This recipe originally contained beef suet, but that ingredient was omitted after LBJ’s severe heart attack when he was Senate Majority Leader. Remember to skim the fat off the chili. She wrote: “So many requests came in for the recipe that it was easier to give the recipe a name, have it printed on a card and make it available. It has been almost as popular as the government pamphlet on the care and feeding of children.”

Ingredients

• 4 pounds coarsely ground beef

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, chopped

• 1 teaspoon oregano

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 6 teaspoons New Mexican red chile powder (or more for heat)

• 2 16-ounce cans tomatoes

• 2 cups hot water

• Salt to taste

Instructions

Combine the beef, onion, and garlic in a skillet and sear until the meat is lightly browned.

Transfer this mixture to a large pot, add the remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for an hour.

When done, transfer the chili to a bowl and place it in the refrigerator. When the fat has congealed on top, remove it with a spoon.

Reheat the chili and serve it as LBJ liked it–without beans and accompanied with a glass of milk and saltine crackers.

Here is Sam’s recipe for good ol’ café chili. Note the extreme amount of cumin. Interestingly enough, in the version of this recipe which appeared in Texas Home Cooking, the amount of cumin mysteriously was doubled. Could Sam be addicted to cumin? Sam is also the author of Avenida Juarez, a novel which has to be read to be believed.

Ingredients

The recipe is in Sam’s words, unedited.

• 1 pound fatty bacon

• 2 pounds coarse beef, extra large grind

• ½ cup whole cominos (cumin seed–yes, one-half cup!)

• ½ cup pure ground New Mexican red chile

• Water

• 1 teaspoon cayenne

• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Instructions

Render grease from the bacon; eat a bacon sandwich while the chili cooks. (Good chili takes time.)

Saute the ground beef in bacon grease over medium heat. Add the cominos and then begin adding the red chile until what you are cooking smells like chili. (This is the critical point. If you add all the spices at once, there is no leeway for personal tastes.) Let the mixture cook a bit between additions and don’t feel compelled to use all of the red chile.

Add water in small batches to avoid sticking, and more later for a soupier chili. Slowly add the cayenne powder until smoke curls your eyelashes. Palefaces may find that the red chile alone has enough heat.

Simmer the mixture until the cook can’t resist ladling a bowlful for sampling. Skim the excess fat for dietetic chili, or mix the grease with a small amount of cornmeal for a thicker chili.

Finish with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to individual taste, paprika to darken. Continue simmering until served; continue re-heating until gone. (As with wine, time enobles good chili and exposes bad.)

The result should be something like old time Texas café chili: a rich, red, heavily cominesque concoction with enough liquid to welcome crackers, some chewy chunks of meat thoroughly permeated by the distinctive spices, and an aroma calculated to lure strangers to the kitchen door.

Variation: For cook-off contest chili, drink bad tequila two days before starting the chili; burn mixture frequently; sprinkle occasionally with sand and blood; serve cold to a dozen other drunks and call them “judges”; and keep telling yourself you’re having a great time.

Our chili chemist, Dr. John Crum, culminated his paper on chili con carne by proposing the following “decent” recipe. He is obviously a “with beans” chili cook; however, he does note that the chili can just be cooked with the bean liquid and the beans can be removed and used “for other purposes.”

Ingredients

• 1 recipe Beans for Chili!, beans and cooking liquid reserved together

• 4 tablespoons avocado oil

• 6 pounds lean beef, preferably round steak, either cubed into ½-inch pieces or ground with the coarse blade of a food chopper (Dr. Crum recommends 2 pounds ground beef and 4 pounds cubed beef)

• 1½ pounds lean pork, cut into ½-inch cubes

• 6 small scallions (green onions), trimmed and cut into small cylinders

• 2 large yellow onions, chopped

• 1 red serrano chile, seeds and stem removed, chopped

• 2 green jalapeños, seeds and stems removed, chopped

• 3 ounces (1 bottle) Gebhardt Chili Powder

• 2 teaspoons powdered cumin

• 3 large cloves garlic, chopped

• 2 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped

• 2 cups strong black coffee

• 1 can beer

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

• ½ cup masa harina

• Water

Instructions

In a heavy skillet, heat the avocado oil until very hot (over 500 degrees F.) and thoroughly brown the beef, pork, and scallions.

