♪ ♪ ♪ They say ye'are what you eat, so I don't eat chicken feet ♪ ♪ But I love me summa' Grandma's pickled beets ♪ ♪ Well, cut it up, put it'na pan, ♪ ♪ throw it on these sholders see where it lands, ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ Maters, taters, beans and corn, ♪ ♪ the cow's in the barn and the sheep's bee shorn ♪ ♪ Kids in the barnyard ♪ ♪ chasin' Grandpa's chickens, chickens, chickens ♪ ♪ Spices, slices, cuts and dices, ♪ ♪ gonna slash your grocery prices, ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ Help you grow your garden good, ♪ ♪ with recipes to suit your mood ♪ ♪ Try some grub you've never tried before, ♪ ♪ 'fore, 'fore ♪ ♪ Smash it with a wooden mallet ♪ ♪ gonna educate yer palette ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ In Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen ♪ ♪ We gonna all cook some good night y'all ♪ Hello and welcome to the Farmer's kitchen.

We've moved outside tonight, Mrs. Farmer.

-It's nice out tonight.

-It's a beautiful night.

Still a little bit warm, but you know what?

We're starting to get those cool evenings.

What's that make you crave?

Outdoor cooking like chili or... Soups, stews, things like that, oh man.

Recently we did a live show, and we had a bunch of folks there and I wanted to talk about the history of chili because it's that time of year.

Nowadays online, people have a conversation starter to try to get some views and try to get people talking and let's say, can you put sugar in cornbread?

Go.

And you watch people just fight and rip each other apart.

If you're arguing over food, you need a new hobby.

-That's right.

-I grew up in the country in some of the more remote areas of Kentucky, in Mason County, Carter County, I mean, out in the middle of nowhere.

My mother grew up in the country and she put sugar in her cornbread, and occasionally you'll see somebody say, "You ain't from around here if you put sugar in your cornbread."

-Is that how they say it?

-"Are you taking your man card?"

"You're not from the south."

There are no rules.

And if people say something like that, that's just silly.

With chili let me tell you this though, if you're in Texas say you got a good recipe, you're from Kentucky, and you want to go to a Texas chili cook off.

- Uh-oh.

-If you go down there and you got a can of beans with you, the only trophy you're coming back with is that can of beans.

-Really?

-They will not allow you... -Really?

No beans.

-in Texas, no.

No beans.

Really?

No beans.

Okay.

That's old stuff.

Then you see somebody say around here because Cincinnati is not too far from here.

They'll say, can you put spaghetti in chili?

Go.

"Well, I can tell if you ain't from around here, you can't be putting that spaghetti in your chili or taking your man card."

-So, you see things like that.

- Right.

People love to argue, people love to fight, and we don't do that, but I tell you what it made me do.

It made me search for the truth.

I went into some rabbit holes on this chili thing.

This is "a" history of chili, not "the" history of chili.

-It's "a" history of chili.

-Okay.

Here's what I found out.

Are you interested?

I'm very interested.

I'm going to start in the 1600s.

Okay.

Wow.

In the north of Spain in a Franciscan abbey.

What does that have to do with modern day chili?

Nicki: What?

Tim: The oldest reference I could find for a chili, or chili con carne chili with meat, was from Spain.

Nicki: Really?

Tim: Sister Mary of Jesus of Ágreda, Spain, she was a Franciscan abbess, okay?

She claimed that she by bilocated into the new country, into New Spain, into the Texas Mexico area and she claimed to have a lot of interaction - with Jumano Indians -Nicki: Really?

Tim: who were from that area, and she had a recipe of what they were eating at the time, which included chili peppers, tomatoes, onions and venison.

Nicki: Really?

Sounds like a good start on chili to me.

It does.

It sounds good.

They said she would go into some sort of hypnotic state.

She would have a blue glow around her, and she would disappear for hours.

Are you making this up?

-No.

No, no, no.

-All documented.

- Okay.

-Well sort of, written about.

-Okay.

Written about.

And when missionaries showed up, to witness to the Jumano Indians during that period of time they said, well, there's already been a woman in blue who has appeared here.

I'm not going to say it couldn't have happened.

