The Guns & Outdoors forum is a place for shooting and outdoors enthusiasts to hold conversations, ask questions, share ideas and other valuable information.
Japhy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 18, 2026 4:25 am
Mr Z, did you get a buffalo?
Hatch Chili improves damn near everything
I buy buffalo semi often and make blue cheese buffalo burgers
Havent tried it with green chilies
No. My local meat processor friend called me and said that he had a buffalo processed that the owner never returned and claimed. So, he sold me the meat at half price of processing.
Buffalo is good. But, not enough that I would pay the price to shoot one. It doesn’t taste any better than beef cattle. But, at half price of processing…….it was cheaper than cow!
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
How did Texans get to decide that THEY and ONLY they, were the sacred keepers of what's chili (or BBQ), and what's not?
Texans don't like beans in their chili, BIG FREAKIN DEAL. There are a lot more non-texans than Texans.
Goes well with an axiom I love sharing...
You can always tell a Texan, you just can't tell 'em much"
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." - Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain)
GrapeApe wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2026 4:52 pm
How did Texans get to decide that THEY and ONLY they, were the sacred keepers of what's chili (or BBQ), and what's not?
Texans don't like beans in their chili, BIG FREAKIN DEAL. There are a lot more non-texans than Texans.
Goes well with an axiom I love sharing...
You can always tell a Texan, you just can't tell 'em much"
Uhh...it was the TX guy that posted the chili soup...
GrapeApe wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2026 4:52 pm
How did Texans get to decide that THEY and ONLY they, were the sacred keepers of what's chili (or BBQ), and what's not?
Texans don't like beans in their chili, BIG FREAKIN DEAL. There are a lot more non-texans than Texans.
Goes well with an axiom I love sharing...
You can always tell a Texan, you just can't tell 'em much"
Cause thats the way it is. If its got beans in it its soup!
If its other than beef its grilled whatever.
Arthur Bryant did bring Texas BBQ north to KC where there were native hickory trees which soon replaced the need for too much pepper in the recipe. So thats still BBQ
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." - Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain)
GrapeApe wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2026 4:52 pm
How did Texans get to decide that THEY and ONLY they, were the sacred keepers of what's chili (or BBQ), and what's not?
Texans don't like beans in their chili, BIG FREAKIN DEAL. There are a lot more non-texans than Texans.
Goes well with an axiom I love sharing...
You can always tell a Texan, you just can't tell 'em much"
Chili as most know it comes from a long history in TX
Here is a quick article about the origins of chili
Basic Chili is dried chiles (variety dependent on what the chuck wagon found in town), salt, meat (usually beef) and some dry herbs such as Mexican oregano, Epazote and Sage, which grew wild all over the trails, cooked until the meat was tender, uniform and brown. Sometimes wild onions went to the pot if they found them on the trail. It was a favored food of the cattle drives and chuckwagons because you could literally pick up a dead cow that passed for god knows what reason on the trail and instead of cutting the carcass into steaks that would be terrible tasting and tough as hell you could coarse grind the whole thing and after you added enough chili powder and salt to the meat it would last for days without spoiling even raw.
As a bonus, a huge pot of chili does not need refrigeration. You cover it while still hot, let it cool and stand overnight and then add some water next day and reheat, the long cook heat and spices won't allow bacteria to grow on the food so it could be a one pot meal for days at a time. It was also great because any game meat collected on the trail could be treated the same and added to the pot, add more salt and spices and it would all taste the same at the end, AND would cost nothing extra. Beef was expensive because what you ate you could not sell so it was money right from the profits, so no cows would be willfully killed to feed cowhands. Beef was a protein that came out of misfortune. Every chuck wagon cook had his own recipe and some added coffee or chocolate to the pot to make it their own. Today the number of recipes is overwhelming and of course everyone thinks their's is the best.
Beans were the main trail food for cowhands for the same reasons as chili (no refrigeration and easy to cook and transport) and they were basically cooked the same, even using the same spices except adding salt pork or the bacon fat from breakfast to the pot. Nothing went to waste. Even yesterday's or this morning's stale biscuits went back into those pots (chili and beans). "Refried beans" were just the by-product of re-heating the same pot of beans day after day. So you always got beans on your plate because the cook bought them in huge sacks at the market in every town you resupplied in. The meat was a bonus because you had to hope something died to get some.
A cowboy came to the chuck wagon for dinner (that was the mid-day meal) starving because he's been up since before the sun rose and all he had for breakfast was a biscuit soaked in bacon grease with a few pieces of bacon or fried salt pork in it and a cup or two of strong black coffee. They would form up a line and get one plate with two brown foods on it. Chile con carne and beans and a hot cup of coffee. For efficiency sake since you had to get back to the herd as soon as you were done eating, many hands would just mix the two on the plate and that was right handy since most of them only had a spoon to eat with, forks were of little use on the trail. That's where chili with beans came from.
So to keep authentic (but mostly because I like it that way) I cook Chile con carne in one pot and a separate pot of beans, and if folks want to mix them they are welcome to. If they are "purists", they can keep them separate. Still tastes exactly the same when you eat them together.
Don't know what dinner will bring but breakfast was a darn good fried Bologna (thick cut), egg and American cheese on soft white bread with a big glass of OJ. Dang that was good! I've loved these since I was a kid, still one of my favorite breakfasts. But, I'm the ONLY one in the house that will eat it.
I make chicken and noodles from scratch, mostly. I boiled the chicken, picked the bones and made one awesome stock. Added more veggies and Better that bouillon paste to taste and added thawed “grandmas egg noodles” (a frozen item that makes perfect beef and noodles ans chicken noodle soup. Whip up some mashed potatoes for the bottom of the bowl ladle in some chicken and noodles and you have a perfect fall meal!
