Canned Skyline Chilli

The latest entrant in our canned chili challenge is the one canned product we have previously had, Skyline Chili. However in the past when we bought a can of Skyline it was typically for Skyline Dip, not coneys. Along with the Skyline Chili we also bought a bag of Skyline Chili cheese, Klosterman buns and Blue Grass footlong hot dogs (which we cut in half).

Overall we enjoyed our attempt at recreating a Skyline Chili coney at home, but of course it was not quite parlor quality. The chili definitely had that familiar sweet Skyline taste, however it was a little more watery than the parlor chili (which is pretty watery itself). The Skyline bagged cheese doesn't have much similarity to the parlor version. At the parlor Skyline has one of our favorite cheeses thus far on the quest. The bagged cheese taste fine, but not much different than a bag of Kroger cheese so you can save some money by going that direction.

The Blue Grass footlong hot dogs worked perfectly. When cut in half they are very close to the same sized dog you get at the parlor. We also enjoyed the taste of the Blue Grass dog. The Klosterman hot dog buns were also very good. However we wish stores would sell a hot dog bun more similar to what you find at the parlor as they are smaller and less filling.

The canned Skyline Chili isn't quite parlor quality, but we do recommend it for those who want to make coneys at home or for those who no longer live in Cincinnati and miss their beloved Skyline. Skip the bag of Skyline cheese and grate your own or go with a cheaper bagged option.

Canned Gold Star Chili

The 2nd chili in our "Canned Chili Challenge" was the offering from Gold Star Chili. Thanks in part to reader suggestions, we made some adjustments from our last at home experiment. Overall we made solid coneys and the changes did improve the coney, but still not quite chili parlor quality.

Last time we mentioned the hot dogs were a little too large. We wanted to buy the Queen City foot long hot dog as they are similar in size to a chili parlor dog, but Kroger was sold out. So we went with the regular Queen City hot dog and cut them in half. This was an upgrade as it allowed us to put more chili and cheese on our coneys. However, the Queen City dogs were not quite as good as the Blue Grass dog, which is what Gold Star uses at their parlors.

The other area we wanted to improve was the shredded cheese. Last time we should have gone with a finer shred. This time we used a microplane which produced shredded cheese that had more resemblance to the parlor cheese we are used to. Freezing the cheese a half hour before shredding was helpful too. We also went with a medium cheddar cheese and thought it was better than the mild we went with previously.

The Gold Star canned chili was ok, but not quite as good as what you get at the parlor. We thought the Dixie product had a very close resemblance to the parlor product, unfortunately can't say the same for Gold Star's. It definitely taste similar, you could tell it was Gold Star Chili, just not as satisfying. Alison felt the chili tasted salty.

Overall the coneys were an improvement over our previous attempt, but we still aren't quite at parlor quality yet. Even though we didn't love the chili, we would still recommend it to Gold Star fans.

Canned Dixie Chili

Up first in our "Canned Chili Challenge" is Dixie Chili. This was the first time we have had Dixie since our visit very early in the quest. We both enjoyed Dixie so we looked forward to trying their canned product.

What we used:

Dixie Chili
A block of Kroger Mild Cheddar Cheese (which we shredded)
Blue Grass hot dogs
White onion
Kroger yellow mustard
Butternut Golden Honey hot dog buns

We both enjoyed our homemade attempt of recreating the Dixie Chili product. The canned product tasted very good and brought back fond memories of our Dixie visit. However there were some aspects we can definitely improve on as we continue this challenge. The cheese tasted fine, but the texture wasn't the best. Next time we will try freezing the cheese for a half hour before shredding to help reduce the clumpy texture. The Blue Grass dogs tasted great, but are larger than the typical coney dog so we couldn't pour on as much chili as we would have liked. The buns were fine, but we will try other brands. Alison thought the onion was too strong and will try a vidalia onion next time. She thought the mustard was fine.

Overall they were tasty coneys but not quite as good as a parlor made coney. If you are fan of Dixie Chili we recommend buying the canned product if you want to make your own coneys (or -ways) at home. The chili was tasty.  Hopefully we will make the appropriate tweaks along the way and come close to recreating that delicious parlor coney. Of course we welcome any suggestions.