Canned Chili Taste-off

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (QFan)

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:12:46 GMT

The Walmart stores here stock Steak 'n Shake's chili in cans. Don't know how widely available it is, but I prefer it by a mile to Wolf's & Hormel's which are the only two of the rated brands we regularly see here.
QFan
Bonita Springs, FL

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (MetroplexJim)

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 20:44:23 GMT

My 'go to' (and it is rare that I go there) canned chili is Campbell's Firehouse. Mrs. Metro reads the nutricion labels and spoils any party I might have with Wolf, Skyline, Hormel, or Stagg.

So, we make big batches of this and freeze it: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-live/texas-style-chili-recipe/index.html .

Save for de-glazing with beer we don't use the alcohol. Yes, it is shopping and cooking intensive, but the result is fantastic.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (lynndunham)

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:19:54 GMT

I've never had a canned chili that I really liked - really don't like the strong taste of cumin that I seem to find in most chilies. Can anyone point me to a canned one that doesn't have that flavor? I've got a couple of cans of Skyline Chili but it's thin and weak. Nothing like eating it in one of their restaurants. My husband makes a great chili he learned when he was a kid on his parent's ranch, and he does put beans in it.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (gostillerz)

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:13:56 GMT

I did a chili taste test a while back with a few friends. We had Hormel, Stagg, Bush's, Campbell's and Wolf brand. We rated them like this.

1) Campbell's Firehouse

2) Bush's

3) Wolf

4) Stagg

7) Hormel

I didn't know Stagg was made by Hormel. I know Wolf is regarded well, But there's something that bugs me about it but I can't put my finger on it. We really liked Campbell's the best, and is the only one I ever buy anymore. When I'm too lazy to make my own.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (Twinwillow)

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 18:13:42 GMT

Foodbme

Twinwillow

Foodbme

Twinwillow

With the exception of Hormel, None of the above brands are available in Dallas that I'm aware of.
Of course, my favorite is, Wolf brand. WITHOUT, BEANS!

CANNED Chili in Dallas??? That's an Oxymoron PLUS it's Illegal to have possession of a can of Chili within the city limits! No self respecting Dallasite or Texan for that matter would possess, much less eat, CANNED Chili!!
They make some there for export to people in other states who don't know any better!

Mostly true. However, when you've got 2" of ice on the roads and it's 13 degrees outside and all you have is a can of Wolf's chili in the larder, waddaya think I'm gonna do? Thank God I have some onions and shredded Cheddar in the fridge.

Understandable! People in dire straights have been been known to eat their deceased companions.
Donner Pass comes to mind. You get a pass this time!

Hmm, come to think of it, Wolf's chili does sort of remind me of Soylent Green

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (bartl)

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:01:23 GMT

BT
Well, you might say that except for the fact that, historically, chilli was an invention of people moving toward the west and using the ingredients they had with them (dried beef, beans, local peppers in the Southwest).

While beans were sometimes eaten as a side dish with chili, and some people mixed them together, cooking them in the chili was a 20th century (mainly during the Depression) innovation. Oh, let's not forget the other key ingredients: onions and oregano (actually, Mexican oregano, which is a form of thyme rather than marjoram).

Bart

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (stricken_detective)

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:33:20 GMT

MellowRoast

I'd like to try Chilli Man. Strangely, the only sell the vegetarian vesion here.

If you are serious, PM me your address & I'll see what I can do about sending canned "meat" across state lines. :)

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (Foodbme)

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:41:38 GMT

dimmie2

Foodbme

dimmie2

Not really. Any good chili doesn't need to be swimming in grease to have flavor.

Show me a greaseless Chili and I'll show you a tasteless Chili!

Too much grease makes me deathly ill, so I prefer less grease and more flavor which can be accomplished with the right combination of spices.

Unfortunately, most canned Chili's lack the right combination of spices.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (dimmie2)

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:58:59 GMT

Foodbme

dimmie2

Not really. Any good chili doesn't need to be swimming in grease to have flavor.

Show me a greaseless Chili and I'll show you a tasteless Chili!

