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Here we are once again, friends, at the forefront of philosophical debate. Here in the crucible of Platonic dialogue, we have hitherto established that Wittgenstein is philologically inadequate: Chili-ness cannot be defined by the necessary and sufficient parts of its make-up. Aristotle put this another way when he said “πᾶν τσίλι ἀλλ᾿ ἔστι τι τὸ ὅλον παρὰ τὰ μόρια, ἔστι τι αἴτιον, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐν τοῖς σώμασι τοῖς μὲν ἁφὴ αἰτία τοῦ ἓν εἶναι, τοῖς δὲ γλισχρότης ἤ τι πάθος ἕτερον τοιοῦτον”. This concept (somewhat loosely translated in common parlance as “the whole is more than the sum of its parts”) is sometimes used in our attempts to paddle on the shores of understanding consciousness, referred to as emergence. Where emergence and degustation clash, we begin our quest for knowledge, to meet Augustine’s understatement: "Quid est ergo chili? Si nemo ex me quaerat, scio; si quaerenti explicare uelim, nescio." The linguistically intangible nature of chili as previously established does not remove the fact that chili exists and therefore so too exists an enduring concept of chili as a thing, with innate and immutable properties that demarcate its “thing-ness”. We know that chili exists, and that a Hegelian framework that allows us to separate “chili” and “non-chili” must, at least in human consciousness, be reality: “Wenn wir über die “Chilikeit” reden, dann können wir es nur mit Hilfe von Begriffen und Anschauungen tun, die ursprünglich frei gewählt und später kollektiv akzeptiert worden sind.” Thus, epistemologically, we have established the first foundational element of our thesis: chili exists. How then do we account for the fact that the necessary and sufficient criteria of Wittgensteinian chili is self-evidently insufficient to enable our description of the thing-ness of conceptually nebulous “chili”? After our first investigation, we navigated from Platonic ideals, through relativism, into conditional philosophy and into the realms of the psyche, wherein it was putatively suggested that a Jungian paradigm might be best equipped to capture the chili gestalt. Notwithstanding this basic foundational position, we must also take a warning from Jung here: perhaps he was right to state that ”Der Schuh, der zu einer Person passt, drückt eine andere Person; Es gibt kein Chilirezept, das für alle Fälle geeignet wäre.” If so, we may be in Popper’s non-justificationism scenario, empirically unable to define a falsifiable model of chili that both conforms to reality and the shared experience of the chili-consumer, as clearly we must acknowledge that ein empirisch-chilischaftliches System muss an der Erfahrung scheitern können. As is so often the case, we find commonality between our philosophical endeavour and the other field concerned with understanding the universe: Einstein was potentially correct when he said “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to chili, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to chili.” It is not an overstatement to claim that this is both paradigmatically damaging to the philosophical perception-model and simultaneously intellectually exhilarating. How can it be that we have a conceptual framework by which we agree that some foods are “chili” and others are “not-chili”, but dichotomously know that this framework is not concrete? We posit that the chili gestalt has a core, but becomes disparate at its borders, and this disparate border is where we our investigative approach is required. Was Wittgenstein’s earlier iteration of the chili semantic dynamic equilibrium correct? Does the p ⊃ q “I” language game mean that we can never know what chili is without collective perceptual filters? And thereby we move into competing schools, in which we either reject the ephemeral notion of consistent reality, or we move to a new model of “chili-ness”, one in which we establish not only what chili is, but how it is. We must establish whether chili lies in the realm of Kant’s noumenon or whether we must be Schopenhauerist and reject the difference between objective reality and that which can only exist in thought. Of course, this necessarily returns us to Ancient Greece, as Schopenhauer references Empiricus to deny Kantian logic, stating "νοούμενα φαινομένοις ἀντετίθη Τσίλιγόρας". It is, to that end, that I present the latest findings of the Experimental Chili Testing Ground in South London. A collective of philosophical investigators formed over three years ago with one stated goal: to investigate the conceptual framework by which we understand “chili”, and attempt to define it. The restrictions of the pandemic meant that the full team could not be assembled this time, but we were partially quorate because of a support bubble, and thus present our findings. Re-examining the chili gestalt, resolving dichotomous archetypal sufficiency conflicts: Fluid definitions of adjusted reductionism, revisiting