Chili

After Waffles, Chili is one of the great comfort foods of the world. Or at least dwarves, not that they invented it, but they did perfect it.
— Jasper Cameron, Leader of the Bronze Ravens
  Dwarven Chili, nothing quite like it in the world. Every forge has their own recipe, but we will be focusing on the type made by the dwarfhomes in the northern Dragon Spine mountains. It warms the body and the soul, probably partly because of the use of a magical mushroom that grows underground in the region, but mostly because dwarf cuisine is spicy.   To make chili dwarf style you will first need to get yourself a forge, and a pot, and your ingredients. Meat of choice, some peppers, hotter is better, but stick to what you can eat. Some onions, garlic, tomatoes, and salt, and beans. If you are cooking for dwarves add dried beans at the end for a good wonderful crunch, buuuuut for other races, earlier is better, or don't add them at all.   Now back to dwarf style, get your forge lit grab a bit of water, and put it in your pot in the designated spot in the forge, you know the one, not too hot, not cold, perfect heat for simmering. toss in some water and the tomatoes. While the forge and the pot heat up, test one of the blades you made yesterday by chopping up the meat into cubes. Use maybe one of your better pieces to finely chop all the other ingredients.   Your tomatoes should now be ready to mash into a paste, so do that, then throw everything else into the pot, mix it up, and put it back in its spot. Now get to work! Swords and armor don't make themselves. Neither do pots, pans, picks, axes, come on now, we have orders to fill. The chili? That will be ready at the end of the day. If it needs salt, a bit of water from the water-quenching barrel will do. Not the oil quenching barrel, which in a properly set up forge will not be anywhere near the water barrel.
Of course, throughout the day the forgemaster will monitor the chili and add water from the drinking barrel to ensure that it doesn't burn or dry out. At the end of the day, you have some wonderful food to eat. Or the start of the day, for in forges that run around the clock it is customary for one shift to make chili for the next shift to eat when they arrive.

Comments

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Aug 8, 2023 13:29 by Chris L

Sounds like a completely practical and horrifically unhygienic way to cook your chili! Nice article!


Take a look at my Institutions of Learning challenge article.

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Aug 10, 2023 10:48

Its... I mean it all gets cooked, and any sparks from the forge are just extra seasoning (for dwarves). I'm glad you enjoyed it, this and Garlic were very fun to write, although my quills are still my favorite from this SC.

Check out some of my summer camp articles, like the dangerous flying jackalope or dragon wasps. Or, for something more light-hearted, there is the whimsical language Gobbledygook and Jaden's interesting job as a guano polisher.