Too much grease makes me deathly ill, so I prefer less grease and more flavor which can be accomplished with the right combination of spices.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (doggydaddy)

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 06:06:27 GMT

Reading the labels on most any can of chili show that there is as much meat in those cans as a Taco Bell Beefy Crunch Burrito.
You do not need beans to compete with the rest of the filler, but a can with beans means there is probably a ounce of beef total...
What is the actual percentage of beef inside ?

mark

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (MellowRoast)

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:15:54 GMT

I'd like to try Chilli Man. Strangely, the only sell the vegetarian vesion here.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (Foodbme)

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 01:17:25 GMT

dimmie2

Not really. Any good chili doesn't need to be swimming in grease to have flavor.

Show me a greaseless Chili and I'll show you a tasteless Chili!

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (stricken_detective)

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:32:41 GMT

CHILI MAN!!! The Step loves to make chili dawgs with Chili Man NO Beans and fresh chopped onion & a boatload of shredded cheddar.

http://www.chilliman.com/

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (stricken_detective)

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:27:33 GMT

Chili in a can? Hormel we have, and we have another kind with a black label & my stepdad likes them better. Ummmmm. I'm getting a blank here. brb.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (dimmie2)

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:17:27 GMT

Not really. Any good chili doesn't need to be swimming in grease to have flavor.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (Foodbme)

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:13:10 GMT

dimmie2

If you're talking about Wolf Brand, yep, it's greasy. Have to scrape it off the top of the can when you open it up. One of the reasons why I prefer another brand.

With the grease goes the flavor!

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (Foodbme)

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:10:54 GMT

Twinwillow

Foodbme

Twinwillow

With the exception of Hormel, None of the above brands are available in Dallas that I'm aware of.
Of course, my favorite is, Wolf brand. WITHOUT, BEANS!

CANNED Chili in Dallas??? That's an Oxymoron PLUS it's Illegal to have possession of a can of Chili within the city limits! No self respecting Dallasite or Texan for that matter would possess, much less eat, CANNED Chili!!
They make some there for export to people in other states who don't know any better!

Mostly true. However, when you've got 2" of ice on the roads and it's 13 degrees outside and all you have is a can of Wolf's chili in the larder, waddaya think I'm gonna do? Thank God I have some onions and shredded Cheddar in the fridge.

Understandable! People in dire straights have been been known to eat their deceased companions.
Donner Pass comes to mind. You get a pass this time!

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (dimmie2)

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 18:32:41 GMT

If you're talking about Wolf Brand, yep, it's greasy. Have to scrape it off the top of the can when you open it up. One of the reasons why I prefer another brand.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (whatnameisnottaken)

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 18:28:58 GMT

I bought some of this a couple of weeks ago - I suppose I read about it here. It was horribly oily :( Maybe I got a bad can?

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (dimmie2)

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 18:22:11 GMT

lol
Sometimes it takes too long to fix up a big pot of chili, so I'm all for opening a can and adding a few extra ingredients.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (Twinwillow)

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:43:49 GMT

Foodbme

Twinwillow

With the exception of Hormel, None of the above brands are available in Dallas that I'm aware of.
Of course, my favorite is, Wolf brand. WITHOUT, BEANS!

CANNED Chili in Dallas??? That's an Oxymoron PLUS it's Illegal to have possession of a can of Chili within the city limits! No self respecting Dallasite or Texan for that matter would possess, much less eat, CANNED Chili!!
They make some there for export to people in other states who don't know any better!

Mostly true. However, when you've got 2" of ice on the roads and it's 13 degrees outside and all you have is a can of Wolf's chili in the larder, waddaya think I'm gonna do? Thank God I have some onions and shredded Cheddar in the fridge.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (fishtaco)

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:42:42 GMT

Not real big on canned chili, but Bush's isn't to bad.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (BT)

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:02:50 GMT

[
Well, y'know, out there on the left coast they probably don't know a lot about chilli.

Well, you might say that except for the fact that, historically, chilli was an invention of people moving toward the west and using the ingredients they had with them (dried beef, beans, local peppers in the Southwest). Some of 'em got here--and kept making chilli. But at no point did Illinois have anything to do with it so their association with chilli is purely artificial.

