur chili eater here, though I do like a bit of a kick)

Hope your chili turns out great

[Jester]

I have no idea what Samuel Adams Pale Ale would do, as (A) I have never tried it, (B) I didn't even know it existed (and I've tried many offerings from Samuel Adams), and (C) I never put it in my chili. I can only comment on the few beers I have cooked with, and that is not one of them.

I imagine most beers would not make THAT much of a difference, considering how much beer I use compared to how much chili I make. (I used one 12 ounce bottle of Pacifico in my double batch of chili yesterday, which was about 8-9 quarts. Do the math.)

While many people promote using dark beer in chili, and I love dark beer, I have found that in many things I have cooked, the dark beer is more likely to break than lighter beers are. Now, I have not tried dark beer in my chili (perhaps I should), but I know the one time I tried it in my German stew, it pretty much broke the stew....and that was not good. (And by break, I mean it pretty much separated itself from the rest of the liquid, which is what they usually mean by a "broken sauce"....and that tends to make things....weird.)

[Jester]

Hi. I'm an idiot.

I know, I know, you've heard me say this before, but I am not talking about anything I've done outside of here, I am talking about something I've done HERE.

It's been brought to my attention that I asked for all this advice what to do different with my chili, and then, intentionally or not, found ways to shoot down a lot of them.

I want you all to know that it was NEVER my intention to act like my way was the best way, or that how I do chili is better, or any other kind of superiority crap like that. I appreciate EVERYTHING people suggest. And even if I don't use it for this batch, I may well use it for another. A lot of what people suggest goes into the mental rolodex (cooking section), and finds its way out later. Some of the things suggested in this thread are things I may well do in the future, or things that I may already be doing. I couldn't find it skimming through this thread, but I could have sworn that someone suggested marinating the meat in whiskey, which I did do this time, for the first time ever. Also, I am playing in my head with various other ideas that were suggested here, including (but not limited to) fire roasting my peppers, using sun-dried tomatoes to augment the other tomatoes, and using pork caul in some way (though I haven't figured out how quite yet.

And a lot of times a suggesting by someone may lead to something else, something I don't do, that they didn't suggest, but A leads to B which leads to C and maybe D, E, or even M, Q, or double Z with a delta twist.

Things I did differently this time, most of which I attribute to suggestions from y'all in this thread including marinating the steak and pork tenderloin in whiskey prior to cooking them, using a different beer, remembering to look at my old recipe and realizing I had forgotten the last couple times a key ingredient (which I had used in the past, but had been suggested here, and I had somehow missed it when doing my chili recently), and changing 2 of the 3 types of tomatoes I use (the third type is tomato paste, and let's be honest, tomato paste is tomato paste).

So I know I sometimes come across as an ass, but a lot of times in these types of threads I am just thinking aloud, and even if I seem to reject an idea you may suggest, it plants a seed and I think about it for down the road. I have never made chili the same way twice, as I am always try to improve it, and let's be honest....if you make the same thing the exact same way every time for a competition, where's the challenge?

So if you thought I was asking for help and then rejecting it, please understand that that is not the case.

"But Jester, admit it, you are only saying this because a mod told you to."

No.

A mod did contact me, and alerted me to the situation. There was no infraction, I was not scolded, and I was not told how to react or even TO react. I am doing this of my own volition, because this is something I have done my whole life, and which I am always trying to NOT do. I use people as a sounding board a lot, and sometimes it seems like I am arguing with their suggestions, when in reality I am debating the pros and cons in my head, and I just speak what I'm thinking.

Let me repeat that I am VERY thankful of ALL the suggestions I get in any of my threads asking for cooking advice, as I will be the very first to admit that I am no expert in the kitchen. The kitchen to me is like the dance floor....in both arenas I fake things quite well, but I have never had any training, and welcome any insight into how to improve in either. So, thank you to ALL Of you who took the time to make suggestions, offer pointers, and give me their ideas. Even if I don't want to try mushrooms in my chili, it doesn't mean that idea won't propel me to consider other veggies I haven't used before. (Regarding that specific idea, it got me thinking of making a tomatillo-based rather than a tomato-based chili sometime in the future. A chili verde, if you will.)

So again, THANK YOU! You guys rock, and honestly, I appreciate you (those who offered their ideas here and the members of this site in general) far more than you know and a good deal more than I will usually say. My only excuse for not saying it more often is that I was raised by alien Dalmations with five legs that had no idea how to act in civilized society without peeing on a random fire hydrant.

So please, keep the suggestions coming in my future threads, and if you think I'm being an ass (intentionally or not), call me on it. Don't let me get away with that shit. Because I'm better than that, and you DESERVE better than that. (If for no other reason than for putting up with my dumb ass.)

And on that note, I think I'll have another beer.....

[Barracuda]

I should point out, since the caul can look a little confusing, that it is made ENTIRELY of fat. In other words, it's all edible, and like all fat, will melt. If you wanted to use it, simply melting it in a pan or even directly in the chili should work fine. For that matter, you could always buy some pork loin for another meal, trim the fat off and use it separately in the chili (or pork chops or some other cut of pork. Heck, bacon grease might taste good in the chili in limited amounts.) Another couple ideas--if you want the earthiness of mushrooms without the actual mushroom, the flavor the Japanese call umami, Asian fish sauce would work well in limited quantities, a little goes a long way. I would recommend either Filipino patis sauce or Vietnamese nuoc mam (pronounced "nuke mom"). Another idea, since you suggested you may like some sweet in the chili that goes well with spicy is some Asian plum sauce, also called hoisin sauce. Again, it doesn't take much for the flavor, and some come in spicy varieties. You could also try a sweet chilies additive like Sriracha sauce for a sweeter chili.

[Jester]

And it's wonderful suggestions like the above that give me some of my very few regrets about living on a small tropical island over 150 miles away from any funky or ethnic grocery stores, or large grocery stores that have more than three shelves for "ethnic" foods.

[AccountingDrone]

and using pork caul in some way (though I haven't figured out how quite yet.

Pork caul would be not worth doing in a chili, it is used as a wrapping that also adds fat to the cooking process. Adding chunks of abdominal fat would make more sense than using pork caul...


See? It is a network of fat threads [for lack of a better word] that is traditionally used to wrap sausages as in lucanian sausage from roman cooking, or even croquettes in a pinch. Slopping it into a stew would be a waste of a fairly expensive piece of specialty product.

[Barracuda]

Hmm, yes, I suppose straight fat would work better. And Jester? Not to fear. I found two Japanese stores on Key West. Hopefully they have hoisin sauce, I would guess you would have to order the fish sauce online. If you want the good stuff, Three Crabs brand nuoc mam is the highest quality you can get short of going to Vietnam and getting it there.

http://www.yellowpages.com/key-west-...grocery-stores

[Jester]

AD, I suppose it depends how one prepares the meat for the chili. I could see some applications with the caul, to be honest.

And Barracuda, you had me intrigued with that link, until I saw what they were. The first listing is a Chinese restaurant down here (one I order from frequently), not a grocery store. The second one is a grocery store, but not an Asian one...it specializes in Eastern European fare.