I'm "A-B-C'ed" (Amused, Bemused, and Confused) here...I'm a southerner (you can't get much farther south than Miami without being Cuban, although Miami is now a de facto new, northern province of Cuba, but I digress...), and we always made chili--and almost always from scratch--with beans. Chili is, I think, of Mexican origin (or, if it's "Tex-Mex," it had major Mexican influence in its development). Also:

If chili was invented in--or influenced by--Mexico, the use of beans in it makes sense, because beans would have been more affordable to the average Mexican, and the beans would "help the meat stretch farther" in the dish. Also, since "Texas Chili" is called that to differentiate it from the more common variety that contains beans, that seems to imply that "bean chili" came first and/or was more common than the Texas-style chili (even among the canned chili that I see in grocery stores, "bean chili" is much more common than Texas-style chili). All of this seemingly suggests that Texas-style chili is a more recent and/or less common variant of "bean chili," which was the original chili...or was it?

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
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All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

If Texas lore is correct, chili was invented by chuck wagon cooks in the cattle drive days to cover up the taste of spoiled meat when it was cooked/sterilized. It was safe to eat after cooking, but tasted horrible and serving crappy tasting food to a bunch of hungry armed cowboys was not a good thing. He covered up the taste by putting chili peppers in the stew to make it taste good. Most chuck wagons carried dried peppers because they would last almost forever.

Well, at least Mexico still has first dibs on the heritage of chocolate (cacao)... That Texas lore sounds plausible, but "bean chili" would still appear to possibly fit in with it, because the beans would also have lasted indefinitely when stored in a dried state (we did that ourselves, at home). Also, on any occasions when meat might have been more scarce (say, due to Indian actions), using the beans would have enabled the cooks to make the meat "stretch further," plus they could have added beans at times just for variety (having hungry armed cowboys become bored with unchanging fare wouldn't have been a good thing, either).

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Guys, this a Corned Beef and Cabbage thread and not a chili thread. You guy's did it again!
Start your own chili thread, will ya! Rant over.

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If it flies, I can crash it!

Hey noww...EVERYBODY knows that thread-jakkin' is commonplace on "free fer all" on YORF.
At least we kept it to FOOD related...someone mentioned Stews and Chili and I just added on.
It's not like we turned a Corned Barf/Rubbish thread into one on Apollo Capsule heat shields....

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Old post.
New question?
Do you eat the fat on the Corned Beef Brisket?

__________________
If it flies, I can crash it!

I don't eat the fat from ANYTHING.
It's DISGUSTING.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

While I mostly agree with GH, a thin (1 mm or so) "rind" of fat on it is good (and when the corned beef is prepared as part of corned beef and cabbage [with carrots, potatoes, and onions], the slight amount of fat adds its flavor to the "pot liquor," and becomes even more tender in the process). Also:

The same is the case when Kielbasa (Polish sausage) is substituted for the corned beef in the corned beef and cabbage. We made that happy discovery one winter day in extreme northern Georgia, when we were once out of corned beef (but had already started making it; we thought we had some at home), and my parents didn't want to drive twenty miles over the mountains just for that one item, so they made it with Kielbasa instead. The fat in it (not a lot, but enough to add its flavor to the "pot liquor") was excellent. The great thing about corned beef (or Kielbasa) and cabbage is that it tastes better on subsequent days (we usually made enough for three or four days' dinners; it also freezes well), as the flavoring soaks more thoroughly into the vegetables.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

The fat on steaks and chops (although I suppose corned beef could also be cooked in the following way; I've never tried it) makes excellent additional fuel--and flavoring--when one cooks using one of the "Safari" newspaper grills (I think the "Lean, Mean, Grilling Machine" that George Forman did the entertaining TV ads for was/is the same device). Being portable, these newspaper cookers are also great for cooking at model rocket club meets, and the ashes make an excellent compost "ingredient." It looks like a large, three-piece steel collapsible "Boy Scout drinking cup" (or a bucket--my brother Bob has been "accused" of "cooking in a bucket" with his :-) ); the three sections "nest" inside each other for compact storage), and:

When assembled for use, it's about 30" tall and 16" in maximum diameter, at the top (maybe a little larger or smaller; *here* https://www.youtube.com/results?sea...newspaper+grill and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZnLUkK7kKU is one like ours [*don't* use charcoal in it, as some people do, as that will ruin it]--the bottom section has three short metal legs welded onto it [other models are also available, see: https://www.google.com/search?q=saf...sclient=gws-wiz ]). Wadded up balls of newspaper serve as the main fuel, and later as a "wick," which is fueled by the fat dripping from the meat; this results in lean meat, which is also flavored by the burning liquid fat that drips down onto the newspaper "wick" (it cooks the best steaks I've ever had!). Also:

Holes in each section of the cooker ensure a steady flow of air into it. A two-piece circular wire grill (with collapsible, "slide-in" wire handles for compact storage) holds the steaks, chops, hamburger patties, hot dogs, kebabs, or whatever is being cooked (cooking oil brushed onto vegetables gives them an excellent flavor, and some of the oil drips onto the newspaper below, fueling it as the fat dripping from cooking meat does). As well:

Today, newspapers are mostly printed with soy-based ink, partly to produce no strange-smelling smoke (because newspaper is also used in fireplaces, camp fires, and Franklin stoves--tightly rolled up and wired to serve as "logs" [such newspaper rolling devices are available, see: https://www.google.com/search?q=new...sclient=gws-wiz ]--and as kindling to start wooden logs burning, in such applications and devices), and this is also beneficial to newspaper grill cookers. (Back in the 1970s and 1980s, newspapers with color photographs sometimes added a strange flavor to the meat [we tried it once, with no meat on the grill--Safari recommended against cooking using such sheets for fuel, for this reason], so we always used only text sheets with black-and-white photographs for actual cooking; this is no longer necessary.)

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR