I don’t think I have ever met anybody that didn’t like chili. Or at least some type of it. Beans, no beans, spicy, mild, chili’s awesome. Just think about it, how many times have you heard about a pancake cook-off? A pancake’s a pancake. But when you start talking about who makes the best chili things get personal. We recently had a chili cook-off here at Texas Power. Be sure to check out our Facebook page for pictures of the event. But where exactly did chili come from? What exactly is the history of chili? Now I’m no Alton Brown but I’ll do my best.

The only thing certain about the origins of chili is that it did not originate in Mexico. Chili can actually only be found in only a few small parts of Mexico that cater to tourists. If there is any doubt as to what Mexicans think about chili, check out this definition from Diccionario de Mejicanismos, published in 1959 (roughly translated of course):

“detestable food passing itself off as Mexican, sold in the U.S. from Texas to New York.”

Ouch! Well, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. So anyway, where exactly does chili come from? Nobody actually knows for sure but legends and myths can be traced back all the way to the 17th century. No accounts were actually recorded but in the 18th century, on March 9, 1731 to be exact, 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.

A little closer to home, in 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 into stackable rectangles which could be easily re-hydrated with boiling water. 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.”

I think Alton Brown would be proud. Don’t waste one more second, follow the links below for some awesome chili recipes. Yee-haw!!!!

Old-Time Texas Chili Recipe
3 Award Winning Texas Chili Recipes