Today we’re testing chili myths. What’s the best way to make your chili? Do you add beans? Do you not add beans? Do you put a lid on it? Or do you leave that thing uncovered? Do you use cornstarch or masa? Or are all these things just arbitrary myths peddled from chef to chef waiting to be busted? To find out, we’ve assembled a highly trained team of super chill culinary professionals. To put those myths to the test. I’m just chilling here. It’s supposed to be chill like — Okay, we’ll workshop that one. Because this is Myth Munchers! Myth Munchers! Yeah! Take off your sunglasses. You look ridiculous. It’s rude to wear them indoors. You gotta match me. Oh my god, these lights are so bright. Are they always is bright? We gotta make a lot of chilis today, cause we gotta bust chili myths. First up, how do you get the most even cooking? Next, we’re gonna go to best texture. Myth number three, what’s the best thickener, and then finally, we’re gonna see what makes the best taste. We go beans or no beans. The nation of Texas, rise up and shower us with negative comments if we have beans for a chili. Myth Munchers, you think we can do it? Yeah! Me too, man. If we can’t, what the hell are we doing here? Write down all your guesses for what’s gonna make the best method on those there cards. While you’re doing that, here’s my pitch. You go into a potluck, this is Josh’s special chili dog upside down cake, hear me out. You can weed out all the trypophobic people in your life because you got all the little hot dog holes in there. I don’t like it. Were your parents together growing up or was your dad divorced? Um, second grade, they got divorced. Yeah, yeah, that’s why we’re making chili. Chili is the official national food of divorce data stand. Chili doesn’t have to be bad. No, it doesn’t. We’re going to prove that. And the first step to proving that is testing whether or not you quote, remove the meat or leave the meat. Now, I’d never heard of this myth until we cooked a divorced at frying pan chili with Jordan Morris. And he was cooking from a HelloFresh recipe that said to remove the meat. And he did it. Now we’re going to test side by side and see which one makes it better. Doesn’t make any sense. Doesn’t make no damn sense. Keep the meat in. Well, we’re going to see. It might make sense. It might make sense. What would be the benefit of removing the meat? The only reason I can think of is like, a even cook on the veggies. And then also, the veggies will steam with the beef instead of sauté, if you want more of like a sautéed veg. But like, I don’t know. You’re simmering it for a really long time. It’s all gonna be fine. Like that’s not the point of chili. But like the, the base of chili is really made in the early steps, right? So the keys that you want, you want some browning on your beef. You want to toast all the spices, all the chili powder, pepper, all that stuff in the fat. You want to get a little bit of browning on the vegetables, cook them down, not too much caramelization. And then you add all your stuff and you let it simmer for as long as you want to. Right. So I do get, if you remove the meat, you get some good browning on it. Take it out, then you have more surface area in the pot to actually sweat the veg with pan contact. Because sometimes you cook the meat, there’s all this steam coming off of it, you dump the veggies in and then it continues to almost steam and boil like a soup. Yeah, that’s true. You know? I just feel like it’s gonna end up in the same place. Yeah, we’ll see though, there might be a difference. We’re dumping our meat? Meat! Meat! What kind of meat is this? Cow? This is a cow. Cow meat. 80/20. Yeah, we add a little bit of beef tallow to it. You can just use oil, man. Do whatever. Salt? What? Salt? Do you think you’re gonna get divorced one day? Uh, no. I’m getting married next year. Yeah, I’m getting, yeah, I’m getting married soon too. Yeah, that’s true. Statistically though, the, the rates are about 50%. But I feel like we’re older, so maybe that helps. That’s true. Yeah, we’re not like the high school sweetheart marriages. Shout out to all the high school sweethearts who stayed together. Yeah. How? Pans are on ripper on high heat. Why? Because life’s too short to cook on medium. This is the most divorced dad ass apron that we sell, too. A little quip on it. I like it. I like it, too. I love quips. I like divorced dads. I love aprons. Do you, you use full, uh, little meat cubes? Sometimes I like to use little meat cubes. That’s like similar to a bowl of like Texas red, they’d call it. Uh, cause chili, the origins come from an actual Mexican dish, chile con carne. Um, but over time it became one of the first big canned goods. So I think come out of like Chicago stockyards back in the day. So chilis, like, become weirdly Americanized, and now we schlop it on top of hot dogs? Uh, how many times a week are you making chili? Like, one time every three years? No, but I said per week. Yeah, I don’t know how to do math. One time every three years. 