Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler FREE SPIRIT CHILI

bray- ALL of penderys spices are very good. always very fresh and they do air tight seals on bags to ensure added freshness. i think a lot of their chili blends comes down to personal preference, some are more hot, some are more salty, and some can even have a hint of sugar to them. we use the terlingua blend most of the time, and have used the ft worth blend, and it is good also.. i see another recipe has been added using penderys spices.. they really are good.

zarak- to be perfectly honest, i have never really played with the recipe in an attempt to make it less spicy. usually, the effort is to make it more spicy, or flavorful. i would think you could maybe just reduce the amount of chili powder and ground cayenne you add, but then you would need to reduce the water content, cause the spices help to absorb the water.. if you reduce the spices, and not the water, it will end up being way too soupy. and, you might try and reduce the cooking time some. i know i have stressed that slow cooking is the key, and it is.. but, the longer you cook, the more time the flavors have to build and come to their full potential. so, if you cook for less time, they will not fully develop, which is kinda what you would want. again, less water needed since less cook time. hope that helps.

tleigh- beer, hhmm.. when we go to chili cookoffs, i usually get common standards. nothing fancy or special. lone star, coors, budweiser, etc. just make sure its cold. and have a few handy.

bigjohn

Sorry, self gratifying bump!!

got an e-mail from engine joe earlier, and he made the chili. he said it turned out real good, but not as HOT as he thought it would. i was telling him that i wasnt ready to give out all my secrets to get it REALLY hot.

and, he had a problem with too much water in the pot, it wasnt at the right consistency. but that comes with trial and error, gotta keep the heat to it, and make the best of it.

i got 2 thumbs WAY up for joe, and his first authentic "BOWL OF RED"... as we like to call it!!!

so thats 2 down(wid and engine joe).... who's next?

ya scared....?

bigjohn

BigJohn's pretty sufficiently summed up my email to him, so I won't go through all that again, except to add that I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be making it again, probably with some of my own variations.

One question to the Penderys users. I see a lot about blends. Do you use those blends in measure for the chili powder, or in substitution for entire dumps? I just noticed that the blend seems to include cumin, onion powder, etc, and that would seem odd... do you just use the blend as a dump?

Wow, you guys are into your chili's. I'm more of an "eater". We try to make as many local chili cookoffs that we can.

Best I've had was one where the guy marinated his beef in Jack Daniel's for several days. And no, it's not Friday's chili...

Well, I didn't make your chili. But what I did do was modify my chili to add the spices in dumps (cooking significantly longer) and tweak the spices a litle bit. Came out quite good and was a huge hit at my buddy's place for the super bowl. It almost made up for me loudly cheering for the Eagles given that I'm in Boston. Really, it did...

(I'm from Philly originaly.)

i have the print out of the recipe and i keep wanting to shop for the stuff and make the chili but i keep getting stuck doing stupid stuff like finishing my ht setting up my new axiom's ya know useless trivial stuff.

I made the chili for Superbowl Sunday as well. Found some of the Pendereys locally. Overall, excellent chili.

Adjustments I'll make next time will be to make it hotter (a little more cayenne and some other tricks), but bring down the salt level a little. I suspect that was the result of the chicken & beef broth options I selected. So I'd test it before adding any of the additional straight salt the recipe calls for. I managed to get the consistency right.

Thanks for the recipe!

Rich

thats good to hear samandnoah!!

another trick to add some heat, is to get a fresh, crispy jalapeno, and take a knife, and cut 3-4 slits in it from top to bottom. then, just chunk it in the pot, and every time you stir it, just kinda squeeze the jalapeno against the inside of the pot. it will help to get the juices flowing thru it. the heat and spicyness will be extracted from the pepper, then when you are done, just 'fish' out the pepper and throw it away.. or, eat it, which ever you prefer.. you will find that this trick will add a great amount of KICK..

and the chili can come out salty sometimes.. its one of those things thats hard to judge. definitely play with the recipe to get it to your liking. you can also find no salt added, or salt free broth.. that might be an option for you to try also. and pendereys has some of the best spices.. we use them alot. also, mccormick makes a chili powder called, "texas hot".. if you see it in your grocery store, BUY IT.. i guarantee it will give you some added kick also.

and congrats on getting the consistency right. that tends to be the biggest variable every time. water, water, water.. its the hardest, but most crucial element.

bigjohn

All these posts and no one's pegged my question, so here I go again (on my own... headin' down the only road... I'll shut up):

"
One question to the Penderys users. I see a lot about blends. Do you use those blends in measure for the chili powder, or in substitution for entire dumps? I just noticed that the blend seems to include cumin, onion powder, etc, and that would seem odd... do you just use the blend as a dump?"

sorry joe...

i have only used the blends a few times, so i am not that experienced with them. i suppose you could use them as complete dumps, but obviously, it will change the taste and look of the chili. if it were me, i would stick to regular chili powder, and maybe use the blends to experiement with. i wish i had a better answer for you...?

but, i would like to say again, penderys has some of the better spices on the market. so chances are, whatever you get from them, it will be of highest quality.

bigjohn