ontological examination: Bloody Martian Gameplay within conceptual frameworks, falsifying Wittgensteinian logic statements: Chili deconstructed Probing ur-chili perception, betraying necessity and sufficiency as abortive foundational support-structures: Essence of chili Reducing complexity, archetype creation/destruction, abrogation of proto-requirement: Mushroom chili pot Dissecting perception, visualisation as an epicognitive stimulus, linearised reductionism: Cod chili verde Returning construction; resolving systemic modi, generating new specification: Offal chili Reinforcing falsification; concepts, language games and inherent properties: Brownies à la chili mode For much of this work, I will again be forgoing what I consider to be basic steps, concentrating on the key techniques used to examine our hypothesis and prejudices. If you require a primer in the basics of chilosophy, I would again suggest reading my previous work on the subject before venturing further. Assuming you are prepared, let us begin: Fluid definitions of adjusted reductionism, revisiting ontological examination: Bloody Martian Drying out beef may seem an odd place to start when making a drink, but this was the first step in the process, and as long as we continue to consider time to progress in a linear fashion, the first step remains the best place to start. Beef jerky:  250g flank steak 25ml vinegar 1 tbsp fish sauce 1 tbsp Dijon mustard 1 tbsp molasses 1 tsp liquid smoke 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp salt 1 tsp chili powder These measurements made after the fact, I mostly glugged them in as I saw fit, and then realised I should probably document my methods more thoroughly. I began by using two very sharp knives to remove as much fat from the meat as possible, then put the trimmed meat into the freezer for 45m to make it really firm to cut Using the best knife I had, I cut long thin slivers of meat, and then pounded them flat The remaining ingredients were placed into a bowl and whisked together until smooth and consistent, and the meat marinated overnight in the fridge The next day, I set my oven to the lowest temperature it could possibly be and lined it with foil and placed the sticky strips of meat onto the rack  Leaving the door slightly ajar, I dried the strips of meat for 3h, flipped over and dried for a further 3h  The resulting jerky was stored in an airtight container until needed. I’ve heard it can last up to six months, but avoiding the temptation to eat it before the dinner almost proved too much, so I don’t envision longevity being a problem. Chilli-infused vodka:  2 dried aji red 2 dried birdseye 10 peppercorns 350ml vodka Simplicity itself, I put the chillies and peppercorns into the vodka and chilled for a week Green bean juice:  300g green beans, chopped 1 cucumber 1 pear 1 tsp lemon juice 120ml water In a blender, I blasted the ingredients together until smooth, then squeezed through cheesecloth, leaving delicious green juice and horrifying pulp  The juice was funnelled into a bottle and chilled for four hours before serving, the pulp was composted  To assemble the drink, I mixed a shot of vodka with green bean juice, served over ice and garnished with a piece of jerky  I initially only made two of these, as my wife is not a big fan of spicy drinks, but after she had a sip, she wanted one as well!  In our previous investigations, we established through experimentation that the necessary and sufficient structural dynamic for chili was meat, beans and chillies. This framework collapsed at the point where we made forays into desserts, but until that point, held up as a conceptual model. However, in order to really establish this concept, I wanted to revisit our initial experiments and understand whether a rearrangement of the elements would alter the model significantly. In this instance, whilst the drink was not a priori chili, it was agreed that there was a chili-ness about it. This drink adhered exactly to what was previously agreed as a problem with our investigation: it was simultaneously within and outwith our definition of chili. In our efforts to establish our foundation, we redefine the edges of our characterisation of the gestalt. This fluid dynamic is clearly dichotomous, and at present we can neither state that it is or that it is not chili: by continuing our investigation, perhaps we can retrospectively establish the defined state of chili-ness of the most unstable element in our philological menu. Gameplay within conceptual frameworks, falsifying Wittgensteinian logic statements: Chili deconstructed Here we delve further into our definition of chili: we have successfully lubricated our cognition with our repetition of chili in liquid form, but now we must deconstruct the conditions. Roasted pepper puree:  3 red peppers 4 dried aji red 1 small onion, peeled and halved 4 cloves of garlic, minced 2 tbsp olive oil I began by rehydrating the ajis and roasting the peppers and onion in the oven: here we established another interesting facet of philosophy; dynamism and shifting between conceptual definitions and reality. To wit, it was raining very hard and therefore I couldn’t light my barbecue, so I had to use the oven.  