-It is what it is.

- Okay.

That's right.

So anyway, as I dug further... What are the classic things that you find?

What do you usually have spice-wise in your chili, in today's chili?

Cumin... That's the magic word, right there.

That's what I was looking for.

Now, after she died in the 1760s and after King Philip IV died, King Philip V was looking for folks, volunteers to leave the Canary Islands and go into the Texas, Mexico area.

He sent five families, they volunteered, close to modern day San Antonio.

Now if you ask anybody from Texas, San Antonio is where the birth of chili was.

Really?

So, all of a sudden you have Canary Islanders with cumin, which is an old-world spice, taking some local dishes with the chili peppers, and everything, and adding cumin.

Could that have been the magic?

-I don't know.

-Maybe.

But you think about that.

That's an old world spice, they would use that in their recipes there.

It started to be documented in the 1820s, they talked about this dish.

Now, Texans call it A Bowl of Red -Nicki: Okay.

-Tim: A Bowl of Red.

Nicki: Because there's no beans, - it's just red.

-Tim: A Bowl of Red.

Now was that due to the fact that there were peppers in it?

A lot of times they say there's more peppers in it than there was meat, and that was a staple way back then.

So, we have folks from the Canary Islands bringing over cumin, we already have the established dish according to Barry.

There's the basics, you add a little cumin to the chili peppers and the meat and the onions and tomatoes.

That's the secret.

Cumin's the secret.

I believe we're starting to find the roots of chili.

Yeah.

So, my first experience with chili as a kid that I remember- Now, mom made a mean chili.

Mom made great chili.

But I remember going somewhere and I think it was a pool hall.

I had my pool hall phase where I thought it was a pool shark and I would try -- And sometimes I had some really, really, really good food and an old buddy of mine who's passed on now, he tried my chili one time, he says, "Farmer, that's pool hall chili."

So, some pool hall he had been to -- I don't know if it's the same one, he said, "That's like that pool hall chili."

What's pool hall chili?

To me, it was like a hybrid of Texas chili and Cincinnati chili.

Now, one thing that I find about cooking chili is I want to take my yellow, sweet onions and I want to put those in first, one-and-a-half or two small onions.

So, I got a little bit of oil on our pan there.

I want to get all the sugars and all the taste and a lot of people put their hamburger and their onions together, I want to take my onions and I want to get every bit of those juices and the sweetness and turn them until they almost get translucent, start to get a little brown.

So, I bleed those flavors out and it starts to caramelize, you get all those sugars out, then you put the meat in.

I want that taste of those sautéed onions, that's what I want more than anything.

So, we got our onions, turn it back with our one pound of burger.

Oh, I wish she could smell this.

You can use venison.

Now, the great thing about cooking a pot of chili at deer camp, or bear camp, or wherever you may be on the lake, fishing or camping, is your beans are cooked, your tomatoes are canned, the longest time that you've got is browning your beef and your onions.

Now, the longer it cooks obviously, the better acquainted it becomes as my grandfather used to say but if you're starving to death, you can whip up the bowl pretty fast.

And you can tell I don't have a whole lot of fat in there, but what fat I do have, I'm going to leave in there for taste.

Look where we're at, we're ready for some tomatoes.

So, when I'm making my chili, my deer camp chili and I've won some contests with my chili.

You have.

In fact, everybody that has stolen my recipe has won some contest with that.

You made me some chili, one time I used your recipe.

-I won.

-You did win - I did win.

That's right.

-You won.

But it's top secret except for everybody watching tonight.

So, one thing I want to do once I get my meat and my onions going, I want to come back with about three cups of diced tomatoes.

I used to put tomato sauce, but now I put in tomato juice, and I'll even use some stuff that you can buy in the store because it's got sodium in it.

Now, look what we've got here and now I'm going to do my seasoning, I've got some salt in there too.

Now, when it comes to my mix, I didn't measure this specifically, but when it comes to my mix, it generally ends up being about a half of cup.

In no particular order, the basics are of course, chili powder, onion powder, paprika, cumin.

Those are some very common things as well as cayenne pepper.

Now, what I like to do, is I like to make a mix that I can carry with me.

