The Food Lover’s Companion lists the following: chile; chili pepper; hot pepper - all with the same definition and then chili con carne, chili oil, chili paste and chili powder but also chile con queso, chile bean paste and chiles rellenos. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to the spellings. The New Oxford Book of Food Plants addles my brain even further with their only entry listed under Chillies. Wesbster’s New World Dictionary of Culinary Arts uses all three spellings and in different ways than The Food Lover’s Companion. To make matters worse, the word can refer to one pepper, the bean and beef stew or the dried spice mix that contains chile peppers, oregano, cumin and garlic. Read more…