Chili: A Look Inside the Pot

The name may be Spanish, but the story of chili is as American as apple pie. Various versions of these slowly simmered stews have evolved in regions around the country for close to two centuries and reflect some longstanding perceptions of the perfect pot of chili.

Chili con carne (literally, "chili with meat") is thought to have originated in San Antonio, TX, in the 1820s, back when the state was still a province of Mexico. Stories about the origin of chili are as numerous as its present-day variations. Certainly, the combination of such indigenous New-World ingredients as the rich variety of chile peppers that were a staple in the intricately compounded pre-Columbian sauces called moles, with beef from the cattle introduced by the Spaniards, was a natural evolution from native meat stews.

In the mid-1800s, cowboys on the Texas cattle trail made a stew by pounding together dried beef, fat, seasonings and chile peppers. These easily transportable "chili bricks," similar to the pemmican of the Native Americans, could be boiled with water for a tasty and nutritious stew. The fat provided much-needed energy, and the chile peppers not only contained a healthy dose of vitamin C, but also provided antibacterial properties that helped to preserve the meat longer.

Some stories claim that chili originated in the jails of Texas, where the cheapest cuts of meat were chopped and long-simmered with chile peppers and spices. This stew became so popular that it's said that inmates would rate jails based on the quality of the chili. According to another version of the legend, the creators of chili were lavanderas, or "washerwomen," who followed the armies of Texas during the 19th century, serving them a stew made with venison or goat meat and seasoned with the marjoram and pequín chile peppers that grow wild in Texas.

Whatever the origin of the dish, women selling chili from wagons became a fixture on the plazas and squares of San Antonio after Texas achieved statehood, providing chili to soldiers and townspeople and acquiring the nickname "chili queens." (The chili wagons were abolished on health grounds in 1937, though the chili queens are recreated each year for the city's annual "Return of the Chili Queens Festival.") By the early 20th century, "chili joints" had become a common sight in the western United States. In keeping with chili's humble origins, these joints were little more than wooden shacks with a counter and stools offering a bowl of chili with free crackers on the side. Cheap and convenient, chili joints were especially popular during the dust bowl days and the hard years of the Great Depression.

Chili is so closely associated with Texas that in 1977 it was declared the Texas state dish. But that hasn't stopped a proliferation of regional and ethnic variations, in true American style. In New Mexico you may find lamb or mutton in your chili instead of beef, thanks to the state's lamb ranchers. In northern states, chili often includes red kidney beans, a variant that, according to food writer John Mariani, "Texas purists would consider tantamount to a criminal act." In 1893 a "San Antonio Chilley Stand" at Chicago's Columbian Exhibition introduced chili to the Midwest, where chili dogs are a popular item at hot dog stands.

The International Chili Society, San Juan Capistrano, CA, a nonprofit organization that sponsors chili cook-offs for charity around the United States and in several foreign countries, defines traditional red chili or chili con carne as a combination of meats (ground, chopped or diced), red chile peppers, spices and other ingredients, such as tomatoes and onions. However, beans and pasta are strictly forbidden by their definition. Those who permit beans in their chili may refer to it as chili con frijoles, or chili "with beans," to distinguish it from the beanless variety.

Even within the stricter definition, the meat can be pork, beef, venison, sausage, poultry, or even goat or lamb. The blend of chile peppers and spices varies from region to region and from cook to cook and may include a variety of fresh or dried chile peppers, cumin, oregano, thyme or sweet spices, such as cinnamon and cloves. Stock compatible to the meats in a particular recipe, with or without some type of tomato product, forms a thick liquid matrix for the meats and other solids. Within this loose definition of chili there is a lot of room for the creative product developer to play with and create never-tasted-before flavor combinations.

Cincinnati is especially renowned for the variations it rings on the chili theme, starting with the simple "bowl of red" and progressing up to "five-way" -- spaghetti topped with chili, onions, kidney beans and shredded cheese, served with oyster crackers and a side of hot dogs.

