Cincinnati chili

Must we go over this again. That’s not “chili”.

I don't.

I am making COPYCAT Wendy's chili today. Will report back(or not)

[quote]I am making COPYCAT Wendy's chili

Why?

Wendy's chili over a plain baked potato is probably the healthiest fast food meal you can get.

r5 Except they don't offer it anymore. You used to order a plain baked potato and a small chili. Now you have to order a "chili cheese baked potato," but have them hold the cheese (and add onions.)

Okay,I promise to post my Mom's recipe. But I'm a little drunk right now.

r7 is this the recipe? I copied it from another thread a while back.

2 lbs ground beef (ground chuck is best)

4 medium onions, finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic

Put in a large pot with 1 and a half quarts of water (you don't brown the meat: that's important)

6 bay leaves

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

1 6 ounce can of tomato paste

10 dried red peppers (she eventually switched to arbol chilis).

1 Tablespoon of cinnamon (you may want to add more: my Mom always did once it started cooking: she'd just say, "It's not fragrant enough".

My Mom's recipe calls for 35 allspice berries (in a tea diffuser), but now, it would just be 1/4 teaspoon of allspice

One packet of chili powder = 1/4 cup of chili powder

Optional: a square of unsweetened baker's chocolate, or a spoonful of powdered cocoa: they add a terrific depth of taste. They're not original, of course, but many cooks here in Ohio have learned to add that.

It all needs to simmer at least 4 hours. The aroma will take over your home. You should put the chili in containers in the refrigerator, so you can remove the fat that congeals at the top of the containers. Just don't remove all the fat: as my Mom always said, "That's where the flavor is".

This shit is not chili.

R8, Yes, that's it. I'm so complimented that you saved a copy of it!

Not chili. Should be called "Grecian Gunk."

Better yet, "Cincinnati's Craptastic Crud."

OP - is it served with crackers on top?!

In Italian, "profanazione di spaghetti alla Cincinnati."

Crackers are optional.

crackers and spaghetti?

Look, we know most other Americans don't recognize it as chili. We're accustomed to the insults. But it's very popular here, and most of us visit a chili parlor several times a month. The immigrants who developed it were all from different outposts of the Ottoman Empire. When I still worked in the city, even the highest level P&G executives would show up at the local chili parlor, and hang up their navy blue suit jackets so they could tuck into a serving. Cincinnati is half black, and both white and black people love their chili: pretty much the whole city does. Barry O even took out a carry out order when he was in town. The chili parlor he visited was right across from my old apartment building (on 7th St).

R13, It's always served with oyster crackers on the side. People typically crumble them on the chili, when most of the spaghetti has been eaten, to soak up some of the liquid.

It may be called Cincinnati style chili but I remember having this in western PA when I was growing up. It was a way to stretch the dollar and the food pantry when times were tough.

It's actually quite good if you don't overdo the noodles. (But if you're poor, overdoing the noodles is what makes it stretch.) I've also made it more recently by using egg noodles as the noodle bed. It makes it nicer and tastier, especially if the noodles are lightly buttered.

The cheese I get. The onions I accept. But a cracker topping on your bowl of pasta and sauce?!

Real chili is served with cornbread. The cornbread may contain jalapeños or green chilis or just plain

You can also serve the meat sauce over rice. That's actually a rather nice change. I've also made a vegetarian version, using lentils instead of beef.

^^ Do you still call that vegetarian version "chili?"

I think "Vegetarian Grecian Gunk" would be more apt, don't you?

R22, Yes, I'd still call it chili. The truth is, Cincinnati Chili is the only 'chili' I ever had, until I was much older. I think of chili mainly being based on the spice blend that's used.

One of my favorite restaurants (now shuttered) used to offer a chili made with crab meat, black-eyed peas, and Jamaican jerk sauce. It was really very tasty.

Chili over spaghetti is awesome.

Chili over spaghetti is an abomination. Ditto rice.

