Chilli con Carne (Mexican -v- American)

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Well I certainly agree on the "toothfish" part - that's scary! and Patagonia is in Argentina... LOL bit of a misnomer, eh?
 
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Many people believe that chili, and its many variations, came into its own during the Great Depression.
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Years ago, relatives from Texas were visiting us in CA. We took them out for dinner one night. The waitress asked would you like, "soup or salad?" My Uncle responded, sure! He heard, "Super Salad." Of course, his first language was SPANISH...maybe that was the problem.
My mom's younger brother married a woman who's parents immigrated to Texas from Mexico (back in the early 1900s). She's the last of the previous generation (my parents and their siblings and spouses are all passed on now). She and I get along so very well with her that whenever I go to Texas to visit my brother and SIL, my sister, or my cousins, I always make a point to visit her for a few days. Anyway, we were hanging out drinking wine (she might be 87 but she's super fun to drink with), I asked her, "Aunt Lilia, do you speak Spanish?" She said, "Of course I do. My parents were both from Mexico and it was spoken in my house growing up." I asked her to say something, and she did so--with a heavy southern drawl! That was pretty funny to hear.

BTW, she lives in a part of Texas near the Louisiana border so when she makes chili, it's Cajun style, not Tex-Mex. Even though her mother made Mexican dishes growing up, she has lived near Cajun country so long that's become her adopted style of cooking.
 
Uh, people in the American Southwest speak Spanish, quirte a few of them fluently. Even the streets have Spanish names, so if you're not at least familiar with the language, you'll never find your way home! So, hasta la bye-bye and via con huevos.
In other threads, I've mentioned that my Mom didn't cook. My mother owned exactly 1 cookbook, although there was only 1 recipe she ever made from it: Sopa Seca De Arroz Con Jamon. (She never bothered with the ham.) The book is very old. I have what is left of it. It includes recipes for Carne Con Chile Colorado and Carne de Puerco Con Chile Verde. Although the recipes are considerably different than the recipes I use. I suspect my recipes are more Americanized, if you will, using items more readily available here in the States. I do pride myself on my Chili Colorado and Verde too. Chili Colorado is what I use for burritos. But, I do still use that rice recipe!
 
My mom's younger brother married a woman who's parents immigrated to Texas from Mexico (back in the early 1900s). She's the last of the previous generation (my parents and their siblings and spouses are all passed on now). She and I get along so very well with her that whenever I go to Texas to visit my brother and SIL, my sister, or my cousins, I always make a point to visit her for a few days. Anyway, we were hanging out drinking wine (she might be 87 but she's super fun to drink with), I asked her, "Aunt Lilia, do you speak Spanish?" She said, "Of course I do. My parents were both from Mexico and it was spoken in my house growing up." I asked her to say something, and she did so--with a heavy southern drawl! That was pretty funny to hear.

BTW, she lives in a part of Texas near the Louisiana border so when she makes chili, it's Cajun style, not Tex-Mex. Even though her mother made Mexican dishes growing up, she has lived near Cajun country so long that's become her adopted style of cooking.
I believe my mother's family were always Texans...but before Texas was part of the U.S. I have some very old deeds! LOL.
 
I believe my mother's family were always Texans...but before Texas was part of the U.S. I have some very old deeds! LOL.
I was just going to comment something about that chili being Mexican whether it was invented in the US Southwest or within the current borders of Mexico.
 
The man’s hat says Camp Washington.

That’s in Cincinnati.

I chose the picture simply because I liked the contraption holding the hotdogs being topped with chili.
Skyline chili is famous for 3-way and 4-way chili. I've never eaten there but I've heard good and bad. I just can't wrap my head around a sweet chili and then chili over pasta. Yuck.

 
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Skyline chili is famous for 3-way and 4-way chili. I've never eaten there but I've heard good and bad. I just can't wrap my head around a sweet chili and then chili over pasta. Yuck.

Many of the Cincinnati recipes include ‘secret’ ingredients like cocoa powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice.

They remind me of some Greek or Pennsylvania Dutch recipes that use a variety of spices in tomato sauce.

Some of them are fine but I prefer chili powder and cumin.

I think the addition of pasta or rice was just a way to fill people up and keep the price down.

During the Great Depression a bowl of chili and a few saltines for a nickel was a pretty good deal.
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Chatting with DH last night, he asserted that chili is not a Mexican or a Tex-Mex dish. He says that chili is made around the world. DH was in the U.S. Navy and saw a lot of this world. He says everywhere you go, there is a version of chili. Even his Grandma, an immigrant from Czechoslovakia, made a kind of chili. The dish was pork with rice and raisins in it, and when a young Mikey asked her what it was, she said, "it is just like chili."

Maybe he is stretching the definition. 🤷
 
Some of them are fine but I prefer chili powder and cumin.

I think the addition of pasta or rice was just a way to fill people up and keep the price down.

During the Great Depression a bowl of chili and a few saltines for a nickel was a pretty good deal.
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I too prefer cumin and chili powder (and garlic, pepper, etc). I understand the rationale of pasta being used to fill people up, but rice is such a better choice, in my opinion.
 
I would prefer pasta with chili although if you are looking at a black bean dish it has to be rice. ;)

Lately have been making a few meals for SIL, diabetic, and the glycemic ratio for pasta is better than rice.
Now I doubt I would make Black Beans and Pasta :rolleyes: I guess it would be doable, although Black Beans (I've just found out) is very low on the GI and even helps to reduce the GI of other foods that are high - guess one could consider that a win-win.
 
Ginny, you put Chili spice in Goulash?
I'm not sure that adding Chili "powder" matters? But, there are certainly a plethora of those recipes...here's one example Old Fashioned Goulash - mind you this one is "Americanized"...but, I do use Chili Powder in lots of dishes. Including one of my DH's favorite "Meat Sauce" for spaghetti recipes...thank you, Mrs. Horowitz (my 7th grade home ec teacher).
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