After the skins are blackened, I placed the peppers in a bowl and sealed: this allowed the steam to loosen the skins and made it easier to get the delicious roasted pepper flavour without loads of charred bits of skin. I blended the garlic (which I had roasted) with the chillies and onions, adding a small amount of water as necessary to get the right consistency, and pushed the whole lot through a sieve. This was chilled in a zip-lock bag until needed. White bean hummus:  1 clove garlic, minced 1 400g can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained 4 tbsp tahini Juice of 1 lemon 1 tsp ground coriander 60ml olive oil Another very simple one: I blended all the ingredients except the oil. While the blender was running, I slowly added oil until the hummus was the correct consistency. This was chilled until needed. Carpaccio:  Small piece of fillet (if you can’t get fillet, rump will do) Juice of 1 lemon Glug of olive oil Black pepper Red pepper sauce White bean hummus Nasturtium leaves I froze the fillet for 45m to firm up, then sliced very thinly. The thin slices were tossed in a simple vinaigrette made from the oil, lemon juice and black pepper, seasoned and rested for 15m in the fridge. To serve, the red pepper sauce was piped onto a serving spoon, topped with a small quenelle of hummus, finished with a piece of the carpaccio and some chopped nasturtium leaves   Using the rules established in our previous experimentation, this was chili. And empirically, the experimental group firmly established that it not only contained the key elements for necessity, it was also sufficient. Unanimously decided, this was again chilli, but there was somehow something intangible that was missing, which meant that this was simultaneously not chili. Another dichotomy on the boundaries of what is and is not chili, and again, a requirement to revisit if a formally defined chili construct can be agreed upon. Probing ur-chili perception, betraying necessity and sufficiency as abortive foundational support-structures: Essence of chili The overall feeling was that our initial rearranging of the conceptual framework lacked a key element: cooking. While the necessary elements were there, we drew a conclusion that the intangible noumenon might simply be the act of cookery. As soon as this was stated, it became, as all overarching hypotheses do, self-evident to the point of obviousness: our attempts to reduce the ingredients to their basic core removed the most important aspect of all; that of physical heat. Yes, the peppers were roasted, but not served in such a way as to make this clear. So, we again attempted to reduce our concept to its core, but this time also cooking and serving our ingredients hot. I began by making chicken stock from multiple roast chickens, then reducing the volume down from around 3L to probably less than 100ml. This I poured into a cuboidal container to cool into a collagenous gel oblong.  This I then cut into cubes, that would come to use later.  Beef consommé: I started by making a strong beef broth  Beef bones Carrots Onions Bay leaves I roasted the beef bones (you can get these for almost nothing from any halfway decent butcher just by asking) at 180C for 1h until nicely browned  These bones were then simmered for several hours with the carrots, onions and bay leaves. Once strained, the stock was allowed to cool and then refrigerated.  After this, the fat rose to the top and pulled out some of the impurities: this was easily removed, as it was very solid and came off in one big puck of beef dripping which I then melted and strained to use later in other foods This stock was then used to make consommé:  Minced beef Celery 1 tomato White of 1 egg, beaten I took the stock and put it on to simmer, and put the minced beef, tomato and a bit of celery into the food processor and gave a quick blast. The pulsed meat and egg whites were added to the beef stock and brought to the boil, then the heat was reduced and simmered for 30m. After this, there was a nice raft of protein at the top of the soup, which I carefully ladled into a sieve lined with two layers of cheesecloth. The resulting clarified soup was frozen until needed, at which point I reheated it. Chilli cream:  Hungarian hot wax and aji limon Cream I roasted the chillies until blackened, then placed into a bowl to loosen their skins. I got rid of as much skin as possible, then blended and mixed with the cream. This I warmed to a scald, reduced the heat and simmered until the roasted chilli flavour was imparted to the cream, which I then strained and chilled. Bean biscuits:  60g plain flour 40g semolina flour 12g almond flour 80g white beans 1 tbsp finely grated parmesan 25g butter 2 tbsp water First, I mashed