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Cincinnati chili

· Lunch

A thin, spiced meat sauce with hints of cinnamon and chocolate, served over spaghetti and crowned with a mountain of cheese.

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Cincinnati chili: A thin, spiced meat sauce with hints of cinnamon and chocolate, served over spaghetti and crowned with a mountain of cheese.
Photo: Valereee · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia CommonsPhoto resized, converted to WebP and cropped for display.
⏱ 110 min🍽 6 servings📊 Intermediate🏷 Commonly associated
Preparation
20 min
Cooking
90 min
Waiting and resting
0 min

History

It was created in 1922 by the Kiradjieff brothers, Macedonian immigrants who opened the Empress restaurant next to a Cincinnati theater. They adapted Mediterranean and Middle Eastern spices into a meat sauce they served over spaghetti. You order it by 'ways': three-way has cheese, four-way adds onion, and five-way adds beans.

Ingredients

Adjust quantities

Only numeric quantities at the start of an ingredient are adjusted. Descriptive quantities, seasoning to taste and timings remain unchanged; check them when changing servings.

Preparation

  1. 1

    Boil the raw meat directly in the water, breaking it up so it stays very fine and doesn't brown.

  2. 2

    Add the onion, chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, chocolate, and vinegar.

  3. 3

    Simmer over low heat for about an hour and a half until it thickens and the flavors come together.

  4. 4

    Serve a bed of hot spaghetti and cover it with the sauce.

  5. 5

    Crown with a generous mountain of finely grated cheddar.

Cooking tips

  • Use already cooked spaghetti and keep it warm while finishing the meat sauce.

References to consult

References provide information about the dish, its context or a technique. Quantities in this version may differ from those in the source.

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