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Chili Con Carne

A hearty stew of beef, beans, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Chili Con Carne

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Cook the onions and green peppers in fat until softened.

  2. Add the cubed meat and suet.

Simmer

  1. Pour in the boiling water, canned tomatoes, chili powder mixture, salt, sugar, and minced garlic.

  2. Cover the pot.

  3. Cook slowly for 1.5 hours.

  4. Stir in the kidney beans.

  5. Heat through.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Provides the meaty body of the chili, which becomes tender during slow cooking.
Kidney beans
Add texture and body, holding their shape while absorbing the surrounding sauce.
Canned tomatoes
Supply liquid and acidity that help build the sauce's flavor and body.
Chili powder
Provides the main spice flavor and warmth throughout the sauce.
Suet
Adds fat that carries flavor and moisture into the meat during cooking.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 1.5 hours. Low, slow heat lets the tough connective tissue in the rump steak break down gradually, making the meat tender. Rushing with high heat can leave it firm and chewy.

Swap the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, tomato, sugar, clove, garlic):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, tomato, sugar, clove, garlic. 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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