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Origins of chili con carne

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If I remember correctly - the original Chili had carne and spices (Therefore, Chili con carne is redundantly redundant). The beans are a come-lately addition, perhaps to extend a small supply of meat. Chili purists will argue that adding beans is an abomination and all who do so should be flayed, drawn and quartered....
Exactly...after all, it is "chili con carne" and not chili con carne y frijoles
 
Leave it to Texans to ruin good ol' Mexican chili

I won't eat that texas chili con carne manure. Mexican or New Mexican chili is much better.
 
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Exactly...after all, it is "chili con carne" and not chili con carne y frijoles

So by that "logic" before it was Chili con Carne, it was just chili peppers and water, or with pureed tomatoes and the water? IF it was first made with chili's and meat without beans, no need to tell everybody it had meat.... and no need to tell everybody about the beans, since it was originally a bean dish.

BABY QUESTION.jpg


LD
 
So by that "logic" before it was Chili con Carne, it was just chili peppers and water, or with pureed tomatoes and the water? IF it was first made with chili's and meat without beans, no need to tell everybody it had meat.... and no need to tell everybody about the beans, since it was originally a bean dish.

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LD
Well it’s name is chili con carne, earliest recipes don’t have tomatoes in it so it was literally chilis with meat
 
I think it is funny so much thought is put into the origins of .....things. Most often, and my belief, is like chili....it was simply a poor families "everlasting stew" made of whatever local ingredients made it palatable....over time, the tastiest and most practical ingredients survived. thus, for the southwest...chili.
In the northern climates....an "everlasting pot".....of settlers, immigrants...etc. invariably contained whatever they had. Likely potatoes, turnips, carrots, and whatever was dead...rabbit, venison, etc. Thus....stew.
In coastal areas...evolved into ....chowder. Kind of like saying....who invented the car? When in the late 1800s, a zillion different mechanics, inventors, all were dabbling with internal and external combusion engines, "steering...." to the same basic end result. A horseless carriage.
I live in upstate NY, where it is a constant debate of the origin of "Thousand Island Dressing". I know my grand ma mixed salad dressing with ketchup and chopped up pickles, as her ma did.....and countless other families did...before anyone ever commercially sold it, so labeled "Thousand Island Dressing".
 
Capsicum in any form of chilies is added to any kind of carne. Chili con carne can be made any way you like it. Simply add chilies. My grandmother cooked carne and and anything else she had on hand. Potatoes, vegetables, beans. Whatever would make it go further to feed 6 children. She would add store bought chili powder because it wasn't as hot as homegrown chiles. And cumin, oregano, garlic, onion and bell pepper when available.
The carne was home raised chicken or hog. Sometimes cottontail or armadillo. Couldn't afford cow carne. That recipe was passed to my mother. Especially made with potatoes. She had to feed 9 kids. Mashed beans on the side and a tortilla.
 
Capsicum in any form of chilies is added to any kind of carne. Chili con carne can be made any way you like it. Simply add chilies. My grandmother cooked carne and and anything else she had on hand. Potatoes, vegetables, beans. Whatever would make it go further to feed 6 children. She would add store bought chili powder because it wasn't as hot as homegrown chiles. And cumin, oregano, garlic, onion and bell pepper when available.
The carne was home raised chicken or hog. Sometimes cottontail or armadillo. Couldn't afford cow carne. That recipe was passed to my mother. Especially made with potatoes. She had to feed 9 kids. Mashed beans on the side and a tortilla.
Well.... he does live IN Texas

LD
 
I think it is funny so much thought is put into the origins of .....things. Most often, and my belief, is like chili....it was simply a poor families "everlasting stew" made of whatever local ingredients made it palatable....over time, the tastiest and most practical ingredients survived. thus, for the southwest...chili.
In the northern climates....an "everlasting pot".....of settlers, immigrants...etc. invariably contained whatever they had. Likely potatoes, turnips, carrots, and whatever was dead...rabbit, venison, etc. Thus....stew.
In coastal areas...evolved into ....chowder. Kind of like saying....who invented the car? When in the late 1800s, a zillion different mechanics, inventors, all were dabbling with internal and external combusion engines, "steering...." to the same basic end result. A horseless carriage.
I live in upstate NY, where it is a constant debate of the origin of "Thousand Island Dressing". I know my grand ma mixed salad dressing with ketchup and chopped up pickles, as her ma did.....and countless other families did...before anyone ever commercially sold it, so labeled "Thousand Island Dressing".
My dad used to cook up a dish he called Spanish rice. Told me how his uncle owned a restaurant and invented the dish.
Rice bacon green pepper and onion and backed about an hour.
I grew up thinking it was a family invention.
Of course Spain was doing it for about five centuries before my great uncle was born
 
Respectfully, y'all mustn't mess with Texans or really anyone who has been squeezed in the real wringer of life -- of years of growing up in a family barely getting by. That suffering and want is just as real against your backbone as a sharecropper chopping a poor cotton crop in Mississippi, or a coal miner's family in West Virginia when daddy can't work because of the black lung, or an Oregon log faller laid off because spotted owl restrictions closed off the flow of merchantable timber. Might not add armadillo meat to the chili out west, but maybe nutria, possum or raccoon. Just sayin'.
 
Beans are cheaper than meat and I didn't draw a deer tag this year. Javelina works fine but I'm out of it. I add a lot of beans to the meat when I cook up a big batch of chili. Call me a heretic if you want but I'll enjoy every bite of my afterburner chili. If it turns out really good I call it volcanic chili.
 
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