Need a paprikash recipe.

Hi there,
Hope I've not sounded too authoritarian, or dictatorial, but you DID say you wanted one "like you had in Hungary." If you follow my recipe, you will.

Thank you, Ian. The recipes look very interesting to me.

Grin!!!

I thought I could get you all going with the cinnamon question.

I have to admit to being a purist in my brain, and sometimes a lot less so with my tastebuds. Actually that applies as much to wine as to food, but the former is not really on topic here.

As for cinnamon in chillies. The "blech" reaction (Hi David, fellow Riesling lover) is rather what I expected, and reminds me of my good friend (now) Alain, who lives in Brest in Brittany. When I first knew him, we crossed swords repeatedly and he got extremely heated about the thought of ruining perfectly good scallops with BACON!!!

Eventually, I discovered that what he'd eaten were kebabs in which scallops were interspersed with blocks of the same size (we're not talking queen or bay scallops, but pecten maximus) of a cured product sold in France under the name of "bacon" and which is powerfully and synthetically (probably) smoked, over salted, and quite disgusting. To cook the bacon, the kebabs were grilled for ever, and of course the scallops were woefully overcooked and totally swamped by the bacon.

When I explained that what I was thinking of were the same scallops, wrapped in a very thin rasher of a mild cured (uncooked as is all bacon in the UK) streaky (from the belly) bacon and then grilled just enough to lightly cook the scallops, his interest was piqued, and he realised that maybe, JUST maybe, I wasn't the barbarian Anglo-Saxon that he'd taken me for.

So it is with cinnamon in chilli (IMO). A tiny - and I mean tiny - pinch of cinnamon, added near the end of the cooking can nicely "round off" the rough edges of flavours. If you can taste it, its too much. But leave it out, and the chilli is less good.

So you see..... purist in thought and pragmatist on the mouth.

And Bill and Mark, thanks very much. You're both too kind.

Ian,

What's your take on beans in chili?

Chortle.... the example had occurred to me.

Serve them beside - usually.

I use a recipe based on one by eminent chili head and generally disreputable friend Uncle 'Dirty' Dave. But I do have about 75 other recipes lurking around in my database. When I feel like a good laugh, I read through them from time to time.

Can I ask you one.... assuming you don't come from Cincinatti, what do you feel about cinnamon in them?

I have never put cinnamon in any of my various chilies but I just may have to try that some time. Ever tried clove in your chili? For football parties I often make a chili that includes stout beer and just a small touch of clove. It's wonderful how just two ingredients can add about 8 additional layers of flavor to the dish.

All this talk of aromatic spices going into chili reminds me of a chili cook-off I witnessed at my workplace many moons ago. One participant, from the UK, decided to enter a curry in the competition. Despite its last place showing, it was probably my favorite dish of the competition

We do make a decidedly non-traditional venison-black bean "chili" using a dollop of our homemade jerk paste. No cinnamon or cloves in it, but a good deal of Jamaican pimento (aka allspice) as well as black pepper, thyme, sage and several habaneros. As delicious as it is, I'd never try passing it off as authentic chili, however.

Mark Lipton

[David M. Bueker]

Ian - good comment regarding not being able to actually taste the cinnamon. THe 3 times I have had chili with cinnamon there was so much of it that it was a notable flavor element. That was disgusting to me.

The cinnamon thing is interesting.

Any pipers out there? Sometimes the use of a particular spice or herb, in just the right amount is like a 'grace note' to a piper - you know something is there, it would be different if it were missing, but you aren't quite sure what it is, a 'je ne sais quoi' that elevates the performance (food or music) from what it would otherwise be.

I've tasted or done similar things with other spices,as well as chocolate or cocoa powder, and probably a few things that don't come readily to mind right now.

I've played around with "subliminal" spicing and I think it can be quite effective.

When I am making a soup I will often add hot pepper and aim to get it JUST below where you actually notice that the dish is hot. If it is in there, but not burning your tongue, it gives the dish a brightness and interest that is hard to get any other way.

I have used Tamari as a subliminal (great word Frank) taste.

Hi Folk

Ian - good comment regarding not being able to actually taste the cinnamon. THe 3 times I have had chili with cinnamon there was so much of it that it was a notable flavor element. That was disgusting to me.

And it would be foul for me to. I really like the expression "subliminal seasoning" if I may take Frank's excellent "subliminal spicing" and run with it.

Not pointing the finger at any country or anyone here, but I've very often found that otherwise sensitive and intelligent cooks seem to have a complete blind spot when it comes to seasoning (spices, herbs, even salt, pepper and sugar) they seem to feel that if 1 small sprig of thyme is "good" 3 large sprigs of it is "better". And almost always it isn't.

You won't know this, any of you, but I make quite a lot of my own sausages. I started when I moved to France, because no matter how much I like Toulouse Sausages (and I do, very much), there are moments when a real British sausage is what I need. Well to season these, one uses quite a lot of different spices and herbs, and while a sausage that has so much sage that it dominates has its place from time to time, most of the time, I find that the mix of seasonings (and that runs the gamut from salt, through the obvious pepper, to mace and or nutmeg and thyme) that works best is one where you really find it hard to say what have been used.

I make a pretty tasty cepe consommé, dead simple, just simmer dried cepes with duck stock until it's reduced to 2/3 of the original volume, then season with salt and pepper and add cognac at the end. Now that's a total pig to season with pepper, because it really MUST be done subliminally. If you can taste the pepper, you've gone too far, and there's nothing you can do to correct it.

Anyway... this is a Loooooonnnnnggggg way from paprikás, innit. Apologies to the OP for the hijack.