Please critique this recipe!

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Surprisingly, this chili cook-off, along with most others (including the International Chili Cook-Off, does not allow beans in the chili.

That is because, traditionally, chilli has always been some type of sautéd meat, simmered in a sauce, and if you want beans, you serve your chilli OVER a dish of beans. That's why I always scoff at vegetarian chilli. If chilli is sautéd meat in a sauce, then vegetarian chilli would be... a pot full of sauce!
 
I Won!

Well thanks to everbody's suggestions. I just won first prize!! Now off to the tri-county cook-off...
 
The winning recipe, Pleeze? With Tums on Top?

CONGRATULATIONS! ;)

Just joined up. Saw your recipe; very much impressed with the original AND the comments.

So what WAS the winning combination of secret ingredients and special techniques? PLEEZ share! Thank you!
 
CONGRATULATIONS! ;)

Just joined up. Saw your recipe; very much impressed with the original AND the comments.

So what WAS the winning combination of secret ingredients and special techniques? PLEEZ share! Thank you!

If he tells you he'll either have to charge you or MUCH worse! :LOL: It's a winner now - winning recipes don't come cheap :):chef:
 
ah, but perhaps we have a steak ;) in the recipe, since we
potentially MADE it a weiner! ;)

cough it up dude! ;) ;)
 
Winning Recipe!

Sorry for the late response...I'm only on DC when I'm at work! :angel: But anyways, here is the winning recipe. It's pretty much the same as the recipe I posted at first, but with a few changes based on what was available in my grocery store. The changes I made to the original are bold.

The chocolate bar was a last-minute tip from my dad, a C.I.A. graduate, whom I often ask for food advice.

12 oz. breakfast sausage
2 teaspoons oil
3 pounds sirloin steak, cut into small pieces
1 medium onion, finely chopped
(2) can beef broth
1/4 teaspoon oregano
3 tablespoon cumin
7 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons New Mexico chili powder
5 tablespoons regular chili powder
1 can (8 ounces) Tomato Sauce
1 can (10 ounces) Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies
9 dried chile peppers, boiled 30 min. and pureed
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 can chicken broth
1 teaspoon Tabasco Pepper Sauce
2 teaspoon brown sugar
juice of one lime
Hershey's Chocolate Bar

Instructions: Brown breakfast sausage, set aside. Heat oil in a pot, and brown the beef. Add the onion and beef broth to cover the meat. Add the breakfast sausage. Boil for 15 minutes. Add oregano and half of the cumin. Reduce heat to a light boil, and then add the garlic. Combine the chile powders into a mixture, then add half of that mixture, and cook 15 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes with the puree from the dried peppers. Add the chicken broth for the desired consistency. Cook for one hour, stirring often. Add the remaining chile powder mixture and the remaining cumin, and simmer for another 25 minutes on low to medium heat. Turn up the heat to a light boil, and add the Tabasco, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, lime juice, and chocolate bar.
 
I recently competed in a chili cook-off that's designed to make money for the United Way. It isn't a real cook-off and organizations such as Boys & Girls club, or Girl Scouts always wins. But I got rave review from the crowd. I made two kinds of Midwestern-style chili, one very hot, and one mild. Both received good review and were just plain gone. I made about four gallons of each. Here's how I made them.

Hot chili:
1 No. 10 can diced tomatoes
1 No. 10 can crushed tomatoes
5 1/2 lb. ground beef
3 tbs. medium chili powder
3 tbs. hot chile powder
3 tbs. smoked chile powder
1 tbs. ground cumin
1 tbs. ground coriander
4 oz. unsweetend chocolate
3 stalks celerey, sliced
2 yellow onions sliced
3 green bell peppers, quartered and slided into chunks
4 habenero chilli peppers, chopped
3 tbs. Tobasco Sauce
1 bottle Insanity Sauce
1 No. 10 can chili beans
1 No. 10 can pinto beans
1 No. 10 can kidney beans

Put contents from tomato cans into a very large pot and add the dried spices. Add the peppers and veggies. Simmer for 20 minutes to bring out the flavors, stirring often to prevent scorching the tomato sauce. Taste and correct the seasoning to your taste. Add Everything else except the ground beef.
Brown the ground beef and add to the chili. Let all simmer for an hour. Refridgerate over night to really bring out the flavors. Heat to 160, and then cool to a holding temp of 140 and serve.

