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Chili Con Carne

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chili Con Carne

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the sliced onions in a little grease until tender.

  2. Add the ground beef and stir until it sears.

  3. Stir in the tomatoes, kidney beans, boiling water, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Cook for 1.5 to 2 hours.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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 browned savory flavor once seared.
Red kidney beans
Add body, texture and starch that thickens the chili as it cooks.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that form the base of the sauce.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and brown in the fat.

The step that matters

Searing the ground beef. Stirring until the beef sears browns its surface through the Maillard reaction, building deeper flavor than gray, steamed meat would give. Breaking it up and letting it sit briefly helps it brown rather than release liquid.

Swap the kidney beans

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, onion, pepper. 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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