Unusual ingredients

RE: Unusual ingredients (Sasaku)

Tue, 24 Aug 2004 10:49:24 GMT

Kellogs Frosted Flakes

I got a bowl of chili that was a little thin and there was no cornbread of biscuts to thicken it up a little so I thought why not use corn flakes, its made from corn, it was so good to, sweetened the bowl of red up a little but turned it into a nice thick chunky bowl of chili, and the corn flakes were grinded up into a powder before.

RE: Unusual ingredients (olphart)

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 22:13:49 GMT

I think I’d rather have a cigar smoker fixin’ my chili that a tobacco chewer.

RE: Unusual ingredients (6star)

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 17:26:30 GMT

There are 175 different chili recipes (including some with alligator meat, kasha, soy sauce, mushrooms, and honey) at http://www.panix.com/~clay/cookbook/chili/index.cgi but the one I like best is:

Texas Road-Kill Chili

Recipe by: Ted Rockwell

Ingredients:

4 lbs. fresh road-kill
1 tsp. black pepper
2 beers or 750ml zinfindel
1-3 tsps. oregano
2 Jalapeno peppers (chopped)
1 tbsp. cumin powder
2-4 tbsps. chili powder **
1 tbsp. salt
4 cloves crushed garlic
1 16 oz. can Cantadina tomato sauce
1 tbsp. finely chopped green onions
1 tbsp finely chopped bell pepper

** I recommend using ground chili peppers from Texas or New Mexico.
The chili pepper is the key ingredient, so your choice of chili
pepper will significantly affect the flavor & fire of your chili.

(This is REAL Chili - - So, No... There Ain't No Beans !)

Grind up 4 pounds of fresh road-kill. (Note: sometimes, due to the condition
of the road-kill, grinding up may not be necessary). Just about anything is
acceptable (armadillo, rabbit, possum, chicken, unidentified...), but stay
away from skunks since their odoriferousnous may have a negative effect on
the final result. If you live in an area where there's not much highway
traffic, or where urbanization has scared off all the critters and your
neighbors keep their pets indoors, then you can use the following 4.75 pounds
meat as a substitute:

2 lbs. ground beef (chili grind)
1 lb. venison (chili grind) .. pork is ok
1 lb. ground Italian sausage
12 oz. Mexican chorrizo sausage

RE: Unusual ingredients (Heartburn)

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 16:33:30 GMT

You mean you have never tried a big spoonfull on grape jelly
in chile?

RE: Unusual ingredients (Alain )

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 15:54:16 GMT

I put a good tea spoon of japanese wasabi

Alain

RE: Unusual ingredients (Wallyum)

Wed, 12 May 2004 02:48:04 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by EliseT

I always suspected he was just too damn lazy to go get an ashtray!

Hopefully he could work up the will to get to the bathroom.

RE: Unusual ingredients (Jennifer_4)

Mon, 03 May 2004 02:00:02 GMT

My grandpa used brown sugar and peanut butter

RE: Unusual ingredients (Ort. Carlton.)

Sun, 02 May 2004 22:25:15 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by EliseT

OK, what's the weirdest ingredient you know of being put into chili? Tequila and coffee are as weird as I ever dared, but I once had a boyfriend who swore by cigar ashes! He'd stand at the stove, a cigar in his mouth, lazily stirring and tapping ashes into the pot. I just couldn't bring myself to eat it....I might now that I'm older and more daring.

Dearfolk,
This may explain something. Someone once posted about Shemwell's Barbecue in Cairo, Illinois, and mentioned that Darrell (sp.?) Shemwell dropped his ashes into a pot of something.
You don't suppose, dear folks, that ashes are Darrell Shemwell's (AHEM) "secret ingredient" in his barbecue sauce or some such?
This gives the smoker/meat connection an entirely new dimension, doesn't it?
UnEgyptianally, Ort. Carlton in That Delta Of Nothing - Athens, Georgia.