If we're on the road somewhere and we have a 10- or 12-inch cast iron dish, we can set it up on a grill, we can set up on the ground, cook anywhere you want to go, you can have a bag of charcoal and go to town.

I like it pre-mixed.

In a very short amount of time.

Here's what we did, here's a shot of us cooking for that live group on top of a bourbon barrel.

- It works.

- That's right.

Now, I've gone light on the cayenne here, because she likes hers a little less zingy than I do.

Now, that right there if you had your spices mixed just right that may qualify for a Texas chili right there.

Then when I get all that going, I'm going to come back with roughly 14, 16 ounces, I like chili beans, I like kidney beans in my chili.

Also, you can put some black beans in there.

I like black beans.

- You like black beans.

- I love black beans.

What can you put in chili and what can you not put in chili?

-Anything you want, right?

-Anything you want.

There's a puffball sitting there.

Kelli found that puffball on her farm.

I'm probably going to put some mushrooms in here.

-Is it against the law?

- That sounds good.

Tim: I'm going to show you what you want to look for in your puffball.

This is a giant puffball, you want this mushroom to be absolutely solid white on the inside.

If it's not, a lot of times when they start to turn yellow and brown could have beatles get in there and staying which is really nasty.

But that is in a really good shape Nicki: We've had that in a week, in the fridge.

Tim; This is a week.

And I guess what happens when you find one and you want to keep it, you know, you got a recipe coming up, you're going to use it in, put it in a refrigerator.

Peter Ninneman told me this, he said, "Farmer put them in a paper bag."

Nicki: Exactly.

Yes.

Tim: So, put your mushrooms in a paper bag.

You know how you're going to use them.

If you find some chicken of the woods, make sure you get them when they're nice and tender.

If you wait till they're all woody, they're not any good to eat.

What should your chili taste like?

-Like you want it to taste.

-Right.

There are no laws about what you put in things, but there are so many opportunities to make things taste good and it depends on what you like.

If you don't like this, just don't put it in.

Something else I put in my chili, is just a tad of coriander, and like I said, little bit of cinnamon, little bit of sugar, and there was something missing for years from the pool hall chili that I was trying to recreate.

There was a yeasty flavor, I just couldn't place.

One night somebody had a beer open, it's probably Nicki and I poured some of that beer in there and that was the magic ingredient to the pool hall chili.

Now, let's let that simmer a while.

So as if it wasn't already complicated, here's what happens back in the early '20s in Cincinnati.

Tom and John Kiradjieff, brothers, they came into Cincinnati, and here's what you're going to find fascinating, 1912, 1913, the Balkan Wars began, and what happened in Macedonia and parts of Greece, people fled, people didn't want any part of that.

Those brothers got the heck out of there, they came to Cincinnati.

Who else came over in 1912, 1913 from Greece?

Nicki: My grandfather.

Tim: Emmanuel Colin Kareaz -Nicki: That's right.

-Tim: What did he do?

He ended up with a restaurant in Pennsylvania.

So here comes these brothers, they located next to a burlesque theater.

They named their chili, Empress Chili, after the theater, still in cans today.

But if you go have Cincinnati chili, you'll start hearing really weird things like two-way, three-way, four-way, even five-way, depending on what you get on it, depending on if you have it on spaghetti, if you have cheese on it, if you have onions on it, if you have beans on it.

So, you have them all, it's five-way chili.

In 1893, at the Chicago's World Fair, they had chili stands, 1893 at the World's Fair.

-Nicki: Really?

-Tim: In Chicago.

Tim: They started having San Antonio chili stands.

Next thing, you know, everybody has got chili joints in the 1920s.

When we're in San Antonio, everywhere you go, they've got the original chili, because real chili was here.

And really, if you look at it, that's probably right near where you really got your folks ask Sister Mary.

Nicki: There you go.

It's been a heck of a year for mushrooms.

We've found puffballs, we've found American Caesar's, remember with pear?

Nicki: Yeah.

It's been fun.

Tim: We have found chicken of the woods, -we've found so many species.

-Right.

Edible species.

I kind of knew where one was the other day, -and we had the grandkids over.

