Doggy Bag: The Great American Chili Ritual

Stephanie Im/Bay Area bites

Sort of a ritual you can wash down with a beer.

Super bowl: Bay Area Bites' Stephanie Im wallows in meat and men. In a tip-off to the American exercise in sofa socializing over beer and salty, animal-enriched snacks ― the Super Bowl ― Im shares tips on how to concoct a big-ass pot of chili, perfect, she says, for when you have a lot of men to feed.

Im's setup: "2 pounds of bacon, 4 pounds of sausage, 6 pounds of ground beef...and that's only the beginning." The recipe's from a firehouse, she says, an unimpeachable source for chili, the way your grandmother is an unquestionable source for lemon bars, even if you can trace her recipe to the back of the cornstarch box. Im facilitates her particular feeds-20 formula with a restaurant-size pot. She even tells you where to buy one: "I scored mine off of Craigslist from a restaurant going out of business," she says. Who says the recession doesn't have a silver lining? Bare minimum an aluminum one.