Ron's Buffalo Hump Chili

[Ron G.]

I just looked outside and it's 9 degrees, so I figured I'd better hurry up and post this recipe for Buffalo Hump chili. It's a necessity on a night like tonight and will usually prevent hypothermia....or at least make you glad you have it. It's 2:30 AM and I'm posting this at this unseemly hour as an emergency measure so no one will have to call 911 or anything.

First, you get a buffalo and cut off it's hump. Then skin it and chop it up into little pieces like stew meat. If you prefer ground meat, and you have a meat grinder like I do, then use the round thing with the biggest holes you can find. If not, then go to your butcher and get them to grind your buffalo hump into "chili grind". Any reputable butcher will know what chili grind is and many not so reputable butchers will probably know, too.

Whatever you do, don't use hamburger. That just makes a disgusting mess... like mush.

Okay, here goes...

2 lbs. ground or chunked buffalo hump. You may also use venison, elk, beef, moose, or goat (cabrito) if you like. I don't really care.

4 tablespoons of Williams Chili seasoning, or if you're cool like me, 4 tablespoons of ground up poblano pepper, which I grow myself unless the goat eats it, then I have to use the Williams, in which case the goat ends up in the chili, too...then it's not actually buffalo hump chili.

1 tablespoon ground cumin if you use the Williams, two if you use your own poblano pepper.

1 medium onion all chopped up.

1 can of Rotel tomatoes.

1 tablespoon minced garlic.

1 stalk of celery all chopped up like you did the onion.

1/2 square of Bakers unsweetened chocolate.

1 cayenne (red) pepper...two or three or maybe even more if it's REAL cold outside.

1/4 cup masa harina (corn flour)...regular wheat flour will work, too, but I prefer the masa.

Salt to your particular specifications.

Put the meat and chopped up onion in a pot and sear it, getting it all a uniform shade of grey. Pour off most of the grease, but leave a little and then put in the Rotel tomatoes and then put all the the spices in except the garlic and then put the chocolate in it then let it kinda simmer until the chocolate melts. Stir it all up and then add all the other stuff and three or four cans of water and then cover it up and let it sit there and simmer on low heat for two or three hours. Now would be a good time to taste it to check the salt. Be sure and check the water level now and then.

After it's set there and simmered for two or three hours, take your masa and mix it with some cold water until it's about as thick as real heavy cream. Make sure there aren't any lumps, or as few as possible. Mix it into the pot of chili while stirring and then taste for salt again and add the garlic.

Let it simmer for about another half hour to an hour, stirring it so it doesn't stick to the bottom, until it's about the consistency of what you think chili ought to be.

Now I know some folks put beans in their chili, but as far as I'm concerned, you're on your own with that...it's okay, I guess, you're eating it, I'm not. All I can say is if you MUST desecrate your chili with beans, use pinto beans instead of those red kidney beans.

All this is based on cooking on a indoor cookstove. Your times might vary some if you're doing it over a campfire or Coleman Camp stove or on the exhaust manifold of your truck. It works equally well with most pots and pans and even snooty pots (like SOME people I've heard about), but I prefer a cast iron dutch oven.

You can serve it however you want to, but I prefer it with some grated cheese and raw onion sprinkled on top and tostadas or maybe saltine crackers on the side.

[Shellon]

:unsure:

[brideofjc]

I just looked outside and it's 9 degrees, so I figured I'd better hurry up and post this recipe for Buffalo Hump chili. It's a necessity on a night like tonight and will usually prevent hypothermia....or at least make you glad you have it. It's 2:30 AM and I'm posting this at this unseemly hour as an emergency measure so no one will have to call 911 or anything.

First, you get a buffalo and cut off it's hump. Then skin it and chop it up into little pieces like stew meat. If you prefer ground meat, and you have a meat grinder like I do, then use the round thing with the biggest holes you can find. If not, then go to your butcher and get them to grind your buffalo hump into "chili grind". Any reputable butcher will know what chili grind is and many not so reputable butchers will probably know, too.

Whatever you do, don't use hamburger. That just makes a disgusting mess... like mush.

Okay, here goes...

2 lbs. ground or chunked buffalo hump. You may also use venison, elk, beef, moose, or goat (cabrito) if you like. I don't really care.

4 tablespoons of Williams Chili seasoning, or if you're cool like me, 4 tablespoons of ground up poblano pepper, which I grow myself unless the goat eats it, then I have to use the Williams, in which case the goat ends up in the chili, too...then it's not actually buffalo hump chili.

1 tablespoon ground cumin if you use the Williams, two if you use your own poblano pepper.

1 medium onion all chopped up.

1 can of Rotel tomatoes.

1 tablespoon minced garlic.

1 stalk of celery all chopped up like you did the onion.

1/2 square of Bakers unsweetened chocolate.

1 cayenne (red) pepper...two or three or maybe even more if it's REAL cold outside.

1/4 cup masa harina (corn flour)...regular wheat flour will work, too, but I prefer the masa.

Salt to your particular specifications.

Put the meat and chopped up onion in a pot and sear it, getting it all a uniform shade of grey. Pour off most of the grease, but leave a little and then put in the Rotel tomatoes and then put all the the spices in except the garlic and then put the chocolate in it then let it kinda simmer until the chocolate melts. Stir it all up and then add all the other stuff and three or four cans of water and then cover it up and let it sit there and simmer on low heat for two or three hours. Now would be a good time to taste it to check the salt. Be sure and check the water level now and then.

After it's set there and simmered for two or three hours, take your masa and mix it with some cold water until it's about as thick as real heavy cream. Make sure there aren't any lumps, or as few as possible. Mix it into the pot of chili while stirring and then taste for salt again and add the garlic.

Let it simmer for about another half hour to an hour, stirring it so it doesn't stick to the bottom, until it's about the consistency of what you think chili ought to be.

Now I know some folks put beans in their chili, but as far as I'm concerned, you're on your own with that...it's okay, I guess, you're eating it, I'm not. All I can say is if you MUST desecrate your chili with beans, use pinto beans instead of those red kidney beans.

All this is based on cooking on a indoor cookstove. Your times might vary some if you're doing it over a campfire or Coleman Camp stove or on the exhaust manifold of your truck. It works equally well with most pots and pans and even snooty pots (like SOME people I've heard about), but I prefer a cast iron dutch oven.

You can serve it however you want to, but I prefer it with some grated cheese and raw onion sprinkled on top and tostadas or maybe saltine crackers on the side.

Sounds like you could start your own religion, Ron....The Organized Church of Buffalo Hump Chili Eaters, but please don't desecrate our

new church with those magic beans.

And Ron...??? What are snooty pots? Are those pots with soot on 'em that got uppity?