Copycat Skyline Cincinnati Chili -- The Bean Pot Keeps Its Own Calendar

February. Vermont February is honest about what it is and what it intends. This February is no different: cold, mostly clear, the kind of light that is bright and gives no warmth and illuminates everything in the yard with a surgical precision that I find beautiful and which I understand most people do not find beautiful. I find it beautiful. I was born in Vermont in January. I was made for this light.

The bean pot went on Saturday, as always. The ritual has not changed in decades: salt pork rendered, beans soaked overnight, the whole pot covered and into a 325-degree oven for eight hours. By five o'clock the pot is done and the kitchen smells like it has always smelled on Saturday afternoons in winter, and I eat the beans with the brown bread from the coffee cans and I do not wish I were anywhere else or eating anything else. The simplest satisfactions are the most reliable ones. This is something I have known for forty years and keep discovering again every Saturday in February.

The news from the world is beginning to be about a virus in China that is moving outward. I read about it in the newspaper — I have taken a physical newspaper for forty years and I intend to continue taking a physical newspaper — and I think about it with the portion of my attention that the news deserves, which is real but not consuming. Vermont has been through things before. The farmhouse has been through things before. I am not an alarmist. I am a man who has been through a war and a draft and a recession and the deaths of people I loved, and who has learned that the appropriate response to developing news is to pay attention, to prepare where preparation is possible, and to make good bean soup in the meantime.

Six weeks until maple season. The trees are dormant and full of sap and ready. So am I.

The bean pot is the anchor of my Saturday, and it will remain so — but a man can have more than one anchor. I came across this Cincinnati-style chili some years ago and found in it the same virtues I prize in my baked beans: time, patience, layered spice, and the kind of seriousness that only a long simmer produces. If you are new to Cincinnati chili, set aside what you think you know about chili and pay attention to the cinnamon and the allspice; they are not mistakes. Neither is the bean pot on the back burner while this one occupies the front.

Copycat Skyline Cincinnati Chili

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs lean ground beef
• 2 cups water
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 can (15 oz) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed (for serving)
• Cooked spaghetti, shredded cheddar cheese, and oyster crackers for serving

Instructions

1. Brown the beef. In a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, add the ground beef and water. Break the meat apart with a wooden spoon — Cincinnati chili has a finer texture than typical chili, so work it into small crumbles as it cooks. Do not drain.
2. Build the base. Stir in the tomato sauce, onion, garlic, chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, cloves, and cayenne. Add the apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf, salt, and black pepper. Stir to combine thoroughly.
3. Simmer low and slow. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chili has thickened and the flavors have melded. Remove the bay leaf.
4. Adjust seasoning. Taste and adjust salt, cayenne, and chili powder as needed. The spice profile should be warm and complex, not sharp.
5. Warm the beans. In a small saucepan, warm the kidney beans over low heat with a pinch of salt. These are served alongside, not cooked into the chili.
6. Serve Cincinnati-style. Ladle chili over a bed of cooked spaghetti. Top with a generous mound of finely shredded sharp cheddar. Serve beans on the side and oyster crackers nearby. For a full “5-way,” add diced raw onion alongside the beans.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 420 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 6g | Sodium: 780mg