RE: Unusual ingredients (GordonW)

Sun, 02 May 2004 19:56:10 GMT

Want a real chili recipe? This is from the "Cookin' in Brooklyn" televison show page on the Discovery Channel web site (no bills in this one). Quote:

Thunderbolt Chili
4-5 strips of bacon
Lots of black pepper shakes
1 package ground beef
1/2-1 lb. frozen turkey
2 onions
1 bell pepper
1 fennel
1-2 carrots
1/2 eggplant
2/3 tsp. curry powder
2 Tbsp. crushed red pepper
1-2 Tbsp. dried rosemary
1-2 Tbsp. adobo seasoning
5-7 garlic cloves
3 Tbsp. fig jam
1/2 cup yellow mustard
1-2 Tbsp. Thai chili sauce
1-2 Tbsp. hungarian paprika
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/3 jar of pickles (with juice!)
1 Poblano chili
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsp. salt
1/3 cup spaghetti sauce
1/2 pint of beer
1/2-1 cup rice
1 handful of baby arugula
2/3 cup cherry tomatoes
1 small package of crushed pork rinds
1 handful of cilantro
unlimited pepper jack cheese
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans

To begin, pan-fry the bacon while adding black pepper to your liking. While the bacon is cooking, start slicing your vegetables. Cut your bell pepper, fennel, onions and carrots — trying to keep them all relatively equal in size. Make sure the vegetables are cut and ground through the food processor by the time the meat is ready. Grind your vegetables carefully; they should be coarse and varying in size. Slice the eggplant and Poblano chili and put those through the processor as well.

After the bacon has cooked, add some of the frozen ground turkey to the left over bacon fat. Simmer the turkey in the fat, keeping the turkey one level across so it cooks evenly. Sprinkle on some more cracked black pepper as the turkey cooks. Add your fresh ground beef and a good amount of salt to the ground turkey once it's thawed. Sprinkle some cinnamon and cayenne pepper, as well as paprika, crushed red pepper, adobo seasoning, dried rosemary and curry powder to the cooking meat.

Next, add vegetables to the ground meat. Mix the vegetables throughout the meat, allowing them to brown slightly. While the content's cooking, add pinto beans (sauce included) and kidney beans to the pot.

For the sauce, combine some garlic cloves, fig jam, mustard, Thai sauce, barbecue sauce, pickles (sauce included), brown sugar and spaghetti sauce. Puree the mixture in the blender thoroughly and add the finished product to the chili. Pour a half-pint of beer into the chili and allow it to simmer on a medium flame for about an hour. Add the rice and arugula, and finally some cherry tomatoes and crushed pork rinds. Stir evenly and serve with cilantro, pepper jack cheese and bacon bits on the side.

RE: Unusual ingredients (strawberry_margarita)

Sun, 02 May 2004 19:05:51 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by ocdreamr

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<div style="border: 1px #999999 solid; background-color: #DCDCDC; padding: 4px;">Originally posted by jfwest

The Greek style chili from the Cincinnati area includes chocolate and/or cinnamon. No Tex-Mex here!

quote:

actually the chocolate/cinnamon would be very Mexican!(we're talking Mole sauce here folks) Many Texas recipes call for the addition of one or both these ingrediants! By the way the chocolate is cocoa powder not milk chocolate candy.

ocdreamr is sooo right my grandmother used to use cinnamon/chocolate in chili and my mom can make a mean mole it seems like my whole neighborhood comes over for dinner whenever my mom makes her famous mole(that has cinnamon in it) i agree that it is a mexican thing and NOT greek or it could also be greek but im not greek so i wouldnt know for sure

RE: Unusual ingredients (fcbaldwin)

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:46:34 GMT

I bet that bill was a big one.

RE: Unusual ingredients (i95)

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:27:59 GMT

At a restaurant once, we had chili made from Flamingos.

The only problem was when the bill finally came, we were already full from eating the legs and wings.

RE: Unusual ingredients (emsmom)

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:07:12 GMT

My daughter likes a dash of cinnamon added to her chili.
I always add a pinch of sugar to cut down on the acid in the tomatoes.