- That's right.

I was going to see who had the eagle eye And I got Sammy and Taryn together -They were excited.

-We went to the woods to see if we could find us some chicken of the woods.

Once we got there, spontaneously, I thought, man, we could build a fire right here.

I'm going to show these kids how you can cook anywhere if you skill it, and that's exactly what we did.

[music playing] Tim: As we sat in the woods and watched the deer walk by, guess who just showed up out of nowhere, Sammy and Taryn.

Sammy and Taryn.

Look at Taryn, Taryn's like -- how old are you, Taryn?

-11.

-11.

You'll be driving in a few years.

Sammy, your teeth are growing in, you're looking like a big handsome boy.

-I'm 5.

-You're 5.

I was -- you know, I'm 7.

I'm 7.

I'm 7.

I put gel in my hair.

-You did what?

-I put gel in my hair.

You put gel in your hair?

Is that why you look so cool?

All right, here's what we're going to do today.

Remember we talked about mushrooms Taryn?

-Yeah.

-Taryn, by the way is going to be a pretty good little cook.

She made a macaroni and cheese, and people were writing in and saying "That's really good."

And that was really your recipe, right?

How about that?

When are you going to come up with a recipe?

Are you just going to be like a GQ guy with gel in your hair?

I'm going to cook like fish.

A fish?

You know what I'm going fishing tomorrow, we'll catch some.

I'll tell you what we're looking for, look here, I found some of those the other day.

What those are, the common name for those are chicken of the woods.

A lot of people say if you take them and you batter them up and you fry them, it tastes like chicken of the woods, -taste like chicken.

-I'm gonna get the bucket.

No, hang on, hang on, hang on.

We're not there yet, not there yet.

As we look around that kind of tree right there behind Kelli is a cedar tree, okay?

It's like a pine-- You've ever heard of a pine tree and a cedar tree?

We don't want to look for those around there, we want to look for an oak tree.

Typically, these are on the base of an oak tree or an oak stump.

So, what I think we should do is to take a walk up there by the deer, and look at the base of some oak trees and see if we can find anything that's orange and yellow and it's called... Taryn: Chicken of the woods.

All right.

So, Sammy is getting the bowl.

A beautiful homemade wooden bowl.

You want one more look at it, or do you think you know what it looks like?

I actually know what it looks like.

Yeah?

We're good to go.

All right, let's go look for mushroom.

Let's go this way first.

[music playing] Tim: I don't know if we're going to find it or not guys, they're usually at the base of the trees.

[music playing] Oh, is that one?

-Where?

-Right there.

You got it.

How about that, do you see it, Sammy?

Just grab him and break him from the very bottom.

-Oh, yeah.

-Isn't that good, get on the very bottom of it.

-There you go.

-That will be to this?

Just get into the bottom.

Sammy: Great, great job.

Tim: Ta-dah.

We got some.

[music playing] So, Taryn has an eagle eye and she spotted them from afar.

Do you like onions?

- A lot?

-Yes.

I eat them all the time.

Purple onions, actually.

-You really do like onions?

-Nope.

-You don't like onions?

-No.

You will learn to like them, in your older age, I bet you.

Now, if I took these, say I sautéed them up, like put them in a little butter with some onions and just turned it over and cook.

-Do you think it will be good?

-Yeah.

-Would you try it?

-Yeah.

To me, that's the best way to eat them.

You can put onions or garlic.

I like them better with onions.

Would you try them, Taryn?

-Nah.

-Just a little bite?

You don't have to eat the onions-- But I like the onions, actually.

I always put onions and mushrooms.

Tim: Come on Taryn, put some of them in too.

Taryn: You want me to put the other half in?

Tim: Mm-hm.

I'm going to put all the rest in.

Tim: Okay, drop that whole thing right here.

Perfect.

Sammy: That really taste good.

Are you sniffing it?

Yeah.

It tastes -- it smells good.

Tim: Now more pepper, more salt.

Is it chicken's taste?

-Yum.

-Oh, let me try.

[music playing] And just like that we got a snack.

Yeah, we got a snack going.

-Sammy: No, this is your plate.

-I just ate some.

My-yum.