the beans, and set aside Then I mixed the flour, semolina, almond flour and butter, until it resembled course breadcrumbs I added the mashed beans and parmesan, added a little water until I could form a dough, which I rested for 30m  This I then rolled out on a floured surface to about 5mm thick I cut the dough into small rounds, pierced with a fondue fork, and baked at 200C for 25m until golden brown The biscuits were allowed to cool on a wire rack and stored in an airtight container until needed Now, we were ready to plate up. But first, remember those stock cubes I made? Well, immediately before serving, I dusted these with monosodium glutamate and placed in a dainty bowl with some tongs. I then decanted my consommé into a teapot, the cream into a cow creamer and the biscuits onto a saucer.   To serve, I poured a little of the beef consommé into each cup.  Then I asked my guest to pour in a little cream and add a stock cube.  Here, we had cooked our ingredients: we had meat, beans and chillies, but we had come closer to the chili gestalt by cooking and serving hot. So, it was with great interest that we discover that there was a unanimous agreement: playful and whimsical though this might have been, it was not chili. There was a pleasant heat added by the cream, there was a significant umami sensation provided by the MSG and the beef, but this was not chili. The original intention was to make something that was definably chili, but toyed with the perceptions of the philosophical investigators. However, the trained philosophers in the consortium immediately saw through the attempts to manipulate their senses, nevertheless pronouncing that this was not chili. And so, I think it is clear, we have established at this point, beyond doubt, that there is something else involved here. Kant’s noumenon may very well exist, as we have so far not been able to meet the criteria for chili. We have meat, beans and chillies, we have served in a variety of ways, and do not have something we can concretely name as chili that would satisfy our pseudo-archetype. So now, we return to our basic assumptions: what are the necessary and sufficient criteria? Cooking, certainly: our experiments with chilled ingredients served cold, with uncooked meat, have been met with a resounding denunciation. However, cooking alone is not enough: cooking fragile essences separately has not worked. Perhaps, they must be cooked together? Indeed, my colleague Professor Kuang-Ming Wu has posited "我们通过使牛肉辣椒变得连贯来改变生活，而与此同时，我们通过牛肉辣椒不断创造出的连贯而改变了". Is this the coherence we require? The transformative melding effect of togetherness? Rather than treating our necessary and sufficient ingredients separately, we must potentially try to bring them into conjunction with each other prior to the act of ingestion. At this revelatory point, we decided to investigate the power of this unification, and whether it could be used to reduce the necessary functions: first, we attempt to move beyond meat: Reducing complexity, archetype creation/destruction, abrogation of proto-requirement: Mushroom chili pot  Dried chilies (left to right, chipotle, chipotle morita, paprika, guajillo) Mushrooms, finely diced Onions, finely diced Garlic, minced 1 tin kidney beans Smoked paprika Cumin Sour cream Spring onion greens, finely chopped Coriander leaves, finely chopped I rehydrated the chillies and blended into a paste, then sweated the garlic and onions in oil until translucent, and added the spices to toast I chucked in the incredibly finely chopped mushrooms and cooked until no longer producing moisture, then threw in the chilli paste and simmered until thickened  At this point, I decided that while the favour was very good, the texture was rather overly smooth, so I got some extra mushrooms and chopped them rather less finely and made a duxelles.  I fried the rather less finely diced mushrooms in butter with the leak and garlic until they stopped producing moisture  I added the beans and simmered until the beans were tender, then served in small bowls with sour cream and some garnish.  I decided to serve this dish in such a small format, because we had a lot to get through, and I couldn’t have the experimenters suffering from indigestion while grappling with the mental challenges presented. I feel like this could have been a whole dish in its own right, but there were further investigations to conduct… The quantity was sufficient for our conclusions: this was chili. Regardless of the lack of meat, we all agreed this was not only delicious, but satisfied the as yet undefined criteria to adhere to the chiligeist, that this was indeed chili. This establishes that meat is not a requirement for chili. The conclusion of our primary discourse was that the necessary and sufficient criteria established by Wittgenstein, “Fleisch + Bohnen + Chilischoten ⇒ Chili ≡ Chili ⇒ Fleisch + Bohnen + Chilischoten” were indeed correct, but that something intangible was missing. Now, having discovered a