Ok I found this recipe and wanted to see if this is a safe recipe it was on the freshpreserving.com: Hearty Chili Makes about 3 (32 oz) quarts or 6 (16 oz) pints View half-serving recipe > You will need:  4 lb boneless beef chuck  1/4 cup vegetable oil  3 cups diced onion (about 4 medium)  2 cloves garlic, minced  5 Tbsp chili powder  2 tsp cumin seed  2 tsp salt  1 tsp oregano  1/2 tsp pepper  1/2 tsp coriander  1/2 tsp crushed red pepper  6 cups undrained and diced canned tomatoes (about 4 14.5-oz cans)  3 (32 oz) quart or 6 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands Directions: 1.) PREPARE pressure canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside. 2.) CUT meat into 1/2-inch cubes, removing excess fat. Lightly brown in hot oil. Add onions and garlic, cook until soft but not brown. 3.) ADD remaining spices and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. 4.) LALDE hot chili into hot jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight. 5.) PROCESS filled jars in a pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure 1 hour and 30 minutes for pints and quarts, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed. Here is a link that might be useful: Freshpreserving.com chilli recipe

This recipe comes from Canning and Preserving for Dummies. Recipes in that book comply with current USDA/NCHFP standards. I did add instructions for wait time, which were not included in the individual recipe. Also, the recommendation to boil opened contents for 10 minutes is, from my perspective, excessively cautious. It does no harm, but properly canned low-acid product does not require anything beyond being well-heated. White Chili Yield: About 5 pints 1 pound small white beans, soaked overnight and drained 2 quarts chicken stock 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 medium onions, coarsely chopped 7-ounce can diced green chilies 3 teaspoons ground cumin 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 4 cups diced, cooked chicken 1. Combine all ingredients except chicken in a 6-to 8-quart pot. Bring ingredients to a boil over high heat; reduce heat a simmer, covered, until the beans are soft but don't disintegrate, about 30 minutes. Add the cooked chicken and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes longer. 2. While the chili is simmering, prepare your canning jars and two-piece caps according to the manufacturer's instructions. Keep the jars and lids hot. 3. Ladle the hot chili into the prepared jars, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Wipe the jar rims; seal the jars with the two-piece caps, hand-tightening the bands. Process filled jars at 10 pound for 1 hour and 15 minutes (pints), 1 hour and 30 minutes (quarts). 4. After the pressure in the canner has returned to 0, remove weight and wait 10 minutes. Open the canner and remove hot jars. Place on a clean kitchen towel or layered newsprint away from drafts. After the jars cool completely, test the seals. (Unsealed jars should be immediately refrigerated; use within one week.) 5. Before tasting or eating, boil the contents of each jar for 10 minutes. Serve garnished with shredded cheese, diced red bell pepper, onions, etc. From Canning and Preserving for Dummies, 2003. Carol

> But wouldn't leaving out the tomatoes also alter the pH and/or density? >> Yes to both but the shift would be toward the safe side - less density and less low acid contents. I don't agree with Dave here --- compared with hamburger, spices, and everything else in this recipe, and even compared with broth, tomatoes are quite acidic, so taking them out would decrease the overall acidity of the combo. poledragedog, tomatoes *are* considered high-acid --- you can can them in a BWB and they're found in the same section as the jams & jellies in canning books. Since you've read up I know you know that they are only just on the acidic-enough-to-BWB side, however, and so the recommendation today is to add a bit of acid when canning them that way. But in, say, a tomato-sauce recipe with added herbs & veggies, or a soup or chili recipe where the other ingredients are meats, spices, and broth, the tomatoes are the most acidic thing. The issue I would see (and I"m only musing here, based on reading the same stuff you probably have about canning soup), is density: the tomato sauce would not behave like the ground beef, being a solid ingredient floating in the broth; it would mix with the broth to make a denser liquid, wouldn't it? BTW, I'm intrigued by the adding of masa harina as a thickener. Do you cook the paste at all before adding it? I just bought some masarica (is that the same thing? It looked like it from the package; not easy to come by in my small Canadian town....) and made my own corn tortillas for the first time. Despite having been of no help at all with your question, I think I'm gonna steal your chile recipe and go give it a try! Thanks! ;0 Zabby

My chili can't have any powder in it. No chili powder, no garlic powder, no onion powder. It has to have the real stuff.... peppers, galic, and onions. Tomatoes are the key to good chili. No good tomatoes and no good chili can result. Different types of tomato give a whole different character to chili. Yellow tomatoes make a sweet chili and reds more sour. Very ripe tomatoes cook down into juice and greener ones stay chunky longer. Peppers cover a huge flavor spectrum. At the moment I have potted jalapeno, cayenne, and habenera growing in my kitchen. I have two cultivars of habenera... the Burpee hab and the Red Savina. Not happy with my Red Savinas and will be growing another red cultivar next year. The orange Burpee habeneras are nice... tangy with plenty of heat. Jalapenos go in my chili not so much for heat as for green pepper flavor. Pepper "bite" will cook down over time to warm flavor tones. Sometimes I add a couple jalapenos at the end of the cooking to put a little bite back into the flavor. Habeneras have a fairly mean bite so they have to be cooked down some... for most people that is. Onions come in several types. Mostly I look at when they go in. In early and they cook down to become a sweet flavor. Late and they stay hot and crunchy. Hard to beat fresh garlic but again cooking time will blunt the flavor. A big part of garlic flavor is the smell and that is lost over time. Cumin is essential but more is not always better. An excessive amount can take on a bitter tone. Old cumin is often bitter to me. Usually the best is whole seed that is cracked and cooked awhile. Many here rightly advise toasting the seed. As with garlic the essential oils are critical to cumin flavor. Cumin has to cook some to get the oil out but extended cooking can cook off the delicious smell of cumin. Beans... red beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans... they all give a different flavor. Mixing them up can have a cool visual affect. If you like paste style chili try adding refried beans... eat it with a fork. I frequently add cabbage. Cabbage adds lots of fiber, sweetness, and sometimes has a hot pepper like heat. I make a skillet chili that features crunchy cabbage and onions with very little liquid. So no I don't have a recipe for you. Hard to make bad chili if you work with good stuff. Add cumin, garlic, peppers at the start and again a few minutes towards the end of cooking. It will be the smell that draws people to it... if it smells good to them they will love eating it. I posted a beef heart version of my chili on the soup thread. It was excellent with a mild vension taste quality. I can get free cow parts so that was my motivation for using heart meat. Often I buy a bottom round roast and boil that in tomatoes until it falls apart... very thick meaty chili without any grain or starch thickeners. : ) lyra