Chili Nation

Categories: Cookbooks , Local Interest

The Fourth of July is here, so set off some fireworks by cooking a pot of hot, spicy chili! 

Authors Michael and Jane Stern have served up a mouth-watering book of chili recipes called Chili Nation.  The husband and wife duo, best known for their book Roadfood (and website by the same name), take chili lovers on a coast-to-coast trip from Alabama (Chili a la Whistle Stop) to Wyoming (Code 10 Chili) and every state in between.

The Sterns believe that chili is this country’s one truly shared national food because it can be found on every table and crosses all cultural and ethnic lines.  Indeed, the recipes they have selected represent America in all its diversity and local flavors.

There’s Cuban-style Havana Moon Chili with green olives (Florida), Macadamia Nut and Chipotle Chili with pork (Hawaii), Cajun-inspired Mardi Gras Vegetable Chili (Louisiana, of course), Navajo Lamb and Golden Hominy Chili (Utah), and Porubsky’s Grocery Store Chili (Kansas), a traditional Midwestern version with ground beef and red beans (which I can attest is delicious).  

And let’s not forget our very own Cincinnati chili!  The Sterns write that “Cincinnati is a city bewitched by chili; there are at least a hundred joints in town that make a specialty of serving it.  And we do mean joints, for chili, Cincinnati-style, tends to be one rude plate of food, best eaten off a Formica counter under humming fluorescent lights after midnight in the company of other chiliheads.”  Well said.

I’ve also made the Cincinnati Five-Way Chili recipe included here (with a few minor adjustments), and while mine didn't taste exactly like some of our favorite local brews, the essence of Cincinnati chili still remained.  As the Sterns soon discovered, Cincinnati chili recipes are top secret, so you must "fiddle and fuss to your own taste…(the) five-way practically demands that you reinvent the recipe and make it your own.”