Posted: 1/11/2009 1:21:24 PM EDT
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OK, I'm making a batch of chili and its too tomato-y/acidic because I added a small can of tomato paste to thicken it.
I was thinking of adding a tbsp of honey to cut it down a little. What say the experts*? (*If you add beans to your chili just go to hell and die.) |
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baking soda, add a VERY little bit, Just enough to fit on the point of a steak knife. Stir it into the sauce. You’ll see a lot of small white bubbles all over. They are caused by a chemical reaction that actually nutralizes some of the acid in the sauce. When the bubbles subside taste and check both for acidity and any change to the taste. If you need to add a bit more baking soda you can but caution is the word of the day. Best to do this in very small steps because once you add it in you can’t take any of it back out.
sugar and honey basiclly only sweeten, dont actually nutralize the acids though I am sure others will argue. |
| I won't apologize for liking beans in my chili, and for those that may be interested in thickening their chili without having this problem, pureed beans will thicken it up very nicely without adding much in calories. alternatively, I would consider adding a little sugar and seeing if that helped. Chef's idea is pretty cool, the baking soda volcano... |
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If anyone's interested, I used this chili mix...
http://www.cinchili.com/ My meat was leftovers... smoked pork ribs black forest ham spicy italian sausage steak au poivre Thanks Chef; that baking soda did the trick. Used 1/8 tsp. |
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Quoted:
If anyone's interested, I used this chili mix... http://www.cinchili.com/ My meat was leftovers... smoked pork ribs black forest ham spicy italian sausage steak au poivre Thanks Chef; that baking soda did the trick. Used 1/8 tsp.  CHEF
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Quoted:
Proper chili is thickened with masa herina, tomato paste is for a deep tomato flavor in a quick fix recipe for "all day simmered" taste. I know. For the life of me, I don't know what compelled me to grab the can of paste as I have an opened bag of masa. |
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When I first saw the name "cinchili" I thought the website would be about Cincinnati chili! Glad I was wrong! I don't mind Cincinnati chili but it isn't "chili"! |
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Sugar won't do squat except make it cheaper. The acid taste is obviously due to, well, acid. Duh. To reduce the acidity, you want to reduce the acid content. The easiest and safest way to do that is with baking soda. The sodium carbonate will react with the acid to neutralize it. Be very careful to only add a tiny bit to figure out how much you need. We're talking a teaspoon to a big pot, maybe less. If you put in too much, you will ruin the taste. |
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Quoted:
OK, I'm making a batch of chili and its too tomato-y/acidic because I added a small can of tomato paste to thicken it. I was thinking of adding a tbsp of honey to cut it down a little. What say the experts*? (*If you add beans to your chili just go to hell and die.) Next time add a small can of tomato "sauce" instead of tomato "paste". Not quite so much tomato. Even a small can of tomato paste is a very concentrated form of tomato. "Old West" chili recipies rarely had tomato in them. They were mostly a meat stew with a lot of ground chiles in them. I add a little tomato but not too much. |
musta been making "chili" for a bunch of hot dogs... that dog food "chili" stuff never has beans in it just saying ...
yup, gotta nuetralise the acid with a base, the "just add sugar" is some crap that someones' great great garndma came up with somewhere along the line and passed down as gospel, it's load of crap. it can and most likely will change the flavor some but does not affect the acid content and therefor often the indigestion incurred afterwards. i like to add a bit of brown sugar to my chili, also a big +1 to those whom suggested more cumin, hard to go wrong with cumin. but hell, my opinion is worth exactly as much as you paid for it. K. |