"Jack Tyler" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> >
> > Correct me if I'm wrong. But if you study all the responses of Texas
Chili
> > experts here and other forums I have exposed this question, this seems
to be
> > the universal conclusion.
> >
> > Texas Chili is chile and meat served with or without beans and other
> > condiments such as bread, tortillas, rice or potatoes.
> >
> > Makes sense to me!
>
> It should surprise no one that, as in all other regions of the world,
> there are specialties that are prepared in a traditional way. Without
> too much detail, I hope, there are Maryland Crab Cakes, New England
> Clam Chowder, Manhattan Clam Chowder, San Francisco Cioppino, New
> Mexico Green and Red Chile, Cincinnati Chili (or Skyline Chili), etc.,
> etc.
>
> Texans have made chili since the cattle drives north since it was an
> independent Republic in the 1830's. To have a "traditional" Texas
> chili shouldn't hairlip any posters here. "Traditional" Texas chili is
> made with hand cut beef... NOT hamburger meat. It hasn't
> traditionally been made with tomatoes (but many do), as even though
> beef was available on the trails, tomatoes weren't. Water could be
> boiled and was available... spices were dried and used, salt and
> pepper were available. So, traditional Texas chili is a stew made
> with salt, pepper, cubed beef, water, ground chilis, cumin, oregano
> (and other dried spices, as they were available and there were
> personal preferences). Other "chili's" have sprung up all over the
> country... that served in Ohio has its roots in Greece, as a Greek
> immigrant to Ohio started making "Skyline" chili in the 1940's. Chili
> in Ohio is "traditionally" served on spaghetti and has chocolate,
> cinnamon and beans in it.
>
> Most of those with any knowledge of food history will tell you that
> chili, as it is perceived around the U.S., was first made in Texas...
> it's the official "State Dish" of Texas. While beans aren't an
> ingredient in traditional Texas chili, many add them to their chili.
> In the world of purists, beans are considered "filler" originally
> added to chili because they are cheap and stretch the meat. Those who
> make chili the way I do see no need to stretch it... or to dilute the
> flavor av a good marbled chuck beef cut by hand. That's just a matter
> of taste and personal preference. For some reason, because chili is
> such a wonderful dish... and it is on tables all over the U.S., there
> seems to be a hesitancy to allow Texas to have a "traditional" dish
> made in a traditional way. I'd like to tell those in the northeast
> that my chowder is better, because I have made it this way, or that
> way (which I don't... I use a traditional Maine recipe). However,
> most of us in this group take great pride in the fact that we like to
> make regional Mexican specialties in the authentic way with
> traditional ingredients. We will even grind our dried chilis to make
> a powder. Yet, when making regional specialties from around the U.S.,
> we will argue that our local alterations make it better. I grew up in
> Texas and, outside of a school lunchroom, I never tasted beans in
> chili until I moved to Ohio in the late 50's. In the school, they
> added beans to stretch the limited dollars to feed students.
>
> I was in a food market in Houston buying a chuck roast to make chili
> and was talking with a very nice lady who had moved to Houston from
> Ohio. I told her the meat was for chili and she asked me what kind of
> beans I used. I said that I didn't put beans in my chili (I DO make
> drunken beans as a separate dish and serve on the side). She said "In
> Ohio, we pretty much call anything with beans in it "chili". That's
> fine... I'm sure that everything she makes tastes great... just not my
> style when I make it.
>
> I guess what chaps me the most, is that I frequently read in news
> groups accounts of people making chili with every imaginable
> ingredient and saying that they have always made it that way. I don't
> understand how a person who posts in a food news group has never had
> the curiosity to, at least, try an authentic version of a dish that he/
> she likes. Normally, foodies are a little more adventurous.
>
> As a frequent contestant in chili cookoffs (with First Prize
> trophies), as well as a frequent judge in them, I feel I make an
> excellent bowl of chili. The Chili Appreciation Society of America,
> which sanctions most of the chili competitions in America, allows no
> fillers at all (no rice... no beans... no spaghetti, etc.). Does that
> mean when you make a bowl of chili out of hamburger meat, or turkey,
> or full of tomatoes and chocolate and beans, that is isn't any good?
> Certainly not... it tastes great. President Lyndon Johnson used to
> add RoTel to his Pedernales River Chili... and it was delicious. The
> recipe is still around and is made frequently in Texas. Just allow a
> regional specialty to exist and, maybe someday, have the curiosity to
> make a pot of and broaden your horizons a little. This isn't aimed at
> you, Wayne, as I'm sure that you and the Gallop have had the curiosity
> to make an authentic pot of Texas chili.
>
> I've been cooking in chili cookoffs since 1973... the same length of
> time that I've cooked in Fajita competitions in South Texas on the
> banks of the Rio Grande.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jack
>
..
As I read your history of Chili I though of the plains Indians before the
conquest and I visualized pemmican being torn into small pieces and boiled
into a thick sauce as the fore-runner to today's chili. Then my mind
wandered to the 'rastro' (slaughterhouse) in Guadalajara where birria is
birria. Again, finely chopped meat (goat for the most part or beef) boiled
in rich chile sauce to the consistency for scooping into a taco without
dripping too much. Then I remember a friend of ours from Hungary who made us
Hungarian Goulash and it was chopped beef and a ton of Paprika. And of
course we all know that Paprika came from the Americas with the Spanish
after the conquest.

My mind wanders to the riverbank in San Antonio where the ladies might be
collecting the droppings from the slaughterhouses and cooking them overnight
in ground chile sauce then selling the chili in the open market starting
early in the morning.

Gad! This chili thing could make a great story for the History Channel!

Wayne