There are few things as perfect as a braised oxtail. I cry when I see the price (old enough to remember give away prices.)
You also illustrate why people keep game meat. When it’s ground up and put into chili, spaghetti, whatever, you lose the gameyness, or hide it well.
I like my stews and chili kind of funky tasting…i got no problem adding fish sauce or anchovies either…but you’re right too, it’s part of a blend and i’m not into moose steak or venison steak, but that wild boar tastes great to me no matter how it’s served.
Back in the fifties, there was a Dallas business called Shanghai Jimmy’s Chili Rice. As I understand, it was served in a cup, layered. The layers included chili, celery and relish that I recall - I think there were at least 5 layers. I assumed the celery was raw but maybe not. I never experienced it. It was the topic of a lot of discussion on Roadfood (dead and gone) and some Dallas forums. We had a Tex Mex restaurant here that had a dish called Lady Jane’s chili rice on the menu, pre-pandemic, but it has changed hands a couple of times and it’s no longer on the menu.
I like a diversity of chile peppers, too, but the most I’ve ever used was 5. Always ancho and chipotle, almost always guajillo. I’m very traditional. But I also like ‘old fashioned chili con carne’ at some Tex-Mex places, which uses anchos almost exclusively. I’m not a heat-seeker any more, at all.
I’ve read the best selling dish at early Tex-Mex restaurants was Chili spaghetti or Mexican spaghetti and some old-line Tex-Mex places still have it on the menu. So, sorry to the Texans who proclaim a canonical list of ingredients and despise Cincinatti style chili - Texans were eating chili over pasta a decade and a half before Cincinatti. I like CSC 4-way, don’t like kidney beans, and with a lot less cheese on top than seem the standard, baked. It’s my substitute for boring mac n cheese.
I’d be pretty sure the boar was a wild pig; but probably a female. Uncastrated boars don’t have the best flavor. On CH, one poster referred to it as piss pig (which I thought was cute as hell), which is a natural for uncastrated males.
I love fish sauce and have a few varieties. It’s the prefect “there’s something else in here” ingredient.
I don’t go kidney, either. Black, pinto or great northern for me; or, all three.
Never heard of that. I will give you the benefit of the doubt that it’s true, but should point out…
We don’t do it any more.
As for your notion of the “canonical list of ingredients”, I don’t think it’s the pasta that offends purists. ChiliMac is a thing even in Texas, (or maybe not). The disconnect stems from the inclusion of cinnamon, broccoli, crickets or whatever the hell else they put in there. It may be delicious, but don’t try to tell a Texan it’s chili.
Clearly, it’s not. 
My company merged with a bigger one and after about 6 months, they had everyone in my department fly over to their DFW-area HQ for a meet & greet week. My boss had visited our location a few times but we hadn’t met much of the larger department. He and I had already bragged at each other about our cooking but he was sure he was better, for no reason other than he was an arrogant git.
A “teambuilding” event that week was in an old converted barn in Fort Worth. They had a comedian and lots of booze and light hors d’oeuvres. It wasn’t until after the magician closed out his set that we learned the main event was to be like one of those competitions on the Food Network.
We had 40 people broken randomly into 5 teams of 8. There was a food pantry with decent provisions, seriously bad utensils and cookware, and each team had 2 propane burners. And 3 rotating “genuine chefs” to offer advice.
We were told we had 45 minutes to put together competition chili. On my team were 3 women, including the department VP, none of whom could cook (the VP’s comment was, “That’s what restaurants are for!”). Of the 4 other men, one guy, Butler, said he was a decent cook and the rest professed ignorance.
So Butler and I started batting ideas around and decided meat was a yes (they had sirloin that we had to saw down into chunks with a knife about as sharp as a butter knife) and lots of different chilis was a yes (they had many types fresh in the pantry; we showed 4 of the non-cooks how to blister them over the propane burners).
But when it came to beans he put his foot down.
We went back and forth a bit and finally my beer-addled brain came up with a solution. “How many people here are actually from Texas, originally?” Turns out there were only maybe 6 so he gave in on the beans thing. There were plenty of side jobs for the rest of the team to help out with and we could hit the pantry at any time as ideas came up, plus making beer runs for others.
After time was called everyone got little paper cups and tasted everyone’s chili and voted on it.
