Chili beef: Heart Texan dish

There are just about as many theories of how and where chili originated as there are unique family chili recipes.  But, it seems understandable that the original chili recipes would be devised where there was a plentiful supply of chili’s key components, red meat and chile peppers.  The meat (venison, bison, and beef) was available on the plains of Texas.  So were the wild chili peppers.

Several legit histories of Texas Chili are available.  The primary one arose from the “Chili Queens” on Military Plaza in San Antonio, from the mid-19th Century through the early 20th Century.  These business ladies sold a meat dish called “Chili Con Carne”, referring to the chili pepper and beef combination. And of course, frijoles (beans) were available (as should be) as a side dish.

The spread of chili throughout Texas and the nation began with the cattle drives of the mid-late 19th century.  Every cattle drive had chili as a chuck wagon staple, since the native peppers and onions were abundant along the trails.  But stories are spread that the beef was too valuable and was limited to be used as food on the cattle drive, so extra protein came from a pot of beans along side the chili pot.   The cowboys then mixed the chili and beans together in a tin plate. 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.

In the mid to late 1800s Texas prison residents were served chili on a regular basis. They say that the Texas version of 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 prison was a good bowl of chili.

Texas chili spread nationally when Texans from San Antonio set up a chili stand at the Chicago Exposition in 1893.  People from across the nation arrived at the fair to try new things, and among those was Texas Chili.  The news of the popularity of the Chicago Fair Texas chili stand spread and chili parlors popped up in towns all over the United States, where local chili cooks tried their own recipe; some not standard to the Texas Bowl of Red.

By the 1920s, chili joints were common all over the West, and by the depression years, there was hardly a town that didn’t have a chili parlor.  The chili joints were usually no more than a shed or a room with a counter and some stools.  Usually a blanket was hung up to separate the kitchen.  By the depression years, the chili joints meant the difference between starvation and staying alive.  Chili was cheap, and crackers were free.  

Some wonder why the chili parlors vanished after the depression era; but the canning of chili and the availability in canned and “brick” style, brought chili back into the homes.  Lyman T. Davis of Corsicana, Texas made chili that he sold from the back of a wagon for five cents a bowl with all the crackers you wanted.  He later opened a meat market where he sold his chili in brick form, using the brand name of Lyman’s Famous Home Made Chili.  In 1921, he started to can chili in the back of his market and named it after his pet wolf, Kaiser Bill and called it Wolf Brand Chili (a picture of the wolf is still used on the label today).  In 1924, Davis quit the chili business when his ranch was found to have lots of oil.  He sold his operations to J. C. West and Fred Slauson, two Corsicana businessmen.  To draw attention to the Wolf Brand Chili, the new owners had Model T Ford trucks with cabs shaped like chili cans and painted to resemble the Wolf Brand label.  A live wolf was caged in the back of each truck.  

The other reason that chili parlors vanished was the commercial packaging of chili spices. These packaged spices assisted in bringing the preparation of chili back to the family home.  There is some disagreement about the origin of manufactured chili powder. The two men generally credited with marketing the first commercial chili powder blends were William Gebhardt and D.C. Pendry.

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