I added more tabasco and more worcestshire, plus some black pepper. I just tasted it, and it’s very spicy, but not too spicy, and it’s not bad. Actually, pretty damn good. Kind of tastes like it wants to be on top of spaghetti, Cincinnati-style, but since I already made corn muffins I’m not going that route.
I know, I know: a little late since it’s gone to two pages, but I’m moving it over to Cafe Society–our secret ingredient for cooking threads. 
I put a little curry in mine.
If, by chance, it needs a little thickening or it’s too salty, I grind up a small potato and add that.
I once made vegetarian chili using egg plant instead of meat, no one believed me.
Glad to hear it turned out okay. (Forgot about worchestershire, another basic ingredient, :smack: )
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What InvisibleWombat and Agnostic Pagan said about cumin: it’s gotta be there. Chili’s just some half-ass thing without it.
I add ground mustard to mine, but I don’t think that’s particularly unusual.
I toss in a can of garbanza beans along with the kidney beans.
As I understand it, in the original Texas chili-for-purists, there are practically no ingredients but meat, fat, and chili peppers; and just maybe garlic. No tomatoes or tomato sauce, not even onions, let alone bell peppers. Am I wrong?
Ok. here’s how you do it. Make a big pot of your favorite steakhouse chili, know that there will be a couple of guys that bitch it aint hot enough.
For them, Take about a pound of habenero, scotch bonnet or christmass peppers, whatever 's handy. Run them through your food processer until you get a paste. Add abought a cup of acetone to the paste and stir. Let stand about an hour.
Wash your hands.
First pour off the mix through a sieve. Discard the pulp, Let stand. Pour off the remaining liquid through a coffee filter.
Leave it open for a day or two untill ALL the acetone is gone. Add a few drops of vinegar, you should have about a half ounce of the most deadly hot sauce you ever tryed.
Serve on the side.
Acetone? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone In what form? And for what purpose?
**Acetone? **
May be you missed this:
“Leave it open for a day or two untill ALL the acetone is gone.”
For the basic science impaired. The process above describes seperating polar from non polar solutions.
The oil in the peppers will remain in the acetone while the water soluable elements will not. These are poured off.
Acetone is highly volitile. If you are concerned test it by evaporating a test sample on a clean plate. If there is a residue you may wanty to switch brands.
Before the chem geeks jump on me I am going to retract the polar/non polar statement above.
The process I described will indeed extract the capsacin from the peppers, it will not, however remove the water from the oil.
To do that you would have to introduce a truely non polar solvent then separate them.
Still the metod I described produces a kick ass hot sauce.
After breaking my ceramic mortar, I got a new polished granite set. I absolutely love it. They aren’t cheap, but they do a great job.
I’m going to have to follow devilsknew’s and Chefguy’s suggestions with the paprika. Sounds great.
Two things:
-a tablespoon of peanut butter.
-I crush half of the kidney beans into a paste.
I make vegetarian chili, so thickening it is a concern.
But, why do you want those oils removed from your hot sauce?
Or have I got it backwards – is it the “water soluble elements” you want removed?
Either way, why?
I put nutmeg in chili one time. I loved it. My husband, not so much.
I don’t really add anything I’d consider “weird” to my chili. I do use true cinnamon sometimes (as opposed to cassia, which is what most cinnamon sold in America actually is) and occassionally a bit of Mexican oregano, but I don’t find those to be odd ingredients. Chocolate or coffee works, too. What I do do, however, which may be only ever so slightly off the beaten path, is combine meats: ground chuck, cubed pork shoulder, and cubed stewing beef (chuck/brisket/pot roast, etc…) or some combination thereof. I like the textural differences between the ground meat and cubed meat. Makes the chili heartier in my opinion.
On the subject of meat, I really like making it with lamb. I like the flavor. In fact, I’d rather use mature mutton, which is reputed to have an even stronger flavor (chili is no place for delicately-flavored ingredients – and chili meat is supposed to be tough and fatty) – but you just can’t get mutton in an American supermarket! I even ran a thread about that: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=293673
In making white chili (chicken, white beans, etc.) I’ve used saffron to really good effect.
You could try goat which would have a similar effect.
I like mixing the meats, too. I’m making a venison chili today, and I’m pondering whether to mix in some pork or beef. I have to disagree with BrainGlutton on one thing, though. Chili meat is not supposed to be tough. Fatty is fine, but not tough.
If you like mutton, by the way, the place to get it is a county fair at the 4-H or FFA auction. Find somebody else who likes it and split a lamb with them. Depending on the fair, you’ll probably end up with 30-35 pounds of meat for the freezer, including ribs (rack of lamb, yum!) and legs.
Good goat meat is really tough to find in the U.S. unless you live in an area with a lot of Indian/Pakistani people or a top-notch Asian market.