Results by team:
A - zero votes (it was hideous)
B - 8 votes (my boss’s team - the chili was pretty good, better than most home cook’s that I’ve tried)
C - 2 votes (pretty bad but I guess someone liked it. Or “team spirit”.)
D - 36 votes (Butler + me + 6 non-cooks) [1]
E - zero votes (same comment as with A)
[1] You may notice the total is 46 votes - the 3 chefs got 2 votes each.
My boss took it personally and pouted about it for months. (edit) Part of what got his panties in a wad was that his chili was “Real Texas Chili” and mine wasn’t.
yep might as well buy steak now…but the plus side is you see oxtail on a lot more menus, ie pho, poutine, a local bbq spot here smokes it…
My dad, native Texan, b. Ballinger 1909.
His recipe always had beans in it.
I think this bean mythology, along with the idea that brisket is a Texas invention, is a product of a giant and continuing PR campaign that Texas is the center of the universe.
Add the fact they think they invented chicken fried steak too!
lot of great texans and friends there but the PR campaign of some turns my stomach. Better days ahead I hope. Beans in chili isn’t a big deal lol!
I don’t know about Texas chili but my grandfather was a pioneer, homesteaded in Northern Montana around 1912. He always put beans in his chili.
Knowing even back then that “If you know beans about chili, you know chili don’t have beans!” I had to ask him if real chili had beans in it.
He said chili was a poor mans food. They made it with a scrap of cheap meat and the beans, onions, tomatoes and chilis that they grew in their family’s garden. He said trying to satisfy a family or a bunch of ranch hands without beans would be too expensive.
So i figure that when chili was first made it probably had more beans than meat. But chili without beans can be good too.
Texas is also the largest state because ice doesn’t count.
LOL. Great story. Kicked his bati ass! The beans won the war.
I like beans, but Colorado green chili and Texas chili I love, also, sans beans.
I’ve had the oxtail pho. The depth paralyzed me for a sec. I kinds of sat in awe.
It’s become a dish we see in a lot of places right now. really love it. Gotta get into that hot bowl with your hands tho! Nice to have a cleaner/lighter color non-braised version of oxtail (and other beef sometimes) too, really deep stuff i agree. Solid vehicle for a ton of sliced raw jalapenos too.
There used to be one in the Heights a few years ago, I think. Probly in smaller towns; also, my guess would be some mommies have found it an appealing, easy to throw together dish. I’ll try to find the reference.
Re: Cincinatti style - nearly always referred to as such. I have also read when the Greek restauranteurs wanted to introduce the dish, they decided calling it chili would be more appealing than Greek Spaghetti, which is what it is - and they know it. Some people just like to argue for the fun of it.
Well, my, my. Harumph and snort to you to. And have a nice day.
There is no PR campaign. Bullsh#t. The bean prohibition is at CASI chili cookoffs (also the other big Chili Appreciation Society cookoffs - can’t remember the other one right now . There is no law in TX against beans in chili; the argument rages on locally whenever it comes up. I find it very tiresome.
Every grocery store in Texas that sells canned (or frozen or whatever) chili has both beanless and bean varieties available, even for the brands made in Texas (Wolf, HEB to name two). I’ve tried to find sales comparison figures but haven’t been able to. I wouldn’t be at all surprised (or outraged) if 'With Beans" outsells 'NO BEANS. It’s a BS argument, just to have something to argue about. You know, as foodies across the land are wont to do over their favorites!
Another interesting fact I came across was that in 1977, when the Noble Texas Lege passed a resolution naming chili as the official state dish, the sponsoring representative was circulating thru the chambers, brazenly seeking votes by ladling out chili from a bucket. His chili had beans in it.
This one my buddy made used short rib and had usual cast of characters incl a homemade chili paste toasted cumin coriander seeds and then some other stuff coffee cocoa marmite anchovies it came out quite good. Low and slow in Dutch oven 250. I was told some vinegar in the chili keeps the beans which were cooked separate and put in toward end from falling apart. Seemed to work. And good guys won.
+1 on Carroll Shelby’s for quick and consistent.
I basically do chili as a completely ad hoc dish. I must have beef or pork, but I can skip beans with no regrets. Hard to do without tomatoes, chiles and onions for me. If all I have is hamburger, it can’t be browned down to beef sawdust-- it must have chunks.
Cumin, coriander, cilantro are all friend of mine…
