I didn't read all the comments so others may have said the same thing, but I just throw it into the pot along with the rest of the ingredients after any sauteing or sweating of aromatics and then either stir or mash the beef into the mixture as the chili comes up in temp. You don't want the meat to hit high heat in clumps or it'll immediately get cooked into coarse pieces.

I just skim the excess fat off the top after it's done cooking. (But I do like to leave a bit - I rather enjoy a somewhat greasy chili on my hot dogs. :) )

I live in San Diego but grew up in OC and have made the occasional jaunt up to LA over the years. No doubt LA requires its own board, but I have always wondered why San Diego gets it own board when OC doesn't. Size-wise, there's no question OC should get its own board if SD does. And I know this is much more subjective, but food-wise, as much as I love my new home, I find OC generally more diverse, progressive and dense than SD currently.

Many parts of LA and OC aren't really all that local to one another from a time and logistics standpoint.

And I also think that there would be more OC posting if OC weren't eaten up by LA, which it naturally is when thrown under the same topic.

Clearly, I vote yes. :)

Yeah. In any group dynamic, it's nice if each participant tries reasonably to accommodate the group.

And to echo your sentiment, I certainly don't think saving dollars is in itself necessarily a morally superior act or always the best outcome all things considered. Though to be clearer, I don't think frugality is always about spending the least amount of money possible. Come to think of it, in my interpretation of it, it usually isn't.

Someone mentioned upstream something to the effect that the default majority position on CH seems to be that anyone who wants to discuss the logistics of their portion of the payment of a meal that doesn't automatically tend toward the magnanimous is branded cheap, or at least that's how I read it. I perceive it that way as well.

I'm ok with magnanimous people thinking I'm cheap. But in part, I wanted to voice what I think is the underrepresented perspective that, just as one might interpret self described frugality as thinly veiled cheapness, one might also interpret self described generosity in these kinds of situations as pretension and/or cluelessness of fiscal and other sorts. Neither is more or less flattering imo. People fall in all places of the spectrum between miserly and magnanimous, and unlike what I think is the implication of the majority responses on CH, the determination is usually not an easy either/or, and it's usually highly subjective.

As for the level of divergence in tastes in the instance of this particular OP, it seems to me that is a thing he has yet to discover. I hope he's pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

A question to clarify your first paragraph: Are you annoyed or are you graciously grateful when your friends go to the trouble of organizing a dinner in which they expect you to pay a pro rata share of alcohol they well know in advance you will not enjoy? Or can a person be both at the same time? ^-

That asked, I agree with you that the decent thing for people who order substantially more than others would be to acknowledge the difference and at least make an earnest motion to handle it accordingly even if the others will ultimately split the bill evenly for whatever reasons. I've been on both sides of that situation, and I've also been bothered in some way when people who've clearly ordered in significant excess of what I have ordered have failed to acknowledge it.

And this is not addressed to alarash specifically, but I find it interesting that many seem to think it cheap when a person would like not to have to pay for things they didn't consume, but they don't seem to think it cheap of a person to expect someone else to pay for their relative excess. I don't think we have to be so inflexible as to brand a person cheap, with all the negative connotation that comes with the label, just because they would like to spend time in our company but just don't want to or can't spend the kind of money we want to or can in a given situation or on a given commodity or experience.

I consider myself a frugal person. That doesn't mean I don't splurge with and for friends from time to time, it doesn't mean I don't tip well, and it doesn't mean I never pay for things I didn't order or eat without feeling slighted. Some people will call it cheap whenever someone wants to honestly discuss their financial situation or perspective because they think that's what cheap people do. Maybe that is what some cheap people do. But maybe that's also what some fiscally realistic people who don't have an issue with openly discussing the financial logistics of a plan do as well.

I actually think very small amounts of fish sauce can add a good depth of flavor and added layer of umami to many dishes without the dish itself becoming fishy. I use it in soups, stews and braises that aren't Southeast Asian in flavor profile for that reason all the time.

But at the very most, it is to be used as a salt element substitute and not a liquid element substitute. It is, as many have mentioned, far too salty first and foremost, and then also too pungent to use as a substitute for stock. That would be like replacing your stock with soy sauce. The dish would be inedible.

I might add a teaspoon to the stock to add some depth of flavor to the rice, though.

As mentioned a few times upthread, I think that people significantly modifying your recipe and then expressing dissatisfaction at the result without any acknowledgment or apparent awareness that their choices might have contributed to the unsatisfactory result is probably the most annoying thing for me.

But in the end, it's possible they could have followed my recipe to the letter and still not liked the result.

In either event, unless it's a typo or error on my part, it's just not worth defense, argument, or further discussion.

I've never had that happen to me personally, but I was present at a potluck in which one person asked another for their recipe only to be told they'd have to pay them for it, it's that valuable. The exchange was comical.

I think some people simply have no idea of the depth and breadth of excellent recipes there are to be had out there today, for free, categorized and searchable by ingredients, cuisines, and techniques, that make any one of our individual recipes so much less precious and unique than we'd like to believe, specially if we'd rather guard than share them.