Chile con carne

[A. Maberry]

I agree with Larry that the 1820 quote is not related to what is
usually meant by "chile con carne" but I don't think that beans are a
required ingredient.

allen
maberry at u.washington.edu


On Tue, 24 Dec 2002, Laurence Horn wrote:

> At 9:09 PM -0500 12/19/02, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>
> >---------------------------------------------
> >CHILE CON CARNE
> >
> >    Supposedly, the first "chile con carne" citation is 1857.  Supposedly,
> >it's an American dish.  John Mariani's encyclopedia includes that famous
> >quotation that chile con carne is "a detestable food with a false Mexican
> >title which is sold in the United States from Texas to New York."
> >    So what do you make of this, which I came across today?...
> >MEMOIRS OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION
> >by William Davis Robinson
> >Philadelphia: Lydia R. Bailey, printer
> >1820
> >
> >Pg. 71:  ..."the end justifies the means."
> >
> >Pg. 84:  ..._rancho_*...
> >*_Rancho_ signifies a farm...
> >
> >Pg. 150:  ..._chile_ (capsicum_)...
> >Pg. 150:  For all culinary purposes, this vegetable is as essential to the
> >Mexican, as salt is to the European, and indeed more so, because a Mexican
> >would rather go without bread, than lack chile with his meat.
> >
> >(Yes, no "chile con carne," but "chile with his meat" is close--ed.)
>
>
> I'd say no relation whatsoever.  Chile con carne, on which I tend to
> agree with the famous quotation, is a specific dish--with many
> variants--involving braised and/or stewed meat with beans and/or
> tomatoes and some seasonings involving fresh chile peppers or more
> likely chile/chili powder.  The context of the above quote is one in
> which meat is served with chiles served as a condiment on the side or
> involved in the preparation or both, either of which is far more
> typical of Mexican food than "chile con carne" of the type found at
> chile cookoffs in the U.S. or canned by Hormel.  In the context, I
> wouldn't agree that "chile con carne" in the modern sense is at all
> close to "chile with meat".  (And, yes, I'm aware that I'm spelling
> that second vowel in the keyword inconsistently.)
>
> larry
>