Even Los Angeles had its upscale version of chili at the now-closed Chasen's Restaurant, where Hollywood luminaries like Clark Gable, Jack Benny and Liz Taylor would send their chauffeurs to pick up a quart or, in Taylor's case, have it sent to Rome when she was filming "Cleopatra."

Indeed, chili has achieved international fame, with chili cook-offs in Texas typically attracting audiences from around the world. The International Chili Society holds competitions in traditional red chili, with any combination of meats, red chile peppers and spices, and chili verde, with meats, green chile peppers and spices. Again, beans and pasta are strictly forbidden in both categories. A recent winning recipe in the red chili category features cubes of beef tri-tip, pork sausage and a New Mexico-style chili powder.

Ever since it was first canned in the first decade of the 20th century, food manufacturers have exploited chili's potential as a tasty, ready-to-eat food product. By 1918, one company in Austin was turning out 45,000 cans a day.

At StockPot Inc., Woodinville, WA, we have found that our "kettle cooking" method of preparing soups from scratch in individual batches is ideally suited to chili. By first sautéing the chili's meats in the kettle, we give the browning and caramelization of protein, known as the Maillard reaction, a chance to bring out complex, meaty flavors. Then, liquid is added and the meat is braised, tenderizing it and bringing out a marriage of flavors while preventing the loss of flavor that occurs when ingredients are precooked separately and then combined. We adjust the cooking time depending on the type of meat and how it is cut or ground to make sure that it is cooked enough to be perfectly tender and to absorb all the flavors of the other ingredients -- but not so much that it loses its integrity and the flavors become muted.

Recipes are developed in small batches in our test kitchen and then scaled up. With a product like chili, we've found that our recipes scale up very accurately with minimal adjustment. The greatest challenge in the scale-up process is that in chilis with beans, the beans are generally cooked longer than smaller batches and so they release more starch and sweetness. Therefore, the flavor profile of the pepper blend may require some adjustments. After two or three hours of simmering, depending on the recipe, the chili is ready to be chilled and packaged in 6-lb. bags that have a refrigerated shelf life of up to 120 days. By offering chilis that are fully cooked and ready to use, all the operator needs to do is heat and serve, an important consideration in markets where skilled labor is hard to find and space and time are at a premium.

Each chili in our line is unique, with different beans, meats and seasonings combining to create a distinctive flavor profile. Wildman Pete's Extreme Chili with Beans is a hearty blend of beef, chipotle and ancho chile peppers, and pinto and kidney beans. Roadhouse Chili with Beans has a more traditional flavor profile and is popular with ski resorts and institutions that want a chili to please consumers and families looking for a familiar taste, while vegetarian chili is a favorite with the younger, more health-conscious college and university crowd. Custom projects give us the opportunity to think more "outside the box." For example, Basil Chicken Chili with Beans, which evolved from a custom project and is now part of our regular line, showcases a more unusual combination of chicken, basil, cumin, onions, jalapeño peppers and lime juice, with most of the kick coming from garlic rather than hot chile peppers.

The wide range of beans, meats and seasonings used in chilis offers a number of opportunities and challenges for the product developer. Finding the most flavorful and convenient form of beans for our chilis has been a process of experimentation and adjustment. Cooked, canned beans have great flavor and texture, but the labor involved in opening the cans ruled out that option. Dried beans were also too labor-intensive and time-consuming to make sense for us, as it would require soaking them in water anywhere from four hours to overnight, depending on the variety of legume. We're finding that individually quick-frozen (IQF) beans offer the best combination of flavor and convenience. For some types of beans, such as kidney beans, the addition of dried bean powder helps duplicate the sweetness of canned beans. While pinto and kidney beans are traditional favorites in chili, we have used white beans in a chili with chicken for a more compatible color, and a combination of pinto and black beans with an assortment of vegetables in a heartier-style chili to create visual excitement and a variety of tastes, textures and colors.

