Chili Recipes

From
Thom's Recipe File

History:

Who invented chili?  There are several theories. E. De Grolyer, a scholar and chili expert, believed it had its origins as the "pemmican of the Southwest" in the late 1840s.  According to De Grolyer, Texans pounded dried beef and beef fat, chili peppers, and salt to make trail food for the ride out to the gold fields and San Francisco.  The dried mixture was then boiled in pots along the trail, an "instant" chili.

A variation on the same theory is that cowboys invented chili when driving cattle. Supposedly, cooks planted oregano, chilies, and onions among patches of mesquite to protect them from foraging cattle.  The next time they passed the same trail, they would collect the spices, combine them with beef, and make a dish called "Trail drive chili".  The chili peppers used in the earliest dishes were probably chilipiquํns, which grow wild on bushes in Texas, particularly the southern part of the state.

Probably the earliest mention of the dish, though not the name, according to Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach in "The Whole Chile Pepper Book," was by J. C. Clopper.  He visited San Antonio in 1828 and commented on how poor people would cut the little meat they could afford "into a kind of hash with nearly as many pieces of pepper as there are pieces of meat - this is all stewed together."  The first mention of the word "chili" was in a book by S. Compton Smith, "Chile Con Carne, or The Camp and the Field" (1857), and there was a San Antonio Chili Stand at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

It was in 1902 that William Gebhardt, a German Immigrant in New Braunfels, Texas, created a "chili powder" which helped popularize chili throughout the Southwest.  His brand is still one of the most popular, and specified in many recipes.

Variations:

Chili con carne is described as a dish of well-seasoned and well-cooked beef with chili peppers.  In New Mexico, chili is often more of a stew with chili peppers and vegetables, with or without meat.  In California, chili is usually a mixture of ground beef and beans, different from any other Southwestern versions. 

Cincinnati chili was created in 1922 by a Macedonian immigrant, Athanas Kiradjieff.  Kiradjieff settled in Cincinnati and opened a hot dog stand called the Empress, where he created a chili with Middle Eastern spices which could be served a variety of ways.  His "five-way" was a concoction of a mound of spaghetti topped with chili, then with chopped onions, then red kidney beans, then shredded yellow cheese, and served with oyster crackers and a side order of hot dogs topped with shredded cheese!

On The Side:

Several beverages are commonly used to accompany a bowl of chili, including a glass of cold milk to moderate the impact of the chiles on the throat. Saltine crackers, broken up and scattered on top, are common in chili parlors. Similarly, commercial corn chips can be added as a topping producing something akin to Frito pie. Jalape๑o cornbread, rolled-up corn tortillas, and pork tamales also are popular, for dunking. Peanut butter sandwiches or peanut butter on saltine crackers served on the side can also accompany chili. In Missouri, a small portion of pickle juice is often poured into the bowl of chili. Similarly in Tennessee, it is common to sprinkle vinegar over the bowl of chili. In Indiana, some heap a big helping of coleslaw in their bowl of chili before eating.

Beans:  Pinto beans (frijoles), a staple of Tex-Mex cooking, have long been associated with chili and the question of whether beans "belong" in chili has been a matter of contention amongst chili cooks for an equally long time. It is likely that in many poorer areas of San Antonio and other places associated with the origins of chili, beans were used rather than meat or in addition to meat due to poverty. In that regard, it has been suggested by some chili aficionados that there were probably two chili types made in the world, depending on what could be afforded and how frugal the cook was.

As chili spread east into areas where beef was more expensive (beef was plentiful and cheap in San Antonio and other cattle towns), chili with Pinto or other beans became more prevalent. In some eastern areas, this dish is referred to as "chili beans" while the term chili is reserved for the all-meat dish. Other changes included the adding of other vegetables. Tomatoes are almost always used, bell peppers are common and even celery appears in recipes. Many easterners are just as adamant about the inclusion of beans in their chili for an authentic flavor as a small, vocal minority of Texans are about their exclusion.

Most commercially prepared canned chili includes beans. Commercial chili prepared without beans is usually called "Chili No Beans". If you substitute chunks of fresh mushrooms for the beans, you will cut the calorie content of your favorite chili recipe by at least a third, without sacrificing taste. The blandness of the white button mushroom soak up the flavors of the chiles, tomatoes, chili powder, etc. while helping the chili retain its consistency.

However, a vocal minority of self-styled 'chili experts' believe that beans and chili should always be cooked separately and served on the side. It is then up to the consumer to stir his preferred quantity of beans into his own bowl. Some cooks prefer black beans, black-eyed peas, or kidney beans instead of pinto beans.

A popular saying among self-proclaimed chili purists is "If you know beans about chili, you know chili ain't got no beans".

Tomatoes:  Another ingredient considered anywhere from required to sacrilegious is tomatoes. Wick Fowler, north Texas newspaperman and inventor of "Two-Alarm Chili" (which he later marketed as a "kit" of spices), insisted on adding tomato sauce to his chili, one 15-oz. can per three pounds of meat. He also believed that chili should never be eaten newly-cooked but refrigerated overnight to seal in the flavor. Matt Weinstock, a Los Angeles newspaper columnist, once remarked that Fowler's chili "was reputed to open eighteen sinus cavities unknown to the medical profession". [Tolbert, A Bowl of Red]

Rice or no rice:  In Southeast Texas people eat chili over white rice, much like one would eat gumbo, this is due to the proximity to Louisiana. This is also common in Hawaii, United Kingdom, and Sweden.

White chili:  Instead of a tomato-based sauce and red meat (beef), great northern beans and chicken breast meat can be substituted. The resulting dish appears white when cooked, and has more of an alkali bean taste, instead of the acidic taste of "regular" chili.

Secret ingredients:  Every serious chili cook has their own recipe for chili, which may have, in addition to the expected ingredients listed above, some more esoteric additions. These may include chocolate, cumin, peanut butter, lobster fondue, pineapple, fish eggs, banana, oranges, tomatillos, bock beer, coffee, tequila, Coca Cola, honey, cocoa, saffron, a cast iron cooking pot, and so on.
 

Chili is often served with beans on the side, and usually with rice.  Tortillas are a good choice to serve with chili, and cornbread, saltines, and oyster crackers are other favorites.