Saga of Cincinnati Chili

Cincinnati Chili. I’ve never visited Cincinnati. In fact, I don’t think I’ve been anywhere near it. However, I did find a Cincinnati-style chili parlor in San Diego - after it had gone out of business. Let me tell you about my saga of Cincinnati chili.

One of my favorite sections of the newspaper is the food section. I have been reading them for many years. I even have an album in which I’ve mounted a considerable number of recipes I have clipped from various food sections.

One week either the San Diego Union or the San Diego Tribune (long since merged in the San Diego Union-Tribune) had a feature story on Cincinnati Chili. I was intrigued, and saved the article and recipe. But I didn’t try it out right away. When I decided to give it a go, I discovered the recipe was missing, I found it gone. (Ah, more oxymorons.)

In desperation, I searched the local branch of the library, finding nothing even remotely close to what I could remember from the recipe. At that time, it wasn’t too difficult to access a computer in the public library. (Now it’s a matter of making a reservation and/or waiting a while to use a computer.) I plugged “Cincinnati chili” into what must have been an archaic search engine. Then I combed through the results, alighting on one that seemed to have all the right stuff. I printed it, took it home and cooked up a batch.

Right now you may be asking “What is Cincinnati Chili? What makes it so special?” Cincinnati Chili is not all like southern or tex-mex chilis that we have become accustomed to think of as chili. It was developed by Greek immigrants in the Cincinnati area. They used ingredients with which they were most familiar - things like cinnamon, clove, allspice, bay leaf, vinegar and chocolate. (Yes, chocolate, but the unsweetened variety.) Over time they came up with various ways to serve it. One-way (as it was called) is simply the chili itself. 2-way is chili served over spaghetti. 3-way adds a grated cheddar cheese topping, 4-way includes chopped onions with the cheese topping, and 5-way adds beans.

After finally finding this holy grail of Cincinnati chili recipes, I began cooking it from time to time, especially when I was feeding a large number of people. My family likes it, but it didn’t catch on with them as it did me. One day I took some to work for lunch. Someone asked about it, so I brought more in the next day for this person to try. She shared it with her mother, and came back with the report “This stuff is the bomb! It’s the real thing.” Turns out she was from Cincinnati, but I didn’t know it.

This is one recipe that I don’t tinker with as I do with others. I cook this one as is. If I’ve whetted your appetite, or at least piqued your curiousity, as I hope I have,  you can locate this recipe online at members.cox.net/jjschnebel/cinnchil.html.webloc.

Bon appetit!