West Virginia Hotdog Chili Sauce

Katharine had an early morning appointment at the doctor, so I took her. On the way home we stopped at the grocery to restock the fridge due to the defrost heater not working. When it went out we cooked as much as we could and tried saving it, but lost most of that as well. You know waiting on the appliance repair service takes time. We don't eat Hot Dogs very often because even if they are fat free they have lots of sodium; but I bought some Turkey Dogs.
I came across the recipe below from Mountain Breeze Kitchen when I posted the "shucky" Bean aka Leather Britches recipes. this week. The recipe is for a large amount of Hotdog Chili Sauce. I bought a pound of ground beef with little fat and adjusted the recipe and really really liked it. I went light on the cayenne pepper. The recipe called for water and I added less than a can of Beef Broth I had in the fridge. I hope you enjoy preparing this and sharing it with your family/friends.
Gary/Louisville


West Virginia Hotdog Chili

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup shortening
2 TBSP. onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
5 lbs. ground beef
1 1/2 TBSP. paprika
2 1/2 TBSP. chili powder
1 1/2 TBSP. black pepper
1 TBSP. cayenne pepper (can use 1/2 TBSP. - 2 TBSP.)
2 TBSP. salt
2 1/2 TBSP. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 - 1 cup cracker meal

DIRECTIONS:
Saute meat, garlic and onions till browned
Add spices, stir well
Add about a quart of water and cook over low heat for 3-4 hours
Add a little water occasionally to keep from sticking
When chili is cooked, remove from heat and add 1/2 to 1 cup of cracker meal & stir well
Another trick that you can do is place the pot in the bottom of the kitchen sink and run an electric hand mixer around briefly - this makes for a finer ground meat texture & is closer to the "real thing"
After the first batch you will learn to vary (slightly) the blend of peppers and cumin...the cinnamon is critical but your chili should never have a cinnamon taste.

This chili freezes well and you may cut the recipe in half, but NO more