The Great "Chili Sauce" Quest of 2010

I have a New Year's Resolution for 2010:

Create a hot dog "chili sauce" that's uniquely my own and that I'll prefer over any other available chili sauce...

Now, I know that I'm not the first one to assume such an undertaking (generations of Greeks before me can lay claim to my goal) - although I'm sure it's rare that someone verbalized it this way - setting it as a goal of the new year... (or maybe it's not rare...)

Living in Baltimore, I'm in a veritable desert of chili sauces. The chili sauce capitols seem to be Flint or Detroit, Michigan - Chicago, Illinois - or various locations in New Jersey (Paterson & Plainfield being notable)

Several words of clarification may be in order...

By "chili sauce" I mean a ground beef-based, fine-consistencied (not "chunky" Texas-style chile), somewhat mildly seasoned sauce - (again - not confining myself to the spices used in traditional Texas chile) for use atop a frankfurter.

I've had the opportunity to sample several different types of chili sauce - Skyline Chili, American Coney Island's "Coney Sauce" and chili sauces from several different Texas Hot Weiner locations (none of particular note, however).

So first, I had to come up with a recipe.

Since this is a work in progress, measurements will be "by the seat of my pants".

I'll be starting each of my attempts with 2 pounds of ground beef - and going from there...

[Thursday, December 31, 2009] New Years' Eve
What better time to make my first attempt - bringing in the new year while enjoying a chili dog/Coney Island dog/Texas hot weiner - whatever term best describes my first effort.

Sitting here, I realize I should have started this yesterday - maybe even the day before - to let the flavors "mature", but... What the heck, I've got the rest of the year to figure it out.

I've seen a lot of recipes that call for cooking 2 pounds of ground beef in 1 quart of liquid. Several recipes I've seen call for using beef broth, beef consomme, reconstituted beef boullion (whatever you want to call it) so I decided to use 2 cups of water & 2 cups of beef broth to arrive at the quart of liquid.

Most recipes call for 1 diced onion per pound of beef and 1-2 cloves of minced garlic per pound of beef. Sounds good. I'll go with that...

Now... The seasonings...

Well... We know that there's going to be chile powder, cumin & cayene, but... how much?

Most recipes seem to call for 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of chile powder ("regular" or "hot") per pound of beef. I've decided to split the difference. 3/4 tablespoon hot Mexican chile powder...

Cumin... One of my favorite spices... But I'm not trying to make "chile", I'm trying to make "chili" - so I've got to pull back on the reins a bit. Many recipes seem to call for a tablespoon of cumin per pound of beef. Again - I decided to go with 3/4 tablespoon cumin.

Cayenne doesn't add a lot of flavor, mostly heat - I like it warm - I'm going with 1/2 teaspoon per pound of beef

I loved my first exposure to Skyline chili and have decided to go the "Greek" seasoning route - i.e. allspice, cinnamon & unsweetened cocoa powder.

The use of cocoa powder in some Greek-style chili sauces intrigued me. I've always been a fan of mole - which has a fair amount of cocoa in it (Mayan fare from the Yucatan Peninsula) and figured - if I like it on chicken or turkey, why not try it in "my" chili sauce.

Allspice: 3/4 teaspoon per pound of beef
Cinnamon: Very pungent - be careful... 1/2 teaspoon per pound of beef...
Unsweetened cocoa powder: 3/4 teaspoon per pound of beef

I saw a recipe that called for one bay leaf per pound of beef. I like bay leaf... Done!

Apparently, I should have an "acid" component - I go with 8 ounces of plain tomato sauce per pound of beef, 1/2 teaspoon of Worchestershire sauce (I've seen it in several recipes, and I like it...)

Also, about 3/4 teaspoon vinegar per pound of beef. I wish I had red wine vinegar, but I don't - so I go with plain, white vinegar.

Salt to taste - and a couple twists of the pepper mill.

So here's what I've got so far...

2 pounds ground beef
2 cups beef broth
2 cups water
2 medium onions - diced fairly fine
4 cloves minced garlic
1 16 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar
1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons hot Mexican chile powder
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground cayenne
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 bay leaves

1) In a large, deep frying pan - brown the beef in the beef broth & water with the onion & garlic
2) Add the rest of the ingredients
3) Simmer for as long as you like

I want the chili sauce to have a very fine consistency. Just breaking it up in the frying pan isn't going to be good enough for me. I'm probably going to run about half the chili through a food processor and add it back into the rest of the chili sauce to get the consistency I want.

More to come...