I'm going to try some.

Tim: Try by that.

-Now blow it because it... -Oh, it smells like chicken.

Smells like it.

It's good.

I haven't it yet but... Tim: Well, then how do you know it's good.

What do you think?

I never tried that before.

I do like it.

Tastes like chicken?

Try one of your onions.

I love onions.

Tim: Try your onion.

-How is that?

-I like onions.

-Isn't that good?

-Yeah.

And guys, that's why you always carry a skillet and an onion in your pocket and some salt and pepper and some charcoal -- -And butter.

-And butter.

And forks and paper plates.

Always carry those with you in the woods.

If I was to like, maybe I didn't use hair gel but like hair mousse, do you think I could be as cool as you?

Uh, no.

[laughs] I tried, I tried.

I just can't pull it off.

Sammy: Wow, this is good food.

[music playing] They were pretty fired up about going out the next day, weren't they?

You were actually fishing and they're like, let's find mushrooms for papa.

We searched for hours, they found nothing.

-It was fully dry.

-It was dry.

So, we're glad we found them the day before.

Well, you know what I think Sammy liked them.

Taryn is kind of at that teenager stage, she didn't want to try anything unusual.

But... -Sammy ate all of them.

- Sammy ate a bunch of them.

Good eater.

So, back to Mary.

Now, listen to this, she died in 1665.

In the early 1900s, they exhumed her body, put it back, they re-exhumed her body in 1989 or somewhere thereabouts and her body was almost perfect, incorruptible bodies as they call it, like someone who sometimes attains sainthood, they have this incorruptible body that doesn't seem to decompose.

So, I'm not going to doubt her chili recipe, I mean, she's still hanging out, you know, several 100 years later in good shape.

-She's got some good chili.

-That's what I'm saying.

So, at this point, we got our chili.

We're not in Texas.

Obviously, there's beans there.

At this point, "Can you put cheese on it?"

"Can you put sour cream on it?"

-That's what I like.

-You can put whatever you want.

-How do you like yours?

-I like sour cream.

-Nicki: A big... -Tim: A big old dab of it.

Nicki: And then a little bit cheese, how about you?

Tim: You know what, I like that too.

Now, this is what I would consider mild chili for you, it does have some cayenne in it.

Thank you.

I like it a little milder.

Tim: And again, I put just a little bit of coriander in it and if you want to, you can get you some smoked paprika, that'll really change the profile of that, it's up to you.

There are no rules unless you're in a contest.

We going sour.

Yeah, that's the perfect chili.

But to me that's what I like.

You know, when I was a kid, I would take crackers, I would take Saltine Crackers and I would crunch them up by the hundreds and you're talking about a meal And mom made some mean chilies I remember.

See if that suits you.

It got smoky flavour now too doesn't it?

Nicki: Over the fire makes it.

There's something about cooking over the fire.

It is in -- oh, that's good.

Yeah.

Believe it or not, our half hour is almost up and as we make our way through this world, -we talk to a lot of folks -Yes, we do.

on Facebook, YouTube, all over the world.

And the one thing that I would like to keep in mind for us and everyone else, if we can, -let's be kind to each other.

-Right.

That's one thing that we could all do in this world and work on it every day is to be kind to each other.

There's enough strife in the world, we don't need to be fighting about food.

That's right.

If you like mushrooms on your ham sandwich...

Put them on.

Or if you like squirrel brains in your eggs.

it's all good.

-Yum.

-You do you.

We'll will do us and let's be happy for each other.

That being said, if they did want to step up on our Facebook page, I know it's entirely, terribly difficult, how would they do that?

-Nicki: You hit like.

-Tim: That's correct.

Tim: If you like our recipes and you want to check out our recipes, where would you go, Mrs. Farmer?

Nicki: I'd go to timfarmerscountrykitchen.com.

Subscribe.

Hit that little red button.

That way, if you like what you're seeing, you'll be informed when the next new show comes out, which will be very soon.

That being said, I think we should probably add some chili Mrs. Farmer -I like that idea.

-Because it's all about... -Good times.

-Good friends.

-And really good eats.

-We'll see you next week on Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen.

Yum.

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