52, that’s 156. Like, one in every 156 weeks. Yeah. You’re making chili. What’s… can someone divide one by 156? Times per week? That’s so little. I’d probably make it like Uh, 0.08 times per week. Do you really? Yeah, once every 12 weeks. That’s not bad. You okay? Lily said an F word! She said the F word! Did I say it? Yeah, you definitely said the F word. Shit. We’re gonna add in the veg, and then we’re gonna add in the spices, cause we want the veg to absorb some of that fat, and then we want the spices to toast in that. And then we’re gonna stir that all together, and this is what you want to see with chili. You want all those spices to coat all the meat, and then we’re gonna deglaze that with beef stock. So I think, even though I left the oil in it, and all the fats in there, it, it is still drier. It’s like, yours is like a wetter texture because you left the meat in, and even though I left the fats in here, it’s kinda drier, so it’s gonna happen. Yeah, yeah. Whereas I’m getting — Yeah, yours looks nice. A great amount of lube from that beef. I’m gonna add my, my meat back. We need to — Can you grow up? Sorry. I’m trying! I have weak lungs! Can I stir your pot? You want me to add the tomatoes? Yeah, and the broth? Yeah, yeah. Oh, also, uh, in a bowl of Texas Red, you wouldn’t typically add tomatoes as well, but like, again… We ain’t in Texas! We ain’t in Texas no more, Lily! Yeah. But if we were in Texas BABAM! It’s what we do. They have a high rates of gun ownership. Yes. Do you have a gun? How many guns do you have? Look, I have a Glock under my bed just in case. I have a friend that just sleeps with a steak knife under his pillow. Oh, I sleep with a knife. Do you really? Yes. You’re one of those people. A chef’s knife. Like what kind? Like an eight inch Sentoku? Um, not Sento… I don’t know. So in case an attacker comes in, you can like really get those nice sashimi cuts. I just want to go. You want to do that? I mean, if like, they were attacking me. Yeah, I guess. We’re just gonna cook the meat, see if there’s a little difference there, and be proud of us. That’s an east, that’s east Texas. I’m right here in old west Texas. That’s how I say it for today. Here it is. We have bowls of red slop. Yes. They look identical. Yes. Which is why. We have to. Blindfold you. And I’m gonna feed you. And I’m gonna feed you. And you’re gonna feed. You’re gonna feed. Me. Me. We’re so in sync today. Do you want to feed me first? Yeah. Do you want a really big bite? No. No. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Ah. Use your teeth. What do you mean use my teeth? Like. Like. Like. Like. So it doesn’t burn you. Ah! Okay, yeah, tell me when it’s coming in. Okay. Okay. It’s coming. There was no chili on there. Okay, do you want a bigger bite? Yeah, yeah, but like not too big. Okay. Okay, let me know before it goes in. Okay, it’s coming. It’s like 80%. Okay, it’s in. It tastes like chili. Okay, ready? Yeah. Okay, it’s coming. It, it, it’ll, I don’t like that. It’s in. I’m gonna withhold my judgements. Okay. Okay. You ready? Mm hmm. Close your eyes. Okay, great. Can you not get it on my shirt? I’m not getting it on your shirt. Do you want me to blow on it? Yes. Okay, it’s about to go inside, it’s now, it’s entering, okay there she goes. Oh, this is clearly taking the meat out. Right? Okay, ready for another bite? Mm hmm. Okay, it’s coming in, now it’s, it just touched. your teeth. I like the second one better. Wait, why do you like it better? The meat is like a little bit more tender, but they’re pretty similar. That is the thing that I noticed as well. My first one, the meat was more tender. Second one, the meat was tougher. Which one did I feed him? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, that meat’s harder. You don’t want a hard meat in your chili. You want soft, supple meat. Yeah. You know what that means? This myth has been munched. Oh man, Trevor, do you like my hat? I thought it would match the vibe for today. What does it say? Canned hot dog chili. That’s right. How does that relate? Um, you can actually get these hats at sporked.com along with bagged salad. Is that right? We like bagged salad here and we like canned chili. The spork hats are awesome. I love hats that like are like just kind of have words on them. Yeah. And boy do these rock. We are discussing the different ways that we made chili. Why do you have ginger in your hand when we’re talking about chili? Well because so here’s the thing is that we’re not going to show you how cooking chili again And this is a cooking show. So this is for the people at home, just so they have some cooking. Okay. So I’m peeling this ginger. It’s so strong though. It’s like burning my nostrils. Well, we have to cook on the cooking show. What do you mean? No, we, no, we, it’s okay for us to enjoy things sometimes. I’m cooking. I can cook, everyone. It’s me, Trevor, and I can cook. All you people down there in the comments saying Trevor never cooks anything. All he does is sit there and talk. I cook. I’m doing it right now. Anyway… Not well… We have chili in dutch oven. We have chili in a slow cooker. And we have chili… in an instapot and we are testing the textures, how the meat tastes, um, the time