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Kidney Beans And Chili

Tips: - The book notes the amount of chili powder may be reduced if you prefer a milder dish. You'll need: Large pot, Skillet. Adapted for home kitchens by Halite from the U.S. War Department's Army Recipes (TM 10-412, 1946): scaled down from 100 servings, 1946 ingredients swapped for ones sold today, and the method rewritten. The recipe as printed is the Original version in this recipe's history.

6 servingsBy U.S. War Department on Army Recipes, TM 10-412 (1946)

Ingredients

  • 245g (8 ¾ oz) Beans, kidney
  • 454ml (2 cups) Water, cold
  • Salt, as needed
  • 408g (14 ½ oz) Meat, cooked or raw, chopped
  • 109g (⅔ cup) Onions, chopped
  • 163g (5 ¾ oz) Peppers, green, chopped
  • 20g (¾ oz) Beef fat (drippings), or bacon drippings, lard, or vegetable oil
  • 130g (11 ½ tbsp) Tomatoes
  • 6.4g (2 ¼ tsp) Chili powder
  • Salt, as needed

Instructions

  1. 1

    Rinse the kidney beans, cover with the cold water, and soak 3 to 4 hours.

  2. 2

    Add salt to taste. Cover, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the beans are half cooked.

  3. 3

    Combine the meat, onions, and green peppers; fry in the beef fat.

  4. 4

    Add the beans and tomatoes; continue cooking until the beans are tender.

  5. 5

    Stir in the chili powder and more salt to taste.

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Kidney Beans And Chili

100 servingsBy U.S. War Department on Army Recipes, TM 10-412 (1946)

Ingredients

  • 9 pounds (5¾ No. 56 dippers) Beans, kidney
  • 2 gallons (8 No. 56 dippers) Water, cold
  • As needed Salt
  • 15 pounds Meat, cooked or raw, chopped
  • 4 pounds (4 No. 56 dippers) Onions, chopped
  • 6 pounds (6 No. 56 dippers) Peppers, green, chopped
  • 12 ounces (½ mess kit cup) Beef fat
  • 1 No. 10 can Tomatoes
  • 3 ¾ ounces (15 mess kit spoons) Chili powder*
  • As needed Salt

Instructions

  1. 1

    Wash beans thoroughly. Cover with cold water; soak 3 to 4 hours.

  2. 2

    Add salt. Cover and heat to boiling point; reduce heat and simmer until half cooked.

  3. 3

    Combine meat, onions and peppers ; fry in beef fat.

  4. 4

    Add beans and tomatoes ; continue cooking until beans are tender.

  5. 5

    Add chili powder and salt.

Typed from the page scan above. If the two disagree, go with the scan.

What we changed

  • Cut from the book’s 100 servings to 6 servings.
  • Swapped “Beef fat” for “Beef fat (drippings)” (or bacon drippings, lard, or vegetable oil).
  • Scaled 10 amounts and rounded each to a kitchen measure, like ½ cup.
  • Fixed 1 fraction the scan of the 1946 page misread.
  • Tidied 1 ingredient name.
  • AI rewrote the method for a home kitchen. Tap As printed at the top to compare.

Taken from the log we keep of every edit to this recipe. We left out the line-by-line unit conversions.

Where this recipe comes from

It’s from Army Recipes (TM 10-412), the cookbook the U.S. War Department printed in 1946 for Army mess halls. As a U.S. government work, it’s in the public domain.

See the scanned book →

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