Posted: 2025-10-29

Fusion Bulk Chili Con Carne

This is not an "authentic" chili recipe, and what does "authentic" really even mean, anyway?

While it is clearly not a Texas chili, it also doesn't fit neatly into any of the other mainstream categories. This is inspired by the hearty, savoury, smoky and not excessively spicy flavours of broadly Southwestern chili, but with a diverse approach to sauce creation and available ingredients.

There are a few unusual ingredients, but the real secret ingredient is time. With this approach, patience is a virtue. It's a meditation on flavour.

Someone close to me stated it tastes "fucking amazing" and is one of the best things she's ever had. Another, who is well known for her chili, said it was "very rich".

Basic Strategy

We're going to be making a shitload.

This approach is a two-day cook. It's a recipe for someone who is short on cash and long on time.

On day 1, we get all of our Maillard searing done and create the basic flavour profile.

Then we let it stand in the fridge overnight.

On day 2, our only job is to very gradually reduce the water content while allowing the flavours to fully develop and deepen. By reducing large volumes of stock we are kind of creating an approximation of a demiglace.

Doing larger batches paradoxically means the final product has a greater complexity — the volume means there's time for this.

Avoiding scorching during the reduction process requires vigilance, so this is a labour-intensive way of making food. This is something special and giving it to someone is special.

The quantities of this recipe are flexible: put your own personal spin on it. Add things how you feel.

Tricksy Hobbitses

Here are my tricks to improve the end result as much as possible (in rough high to low order of importance):

• Actual, fresh, mild green chilis — not too spicy, not powder, and it's not capsicum con carne, is it? If we care about the namesake of the dish we should at least, like, include some...?
• Large volume of slowly reduced low-sodium stock to maximise savoury marrow goodness and overall flavour diffusion
• Vegemite — a practically limitless source of salty savoury flavour. Massive boon. At a pinch, Marmite, or maybe Worcestershire sauce or fish sauce might substitute. But Vegemite is absolutely the best.
• Scotch whisky to deglaze onions — allows us to be sure we've boiled off all the alcohol, while mopping up the fond and creating bursts of savoury complexity
• Either smoked paprika or liquid smoke — those smoke notes add a lot to the nose
• Butter to add richness and creaminess, as well as milk solids to brown over time
• Dark chocolate as a combined sweet/bitter note to accentuate overall flavour profile
• Sodium citrate to help hold the emulsion together

Theory

This type of chili is, first and foremost, flavoured and thickened with glutamate-rich tomato and collagen-rich stock. There is no roux, file or okra like a gumbo; we are not adding flour or cornstarch which will soak up flavours. We are depending on those umami flavours from the tomato and stock to make the meat taste meatier than meat, while creating a thick and smooth sauce without starchy fillers. Combined with the large volume of reduced stock, we end up with an exquisitely rich result.

Umami is the star of the show: salty, sweet, sour, fatty and bitter flavours are mostly just there to balance it.

The stock will get us halfway there on the salt front once reduced, but realistically our main source of sodium is coming from the Vegemite with some contribution from the salted butter. Scotch and liquid smoke fill out the nuances of the aromas. And of course we get a superior flavour from freshly chopped chilis instead of powder.

Reality

Cooking at scale means you're going to have an entirely new set of problems with entirely new solutions. If you have never cooked more than about 5L of food at once before be ready to unexpectedly feel like an absolute idiot the first few times.

Avoiding burning what you're making is a very different process when the lead-time of your thermal mass is measured in minutes, and moving to a different pot is a substantial effort.

Equipment

(Aside from the obvious like knives)

• A stock pot. I use a 15L one. Ideally you want one with a thick base. If you can afford one, Scanpans have a layer of copper in the base which distribute heat much better, creating less hot spots which can induce scorching.
• If you only have access to gas, a heat diffuser mat is not a bad idea, and portable electric or induction hotplate is a solid choice too.
• A frying pan. I use an enamel one. Nonstick or cast iron would be fine.
• A long stirrer. We are making a large volume of liquid.

Please read the section on scorching ahead of time.

Ingredients

• 5x 1L reduced sodium chicken or beef stock (MUST be low sodium). You really need to use the best stock you can. Whatever the butcher sells is likely much better than anything from the supermarket.
• 1.5kg beef chuck mince (not what's in the picture, I used what was available) - chuck's extra connective tissue means it holds up to the slower reduction better
• 1.5kg lamb mince (not what's in the picture, I used what was available) - pork is an OK plan B
• Maybe 4 large brown onions
• 6 cans of 4-bean-mix
• 2 cans of whole peeled tomatoes* (they will automatically break down during cooking)
• 2 cans of crushed tomatoes*
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes*
• Some amount of tomato paste or passata
• 15 mild green chili peppers (ignore the photos, red cayenne was all I could get)
• 3 chonky teaspoons Vegemite
• As much smoked paprika or liquid smoke as your heart feels is right
• A shot or two of cheap Scotch (I use Chivas Regal) plus some extra for sipping
• A knob or two of salted butter
• 6x 35g sachets of chili spice blend (it's OK to use premixed for this one)
• A small amount of very dark chocolate
• A large pinch of sodium citrate if you have it to help prevent fat separation (you can make it by reacting equal amounts of bicarb soda, citric acid and water, then waiting for it to fully finish reacting)

*Fresh is better if you can swing it

Shortcut

Using less stock and adding a few sachets of gelatin powder should allow for a similar result faster.

