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I Still Hate Chili
Don’t get the wrong idea. In the right place, which is my kitchen, and at the right time, which is about once a year, I rather enjoy the stuff. In recommended frequency, degree of culinary...
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I FLATTER MYSELF THAT I KNOW A BIT about Texas food. I think about it all the time, I’ve been writing about it for more than twenty years, and I have judged everything from chili cookoffs to a cookie...
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Doesn’t anyone have anything to say about barbecue? THE COVER STORY ON BARBECUE was great [“Smokin’!,” May 1997]; however, one thing was left out—a scratch-and-sniff page.GORDON RUBINETTAustin I...
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An Excerpt From The Homesick Texan Cookbook
Chilis, Soups, and Stews “Now, observe closely: this is the secret ingredient,” said Uncle Richard as he poured in a serving of masa harina into his bubbling pot of chili. It was an early December day,...
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New York City Has “Interesting” Frito Pie
First, Manhattan’s Hill Country Barbecue gets Aaron Franklin cooking on a gas-fueled smoker. Now, New York magazine has discovered Frito Pie. The publication’s food blog, Grub Street, posted a...
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How to Make Chili
When Ben Z. Grant, a state representative from Marshall, persuaded the Sixty-Fifth Legislature to make chili the official state dish, in 1977, he had history on his side. Many people believe that chile...
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For the Love (or Hate) of Chili
“Chile con carne: a detestable food which, falsely called Mexican, is sold in the United States from Texas to New York.”—Francisco J. Santamaria, Diccionario de Mejicanismos, 1959 “Chili eaters is some...
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Chili
The Dish To stare into the glossy depths of a Texas bowl of red, with its heady currents of beef and blessed absence of beans, is to understand a truth about chili: It demands passion. In the history...
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Frito Pie for 5,000, Anyone?
As far as Texas Monthly is concerned, Frito Pie is best served in the bag. But that’s not really an option when your serving size is 1,325 pounds. Monday, Frito-Lay and the State Fair of Texas teamed...
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Six World Records Set in Texas…and Four More That Need to Be
Happy Guinness World Records Day! Today is the eighth annual event held (largely online) by the British arbiter of the Longest, Shortest, and Fastest. Today people around the globe are encouraged to...
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Bowl of Dread
Chili. A classic Texas dish, some would say—but not I. I loathe it. What is it about a bowl of red that appeals to the palate, anyway? Surely not beef suet, an essential ingredient in old-time...
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At the Family Table With the Homesick Texan
For Lisa Fain, it may have started with a cheese log. She was eight years old when she watched her grandmother make one for a party. “It was her aunt’s recipe, and I was just blown away,” says Fain. “I...
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The Texanist
Q: This past summer my teenage daughter and her friend tie-dyed some T-shirts in our garage, and now my husband has found me “complicit” in the “desecration” of his beloved chili pot, which he recently...
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Chili
Bust out the Dutch ovens: it’s getting “chili” in Texas. The origins of the robust dish Texans fervently claim as their own are, as food writers are wont to say, lost to history. But Frank X. Tolbert,...
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Cook Like a Texanist
If you are reading this, the world must not have come to an end after all. I am especially relieved. Because if the final ruination of all mankind had occurred, it would have been yours truly who would...
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Brisket > Chili
That barbecue is not Texas’s state dish is a travesty. Paul Burka first made the argument decades ago in his scathing article “I Still Hate Chili” claiming that “never has the legislature so abandoned...
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The Bloody San Antonio Origins of Chili Con Carne
How much do we really know about the history of chili con carne? Once considered outrageously exotic by Anglo diners, chili has since won recognition as the dish that gave rise to Tex-Mex cuisine. Here...
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The Heyday of Chili Con Carne
Last month, we brought you the early history of chili con carne, focusing specifically on its first contact with Anglo Texans and its role in the origins of Tex-Mex cuisine. In addition to discussing...
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Barbecue and Chili Come Together in an Easy Recipe
Chili is the official state food of Texas. We argued a few years back that (no surprise) brisket might have a stronger case. A Dallas news station recently took a road trip to verify whether the Texas...
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Smoked Brisket Chili Combines All That is Good
Just when I thought chili weather was going away, it’s back in Texas with a vengeance. Not that I really mind, because it gives more time for me to indulge in a recent chili obsession. But not just any...
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