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Origins and history of Chili (from
Wikepedia)
Cowboy dishing up chili at noonday dinner. Cattle ranch near Marfa,
Texas. Many argue that chili was invented in Mexico during the
1840s, as a replacement for pemmican; others place its origin in
Tijuana, Baja California, or Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico.
The Mexican origin theory holds that it was created as a complimentary
dish served at cantinas, especially to please outsiders, who wanted
something spicy and "Mexican" to eat, but also free or cheap. It was
made with leftovers from the meals prepared in the cantina and served
for free to drinking customers.
The Americanized recipe consisted of dried beef, suet, dried chili
peppers (usually chilipiquenes), and salt, which were pounded together
and left to dry into bricks, which could then be boiled in pots on the
trail. An alternative, and more widely-accepted theory, holds that
chili con carne was born in Ensenada, Mexico in the 1880s as a way of
stretching available meat in the kitchens of poor Tejanos.
American origin defenders argue:
"San Antonio Chili Stand" was in operation at the 1893 Columbian
Exposition in Chicago, which helped spread a taste for chili to other
parts of the country. San Antonio was a significant tourist
destination and helped Texas-style chili con carne spread throughout
the South and West. |
