the chili is a mystery

I made hot-dog chili tonight: pretty much just ground meat, ground chili peppers, onion flakes, spices, seasonings,* brown sugar, a bit of sriracha ketchup, and a tiny hit of potato-starch slurry to thicken things up ever so slightly. Since I can't really smell or taste much (I'm at about 10%, I'd say), I have no clue whether my chili is any good. I might take the chili in to work and let my boss and Korean coworker try it. If either guy thinks it's strange, I might hold off and just eat the chili myself (it won't matter since I can't taste it that strongly).

My senses of smell and taste are radically diminished, so I could smell and taste the chili a tiny bit. What I smelled and tasted seemed... reasonable, but there was a moment in the cooking process when everything smelled a little strange. I'm not sure why. I tried not to go too heavy on any one spice or seasoning, but I'll know more when I run my chili by the boss and coworker Thursday afternoon.

For meat, I ground up some skirt steak and some Korean pancetta (which was for the fat content, but I could catch a whiff of pork as I was cooking the meat). I divided the ground meat into two portions—one for the chili and the other for the burgers. I froze the burger meat and concentrated on making the chili. I could jazz the chili up with some baked beans; they sell mid-grade beans at the downstairs grocery in my apartment building. The sweet, ketchupy sauce could help round out the chili's flavor if needed.

I'll write an update after I get some reactions to the chili I've made. Making food when you can't smell or taste is not fun. It's a bit like trying to destroy the Death Star without the help of a targeting computer. You kind of have to use the Force.

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*Spices and seasoning: salt, pepper, chipotle powder, cumin, chili flakes, garlic powder, onion flakes, oregano... bog-standard ingredients in a typical chili.