Youngstown Brown Chili

Yesterday I began my attempt to hone in on refining my texas red style chili, trying to better my signature chili. i made two primary changes. right out of the door I changed from using standard pre-cut pork chops to the whole cut pork chops; where they are longer and have more fat on them. instead of going for some convoluted rub, i just marinaded them in worcestshire sauce and brown mustard after rubbing them with salt (to lacerate the surface area). these were more difficult to fry up correctly, but they worked better in the long run.

The second change, which I just did after some consultation on brown sauces and marrow stocks with my friend paul, was a bit of a leap. i had bought a ham shank. for those of you whho dont know, its the drum looking thing from pigs. it is a very interesting cut and has a good meat, it was also hickory smoked. basically i roasted it for about two hours in  the oven at 325'F. pulled it, then separated the meat, threw the meat (with skin) into a pot  and started steaming it. once the skin was able to be peeled off, i threw the meat in the chili.  i also too the bones, and other weird things you would expect from a joint cut, and popped them in a frying pan with a lid, mostly covered them with water, added some chopped green onions, and boiled the crap out of them. i added the peeled skin to this too.

after a while boiling, i was able to take a misused old boning knife and split one bone from the other (yeah, dont try with a knife you care about). so basically, it all roasted for 2 hours, then boiled about 3 and a half; as it would reduce i just added more water and kept reducing it. i tasted the reduction a few times. on the one hand, i was makingg ham stock and thats what it tasted like. on the other hand, i was creating this savory oil to add to my chili. it made me think of mint or vanilla oils in cupcakes, but of pork in chili. so now that i have explained the outlying elements, here was the setup, very akin to the forked tongue chili. browned beef with peppers, onions, garlic. fried up and cubed pork chops. started garlic, onion, some rehydrated chopped sun dried tomatoes, and pepper base for the chili in stock pot. 

meat done; time for chili.

the peppers on hand were 1 habanero, 3 serrano, 2 jalapeno, 1 can of anchos in adobo, 1 anaheims, 7-8 bird's eye hots (they were introduced variously throughout the process). if i were to take what i made and make it hotter i would get another jalapeno, 2 more serranos, 2 cayenne (dried), and some dried anchos. my first reduction was done with a big old cup of coffee to get some liquid in there. it bubbled down pretty good and got a bunch of vapors rolling. the spices up front (before the coffee) were coriander, clove, sage, paprika, ground mustard. as the process wore on, i added cinnamon, bay leaves, fennel seeds, brown sugar, two pureed oranges, honey, oregano, marjoram, and 3-4 vine tomatoes -chopped. they all added their bits and pieces.

heres what i mean by 'base'alright lets get all chronological now. ive been free streaming this up to now. It's about 2p, (1) the ham shank weent into the oven at 1p, (2) the beef has been browned (mine was pretty lean and didnt need drained; draining is optional, i guess, but i have trouble with oily chili and this one is particularly problematic), (3) the pork chops should be finishing soon, they are 2/3 cut up; (4) the coffee reduction has just happened, its finally gurgling down, the chops are almost all cut up. Once the coffee and onions starts looking a bit gloopier go ahead and drop the beef in the chili. finish the chops,  cut em up, drop em too.

Basically once you get to this point your kind of in the home stretch in terms of handiwork. Anyway, get a nice and tall Baltika #9 Extra Lager. Now you should probably take a swig and check out how good it tastes; mmmm. Then you need to pour out half into the chili. Its a shame in its way. (You could always buy two while you're at the store.) Let this reduce; right about now is when all the ham shank prep was happening. So the chili began happening at 2p, and was under lid by 2:30ish (my pork chops stretched out my timing).

There will be a pretty good lid of liquid on top of the chili. its going to take a while to reduce it all. and then youre going to pour the rest of the beer and another cup of coffee to on it to reduce that too. also, we're going to be adding the fun stuff from the boiling process next door.  so anything else you might want to throw in there, feel free. the chopped tomatoes i wasn't sure about but did anyway. i also added black beans. after those two additions it steers itself away from being a texas red, or whatever; yet where one road ends another begins as this is how it came to be the Yongstown Brown. its still going to be awhile, and you want the lid off at this point, and youre going to be stirring a whole bunch. heres hoping you went and bought yourself that Baltika #9. Cheers!

"It is very sweet for a lager, with an aftertaste similar to corn syrup and a great overall flavor." Its meant to make for a nice accompaniment to the Brown's sugars and citrus notes

after the mini (read: abbreviated) extraction process, and me running out of time after it had boiled about 3 1/2 hours, i had to see what id gotten. the ham stock was potent. obviously not that potent considering i'd only used two bones, and a limited time range, but now ive got a target. i tried filtering the remainder of what was in the pan through a coffee filter. WRONG. oils, obviously soak up in the paper. dumb. it was too  heavy or i poured  to fast and it broke through any way. next time i will just strain it and call it a day. nonetheless i ended up with about 8 ounces of liquid. if i had more time i might have reduced it more. actually, if i had had corn starch and more ground mustard on hand i would have done what i did while it was in the crock pot.

left-overs that wouldnt fit in the crock pot; was shorted three hours' simmeringi transferred to the crock pot. went with amanda to jason and elisas to bottle beer with jason and john. periodically, i added more ground mustard (to help keep the components mixed together), and corn starch to thicken up the brew. the corn starch i should have added to the strained ham stock. that way i could have added it all at once and more evenly. but i didnt have any at home. next time.

at any rate. i think the first bowl was eaten around 9, so it did end up being a seven hour chili. no sour cream or fritos; just cheddar. it was a broad flavor. very hot. at times it was very sweet, and others more dark and smoky, and others yet it had a face rush of heat.it wasnt entirely a builder burner long-tail heat chili. it left you alone after a few minnutes of finishing a bowl, but i definitely wanted to get more. i left it on until about 11 before turning off the crock pot entirely. by that point all traces of liquid had vanished. it had been replaced by this dark meaty molten lava. and it was the Youngstown Brown. Basically the point is to take the formula of the texas red of the Forked Tongue Chili and apply a brown sauce to it. I will try to prepare the night prior for this endeavor now that i am more aware of what is involved. My friend Paul says it is best to use upwards of 10 bones at a time. jeez. and my wife was grossed out this time around.

its not a pretty pic, i know; but seriously its the size of a baseball and can hold its shape all day