RE: Unusual ingredients (frognot)

Sun, 22 Feb 2004 13:20:59 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by EliseT

OK, what's the weirdest ingredient you know of being put into chili?

I have heard of people putting beans in chili but never actually seen it done. Could be an urban legend.

RE: Unusual ingredients (EliseT)

Tue, 02 Dec 2003 03:56:34 GMT

Gosh, I have no idea what kind of cigars he smoked. And I'm not inclined to look him up.

RE: Unusual ingredients (hermitt4d)

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 21:28:52 GMT

All of the above, clothier .

And the chief of the chili police is a big pot-bellied guy who chain smokes Hav-a-Tampas and will flick ashes in every pot on your stove .

RE: Unusual ingredients (Grampy)

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 16:30:57 GMT

I recently read that in the "old west," cowboys would toss bulls' eyeballs into their chili. If they did that, I suspect many more curious ingredients may have been added to the stewpot.

Personally, Cincinnati chili seems a bit odd to me. Of course, it was not invented by a so'westerner, but by a Macedonian named Athanas Kiradjieff.

RE: Unusual ingredients (hermitt4d)

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 15:50:15 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by EliseT

OK, what's the weirdest ingredient you know of being put into chili? Tequila and coffee are as weird as I ever dared, but I once had a boyfriend who swore by cigar ashes! He'd stand at the stove, a cigar in his mouth, lazily stirring and tapping ashes into the pot. I just couldn't bring myself to eat it....I might now that I'm older and more daring.

Ahhh, but what kind of cigar . We need a brand name, at least . Surely that would make a difference .

I've heard of ashes being added as a secret ingredient in chili competitions, but I thought it was supposed to be ashes from the fire the chili was being cooked over .

Alas, the CASI web site does not have a search feature for ingredients.

RE: Unusual ingredients (lleechef)

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 14:55:59 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by clothier

quote:
Originally posted by lleechef

Moose meat makes EXCELLENT chili!

I've just got to get to Alaska.

I was being serious! Moose is better (in my estimation and many other peoples') in a lot of ways than beef! SO's brother down in Tenakee Springs AK always goes moose hunting and gives us some. SO tried to moose hunt couple of years ago but that trip was a disaster......now I'm getting off the chili track.

RE: Unusual ingredients (EdSails)

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 14:12:18 GMT

I put nopalitos (sliced cactus leaves) into my chili. It's got a texture and look similar to green pepper. Always makes a great conversation starter too when I tell them what's in it. And yes------the spines are REMOVED first!

RE: Unusual ingredients (lleechef)

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 11:55:21 GMT

Moose meat makes EXCELLENT chili!

RE: Unusual ingredients (Sundancer7)

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 08:03:30 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by EliseT

Someone on another thread said Nutria and Muskrat are the same thing. Is that true?

Nutria and muskrat are not the same. Muskrats are probably found all over the USA and are much smaller than the nutria which can reach the size of a small beaver. Nutria was accidentally and in some cases intentionally released in the USA about 70 years ago. The were raising them for their fur and it was found that they also ate water hyacinth. What was not know was they did terrible damage to plants and dikes. Some people do eat them. I was in LA a year or so ago and noticed that they now pay $4.00 bounty. Nutria does not do well in colder areas and are found around the gulf coast although some are in the water ways of Oregon and Washington.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

RE: Unusual ingredients (EliseT)

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 06:01:57 GMT

Someone on another thread said Nutria and Muskrat are the same thing. Is that true?

RE: Unusual ingredients (Sundancer7)

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 13:54:01 GMT

Way to go Mayhawman. You did a great description on the Nutria rascal.

I was not aware that the Tabasco folks was the perp.

I saw a lot of them down in Venic, LA late in the evening.

The reason I said they reminded me of beaver is when I saw them, they seem to have that hump in the back that I have observed with the beaver. I knew that the tail was round and not flat like a beaver.

