No no no! I don’t know who started this fucking thing, Cincinnati chili has never contained cocoa. I literally live here, and I’ve heard it from tons of transplants and natives alike. No chili parlor here uses it, no recipes I’ve seen use it.
Not a Cincinnati guy, but I have eaten chili there and made my own, and I’m gonna second that
But I do add some cocoa powder to my regular chili recipe, and people rave about it. Sounds a bit weird, but consider, for a momento the existence of Mexican Mole sauces that often contain chocolate. I’m not adding much, it doesn’t taste chocolatey, but it does add something nice to the whole flavor profile.
Adding it to Cincinnati style chili wouldn’t be traditional, but I could definitely see it working very well with the flavor profile if you didn’t care about making it authentic
Cumin to ground it.
Perhaps a tsp of cocoa for some mystery Cincinnati.
No no no! I don’t know who started this fucking thing, Cincinnati chili has never contained cocoa. I literally live here, and I’ve heard it from tons of transplants and natives alike. No chili parlor here uses it, no recipes I’ve seen use it.
Not a Cincinnati guy, but I have eaten chili there and made my own, and I’m gonna second that
But I do add some cocoa powder to my regular chili recipe, and people rave about it. Sounds a bit weird, but consider, for a momento the existence of Mexican Mole sauces that often contain chocolate. I’m not adding much, it doesn’t taste chocolatey, but it does add something nice to the whole flavor profile.
Adding it to Cincinnati style chili wouldn’t be traditional, but I could definitely see it working very well with the flavor profile if you didn’t care about making it authentic
Oh yeah? Well I live in Cleveland! Here’s some chocolate, because we have the better food! Not to mention the romanburger!
Hence, *mystery*….