Add the browned meat and scallions to the beans and bean liquid and bring to a boil. Add the remaining ingredients except the masa harina and water and cook over low heat, covered, for about 2 hours. Remove the cover and cook until the chili thickens. If it still is not thick enough, add the masa harina (mixed with water to a thick paste).

This recipe, from chili scholar John Thorne, was published in a slightly different format in the Winter, 1989 issue of The Whole Chile Pepper magazine, in the Special Chili con Carne Issue that I edited. John commented: “On the Texas range, firewood meant mesquite. Not only did the trail cook use it for his open pit cooking, but the ranch cook used it to fire his wood stove. Until it was replaced with gas and electric, mesquite-flavored grilling dominated rural Texas cooking with its distinctive sweet savor. The meat for this chili is seared over charcoal where mesquite chips have been set to flame (the taste of mesquite charcoal is indistinguishable from that of any other hardwood), which gives the resulting chili a haunting hint of smoke–and without tasting a bit like barbecue, since there is no onion or tomato in it, none at all.”

Ingredients

For the fire:

• Mesquite wood chips and hardwood charcoal

For the rub:

• 2 or 3 cloves of crushed garlic, salt, and chili powder

For the chili:

• 1 5-pound chuck roast

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 8 cloves garlic, crushed

• 1 cup or more beef broth

• Juice of 1 lime

• 2 tablespoons each mild and hot chile powder

• 2 teaspoons Mexican oregano

• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground

• Small whole dried piquin chiles

• Masa harina

• Salt to taste

Instructions

The chuck roast should be as lean as possible and cut at least three inches thick. Two or three hours before you plan to make the chili, rub the meat all over with a mash of crushed garlic and salt, then sprinkle it with chili powder to coat it lightly. Loosely cover it with plastic and set it aside.

Fire up enough hardwood charcoal to sear the meat in an outdoor grill, preferably one with a cover. At the same time. soak a few handfuls of the mesquite chips in the water. When the coals are covered with gray ash, spread them out evenly, and scatter the soaked mesquite chips over them. Then immediately set the meat on a grill over the smoke, about an inch from the coals. Cover the grill and adjust the dampers to maintain a slow, steady heat. Let the meat sear for about 12 minutes (this process is meant to flavor, not to cook the meat) and turn over to sear the other side for the same amount of time. Remove it from the heat, saving any juices on its surface, and transfer to the refrigerator. Let it cool thoroughly, about one hour.

After the meat has cooled, trim away any surface fat or cartilage. With a sharp knife, cube the meat into the smallest pieces you have patience for, saving all juices. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy pot over moderate heat. Stir in the garlic and saute until it turns translucent. Stir in the meat and all reserved meat juices, adding just enough beef broth to cover, or about one cup. Pour in the lime juice and sprinkle in the chile powders, oregano, and cumin, stirring and tasting as you go. Crumble in a few piquins or other fiery chiles to bring the heat up to taste. However, do not try to adjust the seasoning to perfection right now; it’s easy to ruin a chili by correcting the flavors too soon–the long cooking will smooth and sweeten it.

Lower the heat to as low as possible. If the pot is left to boil, the meat will toughen. Every half hour or so after the first hour, taste for seasoning, adjusting and thickening with the masa harina a teaspoonful at a time. The chili should be about ready to eat in three hours, although it will benefit from a night’s aging in the refrigerator.

Serve it simmering in large, heavy bowls with an ample supply of soda crackers and a side of beans, but not much else except, maybe, hot, black coffee or quart-sized glasses of iced tea or a few frosty bottles of your favorite beer. And, after a good long while, push things aside, lean back in your chair, and start arguing.