40lb meat chili

Not big enough.

Not sure on volume, but rather than cooking everything this weekend, I would brown the meat the day before so you aren't dealing with 40 pounds of raw meat at the tailgate. That will take longer than you think.

As Sixth says, it will cook down and you'll have a better idea of what you're dealing with rather than having to adjust on site.

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I do believe it will fit, no problem.

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I think you're right. Adding to what I said about browning the day before, if there is time, I would make the whole batch the day before and store in those 6 quart Cambro plastic tubs you can get a Sam's. Keep in an ice chest and warm up at the tailgate as you need it.

Pot size is no worry then and it tastes better the next day anyway.

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Not sure on volume, but rather than cooking everything this weekend, I would brown the meat the day before so you aren't dealing with 40 pounds of raw meat at the tailgate. That will take longer than you think.

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Just did chili at a tailgate last weekend. This is definitely the way to go. Much easier and you’ll be sure it will fit in your pot. But I do think you’ll be good with the numbers you listed.

I made chili with 40 lbs of 80/20 about two weeks ago. We had a 30gallon black pot and we had to make 2 batches.

My recipe was
40lbs of beef
18 large cans of tomato sauce
8qts beef broth
20 15oz cans of kidney beans
7 22oz containers of chili seasoning

If volume alone was all that you need to consider, the 30 gallon pot miiiight have worked but it would have been very very tight with little to no room to mix and stir.

Yup. It was a big cast iron pot that was used to make molasses from sugar cane.

Well… I’m not an expert but we took an extra step anyway.

It is my understanding that the acid in tomato sauce eats the seasoning. That may or may not be correct. But assuming that is correct, we saved the tallow that we got from browning the beef. When we were done with the chili, we cleaned the pot, and then re-seasoned it with the tallow.

That may have been unnecessary because the pot looked fine when we were done, but we did it anyway because it was good for the pot no matter what. Truth be told I didn’t notice any difference.

Glad you clarified. Seemed like you had about 20 gallons of other ingredients and for the life of me, I couldn’t understand how that wasn’t too much for 40 pounds.

But… you had 120 pounds of meat and a 30 gallon pot, divide that by 3 and you get 40 pounds of meat in a 10 gallon pot.

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beans

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