Paul E. Smith
knoxville, TN

RE: Unusual ingredients (Mayhaw Man)

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 13:41:37 GMT

Sundancer,
You are correct on all fronts except they look like a rat, not a beaver. A very large rat in fact, like a huge rabbit without the cute little ears and a long rat tail.

In fact, they are vegetarians and that is the problem and the reason for the bounty. They eat the plant life that holds together the very fragile (I am not an environmentalist in the true sense of the word, but I have been walking on these coullees and levees all my life and they are soft, gooey and the only thing that holds them together is the plants) land down here and multiply like crazy (or like nutria I guess). Until fur prices fell apart in the eighties they were never a problem because the trappers kept the numbers in check, but when fur ptices went down hill, the nutria rose up out of the swamp and became suburban dwellers.

The Sherriff in Jefferson Parish (suburban New Orleans on both sides of the river) the colorful Chinese Cowboy Harry Lee has outfitted his deputies with 22's and they hop on trailers in the evening riding up and down drainage canals (which are essential to keep the area, which is below sea level) manageable.

The state IS offering 4 bucks a pop for these things and this has proven to be very popular with the dinizens of the swamp and has turned out to be reasonably effective at controlling them.

One more thing and I will end my little lesson on nutria life and politics....they were originally imported by DR McIllhenny, who was an amateur biologist and the founder of the Tabasco Company. His plan was to raise them in captivity for their fur, but they escaped and the rest is history.

Kimchee, the meat is dark and since they only eat veg. doesn't have much of a gamey flavor. You can buy it in butcher shops here, but I never have. Once a year, just to say I did it, is enough. The rest of the food at the Critter Dinner is usually fabulous. Lots of rest. pros and their friends and family make for a HUGE party. I have had some of the most creative food I have ever eaten there.

Hope this fills all of your nutria needs.

Brooks (who will eat damn near anything......once)

RE: Unusual ingredients (Sundancer7)

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 13:16:53 GMT

I have seen several of these Nutria animals in Louisiana. They were imported for their fur, escaped and found Louisiana a very desirable place to live. I understand Louisiana has put a bounty on them at $4.00 each. Apparently they have caused a erosion problem and the only enemies they have are automobiles and alligators. They look like a beaver to me. Pretty good size animals.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

RE: Unusual ingredients (KimChee43)

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 12:44:58 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by Mayhaw Man

I go to a game cookoff every year and there is a guy who makes chili out of Nutria. It really isn't bad (it is made with love and care, sadly the love and care is going to the cooking of a water rat that was originally a native of SOuth AMerica and has taken over the marsh in South Louisiana), but it is kind of hard to enjoy if you know what you are eating. The same guy makes nutria tacos with grilled nutria meat, and I hate to admit it, but they are damn good

Up north, we can see nutria only in zoos. It's the only animal that really gives me the creeps. I can't imagine eating nutria meat in any way, shape or form...not even if you told me it "tastes like chicken". Glad to hear you like nutria tacos, but count me out. To each his own, I guess.

RE: Unusual ingredients (Mayhaw Man)

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 10:47:39 GMT

I go to a game cookoff every year and there is a guy who makes chili out of Nutria. It really isn't bad (it is made with love and care, sadly the love and care is going to the cooking of a water rat that was originally a native of SOuth AMerica and has taken over the marsh in South Louisiana), but it is kind of hard to enjoy if you know what you are eating. The same guy makes nutria tacos with grilled nutria meat, and I hate to admit it, but they are damn good

RE: Unusual ingredients (4fish)

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 10:43:38 GMT

I've been doing a chili cook-off each fall for the last four years, a fund-raiser for a D.A.R.E. program in the local schools. There are always a couple of chilis entered that use game, usually venison or wild turkey.

I did a green chili one year using pork, green chilis and tomatillos instead of tomatoes. I think it was a recipe from New Mexico. Most people looked at it pretty skeptically, but once they tried it they liked it.

RE: Unusual ingredients (Kristi S.)

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 09:20:24 GMT

I've heard of using duck. Yuk. Oh, and buffalo or bison meat.