> 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

It's never a bad idea to answer questions 2 years late lol.... Because others will read the post and learn and it'll answer other peoples questions like mine. This is like a library, future chili growers will read this to learn how to grow hot peppers. This is my first winter with a chili pepper plant indoors. I had my plant planted in ground outdoors and it still had a bunch of peppers and some flowers on them, so I brought them inside and they peppers seem to be ripening. Some peppers have turned from green to red indoors . I'm using an 11W LED grow light. I also put a germinated Scotch bonnet seed and just transferred from paper towel to pot. Once it grows its first true leaves, I'll put the pot with my outdoor chili pepper and lemon trees which are all under the LED light and a medium window.

Ya... some confusion going on it seems. Chilie is a pepper. Chili is a dish. So in a literal sense you can have chilie powder made out of dried ground peppers. Now... to make the dish most in the U.S. consider chili you have to add a spice mixture know as "chili powder". As I recall Lars has a fondness for Mexico and lives in the South Western corner of the U.S. I'm not surprised that he would think of powdered peppers before a spice mixture. One of the things really interesting about his cooking is that he is doing different things with his food. Much as I'd love to sample Lar's cooking someday I'm going with Arley on the cumin. Cumin is the heart and soul of the dish we call Chili. My pot of chili often contains several kinds of hot peppers but it also takes a load of cumin. People walking into my home will exclaim in delight when I cook chili because of the fragrant cumin. I found whizzing my whole cumin seed in the blender with some tomatoes chops the cumin up pretty good. Not as good as hand chopping. My first lesson with cumin seed was to chop it up on a cutting board with a knife. Still strikes me as the best flavor. Our friends on the CF from India have recommended toasting the cumin... very good but I'm not 100% sold. The seed does require considerable cooking to release the oils that account for the intense flavor. The very best cumin I can purchase at the moment is bulk ground cumin from GFS which is a restaurant supply company. Tops even Penzey's whole seed. Still ground does not get the full spectrum of flavor so I add mostly ground GFS cumin and top note my flavor with some freshly chopped seed. Somehow ground cumin even when fresh and strong still does not have the high aromatic essence of whole seed. Chili powder often contains garlic that I've removed from my chili. Garlic is great and garlic is good but it is also sweet and not the character I want. Maybe sometimes it is alright.... I used to add sliced fresh garlic to my chili. Goodness that warms your entire body when the mood is there for it. Cilantro, in particular fresh cilantro provides an intense aromatic flavor and scent that many associate with north of the boarder "mexican" cooking. LOL!... sorry don't mean to go on so much. Chili is one of my favorite dishes. Fresh garden tomatoes are priceless if you want chili with star power. Different peppers add heat with different characters as Lars noted. Peppers at different stages of ripeness also display remarkably different characteristics. Green habeneras are not ripe but they are milder and have more tang then mature red habs. Then the amount of time a pepper cooks will change the flavor and heat profile of a pepper. My chili is tested and approved by Luna! Suppose I should admit I don't use chili powder in my chili. Not powdered peppers or any branded spice mix. Cumin and cilantro with hot peppers being part of the vegtable mix. I top coat much of my food with salt and black pepper and always do so with chili. : ) lyra

Those are not pequin nor piquin, those are at most 1cm long. Those on the photo look eerily similar to a pico de pájaro (bird's beak, also called chile de arbol = tree chile) which are as long as 10cm, rarely longer, and 1-2cm in diameter, rarely bigger, they do not have a cone shape like those tatli chiles. They also could be a small variety of the serranos. Those chiles we call in México "pico de pájaro" have different varieties and can be either eaten when green (dark shade of green), red, or sun dried. If you opt to sun dry them, then by all means try them in tomato sauces in different forms: fry in oil or lard a bunch of them, but make sure to ventilate the area, those have a naughty kick when applying heath to them, their taste is so good you might want to eat them as they are once they cool off, also be careful not to burn them. put them in a very hot non oiled pan and keep moving them so as not to burn them. directly over a flame, they will begin to smoke quite a bit and that smoke will hurt your throat if you are not careful. boiled in the same water you are boiling a few red tomatoes with a garlic clove. liquify them with the tomatoes, garlic and salt, then serve in a deep dish with some finely chopped white onion and cilantro. If you just crush the tomatoes with the end of a bottle or a potatoe masher, then by all means try that salsa (tasttes different) in a mollete: put a baguette like bread cut in half in a hot pan (in mexico we have different types of baguette like breads, we call them birotes, teleras, bolillos), then turn it upside down, spread bean paste and on top use a type of white cheese that melts very well, remove from the pan, top it with pico de gallo (fresh tomatoe diced, finely chopped onion, cilantro) and salsa picante. Or... for the brave: 250 gr of dried picos de pajaro, fry them, liquify them with two cloves of garlic, salt and 50 ml of oil (use more if it does not turn to paste) oh and make sure to remove the tails of the chiles... consume that paste of chile with nachos, well with the nacho tortillas alone :P