it took to actually make all these chilies and the difference between them. Yeah, I mean the instapot and the slow cooker, you know, that’s what we’re going back to what Josh and Lily were talking about with the divorced dads, you know, that’s something like, you know, You just throw it in there. You throw the ingredients in, and here we just press the chili button. It’s easy. On here we just turn it up to high. Yeah, well, chili and beans. It’s bean and chili! Because we both know that you cook those things for the exact same time at the exact same temperature. But yeah, I mean, obviously Instapot cooked it the fastest. It’s about an hour and 15 minutes. Slow cooker we cooked for six hours. On high. On high. And then the Dutch oven was two and a half hours, but also with, you know, you saw the little bit of prep in between or like getting the stuff cooked. Um, one myth that we’ve munched today that I didn’t realize, Dutch oven, anyone can use them. Not just the Dutch. Lily told me this fun fact. I’m not going to pretend like I knew this before, but I guess Instant Pot, you can get the water to a higher temperature because that steam’s staying trapped in there. Um, so you’re going to get just like a very different kind of cook process. Yeah, that’s nice. Hold on, I need one more bite of like a little bit more meat. I need to see the — This is nice. Yeah. The meat’s like super tender. I mean, the texture is very just soft. It’s very liquidy. It’s easy. You can put everything in there and let it go. Do its thing. Yeah, alright, slow, slow cooker. Slow cooker, slow cooker. This reminds me of all the American cook offs on the Food Channel and Divorced Dads. That might be a new show that Josh stars in. Well, he’s not divorced yet. He’s not divorced ever. I mean, statistically — Yeah, this one’s thicker, but they’re both just kind of soft, you know? They just kind of are soft in my mouth. Now, Dutch oven, like, you’re getting more heat contact on the pan. And you’ve also got the added bonus of like, yeah, like, you know, getting that browning on your meat and your vegetables and getting those flavors working. I don’t really like this idea because, you know, you kind of got to watch it for a long time. But you can’t control the heat and, you know, do all that fun stuff. But it’s like, I gotta go back and check it too much. Yeah, you gotta keep an eye on it and stir it. But, you know, in between my games of Valorant, I can just stir some chili. Did you taste this yet? Oh man, I might have just ate my own words. That’s unbelievable. That’s actually crazy. How significant of a difference that is for honestly, not that much more work. Cause it’s still just as thick as this, but I kind of like that the meat’s not as tender. I like it a little bit more tough and it gives it a nice texture. Yeah. I mean the, the, the slow cooker and the Instapot, both of them, you know, they’re just kind of. Turning everything to mush. You’re trapping all that water in there and like. I don’t really like mush. It’s not bad. – It tastes good, but this is just so… – This is just pleasant. This is what I think of a nice home cooked meal. Should we tell them? This one’s the one? Yeah, no, I believe that this myth MUNCHED US! Red Bull! Red Bull! Red Bull Las Vegas! Red Bull Las Vegas! Can I have one sip? Lily, what’s thicker than a Snicker? Cornstarch. That’s right, sure is, that’s what I was thinking of. Uh, we’re testing out myths on how to thicken chili. Cause you can just take your chili, uhhhh It’s just trickery, Red Bull, not sponsored. We’re testing out how to thicken chili here. Now, I always use cornstarch because it’s kind of the easiest, most consistent, and it’s super quick, right? Takes like five minutes to thicken up. Then we got masa. Also made of corn. Also of corn? Of corn, yes. Famous. But I think a little more flavorful, maybe. Indeed. We will find out. A little bit? Yes. A little bit more flavorful. Via the process of nixtamalizacion, which is where you soak corn in an alkaline solution. Is that the liquor thing? Nixtamalizacion is the process of soaking corn in an alkaline solution, like lye, and then it becomes soft enough to process into a tortilla. And this is the flour after the corn has been soaked in lye and ground. And this is used in a lot of Mexican recipes. We’re going to see how that — Christmas is coming around, right around the corner. Come on, buy your tamales from Mythical Kitchen. And then we’re gonna see what happens if you don’t add any exogenous thickener. Can someone Google what exogenous means? No exogenous thickener. Um, merely cooking the chili longer, because that way you’re getting the water evaporating, but then also like the flavor. fat from the meat is going to start emulsifying more as you cook it more rapidly. Also, also for this one, it’s going to be more condensed. It is going to be more condensed, but it’s like, do I want that? Because I do want a certain amount of liquid to be encasing my meat, like a mucus membrane. Mm hmm. That’s what you say about food. All right, let’s try it. Let’s, let’s, let’s get some cornstarch in there. We got the