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How We Cook in Tennessee

A hearty chili made with beef, chili peppers, onion, garlic, lard, and salt pork, simmered slowly over a low fire.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peppers

  1. Wash and stem three dozen large chili peppers.

  2. Put the peppers into a saucepan and pour a pint of boiling water over them; let them boil until thoroughly soft.

  3. Mash the peppers through a wire sieve.

  4. Boil several bay leaves with the peppers before straining.

Make the chili

  1. Chop one large onion and six cloves of garlic very fine.

  2. Put the onion, garlic, three pounds of nice tender beefsteak chopped fine, and two tablespoonfuls of lard into a saucepan; fry until well done.

  3. Add salt to taste.

  4. Stir in the chili peppers.

  5. Simmer over a slow fire for an hour, stirring occasionally.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

534Calories
29 gProtein
39 gFat
17 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chili peppers
Provide the main flavor and body of the sauce when softened and mashed.
Beefsteak
Supplies the meat that is fried and simmered into the chili.
Lard
Fat for frying the onion, garlic and meat, carrying flavor and helping them brown.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens in the fat.

The step that matters

Simmer over a slow fire for an hour, stirring occasionally. Slow simmering lets the peppers and meat blend and the sauce thicken gently. Stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pan, which would give a burnt taste.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, pork, butter, pepper, onion):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, pork, butter, pepper, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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