“At least once a year I like to bring in some of my Kevin’s Famous Chili. The trick is to undercook the onions. Everybody is going to get to know each other in the pot. I’m serious about this stuff. I’m up the night before, pressing garlic, and dicing whole tomatoes. I toast my own ancho chiles. It’s a recipe passed down from Malones for generations - it’s probably the thing I do best.”
I mean… I don’t use quite that much stock. (or rather, maybe I do, but, like 10qt frozen lasts long enough to get enough scraps fro the next 10qt…) 10qts once a month or so, or 20qts twice that… doesn’t really make a difference.
Having made a lot of sauces and stocks and whatever else in stainless steel pots, I'm not sure I understand what the purpose is here. Having to stir less frequently so it doesn't burn on the bottom?
The frying pan has a copper clad bottom, this allows for a more even heat without hot spots lessening the frequency of stirring and the possibility of burning. The stainless stockpot is only one layer the direct heat would burn much easier especially eith high sugar sugar sauces like tomato.
I suspect not, since it was on the bottom. Incidentally, it runs cold by about ten degrees f. (While making it it was okay for checking for when I got past the water boil-off)
You know how it’s sometimes kind of hard to find people to eat all your baked goods when you’re on a baking kick? Bake yourself and then it’s easy to eat them all yourself.
Might have gotten it out a bit too soon- the digital meter was saying 245-250(grr) and it’s a hair on the soft side. It lost a bit of the apple flavor compared to when it was at thread temp… if you want a sharp hit, maybe add some more of the cider vinegar. The flavor is still there, but iat thread it was (tart) apple->Carmel, now it’s carmel-> apple
I season right when it goes into the pot (salt and pepper), and then I do two “dumps” of the other seasonings - one towards the beginning prior to adding liquids, and another towards the end of cooking.
When searing meat and adding spice in a more or less "dry way", for taco meat or chili or some curries, I sear the meat to nearly where I want it, then add the dry spices to toast on lower heat before "deglazing" with water/stock/whatever else makes sense. You can also just toast the spices separately, but some toasting is nice either way and I think this is convenient.
Generally salting early is good for anything you want to get any kind of browning on, it's just that the meat and any other additions might also be salty, so you don't always get to. Spices will give a better flavor over time, like a "rub", but you can't necessarily sear meat with spices on it. Things are usually tradeoffs.
I don’t use ground meat for chili, typically I will use a braising cut. For that, I salt it, and let it air dry for a bit, then sear it. When it’s nicely browned, I’ll pull the meat out, throw in onions to deglaze the pan, then garlic, any spices that could use a toasting (like cumin), and some tomato paste.
Finally I pour in my chile puree, which in my opinion is a non-negotiable part of what make chili, chili. That’s just a combo of a few different types of dried chiles that I’ve toasted, soaked in liquid like chicken stock, blended, and passed through a sieve. Then I slice up the meat, and put it back in.
If I were to use ground beef, I would basically just do the same thing, but I’d skip the salting part and just do it all after I add the liquid. It’s hard to get good color on ground beef if you have a big hunk of it, especially if any moisture is pulled out of it. Sometimes if I need to brown a bunch of ground beef, I’ll do it in batches, basically cooking each chunk like a separate “burger”. If I’m lazy, I’ll do however much can fit in a single layer well spaced, then just toss the rest in after. I’d rather have half of the meat well browned than all of it “grey”.
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