Topic: Chili isn't Chilli

[livo]

I learnt something new today and it explains a lot to me.  We have a couple of contributors over there in USA so maybe they can explain this a bit further.  Chili is a dish.  Chilli is a plant from which we obtain chillis.  I finally found out today that chili powder, for cooking chili, is not chilli powder.

[Robbo141]

Hey Livo,
Here in the US, where butchery applies to not only meat, but also the English language, chili is the term they use for both the spicy peppers and the con carne dish too.
When it comes to powder, chili powder is a mix of ground chillies and other spices, to make chili but you can also get chile powder which is purely ground dried red peppers.
My go-to packet mix for chili is Six Gun Chilli Mixin’s, the chipotle version is very smoky and delicious.
There’s a main spice pack that is very large that you mix with water to add to the fried ground beef, and a small packet of pure ground chili, which I think is cayenne.  I love chipotles in chili.

Robbo

[Peripatetic Phil]

chili powder, for cooking chili, is not chilli powder.

Agreed.  That is why I always refer to "ground chillies" when referring to the pure spice.  Chilli powder does indeed contain ground chillies, but also (typically) cumin and oregano, along with a number of other ingredients.
--
** Phil.

[livo]

This has come about for me through an unusual series of kitchen events and ended up with finding a recipe / formula for "chili powder".  Cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, oregano (O-re-gah-no! not O-reg-ano), onion powder and garlic powder.  This explains a lot, and not just how to pronounce oregano and tomato.

I recently became aware of America's "Hot Dog" culture and found the variety and passion intriguing.  The Australian hot dog, by comparison is a very pedestrian affair. A very uniform red skinned frankfurt on a bread roll with tomato sauce (ketchup), extravagant to have yellow mustard and cheese. There are fond memories of the hot dog cart outside the pub at closing time.  Hot dogs exist here but nothing like USA which has developed these into locally (State) identifiable must have experiences of interstate travel.

Anyway, I found some information about the New York "Red Onion Sauce" and decided I needed to give it a try. Disaster. 2 tablespoons of Chilli Powder (mild chilli powder) resulted in a perfectly binable waste of ingredients. Everyone raves about this stuff and I found it disgusting. Unperturbed I decided to pursue the "Chili Dog" and found plenty of information on making the "chili" sauce but again noticed the large quantity of "chili powder".

A little more research led me to the revelation that chili powder is different to chilli powder (or ground chillies Phil).  So yesterday at the supermarket I managed to buy a pack of American style hot dogs (weiners), some soft hot dog buns, orange coloured hamburger cheese slices, pickled jalapeno slices and some coleslaw. Last night I cooked a batch of chili con carne using the formulated chili powder and it is my intention to indulge in 2 American style chili dogs for lunch.

Later today I will make another batch of New York Red Onion Sauce.

[Robbo141]

My (American) missis LOVES hotdogs.  They’re a bit meh for me, but growing up in the UK, hot dogs came in tins and were essentially watery meat in my opinion. Here in the US, hot dogs are a different animal, so to speak.  Proper meat. I still can’t get overly enthusiastic about them, although a chili dog is a great thing to eat with a beer.
Not sure how available it would be in Oz or UK, but Sabrett’s red onion sauce is apparently the go-to, essential accompaniment.

Have you ever had German currywurst?  I remember having that in Hannover, or maybe Munich many years ago.  Best hotdog / sausage I’ve ever had.

Robbo

[livo]

Copycat of Sabrett's is the Red Onion sauce I attempted.  There are many videos out there claiming to be knockoff Sabrett's and they are all very similar so we can only assume they are close to the mark.  My attempt using "Indian Chilli Powder" instead of "American Chili Powder" was not a success at all.  Even using mild chilli powder produced a sauce that was way too hot.  I'm going to try again, but to confuse the issue I've now found a video for Hot Dog onion sauce that in fact appears to use straight ground chilli (referred to as chili powder) but in much less quantity and in combination with the other spices found in the blended powder.  Talk about confusing!!!

I have seen a few videos on Curry wurst and have noted it as a must do one day, but no, I haven't tried it yet.  The first one I saw was by our own (now missing) Loveitspicey, aka Backyard Chef / Rik.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFgW-ezS5vA  I'll have to get to Aldi to see if they have some brats.

[livo]

Check out these puppies.  So bad but oh they're good.

Ingredients. From the bottom up.
Soft hot dog buns
Burger cheddar cheese slices
Grilled American style hot dogs
Hot beef chilli con carne (w/mexibeans)
Burger pickles
Pickled Jalapenos
Coleslaw
Mayonnaise
Yellow mustard
Chopped onion

Assemble first 4 ingredients on a plate.
Microwave on high for 30 seconds.
Smother in all other ingredients.

[Robbo141]

Nice job, my missis would love them but not for me sir.  Mayonnaise is the food of the devil. Can’t bear it.  Get back to curry please.

Robbo

[livo]

They were pretty tasty but a bit messy to eat.  I think the curry wurst is about to happen.

[livo]

Talk about confusion.  I've been researching the American style of Chili based seasonings and it is worse then my initial confusion regarding Curry Powders and Mixed Curry Powders.  In other words using a curry powder as an ingredient in curry powder.

When you read or watch an American recipe on these things you have no idea what goes in.  Chili powder, Chilli powder, Chili seasoning, seasoned Chili powder, Red Chilli flakes, Crushed Red Pepper flakes and for heat Cayenne Pepper.

I recently watched a video for making a Chili Powder (ie: a seasoning with which to make Chili, the dish). One of the ingredients is a well known "Creole" seasoning powder.  One of the ingredients in this ingredient is seasoned chili powder.  What is seasoned chili powder?  Who knows!! 

Many of the seasoning recipes for things like Taco Seasoning use Chili powder as an ingredient, along with Red Pepper Flakes and Cayenne (for heat).  All 3 of these are hot over here and the quantities used of the Chili powder alone would make the seasoned mix way too hot.  For example, 2 TBSP of chilli powder, 1 tsp of crushed red chilli flakes and 1/2 tsp of Cayenne Pepper (for heat). If I make that out of the Mild Chilli powder and Red Chilli Flakes I have here and then add Cayenne as well nobody would be able to eat it.  This is supposed to be for a dish that uses only 1 lb or 500g of minced meat.

I can see a whole lot of trial and error experimentation coming up here.  The other thing is that over there they appear to be able to buy "Ground Chilli" of particular different variety (heat level).  We have Kashmiri, Mild and Hot or just stuff sold as Chilli Powder (hot).  The Red Chilli flakes we have are hot. The Cayenne is hot.  Even our Mild and Kashmiri chilli powders are hot.