Wild Game Chilli and Spaghetti Sauce

Up to a certain point in the preparation, spaghetti sauce and chilli are the same recipe. It’s only when you start to add the specific spices and extras that these two products need to go into separate pots. If you keep that in mind it will speed up the preparation of these two popular supper dishes.

The pots can be the tall thick-walled and aluminium-lidded or just two big sauce or roast pans.

Start off with one large pot and a frying pan. Depending on the quantity, the ground meat should be browned all at once or in stages using the frying pan. It is very easy to burn the product at any stage if you are using cheap, thin-walled pots.

I package my wild-game ground meat in a few larger (4 to 5-pound) packages specifically for chilli and spaghetti sauce. I do not put any beef or pork fat in my wild ground meat but if you do add fat or are using ground beef you will likely have to add water after browning to let the fat-skim form on the surface and then remove it to prevent a greasy final product.

The meat should be browned with lots of chopped onions, garlic and green and red peppers. Work it with a large wooden spoon or stiff spatula. Then add chopped celery zucchini, more canned mushrooms than you think you should, and all the now-frozen tomatoes you’ve put away: tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes (with spice), crushed canned tomatoes, and/or tomato paste. The amounts all depend on how much meat you’ve browned and how much final product you expect.

Simmer all this for an hour or so and then split the contents into pots large enough to finish each dish. If your starter pot is large enough, dump half the contents into another pot. Now you can work towards two final products, each of which will be spiced and flavoured differently from this point on.

I add a couple of large, good quality bottles of spaghetti sauce to the — you guessed it — spaghetti sauce pot. I then add all the different spices that are suggested in any spaghetti sauce recipe. Taste it as you go to help the final product.

Regarding the chilli, the amount of standard chilli spices and beans will vary to taste. Also add corn niblets and shredded carrots.

It is very important to taste it often and certainly taste it when you think it is done, after all the flavours have worked themselves together.

Let both pots cool and ladle the product into labelled and dated 650 mg yoghurt or honey tubs that you’ve saved for this purpose. Ask the eaters for comments and that will help you with the next batch.

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