chili simmering away. We’re using the same amount of thickener to water. You’re doing such a good job of stirring the cornstarch. Okay, that’s going in. Um, talking about Dutch people, I was in Dutchland recently, some call it the Netherlands. And I asked someone, uh, where do I get good Dutch food? And they said, you can either have food good or food Dutch, you cannot have both. Cause Dutch food bad? According to this man. All the places that Dutch people colonized make really good food, so all the good food in Amsterdam is from like Suriname and Indonesia. Um, but actual Dutch food is really just cabbage and, uh, boiled meats. I like cabbage. I like cabbage too. There’s, there’s fun, there’s fun stuff. There’s…um Boiled meat cabbage? No, literally bitterballen is their best food. You create stew and you let it thicken, then you coat it in breadcrumbs, and then you fry it and serve it with mustard, and it’s called bitterballen. The best Dutch food is literally called bitterballs. I could never live there. You can feel this thicken up immediately and then like this to me is what a chili should look like, right? You know, yeah, that looks like a chili to me. Why are you staring at like a like a witch making a potion? It’s halloween is around the corner I thought Christmas is around the corner. There’s multiple corners. Halloween’s around one. Keep going till you reach the other corner That’s Christmas. Fourth of july is for the Americans. Wow! More chili again, huh? I’m surprised what I see. Tell me more! Well, actually, this one is a different color and it looks like it’s a different texture. It’s a much deeper red. Yeah, it looks like the tomatoes like really cooked down and actually like accentuated that redness. That looks pretty good, but this looks more like chili chili. This looks more like chili chili. Like chili chili. Alright, cool, which one are you trying first? Should we go cornstarch? Let’s go cornstarch first. This is the classic. It does have a nice glossy, velvety. Cause another thing cornstarch does, not just thicken it, it’s actually emulsifying the fat in there too. It’s a particulate emulsifier. Dude. Cornstarch? Man. Ah! Ah! The spice really hits the back of the throat. Dude, right in the back. You want some Red Bull? I’ll take a sip. Red Bull, Las Vegas! I don’t know that I’ve ever, I’ve done the masa trick once, it was with like a pork chile verde. I think I need to like slurp it to like really… Like wine, you’re chilling it. Yeah. Interesting. I wanna like this one more, but I don’t taste a huge difference. No, if anything, it’s just like a little bit smoother, more full bodied, you know, aromas of violet. Nectarine skin. Cherries and tobacco, if you will. Pickled garden hose. Dude, this looks rad. This looks like shit. This is like divorced dad, just put ketchup in the chili. Yeah, sometimes they do be doing that though. It’s so much more tomatoey. This eats more like a bolognese. It does. This is nice, dude. A little ragu americano. Yeah, this is more chili vibes. I want that on some sketti, but I want this in a big ol bowl. Staring out the window. You know, waiting for my dad to get home. He’s never coming home. He got a limo job. Not coming home. He drove off two years ago, not coming back. No, he came back, but you know, he worked late nights. That’s what he says. That’s what he says. Yeah, I think he was doing it. I think the cornstarch is really the best, right? It’s the smoothest. I think it’s the best way to go. I agree. Cornstarch? Yeah. This myth munched us! This little light of mine. I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine, oh, let it shine. And it’s all come down to this, Lily busting cigarette myths. I’m chill. But don’t smoke, because only divorced dads smoke. Yeah, part of my dad getting divorced is him not being able to quit smoking. Anyways. We got Chili Cooked with Beans and No Beans. Now, if you’re in Texas and mentioned this earlier, you would likely say that beans do not belong in chili. Um, however, if you’re from everywhere else, you grew up eating just a bunch of spicy beets, slapped with a bunch of beans poured in it. And so we’re gonna see if there’s actually a scientific reason why beans versus no beans would be preferred. What do you guys think? This is science. This is science. This is big science about big science, like magic school bus where they, you know, they shrink the bus and they like drove through a guy’s urethra or something. Oh yeah. That was a good episode. That was also science. I don’t remember that episode. What? That was a good one. I thought it was his anus. Dude, I think they went… Is Miss Frizzle in this chill? They did the tour. What did we most curious about? What hole goes where? Yes. Yeah. How many? All holes in the body lead to the same place. I don’t know if people know that. Even your ear hole? Especially your ear hole. – I want to eat the chili – That one you actually can’t — – Yeah, technically — – I want to eat the chili. Let’s eat the chili. Let’s see. Okay. So the thing with adding beans is we use the same chili recipe and just added beans, uh, to, to one and then