Michigan coney dogs and Cincinnati chili

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been enjoying reading Paul Fehribach’s 2023 book titled Midwestern Food: A Chef’s Guide to the surprising history of a great American cuisine, with more than 100 tasty recipes.

 

Paul defines the Midwest as a region in a paragraph on page 9:

 

“Our Midwest, then, stretches from central and western Pennsylvania and the Finger Lakes of New York west to the Great Plains states – it’s a truly diverse region in terms of geography and topography, containing some of the most productive agricultural land in the world. Yet the humid and sticky summers of the river towns Cincinnati, Louisville, and Saint Louis remind us of the Southern influence on Midwestern culture, in stark contrast to the Scandinavian- and French-influenced cultures of the Great Lakes, where the summers are sublime and the winters harsh."  

 

I lived in this region for forty years: 22 in Pittsburgh, 9 in Columbus, 7 in Ann Arbor, and 2 in Chicago. Chapter 4 is titled Of State Fairs, Tailgates, and Main Street Cafes and subtitled Sandwiches and Handheld Food. On page 128 he discusses Coney Dogs, which Wikipedia calls Coney Island hot dogs.

 

The Keros brothers in Detroit argued, and then separately opened Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island in the 1930s. As shown above, a Detroit Coney Dog consists of a hot dog on a steamed bun, topped with a beanless chili sauce of Macedonian descent, chopped onions, and mustard. There is an article by Erick Trickey at Smithsonian on June 30, 2016 about how The origin of the Coney Island Hot Dog is a uniquely American story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul describes three sauce recipes: one for Detroit, another for Jackson (80 miles west of Detroit) and yet another for Flint (70 miles northwest of Detroit). Detroit sauce has three parts ground beef to one part beef heart, Flint has two parts ground beef to one part beef heart, and Jackson only has beef heart – it’s just offal. He also mentions Kalamazoo (140 miles west of Detroit) but does not present a recipe for there.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 6 is titled Pull Up a Chair and subtitled Meat and Potatoes. In Cincinnati, 260 miles south of Detroit, the sauce instead became the star ingredient – discussed starting on page 191 under the heading of Queen City Chili. As shown above, two-way Cincinnati chili tops spaghetti noodles. Beans, onions, and grated cheese make it three, four, or five-way. He says it began with Tom Kiradjieff at Empress Chili. Paul says there is no chocolate in Cincinnati chili. It still can be served on Coney Dogs (with cheese too).

 

When I lived in Columbus the Skyline Chili chain had several locations, and I enjoyed their four-way version without cheese.

 

Images of a Detroit Coney and two-way Cincinnati Chili came from Wikimedia Commons.