original chilli recipe?

Question

I'm looking for the first recorded recipe for chilli con carne. I've found lots which claim to be old but would like to find the original one

Answer 1

There are many legends and stories about where chili originated and it is generally thought, by most historians, that the earliest versions of chili were made by the very poorest people. J. C. Clopper, the first American known to have remarked about San Antonio's chili carne, wrote in 1926:

"When they have to pay for their meat in the market, a very little is made to suffice for a family; this is generally into a kind of hash with nearly as many peppers as there are pieces of meat - this is all stewed together."

17th Century

1618 - According to an old Southwestern American Indian legend and tale (several modern writer have documented - or maybe just "passed along") it is said that the first recipe for chili con carne was put on paper in the 17th century by a beautiful nun, Sister Mary of Agreda of Spain. She was mysteriously known to the Indians of the Southwest United States as "La Dama de Azul," the lady in blue. Sister Mary would go into trances with her body lifeless for days. When she awoke from these trances, she said her spirit had been to a faraway land where she preached Christianity to savages and counseled them to seek out Spanish missionaries.

It is certain that Sister Mary never physically left Spain, yet Spanish missionaries and King Philip IV of Spain believed that she was the ghostly "La Dama de Azul" or "lady in blue" of Indian Legend. It is said that sister Mary wrote down the recipe for chili which called for venison or antelope meat, onions, tomatoes, and chile peppers. No accounts of this were ever recorded, so who knows?

18th Century

1731 - On March 9, 1731, a group of sixteen families (56 persons) arrived from the Canary Islands at Bexar, the villa of San Fernando de Béxar (now know as the city of San Antonio). They had emigrated to Texas from the Spanish Canary Islands by order of King Philip V. of Spain. The King of Spain felt that colonization would help cement Spanish claims to the region and block France's westward expansion from Louisiana. These families founded San Antonio’s first civil government which became the first municipality in the Spanish province of Texas. According to historians, the women made a spicy “Spanish” stew that is similar to chili. the theory that suggests that Canary Islanders, transplanted to San Antonio as early as 1731, used local peppers and wild onions combined with various meats to create early chili combinations. This theory, first advanced by H. Allen Smith, states that it was the Canary Islanders who first brought cumin-an essential spice in chili-to the United States.


19th Century

Some Spanish priests were said to be wary of the passion inspired by chile peppers, assuming they were aphrodisiacs. A few preached sermons against indulgence in a food which they said was almost as "hot as hell's brimstone" and "Soup of the Devil." The priest's warning probably contributed to the dish's popularity.

1850 - Records were found by Everrette DeGolyer (1886-1956), a Dallas millionaire and a lover of chili, indicating that the first chili mix was concocted around 1850 by Texan adventurers and cowboys as a staple for hard times when traveling to and in the California gold fields and around Texas. Needing hot grub, the trail cooks came up with a sort of stew. They pounded dried beef, fat, pepper, salt, and the chile peppers together. This amounted to "brick chili" or "chili bricks" that could be boiled in pots along the trail. DeGolyer said that chili should be called "chili a la Americano" because the term chili is generic in Mexico and simply means a hot pepper. He believed that chili con carne began as the "pemmican of the Southwest."

It is said that some trail cooks planted pepper seeds, oregano, and onions in mesquite patches (to protect them from foraging cattle) to use on future trail drives. It is thought that the chile peppers used in the earliest dishes were probably chilipiquín0, which grow wild on bushes in Texas, particularly the southern part of the state.

There was another group of Texans known as "Lavanderas," or "Washerwoman," that followed around the 19th-century armies of Texas making a stew of goat meat or venison, wild marjoram and chile peppers.

1860 - Residents of the Texas prisons in the mid to late 1800s also lay claim to the creation of chili. They say that the Texas version of bread and water (or gruel) was a stew of the cheapest available ingredients (tough beef that was hacked fine and chiles and spices that was boiled in water to an edible consistency). The "prisoner's plight" became a status symbol of the Texas prisons and the inmates used to rate jails on the quality of their chili. The Texas prison system made such good chili that freed inmates often wrote for the recipe, saying what they missed most after leaving was a really good bowl of chili.

1880s - San Antonio was a wide-open town (a cattle town, a railroad town, and an army town) and by day a municipal food market and by night a wild and open place. An authoritative early account is provided in an article published in the July 1927 issue of Frontier Times. In this article, Frank H. Bushick, San Antonio Commissioner of Taxation, reminisces about the Chili Queens and their origin at Military Plaza before they were moved to Market Square in 1887. According to Bushick:

"The chili stand and chili queens are peculiarities, or unique institutions, of the Alamo City. They started away back there when the Spanish army camped on the plaza. They were started to feed the soldiers. Every class of people in every station of life patronized them in the old days. Some were attracted by the novelty of it, some by the cheapness. A big plate of chili and beans, with a tortilla on the side, cost a dime. A Mexican bootblack and a silk-hatted tourist would line up and eat side by side, [each] unconscious or oblivious of the other."


Original San Antonio Chili

According to legend, this is one of the Chili Queen's original recipes. Some changes have been made in order to take advantage of modern ingredients. Note the heavy use of cumin and oregano.

