All-American Chili Book [Hardcover]

Int'l Chili Society (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 20, 1995

Features hundreds of chili recipes, including those of twenty-eight award winners, celebrities, politicians, and professionals, and offers accompanying ideas for corn bread, side dishes, libations, and desserts. $25,000 first printing. Tour.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1st edition (July 20, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688136931
• ISBN-13: 978-0688136932
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,559,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Recipes!, April 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: All-American Chili Book (Hardcover)

This is a great book that mixes many recipes with short stories about the history of and antics that go on at International Chili Society contests. Also includes a number of "celebrity" recipes and many others. Would get five stars, but there are no pictures of the finished dishes to guide you by--I like to know what what I just tried to cook at least looks correct!

5.0 out of 5 stars All-American Chili Book, May 25, 2011

By 

Mark A. Smith "[e-mail]" (Springfield,Or) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: All-American Chili Book (Hardcover)

Another one of my favorites.... very well done.
You will never be wanting for a Chili recipe ever
again! My cookbook collection includes most of the
books ever written on Chili and this is right up there
amongst the best.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The great blended with the marginal (details), February 16, 2010

By 

Patrick W. Crabtree "The Old Grottomaster" (Lucasville, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All-American Chili Book (Hardcover)

There are two types of chili recipes in this cookbook, terrific ones and versions which you don't need to bother trying -- I'll explain.

This 1995 392-page hardcover work stems from The International Chili Society and all the recipes that emerge from the players of that organization are worthwhile. Unfortunately, the authors (Jenny Kellner and Richard Rosenblatt) and publishers (Hearst Books) apparently felt it necessary to expand this volume with chili recipes submitted by Hollywood celebrities and well-known politicians. The publishers would have been far better off to use these particular pages for photographs of the various chili versions of which there are none.

The truth is, the celebrities and politicians are not usually trained chefs or even great cooks in any sense of the phrase. The inclusion of their recipes is a clear manifestation of the fact that almost everyone who has cooked at all has a chili recipe, but not necessarily a good one. The only caveat that saves them is that their chili might be awarded an "okay" rating because only twice in my entire life have I encountered a "bad" bowl of chili! (One of these was essentially "meat and bean water" and the other was badly scorched.)

The chief point here is that celebrities and politicians as a group generally-speaking know much less about day-to-day routine cooking than do regular working-class people -- so how is it that their chili is going to actually taste better than that of Grandma Smith down the street? The fact is, you can pretty much ignore these recipes.

Now, the authors were wise enough to include chili recipes by the pros and I can assure you that the chili dishes of Mr. Food (Art Ginsberg, page 277), The Frugal Gourmet (the late Jeff Smith, page 264), and the renowned late Chef James Beard (page 262) are all outstanding and most folks will savor any or all of their respective recipes.

I cook meals from scratch every day and I have particularly been a student of chili recipes for many years. (You can find a number of my own recipes [along with many others] for free on the Recipezaar website under my screen name there of "Bone Man".) I have prepared hundreds of different chilis and have developed some very acceptable standard recipes of my own -- my guests routinely ask for the recipes which I never hesitate to provide. The reason I inform you of all this is primarily to establish that I can personally recognize the difference between a well-thought-out chili recipe and what I call "thrown together" chili which might turn out either good or bad. I found both types within the pages of this book, pretty much in the chapters where you would expect to find one or the other.

I feel compelled to say that I was hugely disappointed with the Cincinnati Chili recipe found on pages 285-286. This recipe is Cincinnati Chili like Dan Quayle was John F. Kennedy. To be as brief as possible, true Cincinnati Chili has NO chocolate whatever in it. (This "urban legend ingredient" ruins more home-made Cincinnati Chili than any other component.) It takes HOURS to properly cook this savory dish, (not "...simmer for 30 minutes" as this recipe states.) This chili is most frequently served over spaghetti or on hot dogs (coneys) as a sauce. There are four primary commercial Cincinnati Chilis: Skyline, Gold Star, Empress (which was the very first one), and Dixie (which has been dubbed "Cincinnati Chili for the southern palate" and which is my personal favorite.)

The authors are on shaky ground with their research concerning Cincinnati Chili which is actually GREEK chili. All the guys who ultimately brought it to America were Greek, (two Macedonian immigrants from Greece, Tom and John Kiradjieff, first began serving this chili in 1922 in downtown Cincinnati.) Greece is not recognized as a part of the Middle East which is where the authors imply that this dish comes from. The most authoritative sources comment that Cincinnati Chili evolved from a sort of Greek stew known as "Stifado" (aka, "Stifatho".) I wouldn't place so much emphasis on this specific topic except that this book clearly should not be at variance with precise details about any sort of chili. Yes, the authors' herbs and spices for their own recipe are often used in Middle Eastern cooking, (except that chocolate comes from Mexico and Central America!) but these herbs and spices are commonly used in Greece as well. And that's more than enough on this particular topic.

In summary, there are some terrific chili recipes to be found in here. Use the ones which were developed by the chili contestant winners and the ones offered up by the pros and you'll likely be pleased with the results. And if you really want a true Cincinnati Chili recipe then here you go, (this one is closest in flavor to Gold Star Chili -- these recipes are held as closely-guarded secrets by the Cincinnati chili restaurateurs.):

Pat's Cincinnati Chili

Ingredients:
1 quart chicken stock
2 pounds ground chuck (never ground round -- too lean!)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 large onions, chopped
1 toe fresh garlic, whole
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1/2 tablespoon cayenne (ground red) pepper
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
3 large bay leaves, whole
2 16-oz. cans dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained (see instructions below on this ingredient)
1 jalapeno pepper, whole
2 pounds dry Cappellini or other spaghetti
a few drops of olive oil for spaghetti water

Method:
1. In a large and HEAVY-BOTTOMED cooking pot, break up the burger into the water or stock, (if you use a thin-bottomed pot, your chili will scorch!)

2. Add all other ingredients, except for the jalapeno pepper, the beans, (and, excepting of course the spaghetti and olive oil), and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer (slow bubble is best) and continue, covered, for 3 hours, stirring often.

3. At the end of three hours, remove the garlic toes and bay leaves and add the jalapeno pepper and simmer, covered for two more hours.

4. At the end of this time, add the drained and rinsed kidney beans and simmer, covered, for one additional hour. (Not all Cincinnati Chili calls for beans as an ingredient - if you don't want them then skip this step.)

5. In the last hour of cooking, start the two pounds of spaghetti in several quarts of boiling water which has been salted (1 Tbsp.) and to which a few drops of olive oil has been added.

6. When chili and spaghetti are done, make sure cheddar cheese and Tabasco sauce are available at the table.

Enjoy!