Anyway, I'll give you one thing: The SF Chronicle can be irritatingly provincial and never more so than when it comes to the subject of food. A lot of American food brands are very regional and that can be a problem for me since I grew up in the East and can't get a lot of the ones I grew up liking. And I'll never understand why Best Foods has to call their mayo one thing east of the Mississippi (Hellman's) and another thing west of it (Best Food's). But the Chronicle always ignores any brand not available in its territory.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (Howdy Doodat)

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:13:33 GMT

BT

Let's get the suspense out of the way--here are the results (and point totals). For more, see the article at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...feed=rss.tasterschoice
I definitely don't agree with these results, by the way--I've never tried Trader Joe's but otherwise I'd just about reverse the outcome. Stagg's makes many different varieties, but I like most of them and I was raised on Hormel's so maybe that's just a nostalgia thing.
Canned chili con carne
Nalley 61
Ralphs 59
Dennison's 52
Hormel 32
Stagg 19
Trader Joe's 17

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/04/FDUJ1HHH6H.DTL#ixzz1DE40gmgA

Well, y'know, out there on the left coast they probably don't know a lot about chilli.

Apparently they have never experienced Ray's Chilli (a family owned-operated business since 1922. www.rayschilli.com

Or, for that matter the single serve microwaveable Steak & Shake chilli packets.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (dimmie2)

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:36:28 GMT

Con Agra makes both Wolf Brand and Dennison's Chili. Makes one wonder if they are the same with different labels.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (Foodbme)

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:19:10 GMT

You can learn ANYTHING on the Internet. I'd never heard of the #1 Rated Canned Chili - Nalleys, so I looked them up. They were a Northwest regional product that was bought out by Pinnacle Foods Group. Who is Pinnacle? Never hreard of them either until I looked them up and Voila! They own:

Armour®

Aunt Jemima® Frozen Breakfast

Birds Eye® Vegetables

Tim's® Cascade Snacks

Van de Kamp's®

Vlasic®
Between them & ConAgra and a few other large companies, they control 80-90% of the food distribution business in the Country! Amazing!

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (BT)

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:13:08 GMT

dimmie2

Never heard of Nalley's.

From their web site ( http://www.nalleyfoods.com/aboutNalley/ ):

Of course we all know Nalley's for it's extensive line of great tasting chili. But over 80 years of history and a lot of hard work has gotten us to the brand we know and love today. And that history is strongly rooted in the Northwest.

Nalley's was founded in 1918 by a 28-year-old Chef living in Tacoma. Starting with thinly sliced potatoes called "Saratoga Chips", Marcus Nalley spent 44 years of his life becoming a household name. His potato chips were so popular, Nalley decided to open up a plant where he could produce them in greater quantity, as well as produce his own brands of mayonnaise and maple syrup. Despite hard times during the Great Depression, sales continued to soar and Nalley's began to expand throughout the Northwest in the early 1940s . . . .

Meanwhile ( http://www.conagrafoods.c...page=dennisons ):

May Belle Dennison, a homemaker from Tacoma, Wash., was the clever cook behind Dennison's chili. The story begins in 1915 when May Belle developed a special method for capturing all the flavors of home cooking in a can. At first, she canned only for family and friends, but her culinary reputation quickly grew, and soon local retailers were getting requests for her products. Before long, her kitchen was too small to meet the growing demand for her popular chili, so the Dennisons began to grow their chili business . . . .

Seems like those 2 brands started as competitive neighbors although Dennison's is now part of the Conagra monster.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (dimmie2)

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:36:55 GMT

Wolf Brand is good but so is Ralph's and Dennison's. Never heard of Nalley's.

I prefer chili with beans. If I'm going to use canned chili, I prefer to add my own style of beans to it rather than buy it with beans.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (MellowRoast)

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 07:59:41 GMT

Michael Hoffman

Wolf without a doubt. At least, the Wold Brand without any stinkin' beans. Same with Stagg. Good -- without beans. Hormel without beans make a pretty good sauce for pasta.

Interesting that you should mention "stinkin' beans". I stopped at Walmart yesterday for a last minute pickup of several cans of Vietti Chili "No Beans". The were completely sold out (only bare shelf space remaining), but they had 2 shelves of "With Beans" fully stocked and untouched.

Re:Canned Chili Taste-off (Foodbme)

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 03:14:04 GMT

Twinwillow

With the exception of Hormel, None of the above brands are available in Dallas that I'm aware of.
Of course, my favorite is, Wolf brand. WITHOUT, BEANS!

CANNED Chili in Dallas??? That's an Oxymoron PLUS it's Illegal to have possession of a can of Chili within the city limits! No self respecting Dallasite or Texan for that matter would possess, much less eat, CANNED Chili!!
They make some there for export to people in other states who don't know any better!