Cincinnati Chili

Today is my husband's birthday, and the poor man ended up cooking his own dinner.  Not that it was a difficult dinner, but still.

His friend Dale sent him home with a packet of spices from Cincinnati.  Cincinnati chili.  A mid-western delight apparently.  Being born and raised in California, Nevada being my home away from home, I was skeptical.  Especially when this chili involved spaghetti. Spaghetti? With chili?  WTF?  Really?  No Texan or Oklahoman would understand (or Californian).  Well, I decided, lets give Dale and his chili a chance.

It smelled delicious!  Cinnamon being the strongest smell, which I love.  I was worried about it being too salty (which the sodium level was over the top) but it didn't taste that salty.  We took the "5 way" route and were pretty pleased witht he result.  Here's ther recipe:

One package of Cincinnati chilli spices with one 6 oz can of tomato paste and 6 cups of water.
Add one to 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef.  Do not brown.
Beat mixture with a fork and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer uncovered stirring occasionally until desired thickness - 1 to 1 1/2 hrs.

There are apparently 2 to 5 ways to serve this.  We chose the 5 way.  Serve on Spaghetti, with finely grated cheddar cheeese (Dale specified that it must be finely shredded) chopped onions, and warmed kidney beans added to the spagehetti topped wiht chilli. 

Did I like it?  Yes.  It was by no means over the top spectacular, (to me, it tasted just like my expectations of the midwest.  Simple, and plain - that doesn't mean bad, just not complex or outrageous) but, as John said, excellent comfort food.  The spices in the packet were great.  I can only imagine that this recipe homemade would be awesome.  It was quite good from a package.  So thanks Dale, you ended up giving us quite a nice dinner for John's birthday.

Dale - the inspiration for dinner, his packet of Cincinnati chili spices, the chili cooking and the final dish.  Thanks Dale!  Not bad!