Flour for dredging

2 pounds beef shoulder, cut into ½ -inch cubes

1 pound pork shoulder, cut into ½ -inch cubes

1/4 cup suet

1/4 cup pork fat

3 medium onions, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 quart water

4 ancho chiles, seeds and stems removed, rehydrated and chopped fine

1 serrano chile, seeds and stems removed, chopped fine

6 dried red New Mexican chiles, seeds and stems removed, reydrated and chopped fine

1 tablespoon freshly ground cumin

2 tablespoons dried Mexican oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Lightly flour the beef and pork cubes. In a large pot, quickly fry the meat in the suet and pork fat, stirring often. Add the onions and garlic and saute until they are tender and limp. Remove all pieces of fat. Add the water to the mixture and simmer for 1 hour.

Grind the chiles in a molcajete or blender. Add to the meat mixture. Add the remaining ingredients, cover and simmer for an additional 2 hours. Skim off any fat that rises, and serve.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Heat Scale: Medium

Mrs. Owen's Cook Book Chili

The original version of this recipe was first published in 1880. According to John Thorne, "This may be the earliest printed recipe for chili con carne and it is surprisingly authentic, save for the suspect addition of `espagnole,' a white sauce seasoned with ham, carrot, onion, celery, and clove." Mrs. Owen wrote, incorrectly: "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." We have revised the recipe to add ingredient amounts, which, in the recipe-writing fashion of the day, Mrs. Owen omitted. We have retained most of Mrs. Owen’s original instructions.

2 pounds lean beef, cut into ½ -inch cubes

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 medium onions, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon flour

Beef stock to cover

2 tablespoons white sauce (espagnole–see Joy of Cooking)

1 teaspoon ground Mexican oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

5 New Mexican red chiles, seeds and stems removed

Water

Salt to taste

Take the lean beef and put to cook with a little oil. When well braised, add the 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, comino (cumin), and coriander. Take the dried whole peppers and remove the seeds, cover with water and put to boil. When thoroughly cooked (soft) 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 and refried.

Yield: 6 servings

Heat Scale: Medium

Answer 2

Frank X. Tolbert's Original Bowl of Red:

2¾ hours 40 min prep
4-6 servings

12 dried ancho chiles
3 lbs lean beef chuck, cut in thumbsize pieces
2 ounces beef suet
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon cayenne
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped (or more)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons masa harina (optional)

1. Break off the stems of the chiles, and remove the seeds.
2. Place chiles in a small saucepan and cover them with water.
3. Simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Purée the chiles in a blender with a tiny bit of cooking liquid to make a smooth, thin paste.
5. Use as little liquid as possible, unless you want the chili to be soupy.
6. Pour the chile purée into a Dutch oven or large, heavy pan.
7. In a heavy skillet, sear the meat in two batches with the beef suet until the meat is gray.
8. Transfer each batch to the chile purée, then pour in enough of the chile cooking liquid to cover the meat by about 2 inches.
9. Bring the chili to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer.
10. Cook for 30 minutes.
11. Remove the chili from the heat, and stir in the rest of the ingredients.
12. Return chili to the heat, cover and resume simmering for 45 minutes, keeping the lid on except to stir just occasionally.
13. (Too much stirring tears up the meat) Add more chile liquid only if you think the mixture will burn otherwise.
14. After 45 minutes, you may add the masa harina, if you wish.
15. The masa adds a subtle, tamale-like taste, but it also thickens the chili.
16. Cover the chili again and simmer for another 30 minutes.
17. Do a lot of tasting to see if seasoning suits you.
18. Add more seasonings as you like, but go easy on the oregano to avoid ending up with a spaghetti sauce flavor.
19. Take the chili off the heat, and refrigerator overnight.
20. Skim as much fat as you wish from the chili before reheating it.
21. Serve hot.

Answer 3

I expect you'll receive scores of answers because millions have their own recipe handed down over generations. If you ask the French for the original recipe for Cassoulet, the response would be the same. IMHO, this was a meal created to use the minimum amount of meat with the largest amount of whatever else was available to fill the pot! Ask a Lancastrian for a recipe for Lancashire Hot-Pot and you'll find similar requirements!

Answer 4

http://66.218.71.231/language/translation/translatedPage.php?tt=url&text=http%3a//de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_con_Carne&lp=de_en&.intl=us&fr=yfp-t-501
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Chili con Carne (Chilli Nahuatl, con carne Spanish, briefly also Chili, German Chili with meat) is the designation of a fierily sharp court from meat, Chilischoten and other one added, which have its origin in the south of the USA.
It again and again the Mexican kitchen attributed , there is falsely it however only in the border area to the USA or in large tourist centers common. This may be connected also with the new definition of the south border of the USA in the contract of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848 to Ungunsten Mexico. About hardly another court one argues as much as about Chili con Carne. Discussions over the original origin, the correct added and even the way of writing excite again and again the mind of the Chilifans.

Answer 5

Sorry,cannot give you the original recipe, but prefer to make it the Tex/Mex way (as given to Evening Standard reporter many moons ago by a real life cowboy). Substitute baked beans for red kidney beans and add beer (light ale is good) to the mix - delicious. Don't allow the beer to put the fire out though - make sure it is still chilli hot.

Answer 6

This a great web site on the history, but I don't think you are going to find an original written recipe http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Chili/ChiliHistory.htm

Answer 7

LOOK IN A COOK BOOK