Chilis may incorporate ground beef, sirloin cubes, turkey, ground or cubed chicken, or a combination of meats. For instance, chili with both ground sirloin and sirloin chunks yields a heartier texture and rounder flavor. The beef and poultry stocks we use in our chilis are made in the StockPot kitchens using the kettle-cooking technique to duplicate the traditional long, slow-simmering process that draws out the natural flavor of the meats and vegetables and the collagen that gives body to the chili.

Naturally, chili powder is the indispensable seasoning ingredient in chili. (One of the earliest brands, concocted by a German immigrant in 1890, is still sold today as Eagle Brand Chili Powder.) At our company, rather than relying on one seasoning blend for all our recipes, we have developed a different blend for each chili.

To fit the flavor profile of each recipe, dried chile peppers -- pasilla, New Mexican, ancho and chipotle, among others -- are custom-ground to our specifications. Often, a chili powder will be formulated with more than one type of chile pepper for a deeper, more complex flavor. Chile peppers, fruits of the genus Capsicum, vary widely, not only in degree of heat, but in flavor as well. They are used both fresh and dried and often in combinations that take advantage of their different attributes. The habanero, one of the fieriest peppers rated in Scoville heat units (a measure of heat level used in the industry), has a distinctive, fruity flavor. Jalapeños, a widely popular pepper, are milder and vegetal when fresh, but dried and smoked jalapeños, called chipotle peppers, have a complex smoky flavor and are much hotter. The cayenne pepper, commonly used in hot sauces, is a pungent variety.

The peppers are blended with toasted and ground herbs and spices, such as cumin, coriander and oregano. Herbs like basil, parsley, thyme and cilantro are added during the cooking process in IQF form when a brighter flavor note is desirable. The standard, off-the-grocery-shelf chili powder consists of a blend of dried, powdered chile pepper, cumin and dried oregano, but nowadays most chili cooks regard that spice trinity as just a starting point.

We're continuing to expand our chili offerings as the demand for boldly flavored, convenient-to-use products grows. The popularity of takeaway counters at groceries and delis accounts for much of this growth, but we are also finding increasing interest on the part of fast-casual chains for a custom-developed product that fits their customer and branding profile.

Researching new chili concepts is one of the most challenging and stimulating parts of my job. Every year, the development chefs at StockPot travel to New Mexico to help pick and roast chile peppers on a farm owned by the family of one of our salespeople. We also take the opportunity to "eat around" and sample some of the regional chili variations. Conferences such as the Worlds of Flavor sponsored by the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) at Greystone and the annual Research Chefs Association (RCA) gathering are great sources of information and ideas.

As the interest in Latin cooking expands from one-size-fits-all Mexican to a more nuanced exploration of authentic regional cuisines, I'm finding myself increasingly looking to the traditional, long-simmered dishes of Central and South America for inspiration. One of my favorites among the chilis I'm currently developing is a take on the traditional Argentinean gaucho stew called puchero, a hearty ragout of beef short rib chunks braised with puréed pasilla peppers, roasted cracked corn, sweet potatoes and red potatoes seasoned with cilantro, cumin and oregano. Instead of white flour, we thicken the chili with masa harina, flour made from sun-dried corn kernels soaked in limewater, for an authentic, sweet, earthy flavor. An ideal market for this style of chili might be an upscale Southwestern chain.

Another exciting part of my work takes place in StockPot's Fresh Ideas kitchen where we help operators develop a customized presentation of chilis. We brainstorm with clients, typically on the chain level, to create fresh and innovative platings using different types of cornbread, tortillas, Mexican cheeses and garnishes. In this way, not only can we provide customers with a consistently delicious product that's easy to store and use, but we can also develop a complete menu item concept that will give their chili an edge on the competition.

Once product developers peer inside the many chili pots simmering around the United States, they'll notice a slew of distinct, tasty stews. And, in the process, they'll likely formulate a few new ideas of their own. 

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