COPYCAT CINCINNATI CHILI

For a friend, I found a recipe for the famed Cincinnati-style red chili from a hand-written recipe card that had been years on a cook’s refrigerator door there. Have you heard of it?: a red beef chili served over cooked spaghetti and topped with grated yellow cheddar cheese. This recipe makes enough for 8-12 servings, depending on your generosity with the ladle over the noodles.

Ingredients
4 cups water or light beef broth
2 pounds lean(ish) ground beef (anywhere from 80/20 lean/fat to 90/10 lean/fat, or a combination)
2 cups chopped yellow onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
16 ounces tomato sauce (canned or homemade)
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 small square Baker’s unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine (or 2-3 tablespoons dark cocoa powder, to taste)
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
Anywhere from 1 to 3 tablespoons chile powder, to taste, and depending on the “heat” of your powder
1 bay leaf
5 whole allspice berries
1 pound (or more, as desired for servings) spaghetti, cooked and reserved warm
Grated yellow cheddar cheese, sharpness level your choice

Directions
Bring the water to a low boil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the ground beef, breaking it up with a potato masher or a flat side of a wooden spatula, and cook it over medium heat for 30 minutes, uncoverd, simmering and stirring a couple of times. (See note.)

Add the remaining ingredients, except the spaghetti and cheese, and simmer everything for 1 hour, uncovered, stirring occasionally. (The chili should be thick and meaty; if necessary, simmer away liquid until it is.) Remove the bay leaf and allspice berries before serving. (You also may make the recipe up to this point, refrigerate overnight, and, the next day, remove any fat that has risen and congealed.)

To serve: Top a serving of cooked noodles with a ladleful of the chili and a small handful of the grated cheese. Optional additional toppings: finely chopped white onion, cooked kidney beans, oyster crackers, hot sauce.

BSJ cook’s note: I realize that, for many a Coloradan, boiling beef to cook it is anathema. You may do the initial stages of this recipe, then, as if preparing a braise: sauté the onions and garlic in 1 tablespoon neutral oil; remove them; in the remaining fat, brown the beef, breaking it up until it is mostly cooked through. Then proceed with the recipe at the 2nd paragraph of the Directions, adding the water or broth at that time of course.