didn’t with the other. The thing that beans can do is they can offset salt because if you’re not salting your beans, then, uh, that’s actually drawing in the salt from the rest of it. Maybe the case beans can also thicken things even if you don’t really mash it up. You’re still like getting some of that like protein water kinda like they call it aquafaba with chickpeas. Trevor, what’s the difference between… My hair might be in that. Chickpea and a garbanzo bean? Uh, anyone can chickpea but nobody can garbanzo bean. This guy knows. We’re using kidney beans in this. That’s good. I prefer gallbladder beans, am I right? I think the texture’s different. The texture’s different. This, this like, it’s, it is thicker, right? This is super sticky. I think it’s like, it’s more, it’s even more velvety. I prefer appendix beans. So here’s the thing. There’s multiple different, that was a good one though, the beans really do add something because this is so spicy it is a little bit acidic, right? You get the acid from the tomatoes, the beans do a really great job of countering it in a way that the meat can’t. You know what I mean? It’s about the mouth feel. I like the way my mouth feel right now. Just like the monkeys said, and then I saw her face. Now I’m a bean-liever. Industry plants. Is he, is Trevor an industry plant? So yesterday I was in hair and makeup, and the girl was like, I was talking to her about this episode, and I was like, we’re gonna do Chili myths, have you heard of Chili myths? And she’s like, no, that’s kind of weird. And then she was like, I was talking about the beans and no beans, and I was like, what do you think? And she was like, well, I grew up with beans, but my fiancé, or no, husband, um, says no beans, but he grew up in Texas. And I like beans in my chili, and I feel very firm about that, so let’s get in the C section, am I right? And talk about beans vs. no beans. What about a C section? It’s a comment section. Oh my god, don’t call that the C section? Jesus, that is horrifying. There need to be different words for the two types of chilis that you were describing. Like a bowl of Texas Red, I think is one type of thing. You should exclusively call that Texas Red. You shouldn’t call it chili. Right? And then you should call this chili. Or you shouldn’t call this chili at all. This should be called Midwest Slop. You have, you have Texas Red, you have Chile Con Carne, and Midwest Slop. And that’s what exists. I think we should abolish the word chili. I don’t know. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye! A split vote. Thank you. I demand trial by combat. What are we saying? What are we saying? – No beans? – Beans. – Beans. – Beans! – Beans? – Beans. That means… This myth has been munched! We have munched all the myths. We found out that, uh, leaving the meat in makes the best chili… There’s no reason to remove it whatsoever. It saves you a step. In fact, we have found that for the best texture, use a Dutch oven because the slow cooker and instant pot, though great for divorced dads on a time budget, they turn your chili into soft slop and you want a nice toothsome slop. We’ve found that cornstarch is the best for thickening your chili, makes it glossy, sexy, and smooth. Then we found out that, uh, yeah, beans are good. I love beans. We love beans. We like beans. We like beans. Texas, we apologize. I’m not sorry. But Trevor’s not sorry. They shoot, they got guns. Uh, Lily, how many of them did you get correct? I said leave ha, Dutch, eh, masa, beans? I got three of them correct. V, how many did you get? Leave your meats in the pot. Dutch oven cook it longer. Beans. And my drawing is way better than Josh’s. I also got three. Trevor? Now I reckon when I’m gonna make my chili, I’m gonna leave the meat in, I’m gonna put it in a dutch oven, I’m gonna cook it longer and with beans. Three! Three! Three way tie! How many did you get? Leave meat, dutch oven, masa, no beans. I drew a chili pepper. I got two, so I lose, but I think you should all do trial by combat to see who wins. I like fighting. I do not. You eat. Excuse me? Well, hopefully you learned something about divorce rates in America. The nation of Texas, which was one six different, uh, sovereign nation flags. That’s what where six flags. The amusement park actually comes from, or the six flags over Texas. So it’s France, Spain, Mexico, United States, the nation of Texas. And then, uh, the sixth one that they don’t, they don’t really like to advertise that the amusement park is a Confederacy. So that’s where. The amusement park six flags comes from part of that is the confederacy and chili is great. Like it’s just really a fun time. And I think you should make it Uh, I don’t know they’re doing behind there But they sound like a bunch of raccoons that found a dumpster and they’re rushing around in it. You can brown your meats Spay and neuter your pets. Spay and neuter your meats. Brown your pets. And um, keep, keep, keep watching Mythical Kitchen. We’ll get better. No we won’t. Show your local grocery store you mean business with the new sport collection. Available now at mythical.com