R25 has Stated Her Boundaries!

Miss R17 -

Is Skyline the only place to get it, though?

We went to one downtown when we visited and it seemed really gross and dirty. Isn't Skyline more fast food-ish?

See I posted here about something similar a year ago and I got dragged for it...I hate it when people change ingredients for a recipe and they still seem to think that it’s as good as the original dish. This isn’t chili, but some frau flyover casserole. I’m surprised that no one dumped a can of condensed soup in it.

Ruffians.

R28

This thread inspired me to make Hormel No Beans Chili over Ronzoni Spagetti with Kraft parmajohn sprinkled on top for dinner tonight.

I don’t like chili with beans. But everyone else seems to like that.

Also great on a hotdog.

Well, now I've seen EVERYTHING!

Is it appropriate to spoon it into a hollowed pepper and top it with a dollop of daisy?

Why not?

All chili is enhanced by a dollop of Daisy on top, r34.

A unexpected snow storm just blew in. I'll be making my Cincinnati chili tomorrow and DLers are welcome to drop by for a taste.

I'm making some today. I get a craving once in a while.

Is it just as trashy to serve something like over elbow macaroni? Or does it lower the bar even further?

Chili mac!

I'm from NE Ohio, not Cincinnati, but there's a Skyline restaurant not far from me. It's an acquired taste I guess, not really my thing personally, with the various spices like cinnamon and allspice, etc.

Let's not forget Steak & Shake, if you want some chilli mac, sans the Skyline spices.

Oh, and there aren't any beans in Skyline chili, and they put a shit ton of finely shredded cheddar on their chili mac and chili dogs.

bump

Yes, people are very attached to their version of chili. I grew up in CT and only remember canned chili on hot dogs and my mother’s watery version which was not good.

My husband’s mother from Ohio/western PA made it with dark red kidney beans and spaghetti sauce instead of plain tomatoes, no spaghetti. It was one of the rare times she ever used an onion. She’d serve with shredded cheap cheddar cheese and sour cream, and offered saltines to crumble on top. It was very tasty, and that’s how I make it now. My ex’s Brooklyn-born mother used pink beans and put it on a baked potato or rice.

Just last summer I had a cup of chili at the food court at Old Faithful National Park and it was surprisingly good. They gave us saltines to go with it, too.

I live in southwest Ohio, and Cincinnati-style chili is very popular. Skyline is the biggest name, but there is also Gold Star Chili and a couple of other names in Cincinnati. What's missing from this thread is how you order it: If you want chili, cheese and spaghetti, you order a 3-way. If you want to add beans or onions, you order a 4-way. If you want both, you order a 5-way. People do this all day long and don't smile or think it's the least bit sexual. I'm sure the DL crowd thinks otherwise.

We used to call that Chighetti when i was a kid.

Recipe

1 can Hormel Chili

Cooked spaghetti noodles

SW Ohio is the only place that this shit is celebrated. Every other place considers it an abomination. You don't make chili with chocolate or cinnamon.

Ohio. Ugh. As if we needed another reason to hate it.

Skyline chili is gawd-awful.

Graeters Ice Cream otoh... lusciously delicious 🍦

[quote] How do you prepare this Midwestern specialty?

I don’t. No one outside of Cincinnati does.

[quote]I like mine with cheese and onions.

Why would anyone find this interesting?

This is just an Eastern European meat stew served over noodles. The hysteria over the name and the accompaniments is classist.

I love Cincinnati chili, but then I'm half-Greek and the flavor profile does remind me of my grandmother's cooking. I think I'm going to try to make it with this NYTimes recipe.

Buy a spice packet from Hard Times Cafe restaurant. (You can order online.) Then just add the meat and other ingredients.

Actually the Mayans added chili peppers to chocolate.

I went out for lunch with my brother last week (with masks and social distancing) and had a four-way/onion and a cheese coney with onions and mustard.

I love this chili style, especially the five-way.