There’s a few variants to chili that I am looking forward to.
To start with, the use of Sous-Vide beef. With Sous-Vide you vacuum pack your raw meat, then immerse the pack in water that is the perfect temperature for cooking beef, 130-135F.
“The meat has begun to turn pink, and is significantly firmer. Moisture loss is still minimal, at around 4%. Intramuscular fat has begun to render, which not only lubricates the meat, making it taste juicier and more tender, but it also delivers fat-soluble flavor compounds to the tongue and palate—beef at this temperature tastes significantly “beefier” than beef at 120F. When tasted blind, even self-proclaimed rare meat lovers preferred this one, making it the most popular selection. It also avoids the ‘sawdust’ texture that begins at 140F.”
Importantly, none of the odor or flavor is lost, which is obvious when it is cooked and you open the vacuum pack to give the meat a quick sear. You get “beefed” right in the face with a delicious “beefy” odor.
When cooked Sous-Vide, this beef is quite tender and close to perfectly cooked. I would then add it to the chili with just enough time to warm it, before serving. It is far less important that its flavors have blended with the chili flavors than it not get any additional cooking.
Next, some chili makers are using spices that are “bloomed” and roasted. “Blooming” means briefly sauteing spices in oil to bring out their flavors, whereas roasted spices have a different character altogether. Some cooks think of the two as the same thing, but I distinguish them as different techniques.
Third, while some chili makers use roux in their chili, roux is so versatile that it should not be an afterthought.
Roux comes in colors: white, blond, light brown (or caramel colored), brown, and dark brown (called chocolate). While the dark brown is most flavorful, it does not thicken much at all. While the lighter ones thicken, they are less flavorful.
Unless they are made into sauces. And while these would likely not be blended into the chili, they could be drizzled on top of it. For instance, a white cream roux sauce, Béchamel sauce, can become Mornay sauce by adding cheese; or a Nantua sauce, with crayfish, butter and cream, etc.
They wouldn’t make the chili. They would make the chili better.
i tell ya a good montery jack shredded on top with a couple dollops of sour cream are a nice topping.
I am interested in trying cooking with Sous-Vide, but do you have to cook in a plastic bag? I don’t like the taste as much cooking in plastic.