potential and reasonable conditional requirement to add to our necessity, we may have simultaneously altered one of our other requirements. Perhaps Wittgenstein was wrong to use “Fleisch” and should have said “Eiweiß”? This shakes to the very core our initial assumptions, and demands further investigation. Dissecting perception, visualisation as an epicognitive stimulus, linearised reductionism: Cod chili verde So far, we have re-established our initial criteria. Now we move past our paradigm into uncharted territory: can we forego an entire element, and still have something that fits our collective understanding of chili? Tortillas:  240g masa harina 250-350ml water 2 tsp salt 1 tbsp olive oil I combined the masa and salt in a large bowl, made a well and added the water and oil, stirring into dough This was rested for 30m, kneaded again and formed into small balls, which were again rested for 30m Using the tortilla press which we found in the garden when we moved in, I formed these balls into tortillas, and fired in a pan over medium heat for 45s a side These were allowed to cool, and warmed up later in the day ready to serve Cucumber salsa:  Spring onions, finely chopped Cucumber, peeled and deseeded, finely diced Yellow tomatoes, deseeded, finely diced 1 green jalapeno, deseeded, finely diced Garlic, minced Coriander, finely chopped Juice of 1 lime I mixed the ingredients together and chilled until needed Salsa verde:  1 large onion, peeled and diced 3 cloves of garlic, minced Cumin Oregano 4 fresh Santa Fe Grande chilies 4 fresh jalapeños 700g tinned tomatillos Bunch fresh coriander, coarsely chopped Once again, necessity overrode plans: I couldn’t find fresh tomatillos from a source I trusted in the UK, so I had to resort to tinned. I have been assured by a Mexican friend of mine that these are fine, but it did somehow feel like cheating. Anyway… I roasted the chillies and tomatillos in the oven, and did the thing with the bowl again to loosen the skins  Meanwhile, I sweated an onion and some garlic in a large pan, and cooked until translucent The peeled chillies and tomatillos were blended with the coriander, stalks and all  This was then added to the pan, and simmered for a further 25m, allowed to cool and refrigerated until the next day Bring the salsa verde to a simmer, then add the cod loins, poaching them for 10m until flaky  To serve, I plated a warm tortilla, topped with some of the fish and chili verde, and scattered a bit of salsa over the top.   Now we were onto something: we have further reduced our Wittgensteinian p ⊃ q statement to “ Eiweiß + Chilischoten ⇒ Chili ≡ Chili ⇒ Eiweiß + Chilischoten” while still retaining our Jungian archetype: despite its somewhat unconventional nature, this was chili. At this point, we felt comfortable to move the noumenon into the realms of the phenomenal; the known. And once again, it is of course Wittgenstein who provides us with the insight: looking into his notebooks on the subject, there is a word scrawled in the back, the relevance of which has been unclear until now. Zusammengehörigkeit; this unity or togetherness is also a necessary and sufficient element. It is not enough to simply assemble ingredients, they must be assembled together, to combine, to become more than the sum of their parts. And so, as is so often the case, we return to the beginnings of our investigation, re-visiting emergence. Returning construction; resolving systemic modi, generating new specification: Offal chili With our renewed model, we must return to our construction of the epiculinary framework originally established, but under the altered paradigm. Namely: Eiweiß + Chilischoten + Zusammengehörigkeit ⇒ Chili ≡ Chili ⇒ Zusammengehörigkeit + Eiweiß + Chilischoten With this principle firmly established in our minds, we resolved to test a new, underused form of protein, and to unify it with chillies (and in this case, beans, though not required for sufficiency). Offal chili: Before we could start, we had some preparation to do with the various meats. The challenge with offal is often the amount of processing required before the cooking even begins! Tongue:  750g ox tongue Carrots Leaks Celery Bay I simmered the tongue for 4h with the aromatics  After simmering, the tongue was cooked through, but also the outer membrane was loosened.  