We are about to add a new feature to our website.
In the very near future we will be adding chili reviews to this
chili recipes site. Featured chilis will include chili from
different restaurants as well as store bought (or internet
purchased) chili kits. We are very excited about this new
feature because it means we get to eat more chili! Stay tuned
for more.
Chili is one of America's favorite dishes, and we have searched
all over to find such famous chili recipes as
Hot and Spicy chili,
Crockpot chili,
Vegetarian chili, as well as many other famous chili
recipes. There is a lot of
controversy surrounding the origins of chili as well as how to make
the dish.
Some people believe that in the 1840's Texas cowboys pounded beef
fat and dried beef with chili peppers and salt to make a sort of
trail food for their treks to the gold fields. They would boil this
concoction to make instant chili.
A variation on the cowboy origins of chili recipes says that cowboys
would plant oregano, chiles, and onions along their well travelled
trails in patches of mesquite to keep foraging cattle from eating
them. As they moved along the trails, they would harvest the spices,
onions, and chiles and combine them with
beef to make a dish called
"Trail Drive Chili".
Another version of the origin of chili says that the first chili
recipe was
made in the Texas prison systems because only the cheapest meats
were served in prison. To make the meats a little tastier and less
tough, they were cut into very small pieces that were boiled with chiles and spices.
Yet another theory is that Canary Islanders who were transplanted
into San Antonio as early as 1731 used peppers and onions combined
with various meats to make early chili dishes. This theory also
gives credit to Canary Islanders for first bringing cumin, an
essential chili recipe spice, to the United States.
One largely disregarded theory is that chili was founded by the
U.S. Army. The first Army chili recipe was published in 1896.
Garlic and beans were added by World War I and tomatoes by World War
II.
The most plausible origin of chili came in 1828 when J.C. Clopper
observed the poor people in San Antonio cutting what little meat
they could afford into a has like consistency and stewing it
together with as many pieces of peppers as pieces of meat.
However chili was created, it is a dish enjoyed in many homes in
America today and in many different ways. The easy chili recipes within this
site are just a few of the ways to concoct your own chili specialty.
We hope you enjoy!!
