Dried pods into paste

Raven writes that before chili powder was invented, all chili was made with dried chile pods, usually anchos. The pods were boiled or covered with hot water to revive them, and the pulp was pressed through a food mill and used as the main seasoning. He calls it a method only traditionalists still use. Julian Capers’s 1952 recipe used both powder and pods. His dried peppers were opened and cleaned of seeds, fibers and stems, cooked in water for about fifteen minutes, stripped of their thin skins while still warm, and sieved or blended with the cooking water, which went into the pot late in the cooking.

Whether to toast the pods first is a point on which published methods differ. Dave DeWitt’s recipe for red chile sauce toasts whole New Mexican pods on a baking pan in a 250°F oven for ten to fifteen minutes, until they smell toasted, with a warning not to let them burn, then simmers them with onion and garlic and purees and strains the result. Rick Bayless toasts árbol chiles in a skillet over medium heat for about a minute, until they release their aroma and darken in spots, and presses guajillos flat against the pan; both are then soaked in hot tap water and blended with a cup of the soaking liquid. NMSU Guide E-327, the university’s procedure for red chile purée, omits toasting: the pods are stemmed, seeded, washed in several changes of warm water and soaked in boiling water for thirty minutes, until the pulp separates easily from the skin.

In each method the softened pods are blended with liquid into a smooth paste. NMSU calls straining through a sieve optional, to remove bits of peel; DeWitt strains as a matter of course. America’s Test Kitchen observes that many chili con carne recipes call for toasting and grinding a variety of whole chiles, and its own recipe skips that work in favor of canned chipotle and fresh jalapeño.