This membrane was then peeled off, which was a pretty gross thing to have to do, but if you are going to espouse nose-to-tail eating, you can’t baulk at a bit of tongue-peeling  Heart:  To prep the heart, I trimmed off all the hard fat and internal valves, then diced Liver:  The liver was trimmed of all gunk, diced and put into cold water for half an hour, then patted dry Chili paste: I rehydrated dried chipotle, habanero, guajillo, paprika and poblano in a little water, blended and pushed through a sieve  Offal chili:  500g beef tongue, prepped and diced 500g beef heart, prepped and diced 500g chicken liver, prepped and diced Chili paste Marrow bones 3 onions, diced Garlic, minced 3 tins borlotti beans 3 tins tomatoes Cumin Smoked paprika Red wine Molasses Chicken stock I began by roasting the marrow bones at 180C for 1h  I flash fried all the meats in a hot pan to brown, then transferred these into the slow cooker along with the marrow bones  I deglazed the pan with the onions and sweated them with some garlic and the spices, followed by a splash of wine, transferring these into the slow cooker too, along with the chili paste and molasses  I chucked in the remaining ingredients and began cooking  After one day, it started to look much more like chili  After the second day of simmering, the meat began to break up and the liver dissolved into the sauce, so I removed the bones and added the beans  Cheddar Cornbread Waffles:  180g plain flour 120g cornmeal 2 tsp sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 240ml milk 2 tbsp lemon juice 2 eggs 80g melted butter 230g grated cheddar cheese I mixed the lemon juice and milk and left to stand for 5m, because I couldn’t find buttermilk I whisked together the dry ingredients, not including the cheese Then I beat together the milk and eggs, and beat them into the dry ingredients, until just combined I added in the melted butter and the grated cheese and gently folded together Then I made waffles in my waffle iron and forgot to take photos To serve, I put the chili into a bowl with a quarter waffle, with extra waffles on the side, garnishing with grated cheese, chopped red chillies and coriander   This was chili. There was no denying it. We have established that chili does not require cuts of meat, it can be just about any protein. We have established that beans are not necessary, but that they can be added if you like them. And finally, we have clearly established that the noumenon we were searching for is Zusammengehörigkeit. However, we must now investigate the final aspect, we must again falsify our Wittgensteinian criteria to add a last necessary requirement. Reinforcing falsification; concepts, language games and inherent properties: Brownies à la chili mode We have a final element to establish our model: those who have attended previous classes and have been paying attention to the archetypical meal structure will have realised we have a key factor unaddressed. Can chili be a dessert? Is sweetness a falsifier of our model, and if so, can we remodel? Beef fudge:  30ml water 60g sugar 80g golden syrup 1 egg white 1/6 tsp cream of tartar 225g unsalted butter 400g tin of evaporated milk 900g sugar 150g ground beef, fried until cooked and crispy and cooled I began by making marshmallow fluff, because it’s hard to get in the UK In a large pan, I warmed the sugar, water and syrup until the sugar dissolved, and once completely dissolved, began to simmer. As I don’t have a sugar thermometer, I had to use an old fashioned method to check when it was at the right temperature: using a bowl of iced water next to the hob, I dropped a little of the syrup into the water every so often. Once it started to form a ball and became tough to reshape, it was ready. At this point, I immediately removed it from the heat. Further examples of necessity and reality showing the ephemerality of conceptual frameworks: my stand mixer broke down, so I had to whisk the egg white and cream of tartar together by hand. Once soft peaks had formed, I very slowly and carefully poured the warm syrup into the eggs, continuously whisking. Once all the syrup was in, there was some deflation, but after mixing for a bit longer, they firmed up and became thick and glossy.  While letting the fluff cool, I began to make the fudge. I cooked the butter, milk and sugar for 5m, stirring often I removed the heat, stirred in the chocolate chips and marshmallow fluff until melted, then I stirred in the vanilla and beef I beat this until firm, and poured into a well-greased 20x20cm baking pan I chilled this until thick and gooey  Candied chillies:  Some fat green jalapeños 200g sugar 250ml water I deseeded and stripped the membranes from the chillies, then cut into largish chunks I simmered the water and sugar until the sugar was dissolved, then poached the chillies in the syrup for 20m I then baked these for 1h at 90C with the door open, to make sure they dried out properly  Again, these were cooled and put into an airtight container for later Fudge ice cream: 2 tsp vanilla seeds 500ml full fat milk 300ml double cream 5 large egg yolks 140g caster sugar I began by making a custard, whisking the eggs and sugar together and gradually pouring in the hot cream, milk and vanilla  I then put the custard in the fridge overnight, and on the day of the dinner, I poured it into my ice cream maker Towards the end, I stirred in about half of the fudge, and stored in the freezer until ready Hot toffee sauce:  Dried habaneros 120g butter 120g light brown sugar 100ml cream I infused the cream with habanero by simmering very gently and allowing to cool I also infused my butter