Old chili recipes

Every chili cook has a few recipes, whether written or just remembered, that have helped define his or her own special bowl of red. Here is a more-or-less historical collection which will assist the reader in this purpose, as it has for the author. Since they are really not meant to be cooked from, but rather used as a reference for your own concoctions, no attempt was made to bring the older recipes up to modern cookbook standards. There are valuable hints to be gleaned from them, but more than that, when reading them notice how none of the recipes will stay in focus very long -- that\'s chili\'s stubborn refusal to hold still and let the shutter snap.

Recipes Listed:

Mrs. Owen\'s Cook Book (1880)
U.S. Army (1896 - 1944)
Walker\'s Red Hot Chile Con Carne (1918)
Romana\'s Spanish-American Cookery (1929)
Texas Jail Chili (Circa 1950)
Eight Bean Chili (1975)
Old Buffalo Breath (1985)

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Mrs. Owen\'s Cook Book Chili (1880)

Ingredients:

lean beef -- cut in small dice

oil

onions

1 clove garlic -- chopped fine

1 tablespoon flour

2 tablespoons espagnole

1 teaspoon ground oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

dried whole peppers

cooked beans





This may be the earliest printed recipe for chili con carne and it is surprisingly authentic, save for the suspect addition of \"espagnole\", white sauce seasoned with hame, carrot, onion, celery, and clove. The words are Mrs. Owen\'s own.

This might be called the national dish of Mexico. Literally, it means \'pepper with meat\' and when prepared to suit the taste of the average Mexican, is not misnamed.

Instructions:

Take lean beef and cut in small dice, put to cook with a little oil. When well braised, add some onions, a clove of garlic chopped fine and one tablespoon flour. Mix and cover with water or stock and two tablespoons espagnole, 1 teaspoon each of ground oregano, camino, and coriander. The latter can be purchased at any drug store. Take dried whole peppers and remove the seeds, cover with water and put to boil and when thoroughly cooked pass through a fine strainer. Add sufficient puree to the stew to make it good and hot, and salt to taste. To be served with a border of Mexican beans (frijoles), well cooked in salted water.

Frijoles or Mexican brown beans. Boil beans in an earthen vessel until soft (four to eight hours). Mash and put them into a frying pan of very hot lard and fry until comparatively dry and light brown. Sometimes chopped onions are put into the lard before the beans are added and sometimes pods of red pepper or grated cheese.

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U.S. Army Chili (1896-1944)

Ingredients:

1 beefsteak (round)

1 tablespoon hot drippings

2 tablespoons rice

1 cup boiling water

flour

salt

onion -- (optional)

2 large dried red chile pods





Soldiers of the U.S. Army on the Western frontier had been eating chili since the war with Mexico (1846) but not necessarily in their messes. The first Army publication to give a recipe for chili was published in 1896, The Manual For Army Cooks (War Department Document #18). By World War I, the Army had added garlic and beans; by World War II, tomatoes. This was a national pattern: Fannie Farmer did exactly the same (see the editions for 1914, 1930, and 1941)

Chili con carne (1896) (per soldier). 1 beefsteak (round); 1 Tbs. hot drippings; 2 Tbs. rice; 1 cup boiling water; 2 large dried red chile pods; 1 cup boiling water; flour, salt, and onion (optional).

Instructions:

Cut steak in small pieces. Put in frying pan with hot drippings, cup of hot water, and rice. Cover closely and cook slowly until tender. Remove seeds and parts of veins from chile pods. Cover with second cup of boiling wat