Everything But The Weed

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Chili con carne was formally designated the state dish of the lone star state of Texas by the State Legislature in 1977, but to most residents of the lone star state , the actuality that a genuine “bowl of red” can only be eaten in Texas has in no way been in doubt.

It is usually acknowledged that, despite its Spanish name, chili con carne (chili peppers withmeat) comes from no place other than  San Antonio Texas. According to a well-known theory, Texas chili is an adaptation of a spicy stew that was introduced to the region by immigrants from the Spanish Canary Iss, who came to the region now known as San Antonio in 1731, in what was then the Spanish province of Texas.

Supporting this theory, is the simple fact that all the spices utilized in the earlier versions of chili con carne: chili peppers, oregano and garlic, growwild in southern Texas; besides for the cumin, which was imported from the Canary Islands by the afore mentioned Spanish settlers . These spiceswere boiled together with whatevermeat was obtainable to concoct a cheap, uncomplicated and gratifying peasant stew.

From the early days, chili was used as  anexcellent cattle drive food. Cowboys on cattle drives took chili along with them on the journey. One straightforward procedure of carrying out this was to pound the beef, suet, chili peppers, and spices together tomake bricks that after dried, wereeasily carried. The chili bricks could easily be boiled up in a pot of water, and served as a convenient, instantaneoustrail dish. Alternatively, range cooks planted chili peppers, oregano and onions in mesquite patches positioned along the trail for future cattle drives (the mesquite bushes protected the herbs and vegetables from foraging cattle). Here is one of the earliest variations of chili con carne on record, a range cook’s recipe from the early 1800s:

Cut up as much meat as you think  you will need (any kind will do, but beef is probably best) in pieces about the size of a pecan. Put it in a pot, along with some suet (enough so as the meat won’t stick to the sides of the pot), and cook it with about the same amount of wild onions, garlic, oregano, and chilies as you have got meat. Put in some salt. Stir it from time to time and cook it until the meat is as tender as you think it’s going to get.

In time, chili con carne grew to be well-liked in the modestTexas cities that grew up along the cattle trails. In this way, the dish was distributed throughout the state~ the lone star state .

The chili queens of San Antonio are yet another vibrant feature ofTexas chili history . They were Hispanic females with an entrepreneurial spirit who cooked up big pots of chili by day and, clad in brightly colored dresses, trundled their carts to San Antonio’s Military Plaza, ladling out their vendibles from forged iron pots heated up overwood or charcoal fires in the evening. This custom began in the 1880s when San Antonio washost to soldiers of the Spanish army, who camped in Military Plaza; the fact that it was also a cattle city and a railroad town ensured that the chili queens had plenty of potential diners willing to tuck into their fiery wares. In 1887, the chili queens were moved to Market Square by the municipal government, in which they remained a common fixture of downtown San Antonio till 1937, at which time they wererequired to comply with the sanitation regulations set for all the city’s food establishments . Many chili queens set up indoors so as to continue on in business, but San Antonio lost one of its distinctive and vibrant attractions.

Frank H. Bushick, the San Antonio Commissioner of Taxation, penned an write-up about the chili queens that appeared in the July 1927 of Frontier Times. According to Bushick:

The chili stand and chili queens are peculiarities, or unique institutions, of the Alamo City. They started away back there when the Spanish army camped on the plaza. They were started to feed the soldiers. Every class of people  in every station of life patronized them in the old days. Some were attracted by the novelty of it, someby the cheapness. A big plate of chili and beans, with a tortilla on the side, cost a dime. A Mexican bootblack and a silk-hatted tourist would line  up and eat side by side, unconscious or oblivious of the other.

The chili queens came back to San Antonio,  after a fashion, in the 1980s, when the city commenced historic re-enactments of the chili queens as a tribute to the state dish of Texas: chili con carne. The El Mercado Retailers sponsor the annual “Return of the Chili Queens Festival” celebrated in Market Square in the course of the May Memorial Day celebrations.

Of course chili con carne is not only common in Texas. The piquant dish initially got nationwide publicity when it was served at the San Antonio Chili Stall set up in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago Illinois, where it was a fantastic hit with the crowds.

The Chili cookoff is a well-liked kind of delicious, good-natured competition all over the UnitedStates . In actuality, cookoffs officially sanctioned by the International Chili Society are put on as far afield as Canada and the Cayman Iss. But the grand daddy of all chili cookoffs is the one put on each and every year in Terlingua, Texas, started in 1967 with the backing of Carroll Shelby, popular Texan and father of the Cobra sports car.

The first Terlingua chili cookoff was put on to answer a challenge thrown down by H. Allen Smith, a writer from New York who had penned a piece with the name, “Nobody knows more about Chili than I Do” for the August 1967 publication of Holiday Magazine. In the article, he claimed that, “…no living man, I repeat, can put together a pot of chili as ambrosial, as delicately and zestfully flavorful, as the chili I make.” And, to add insult to injury, his recipe included beans!

Beans are not considered to be an ingredient of genuineTexas chili. As the name of the unofficial anthem sung every single fall at the Terlingua cookoff would have it: “If You Know Beans About Chili, You Know That Chili Has No Beans.” Texas chili winner Homer “Wick” Fowler, not beingable to stomach this spurrious claim, challenged the presumptuous New Yorker to a showdown, and the great chili cookoff was born. Sadly, the results were inconclusive as the thirdjudge excused himself from service following he had spat out the spoonful of chili he had tried to swallow upon the referee’s foot. According to a witness, Sports Illustrated writer Gary Cartwright,

Then he went into convulsions. He rammed a white handkerchief down his throat as though he were cleaning a rifle barrel, and in an agonizing whisper Witts pronounced himself unable to go on.

So the initial chili cookoff ended in a tie, but the Texans haven’t given an inch on the question of beans in chili, at least at sanctioned chili cookoffs. The 1st rule of the International Chili Society’s Official Contestant Rules and Regulationssays that:

The following rules and regulations for cooks at the World’s Championship, State, Regional and District Cookoffs are as follows:

1. Traditional Red Chili is defined by the International Chili Society as any kind of meat or combination of meats, cooked with red chili peppers, various spices and other ingredients, with the exception of BEANS and PASTA which are strictly forbidden.

The 2nd rule of the official Chili Cooking Rulesof Chili Appreciation International, the organizers of the Terlingua Chili Cookoff says that:

2. NO FILLERS IN CHILI – Beans, macaroni, rice, hominy, or other similar ingredients are not permitted.

Be that as it may, even a lot of Texans like beans in their chili. Chili con carne is the type of dish that invites inventiveness and experimentation and an infinite variety of scrumptious variations are possible. But, eventhough there are virtually as manychili recipesas there are starsin the sky, not all of them meet the criteriaof the genuine articlefromthe Lone StarState. I’ll leaveyou with a quotation:

Chili concocted outside of Texas is usually a weak, apologetic imitation of the realthing. One of the first things I do when I get home to Texas is to have a bowl of red. There is simply nothing better.

          – Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of the United States.

To learn what Lyndon Johnson is talking about, click on the link for an easy, scrumptiousrecipe for genuine Texas chili.

http://www.squidoo.com/worlds_best_chili