What makes a dish "Chili"? -- Follow up to Fishawn's Chili Thread

[Conumdrum]

OK...I tried to stay out but...

Was in a chili cook comp......Small time.......No prize other than bragging rights

One entry was a little more than red beans, tomatoes, and some meat...I was like ...But this gal was proud as can be because "THIS" is what her family loved...

Nuff said...

We have been making Mom's own chile recipe for years. Old stuff. No chiles but 2 TBPS of chile powder. We have changed it from the card she typed from early 1960's.

Chili can have no beans to lotta beans. It's up to the end taster. There are 15000 variations.

You cook what you love to eat. Nuff said.

Always experiment, read about other ideas. Otherwise we'd all be eating boiled meat and potatoes. With a a boiled side of kale. ACK.

LOL, or paste we all ate in 1st grade...........

[Snarlingiron]

Look up how many different dishes are called "Goulash" and it took me several years to find a recipe that was similar to my Mom's "Chop Suey" although I found many recipes called that.

Point well taken. The macaroni, onions, tomato sauce and chilli powder dish I described previously is what my mom called goulash. When my son was little and he said it, it always came out lougash, so that is what we call it now.

[blues_n_cues]

T.W. kinda nailed it on the history part.
it's simple-
meat,chilis,maybe some comino & other spices,salt(when there was any),possibly onion,water. you have to remember how compact a chuckwagon really is,not a lot of storage space.most of the herbs or spices are what was found along the way.

the original beans in chili was more like beans w/ a dab of meat & that was only if they found time to hunt or a cow died on the trail.
cooked forever over whatever wood was available as the trail went-
South Texas-mesquite,live oak
mid Texas-pecan,the different oaks,mesquite
...and so on until you hit the plains,then you were most likely cooking over gathered buffalo chips.

THAT'S authentic chili.

[blues_n_cues]

Point well taken. The macaroni, onions, tomato sauce and chilli powder dish I described previously is what my mom called goulash. When my son was little and he said it, it always came out lougash, so that is what we call it now.

yeah I noticed that looking it up the other day.
my Grandmother's goulash was that recipe.
Google-goulash & most hits were Chop Suey
so I did Hungarian Goulash,which actually turned out to be the Serbian version-
meat,paprika,salt,pepper,onion,& garlic (Czech chili.lol) served over mashed taters w/ bread.

[HawgHeaven]

Chili... it's an interpretation, a love, and politics in a bowl.

Nuff said.

[Charcuteryan]

Did we figure it out yet?