Cumin holds the flavor key to great chili

You walk into the kitchen and your nose immediately tells you there's a pot of chili simmering on the stove.

How do you know it's chili and not spaghetti sauce or chicken soup?

A single spice, which oddly doesn't deliver any heat, makes chili ... chili.

That spice is cumin.

But I didn't always know that. I made a lot of pots of chili before figuring it out.

The first time I made chili when I was 17, I bought a packet of chili mix and followed the directions on the back. From that spice packet I graduated to seasoning my chili with chili powder. Then I read the chili powder bottle and noticed ground cumin and garlic powder on the ingredient list.

Unfamiliar with cumin, I bought a bottle and when I unscrewed the cap, the aroma screamed chili. Cumin is what makes chili smell and taste like, well, chili. Cumin delivers no heat, just flavor and aroma; the heat comes from chile peppers.

From then on ground cumin went into my chili, as did fresh garlic (garlic powder certainly has its place, but not in my chili).

Fast forward to 1990 and after I had lost 100-plus pounds. I didn't want to give up my homemade chili. Extra lean ground beef didn't exist back then, so I switched to lean, all-white-meat ground turkey. By letting it brown slightly when sauteing, I could create a more meat-like flavor.

But my chili kept evolving. After sampling a Mexican mole sauce, I thought adding a tablespoon of cocoa powder to my chili would add flavor depth that wouldn't immediately be recognized as chocolate. The first time I added cocoa I thought I had made a serious mistake; my chili smelled like chocolate pudding. Yet as it slowly simmered, the flavor and aroma mellowed, adding the subtlest of flavor notes. As an added bonus, cocoa gave the chili a deeper, richer color.

With further experimentation I found that one or two minced and mashed chipotle peppers (smoked jalapeños) in adobo sauce made a perfect fiery contribution (no grinding of dried chiles necessary). I also learned to put my herbs and spices into the heated oil at the beginning of process, a technique Indian cooks use to release and intensify the spicy notes.

I'm also a big fan of mixing sweet with heat, so I tested a couple of ways to sweeten my chili. I tried honey, but its floral notes seemed over-the-top. I also tried brown sugar, which was better, but not quite right either. Knowing that brown sugar is really white sugar mixed with molasses, I tried just adding molasses; not much, just a tablespoon, and it added the perfect amount of flavor without making the chili sugary sweet.

With today's 96 percent lean ground beef, there's no need to use ground all-white meat turkey anymore. My lean beef chili is so good and filled with a variety of perfectly balanced flavors, no one will ever know that it's healthy and low in fat. Why don't you give it a try?

• Write Don Mauer at don@theleanwizard.com.Lean and Mean Beef Chili2-3 teaspoons olive oil 1 rounded tablespoon ground cumin 1 rounded tablespoon chili powder 1 tablespoon sweet paprika 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper 1 medium bay leaf 11/2 pounds 96 percent lean ground beef 2 large yellow onions, coarsely chopped 4 large garlic cloves, minced2 cans (16 ounces each) no-salt-added diced tomatoes1 can (28 ounces) tomato sauce 1 cup red wine or beef broth, optional1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa 1 tablespoon molasses 1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, finely minced 2 cans (15 ounces each) pinto or kidney beans, drained and rinsedHeat a 5- or 6-quart saucepan over medium heat and add olive oil. When oil is hot, add cumin, chili powder, paprika, black pepper and bay leaf and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add ground beef and break up with a wooden spoon. Add onions and garlic and saute until beef loses its pink color and onions soften, about 6 to 7 minutes.Add diced tomatoes with their juice, tomato sauce and wine or broth, if using; stir to combine. Stir in cocoa, molasses and chipotle peppers; reduce heat to low and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.Add beans; stirring to combine and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Serve immediately.Serves 12.@Recipe nutrition:Nutrition values per serving (without adding salt): 256 calories (14.1 percent from fat), 4 g fat (1.1 g saturated fat), 31.7 g carbohydrates, 6.1 g fiber, 19.5 g protein, 34 mg cholesterol, 625 mg sodium.