OT: I missed'm

Sh!t. I spent a month driving 5200 miles all over Texas, and didn't stop to harass Mnem or TC.
Unless TC is the kindly trooper who pulled me over for speeding and let me go with a written warning.

And I don't know exactly where Sadlmkr lives,but I'm pretty sure I passed near him, too, going from el paso to lubbock.

 

Tut Tut!

Would've gladly put out the air mattress in the kids' room fer ya dewed. And I just made a huge pot of my infamous "Everything but the Kitchen Sink" Split Pea Soup. Your loss!

mnem
*Lost in San Antonio*

 

Jeff lives on a different planet, so I'm pretty sure you didn't go by him

 

Peas porridge hot
Peas porridge cold
Peas porridge in the pot, nine days old.
Some like it hot
Some like it cold
And some like it in the pot, nine days old.

- from a Medieval childrens song

 

WEll, I'll tellya what: if you see a gas station, carniceria, taqueria, or simlar, with a poster size sign of a cute little girl or muchacho for Dentaquest Texas, mounted on the wall/window, then you know I was there. I did 300 out of 600 in the state.
I'm hoping they send me back in 4months to put up the new signs if they renew.

 

Thank you ....I was trying to figure out how to break it to him gently.

Don't forget the ham hock in that soup.

J

 

Actually, that prehistoric rhyme, like many such others, actually has an important message. In this case, it's "Keep your pot of soup hot and it'll be safe to eat for a long time." :GEEK:

It stems from the practice of keeping a pot of stew "going for days" by continually adding ingredients as servings are removed and never taking it off the fire; it was often said that many kinds of stew don't reach their "proper" flavor until they'd been cooking this way for days.

I don't know about that but I will agree that a proper chili with both beans and meat takes at least 6 hours to properly cook just the beans if you start with dry beans. After that I believe it's a matter of taste; by then the onions & garlic have long cooked tender and sweet, so it's just making the meat as squishy as one likes it. :yes:

mnem
This spoo is not fresh.

 

The problem with beans is they get cooked properly on the day you run out. The cast iron (arn) dutch oven is a must. I'm not a chili maker but have been known to throw a Jalapeno or two in the beans.

Jeff ......we need a recipe sticky

 

Samantha and I have been using this powder "semi-home-made" chili mix that costs about $8. makes enough chili for 6 - 8 people and is just FANTASTIC! She buys it from her work. All you have to add is 1.5LB ground round and 2 x 8oz tomato sauce to it. We also like to add corn too

And more chili powder to taste...

 

Each year our Air Force Security Police Association chapter conducts a Fun Raiser at the annual air show here at Carswell Field (a/k/a JRB Fort Worth). The fund raiser consists of selling hot dogs, hamburgers and chips to the air show visitors and participants.

In order to do this, we have to be certified by the Fort Worth Health Dept. as a "Food Handler;" requiring us to go through "Food Handler Training."

There we are taught that if you keep the food at 140+ºF, pathogens cannot form.

Homemade beef stew is one of our favorite dishes, and it's quite common for us to eat on it for as long as three days before it's gone.

I keep it hot for the entire time and have never had a problem with it (IOW: no one gets sick from eating it).

If you soak the beans in cold water overnight; then drain and rince until the risnse water runs clean, you will reduce the cooking time (and the "gas clouds" that accompany eating beans ).

Remember the campfire scene in "Blazing Saddles"? :laugh:

 

+1 to TC on the soaking in water bit....

 

No no don't ahhhhhh.......

There was a gentleman in these hills that hailed from Panama, and at 13 years of age, walked to San Francisco, was shanghaied on the Barbary Coast, jumped ship three years later in San Francisco again and lit out north.
He cut his doe meat with a double-bit axe on the choppin' block outside, so the hound could clean things up, made stew and as you said it never cooled. His coffee was a full can of grounds in the enamel pot followed by enough water to fill the pot. It never cooled either. Every day add water but do not DO NOT empty the grounds from the pot.

Remembering absent companions I bid you Merry Christmas.

Saddlemaker

 

I'm aware of this bit of kitchen lore; the soaking and rinsing removes the unbound starch which helps prevent intestinal gas. It also reduces greatly the natural thickening which is the reason why I start with dry beans to begin with; I don't like having to add flour or cornmeal to thicken my chili.

Completely cooking the beans (Hence the 6 hour timetable) causes the starch to bind to the protein in the meat and broth, thereby also reducing flatus around the ol' campfire.

mnem
My chili and my coffee both pass the horseshoe test. If you drop the horseshoe in the chili and it stands upright, it's good to go. If you rinse the horseshoe off in the coffee and you draw back a molten stump, the coffee's ready to serve.