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Mexican Chili

A tomato-based chili with ground beef, kidney beans, onions, garlic, and spices, simmered in water and thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic 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 ↓

Mexican Chili

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef and vegetables

  1. Mash the tomatoes finely and place them in a kettle with the kidney beans.

  2. In a skillet, fry the ground beef until crumbled fine.

  3. Add the sliced onion and minced garlic to the skillet and fry until softened.

Simmer and season

  1. Combine the beef mixture with the tomatoes and beans in the kettle.

  2. Add the water and bring to a boil.

  3. Thicken the chili with flour and season with salt and a pinch of Mexican chili pepper or cayenne pepper.

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.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Ground beef
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the chili.
Kidney beans
Add bulk, texture and substance to the chili.
Tomatoes
Form the liquid base and add acidity and fruity flavor.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth when softened in the skillet.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the chili becomes a body rather than a thin broth.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour. Flour added directly to hot liquid can clump; stirring it smooth first or adding it gradually helps it disperse evenly and thicken the chili without lumps.

Swap the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tomato, onion, beef, garlic, clove, flour):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, onion, beef, garlic, clove, flour. 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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