Dell and chili

Dell (left), me, and Charles (right) at the cabin, circa 1982.

If you have ever camped with Dell, you know about chili.  It was often the first meal once camp was set up.  In order to cook it, the pot had to be retrieved.  Yes, the venerable chili pot.  The pot itself was undoubtedly a relic from some military campaign - there were enough dents in it to suggest that it had served as both helmet and bucket for more than a few decades.  It had been brought out to camp many years before I first encountered it.  It lived inside "the pit", as it was called, where it would be retrieved immediately upon arrival.  The newest member of any expedition would be called upon to go into the earth's void and excise whatever valuables were needed.  Chief among those items was the chili pot.

Chili was often the first meal for many reasons.  First of all, it was a grand source of energy for our bodies which had just been through an ordeal making it to the cabin.  It is somewhat ironic that the arduous journey was partly because of the heavy backpacks we carried; they were loaded up with the many cans and frozen hamburger that was needed to make the calorie-laden meal.  

Secondly, it was tradition.  I have never known Dell to be big on tradition - that is the honouring of some cultural ritual given a specific date or stimulus, but he was a fanatic when it came to chili.  Cook up a few pounds of hamburger, then add a couple of cans each of kidney beans, tomatoes, and mushrooms.  Add a sliced green pepper, onion, and plenty of seasonings.  Let it simmer for an hour or so.  Alas, I am missing the most important ingredient.  The fire stick.

In order to cook the chili, a fire had to be made in the camp's firepit.  There was usually wood left over from a previous camp and so it was often my duty to get one going.  Once the fire was a roaring conflagration, it would be left to become a bed of coals suitable for meal preparation.  In order to facilitate the perfect fire, a large stick was used to move pieces of wood into place to maximize airflow and heat production.  The end of the stick would become very black and charred.  When the pot was ready to be placed on the fire, it was the fire stick, also called the chili stick, that was used to churn its contents.  Not only would it allow you to churn the pot's contents, you could do it at a safe distance and add that special flavour to the mix.  

Once dinner was over and everything had been tidied up for the evening, it was time to sit around the fire.  That's where the third reason behind the production of chili came.  And Dell was usually the first to initiate the practice.  The French call it flatuosites, otherwise known as flatulence.  It never seem to take very long before the beans did their work.  Besides imparting tremendous energy to our bodies, it seems that the concoction also delivered a sizable amount of gas.

The rest of the evening would proceed with stories, cards, and a fair degree of silliness.  None of that would have been possible had it not been for the chili.  Traditions were not always lost on Dell.  The most cherished one he had was the cooking of chili on the first night of camping - complete with that burnt-stick aroma.  I guess you had to be there.  Thankfully, I was.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com