Post by Glen Carman aka Delmonico on Oct 10, 2018 17:52:03 GMT -6
The History of Chili
Chili, often called “a bowl of red or chili con carne” and was invented in Texas, back when it was spelled Tejas, many think chili is Mexican. Mexico does not claim it, the have their own dishes using chili peppers. When folks from back east first started to settle in Tejas there was no Super Wal-Marts so they had to fend for themselves.
What they did have was meat and chili peppers which grew wild, along with wild onions and some European herbs planted by monks who had came from Spain. Among those herbs were cumin, oregano, and the one who’s leaves are called cilantro and the seeds are called coriander. These were mixed and cooked into a stew and was well liked by most. Meat could be cow, pig, and deer or about anything the walked, crawled, flew or swam.
We will fast forward, we all know the story, Tejas gained their independence, changed the j to an x, became a state, decided not to be a state and then became a state again. After they became a state again they had a lot of cattle, so many cow critters that they weren’t worth anything in the state. But Yankees didn’t have much beef and there was a railroad in Kansas that went back east.
So Texans rounded up cattle and drove them north, inventing both the chuck wagon and the cosie to cook out of it. This is a whole ‘nuther story for another day.
So the Texans came back with a lot of Yankee gold and could buy lots of things with it, including the new-fangled canned goods called airtights. The peaches were well liked along with the canned milk since Texans didn’t like to milk wild longhorns. The problem was the tamaters, the poor cosie didn’t know what to do with them.
Well one cosie got tired of the boss complaining about all the cases of canned tamaters piling up in the cook shack decided to try something, opened some cans and tossed them in the chili. At supper time he told the cowboys to eat it or they would end up like the cowboys in the Monte Walsh movie. So even though both versions were years in the future, they knew it couldn’t be good, so they ate it and they liked it.
So at the next meeting of the cosie’s union our hero told the rest about it and tamaters ended up in a lot of chili. Soon others from other parts of the country came to Texas (still spelled with an x) and liked it also. Soon chili got to being made in other parts of the country, folks in Texas made and sold mixed spices called chili powder and even sold canned chili.
Places called chili parlors sprang up selling all you can eat chili, this made a lot of folks happy because it was a cheap meal. Then Wall Street crashed and things got hard, to make a profit, the chili parlors often used less meat, used ground meat, added beans and tomato juice instead of canned maters. To add bulk they also started serving soda crackers with it. Some folks up north even added macaroni to it.
So the moral of this story is never put beans in your chili or folks will think you are cheap.
Chili, often called “a bowl of red or chili con carne” and was invented in Texas, back when it was spelled Tejas, many think chili is Mexican. Mexico does not claim it, the have their own dishes using chili peppers. When folks from back east first started to settle in Tejas there was no Super Wal-Marts so they had to fend for themselves.
What they did have was meat and chili peppers which grew wild, along with wild onions and some European herbs planted by monks who had came from Spain. Among those herbs were cumin, oregano, and the one who’s leaves are called cilantro and the seeds are called coriander. These were mixed and cooked into a stew and was well liked by most. Meat could be cow, pig, and deer or about anything the walked, crawled, flew or swam.
We will fast forward, we all know the story, Tejas gained their independence, changed the j to an x, became a state, decided not to be a state and then became a state again. After they became a state again they had a lot of cattle, so many cow critters that they weren’t worth anything in the state. But Yankees didn’t have much beef and there was a railroad in Kansas that went back east.
So Texans rounded up cattle and drove them north, inventing both the chuck wagon and the cosie to cook out of it. This is a whole ‘nuther story for another day.
So the Texans came back with a lot of Yankee gold and could buy lots of things with it, including the new-fangled canned goods called airtights. The peaches were well liked along with the canned milk since Texans didn’t like to milk wild longhorns. The problem was the tamaters, the poor cosie didn’t know what to do with them.
Well one cosie got tired of the boss complaining about all the cases of canned tamaters piling up in the cook shack decided to try something, opened some cans and tossed them in the chili. At supper time he told the cowboys to eat it or they would end up like the cowboys in the Monte Walsh movie. So even though both versions were years in the future, they knew it couldn’t be good, so they ate it and they liked it.
So at the next meeting of the cosie’s union our hero told the rest about it and tamaters ended up in a lot of chili. Soon others from other parts of the country came to Texas (still spelled with an x) and liked it also. Soon chili got to being made in other parts of the country, folks in Texas made and sold mixed spices called chili powder and even sold canned chili.
Places called chili parlors sprang up selling all you can eat chili, this made a lot of folks happy because it was a cheap meal. Then Wall Street crashed and things got hard, to make a profit, the chili parlors often used less meat, used ground meat, added beans and tomato juice instead of canned maters. To add bulk they also started serving soda crackers with it. Some folks up north even added macaroni to it.
So the moral of this story is never put beans in your chili or folks will think you are cheap.