This page will feature some gooood, hearty soups,
stews that, along with a chunk of
freshly-baked bread will make an entire meal,
and some recipes I discovered while looking for
the perfect chili. I found some good ones,
but I'm still looking for the perfect one!
ORIGIN OF CHILI
by...
Merrill Schindler
The first American known to have remarked about San Antonio's
chili con carne was J.C.Clopper, who visited in 1826.
He wrote: "When they (poor families) have to pay for their meat
in the market, a very little is made to suffice for a family;
this is generally cut into a kind of hash with nearly as many
peppers as there are pieces of meat-this is all stewed together."
Although virtually the same as the chili con carne in the principal
plaza of many large Mexican villages at that time, San Antonio's
fiery dish was influenced by the Canary Islanders, who arrived in 1731.
They added oregano, ground cumin seed (comino), and chopped garlic.
But we can thank the people of Central Mexico for the original dish.
John G.Bour, an anthropologist and U.S.Army captain stationed
in Texas in the early 1890s, visited San Antonio and Northern Mexico
villages while studying the folklore of foods and eating habits.
He wrote: "Chili, called aji and quauhchilli by the Aztecs,
was the condiment in all the feast...at the time of the landing
of the CORTEZ (THE SPANISH CONQUEROR, IN 1519).
There were several varieties (of peppers):
the red, white, green, sweet and bitter.
"No Mexican dish of meat or vegetables is deemed complete without it,
and its supremacy as a table adjunct is conceded by both
garlic and tomatoes, which also bob up serenely in nearly
every effort of the culinary art."
According to Jean Andrews in "Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums",
native Americans in central Mexico have spiced their foods
with fiery peppers since at least 7,000 B.C.
Originally, wild meats...deer, buffalo, turkey...comprised the
essence of the piquant stew. After the Spanish introduced
cattle to the western hemisphere in the 16th century,
beef assumed its place on the menu.
*********************
(The following quote is one I found on the Net
and I can't remember where. If you or someone you know
wrote this, please let me know so I can give you credit)
The problem, of course, is that aside from some very
broad guidelines, no one really seems to know exactly
what chili is. There is a fair amount of scholarly
argument concerning the nature of chili, some of which
is worth dredging up, just for the record.
In their exceeding funny book called
"Cooking: A Dictionary", Henry Beard and Roy McKie
define chili as, "An exceedingly hot-tasting plant
of the genus Capsicum, usually added in powdered
form to a dish made of shredded cattle."
They further define chili con carne as,
"Incendiary dogfood widely eaten in Texas."
The somewhat more scholarly duo of
Waverley Root and Richard de Rochemont,
in their tome "Eating in America", write that,
"Chili con carne sounds authentically Spanish,
which it could hardly be, for the Spaniards had never
seen a chili before they reached America...".
They go on to point out that the name could be
of Mexican origin, except that Mexico
"denies paternity with something like indignation.
One Mexican dictionary even goes so far as to define
chili con carne as, 'a detestable food with a false
Mexican title which is sold in the United States
from Texas to New York."'
Most likely, chili was invented in Texas,
where it has risen to the high state of,
as Will Rogers once said, "A bowl of blessedness."
In Texas, the myths concerning the birth of chili
are legion. Some claim it first emerged in San Antonio
in the years before the Civil War.
Others suggest it was created by Texans heading off for
the gold fields of California, as a reminder of
the fine, and spicy, tastes of home.
Another theory contends that chili was invented
in the prisons of Texas, as a way of making cheap meat
taste edible. My favorite legend concerning chili is
that it was first described by a mystical nun
named Sister Mary of Agreda in the year 1618,
after she emerged from one of her occasional trances.
Backgrounds and graphics by Shirley
