~Notes on things:
-I find that the cooking water is so tasty that I used a skillet to reduce the cooking water. The water and the few beans left in it became thick and starchy and very flavorful.

-Tomato quantities:
(4 lb tomatoes in TWO qt freezer box,  Each #10 can holds 6 1/2 lb tomatoes.)

~Notes for very large quantities:
***To avoid the cooling and heating process for 4 hotel pans of chili for church, I finished it Saturday afternoon and let it cool and have a rest. Then I held it all night in the oven at 170*. It was still fresh and good in the morning. I also didn't add the freshly chopped peppers until I put it in the oven for the night. They were still brightly colored and good!

~15 qt brazier pan

~Soak in 8 qt pot, overnight:
3 lb pinto beans
covered with water (9.5 alkaline kangan)
(2 t baking soda if using filtered plain water)

~Overnight
4 lb ground beef
2 t salt sprinkled on
keep in refrigerator

In morning rinse and drain beans very well. Use salad spinner colander to immerse beans then lift out easily to drain.

~In brazier bring water (kangan 9.5) to a boil. Add rinsed beans and make sure water covers comfortably so they have room to move around as they cook.
Add:
4 T salt so it is pleasantly very salty water

Bring to a happy boil and cover and cook until quite soft, but not quite fully cooked either. About 15-30 min. (kangan makes it cook really fast).

~Prep:
3-4 large onions, quickly chopped
1 whole big garlic bulb, chopped
*peppers, red, green, ancho, pasilla, whatever you may have
*dried peppers
*home frozen
-whatever you have

~Put it together
Use the lid to drain the cooking water from the mostly soft beans.

Add:
2 qts homemade beef broth
3 28 oz cans tomatoes (bionature whole or diced or crushed, these are very thick so they are great with the thin broth) (adjust if using home prepared tomatoes)
Stir gently over gentle heat to keep the beans nice and whole.

Add big soup spoons of spices:
4 T chili powder
2 T cumin
2 T coriander
1 T paprika
crushed red pepper to taste
cayenne to taste
4 T dried red peppers (nifty from Azure)
prepared onions
prepared garlic

~In 12 in cast iron skillet saute`
prepared ground beef
Don't stir too much if you want chunks of meat.

-If you want it even simpler, you can cook the ground beef right in the chili at this point. This will make the ground beef into more of a meat sauce with absolutely no chunks. Very good too.

~If using fresh peppers, add them towards the end of the cooking time to keep their shape a little bit.

~Cook as quickly or slowly as you like. I think a gentle temperature on the stovetop is great.
You could put it in a 170* oven, which would allow time forr the spices to come together and deepen over time without any attention.

~You can thicken it by sprinkling in masa flour at any point.

~You can flavor with tallow. And if you add masa, it absorbs the tallow and is so flavorful.

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