Mild chili: I used a secret technique and ingredient to give this chili a mild smokey flavor, with just a hint of sweetness. The people who tried it raved about it. I laughed secretly. When I tell you what happened, you will know why.

Ingredients:
1 No. 10 can diced tomatoes
1 No. 10 can crushed tomatoes
5 1/2 lb. ground beef
6 tbs. medium chili powder
3 tbs. smoked chile powder
4 tbs. ground cumin
1 tbs. ground coriander
4 oz. unsweetend chocolate
3 stalks celerey, sliced
2 yellow onions sliced
3 green bell peppers, quartered and slided into chunks
4 bannana peppers, chopped
1 tbs. Tobasco Sauce
1 No. 10 can chili beans
1 No. 10 can pinto beans
1 No. 10 can kidney beans
6 oz. No. 2 grade pure Maple Syrup

Prepare the same way as for the hot chili. What made this chii different was the addition of the maple syrup and the extra cumin. A freind gave me the syrup and said to give it a try. He thought it might add something special to the chili. I was skeptical, but was going to try adding a bit to a sample bowl and see how it tasted.

I accedentally scorced the bottom of this batch and thought it was ruined as the scorched flavor permeated the whole batch. But I tried to saave it. I put some in a bowl and added an extra 1/2 tsp. cumin which naturally has smokey after-tones. I stirred it in and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I then tasted it and you could still tell it had been scorched. So I added a tsp. of the maple syrup. The flavor profile changed from scorched to smokey, with a hint of sweetness. It was very good. So I added a nother couple of tbs. cumin and the entire bottle of syrup to the chili. That did the trick. Virtually everyone asked how I got the wonderful smokey flavor in my chili as the rules specified that we had to use a certified kitchen and foods puchased fresh from a store. That meant I couldn't cooke the meat over a fire, or charcoal, and I couldn't use home grown peppers or veggies (this rule, in my opinion, is a major pain-in-th-neck!). Everyone loved it. I wasn't about to let them know that I'd almost ruined the chili by scorching it and that I used the maple syrup and cumin to save it.

I share this mistake to show that you can be creative an produce a very good meal, even if you do something wrong.

I didn't win anything, but was told by many that both of my chili entries should have one. I was also told that mine was the only truly hot chili in the cook-off, and the fact that it was quickly consumed by the crowd made me feel very good. The cook-off was a success for me. I made the crowd happy, even if I didn't impress the judges. Several people told me that the winning entries didn't even taste like chili. One of them had pineapple and brown-sugar mixed into the pot, to give it a "Hawaiian" theme. But you have to understand, I live in a region where people are not known for their cullinary prowess. It's hard to find a good meal around here in a restaurant. Our claim to fame in the world of food seems to be battered white fish and pasties. Whadaya gonna do?

It was great fun anyway. I love working with the public and giving them something that makes them smile. I had a guy come to the cook-off because he'd had my chili the year before, and he lives 400 miles down-state. People were comming back for 3rd and 4th helpings. So I know it was well received.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
Well thanks to everbody's suggestions. I just won first prize!! Now off to the tri-county cook-off...

Just had the tri-county cook-off yesterday, and totally won first place again! :cool: It was so exciting...I've never had a trophy in my life, let alone one for something I have a huge passion for such as cooking.

There were 7 other businesses competing, and all the chilis were VERY different from each other. I was pretty nervous the whole time because one of the competitors was a restaurant supply store who had real chefs on their side, and another was a local culinary school with the students doing the cooking. Considering I have zero culinary education, and still beat them, I'd say my confidence in the kitchen just got boosted pretty high! :chef:
 
Well, as a critique I think the recipe relies too much on powders and dried peppers. I find using fresh peppers makes a big difference. I also think there is too much cumin...

As to the amount. 3lbs of meat will make a lot of chili..... Probably 10 to 12 quarts...
 

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