I haven't tried this yet, so I can't give you an indication as to quantity.

You will still want to age overnight to allow acid and flavour diffusion. If you take this route, you really need to ensure your stock is top-notch. I'm told many butchers sell high-quality stock.

It is still highly recommended to age the output overnight.

Day One

Start in the late afternoon or early evening.

Add the stock, beans, tomatoes, vegemite, chilli spice, paprika, chocolate, sodium citrate and butter into the stockpot on low heat.

The large volume of material will mean there is significant thermal mass.

Slice up the chilis and put them in.

Cut up the onions into 1x1cm pieces, then fry lightly in butter.

When they are translucent and have a bit of colour to them, pour in a shot of whisky and scrub the fond off with silicone tongs.

I usually fry off the mince in the onion'd butter to get some Maillard browning. This time I didn't have the energy to do it, so I just broke it up a little then chucked it straight in the pot. It's still almost as good. Don't worry too much about clumps, the reduction process will naturally break them up.

Simmer lightly for a few hours. Don't panic if it's spicier than you're intending at this stage.

Overnight

Put it in the fridge overnight. The extra time and thermal cycling allows the acidity to even out and the flavours to diffuse.

There is some risk of food poisoning if you put a 15L stockpot straight in the fridge, as the huge thermal mass means there will be an extended period where the temperature is within the danger zone for bacterial growth. If this is a concern, split it into smaller containers overnight.

Day Two

On day two, you have two jobs:

• Slowly reduce it down (no lid) by simmering off water
• Don't burn it

It is very much easier said than done.

The pot does not always need to be bubbling. If it is just on the edge of boiling, you'll see evaporated water wafting from the surface. This is a much safer place to be even than a light simmer. Airflow counts. We want a constant, steady evaporation. It's half cooking down and half dehydrating.

Once scorching starts, it's like an infection that will only get bigger over time. You have to vigilantly stir the bottom every ten minutes, scrubbing/scraping off any deposits on the bottom of the stockpot. Set a timer in case you get distracted by something surprising happening. As the chili thickens, this will get more and more important.

Whatever you stir with needs to be long enough to reach the bottom of the stockpot when it's full, and rigid enough to scrape the burnt bits off before they start spreading.

Wipe down the sides with a silicone spatula as you go, to ensure they don't burn either.

🔗 Scorching (Burning)

Balls.

This is the central problem with the approach we're taking: we need to spend many hours being vigilant for burning.

Mitigation

Stir vigilantly.

If you're using a gas stove, consider a heat diffusion mat to avoid hotspots.

Portable electric hotplates are inexpensive and provide more even heating.

If you have the cash, it's possible to get stockpots with a thick base containing a copper diffuser internally.

Damage Control

Stop trying to scrub or scrape the bottom.

If scorching has started, you need to get it off the heat and out of the pot immediately (leaving the sediment). The immense thermal mass will cause it to keep doing damage for some time after the heat source stops. The bottom of the pot is now unusable until thoroughly cleaned.

If the chili is almost done, you should cut off the cook now rather than fucking it up. Whatever reduction you gain by keeping it in there or resetting is vastly offset by the damage you'll do.

It is important to have enough combined cookware to store the entire quantity of liquid while you scrub out the stockpot. Carbonised deposits are difficult: you'll need steel wool. You'll also have to work quickly, because those bitter flavours and aromas are diffusing quickly, and the food will be in the danger zone for bacterial growth.

Some people swear by adding a couple of large, peeled potatoes to soak up bitter flavours for an hour or so before removing and discarding. I haven't tried it yet. After that you can add a few more knobs of butter and maybe some minced tomatoes to create a lipid/acid buffer.

If the scorching is significant, you can try to salvage it by diluting what's there with a significant volume of passata and attempt to reduce it down.

Packaging

Divide it into containers, then let it mostly cool down, then put lids on and chuck them in the freezer.

If you try to let it cool in the pot, it'll spend way too long in the danger zone for bacterial growth.

If you put lids on the containers before they've mostly cooled, the evaporated water will form icicles which will impact the long-term storage.

Cleanup

Despite the elaborate prep, there's not that much cleaning to do.

Scrub the stockpot and pan.

Deal with any splatter.

Done.

Significance

From Lewis's Travels VII:

You don't say a bad word about people who feed people in a crisis. Today that's me. Next time I might be the one eating.

Tribute

This recipe is based on my own interest and study in molecular gastronomy, but it was Dr Thaddeus Zagorski who taught me the value of meditating on food, flavour and produce, and the multi-day approach was roughly inspired by his legendary borscht recipe (which is not mine to share).

Checkin

Version: 1

Written: 2025-10-20 to 2025-10-29

Written on: 10mg olanzapine since 2025-07-20, 7.5mg before that - likely causing severe cognitive impairment

Mental health was: poor - estimate 20% brain