with habanero by gently frying the pepper in the butter, then removing I added the sugar to the melted butter, dissolving over a low heat, then whisking in the cream This was stirred continuously until the sauce had thickened, then allowed to cool Brownies:  400g tin of black beans, rinsed and drained 3 large eggs 3 tbsp vegetable oil 1 tsp vanilla 30g cocoa powder 120g sugar ½ tsp baking powder Pinch of salt 100g candied chillies 300g beef fudge I pureed the beans in a food processor, then added the eggs, oil and vanilla In a separate bowl, I mixed the flour, cocoa powder, sugar and salt, then beat these into the wet ingredients The chillies and fudge were stirred in, then the batter transferred to a greased baking tray The brownies were baked at 180C for 30m until the edges were visibly cooked and the centre wasn’t too jiggly  To serve, the warm brownies were cut out of the tray, and served with a scoop of ice cream on top, and a drizzle of hot toffee sauce.   And despite my concerns about a brownie made of beans, the interior was delicious and moist  And here we reach an important conclusion: this was not chili. Despite conforming to our original necessary and sufficient criteria, including Zusammengehörigkeit there was an accord, this lacked “chili-ness”. Whilst delicious, with the beef in the ice cream and brownie becoming more like crunchy praline and the candied chilies lending a pleasing sweet spiciness to the chocolate flavour, what we have achieved here is a further Schopenhauer falsification, and added a criterion to our reductionist methodology, savouriness, or Schmackhaftigkeit. We have agreed here that the elements that make chili are protein, chillies, savouriness and togetherness. Multiples are insufficient, it is the totality that is required in order to establish something as “chili”. In our experimental proving grounds, we have tested and retested, we have removed beans, we have removed the requirement for the protein to be meat, we have added new criteria to establish the known and phenomenal as opposed to the unknowable noumenal. On another note, one of our collective (who has often been rather prosaically described as the spouse of the primary investigator), requested that I stop adding beef to desserts. I was not comfortable making this promise. Let us recap: Re-examining the chili gestalt, resolving dichotomous archetypal sufficiency conflicts: Fluid definitions of adjusted reductionism, revisiting ontological examination: Bloody Martian Gameplay within conceptual frameworks, falsifying Wittgensteinian logic statements: Chili deconstructed Probing ur-chili perception, betraying necessity and sufficiency as abortive foundational support-structures: Essence of chili Reducing complexity, archetype creation/destruction, abrogation of proto-requirement: Mushroom chili pot Dissecting perception, visualisation as an epicognitive stimulus, linearised reductionism: Cod chili verde Returning construction; resolving systemic modi, generating new specification: Offal chili Reinforcing falsification; concepts, language games and inherent properties: Brownies à la chili mode As seems to be the case so often, it comes down to togetherness: savouriness, protein and spicy chillies do not make chili, they must be combined, there must be unity, there must be purposed deliberate consanguinity to a common goal, the greatest of all goals, that of achieving enlightenment through the eating of chili. By working together, the philosophical collective established to investigate the nature of chili have discovered something critical here: that not only are there necessary and sufficient elements in the ingredients and flavour of chili, but that there is process. This process is not simply the heating of those ingredients, it is a part of the inherent, immutable nature of chili. And without this togetherness, there is no chili… Schmackhaftigkeit.(Eiweiß + Chilischoten).Zusammengehörigkeit ⇒ Chili ≡ Chili ⇒ Zusammengehörigkeit.(Eiweiß + Chilischoten).Schmackhaftigkeit It seems apposite to reach for the words of the great chili polymath, John Lubbock, who said, “Chili is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the mouth, and the mouth through the mind. As the sun colours flowers, so does chili colour life.” Most importantly, the major discovery made here is that while we may establish what chili is, notwithstanding the critical element being togetherness of ingredients in the process, but we may also have created a new paradigm: the best chili is that enjoyed in the chili zeitgeist, with Zusammengehörigkeit. Togetherness, a resource severely lacking at the moment, is a vital transformative element in whatever chili you possess: chili is, for want of a better phrase, best enjoyed in good company. And in fact, my favourite chili of the weekend was the chili we enjoyed the morning after: exhausted from our chili investigation, feeling hungover (both intellectually and physically), served with grilled cheese. 
Scientastic fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Nov 28, 2020 |
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Nov 16, 2020 23:28
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Holy poo poo, dude. That was a ride! I feel enlightened and hungry.
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Nov 17, 2020 10:37
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Hot drat. While chili was the subject, the immediate recipe I will be taking from this is the cheddar cornbread waffles with candied jalapeños mixed in.
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Nov 17, 2020 17:47
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That's amazing start to finish. My husband was called over to translate some of the German for me, and is very grumpy you didn't adhere to APA style guide by providing translations of some sort.
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Nov 17, 2020 23:41
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If we view translation as a semiotic conversion process, semantic incommensurability means that while we may take the words of a chilli-theorist and attempt to localise their statements, we can never truly capture the original thought, framed as it must inevitably be in the language construct of the host linguistic framework. Whilst not hugely noted for his work in chili gestalt theory, Derrida captured this when he said "What must be translated of that which is translatable can only be the untranslatable". What this essentially means is that there can never be a true parallel in translation, and that this quasi-equivalence is superficial in nature, relating to a pseudosemantic version of the original thought, missing the very meaning of the work that is inherently untranslatable by its nature. As an example, let us look to the use of the word Geist in this thesis: a German word capturing something of the fundamental spirit and overall makeup of a reality-conforming object (either abstract or concrete) within a epistemic consciousness framework: how do you translate this word? And keep it separate from Gemüt? There are no direct equivalences to these words in English, and to mistranslate would be to lose the intended message. I'm sure you can appreciate that in such a cutting-edge field, this would be extremely dangerous to future work, and would risk directing our investigations towards routes that are incompatible with reality. Consider then the suffix -keit and the concept of 变得连贯 and then view the word chili through the sensory perceptive meta-view of a non-English speaker: a word that demonstrably means radically different to adherents to the same semantic framework in which I am writing! I appreciate grumpiness within the spousal epimemic structure (experiencing it regularly when I put meat in desserts), but a thorough self-reflection would make one realise that this ill-temper is misplaced, and that anger should be directed to the educational system that allows us to finish school without being fluent in all the languages required to develop a full understanding of chilosophy.
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Nov 18, 2020 11:36
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My only question: how shitfaced do you get doing these?
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Nov 18, 2020 14:09
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Very. I start drinking slowly while I cook, I always start with a strong drink and serve wine with every course. The quality of the plating and serving noticeably deteriorates as it goes on...
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Nov 18, 2020 14:58
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What a wonderful investigation into the chili-time continuum and I'm glad such important work is finally being done! Also this line: Scientastic posted:On another note, one of our collective (who has often been rather prosaically described as the spouse of the primary investigator), requested that I stop adding beef to desserts. I was not comfortable making this promise. Had me actively laughing out loud so thanks for that  .
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Nov 18, 2020 18:19
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This was amazing and broke me all at the same time
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Nov 19, 2020 07:24
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Those cubes make me wonder if you could make black bean and chili pepper yokan for some sort of chili themed desert.
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Nov 19, 2020 17:35
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we were all hoping you'd perform an encore and it was magnificent
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Nov 19, 2020 19:43
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Really impressive stuff. I had to look up so many words so thanks for the education there!
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Nov 20, 2020 00:49
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i have but one question: what are your views on the author of the tractatus chilico-philosophicus? (but seriously, great recipe friendo. like Hegel said: what is rational is chili, and what is chili is rational.)
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Nov 22, 2020 03:07
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You loving beautiful bastard.
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Nov 27, 2020 18:37
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| # ? May 5, 2024 20:54 |
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 They did send a poet
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Nov 27, 2020 19:52
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