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Chili con carne
Chili con carne (Spanish: [ˈtʃili koŋ ˈkaɾne], lit. 'chili with meat'), often shortened to chili, is a spicy stew of Mexican origin containing chili peppers (sometimes in the form of chili powder), meat (usually beef), tomatoes and often beans. Other seasonings may include garlic, onions, and cumin.
The types of meat and other ingredients used vary based on geographic and personal tastes. Recipes provoke disputes among aficionados, some of whom insist that the word chili applies only to the basic dish, without beans and tomatoes. Chili con carne is a common dish for cook-offs, and may be used as a side, garnish, or ingredient in other dishes, such as soups or salsas.
In writings from 1529, the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún described chili pepper-seasoned stews being eaten in the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, now the location of Mexico City. The use of beef as the primary meat originated when the Spanish introduced cattle to Mexico.
Most of the beef being consumed in Mexico, especially by the rancheros (cowboys) in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, consisted of dried salted beef known as tasajo or cecina. Tasajo was used in many dishes, including a stew of red chili sauce known as carne con chile, (meat with chili). Carne con chile was very common throughout much of Mexico, as it was an easy and cheap meal. An English naval officer and explorer, George Francis Lyon, wrote in 1826 about eating dried beef in a chili sauce with rancheros while travelling through northern Veracruz, near Pánuco:
I then joined a party of Rancheros who had assembled to kill a cow and cut her flesh into tasajo, —an operation which they performed with extraordinary skill and dispatch, separating the sinews from the flesh with anatomical precision. Two men devoted themselves to cutting the meat into long strings or ropes, which they threw to another who rubbed them well with salt: after this, no other process remained but to hang the beef in festoons over long poles to dry in the sun. I breakfasted with the Rancheros, when their work was done, on dry meat with chili sauce and piping hot tortillas served up in rapid succession. Our second course was a dish of cow's blood stewed with sweet herbs: and having prefaced our meal by a glass of white brandy distilled in the Rancho, we all ate heartily.
French colonist Mathieu de Fossey had a similar experience in 1831 when he was served tasajo cooked in chili in the village of Jáltipan near Coatzacoalcos in southern Veracruz:
That day we had a completely Indian meal, in which they served us tasajo cooked with chili, beans and tortillas. They call tasajo the meat that is dried in the sun after being salted and cut into long, thin strips to prevent putrefaction, which would be more active than the absorptive force of the sun, if one tried to dry it in thicker pieces, and despite this caution, it always retains an unpleasant smell and taste.
In her 1843 book Life in Mexico, Scottish noblewoman Frances Erskine Inglis wrote about eating a dish called embarrado, a composition of meat and chili, while attending the rodeo (cattle roundup) and herradero (cattle branding celebration) in the village of Santiago in the state of Hidalgo in 1840:
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Chili con carne
Chili con carne (Spanish: [ˈtʃili koŋ ˈkaɾne], lit. 'chili with meat'), often shortened to chili, is a spicy stew of Mexican origin containing chili peppers (sometimes in the form of chili powder), meat (usually beef), tomatoes and often beans. Other seasonings may include garlic, onions, and cumin.
The types of meat and other ingredients used vary based on geographic and personal tastes. Recipes provoke disputes among aficionados, some of whom insist that the word chili applies only to the basic dish, without beans and tomatoes. Chili con carne is a common dish for cook-offs, and may be used as a side, garnish, or ingredient in other dishes, such as soups or salsas.
In writings from 1529, the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún described chili pepper-seasoned stews being eaten in the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, now the location of Mexico City. The use of beef as the primary meat originated when the Spanish introduced cattle to Mexico.
Most of the beef being consumed in Mexico, especially by the rancheros (cowboys) in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, consisted of dried salted beef known as tasajo or cecina. Tasajo was used in many dishes, including a stew of red chili sauce known as carne con chile, (meat with chili). Carne con chile was very common throughout much of Mexico, as it was an easy and cheap meal. An English naval officer and explorer, George Francis Lyon, wrote in 1826 about eating dried beef in a chili sauce with rancheros while travelling through northern Veracruz, near Pánuco:
I then joined a party of Rancheros who had assembled to kill a cow and cut her flesh into tasajo, —an operation which they performed with extraordinary skill and dispatch, separating the sinews from the flesh with anatomical precision. Two men devoted themselves to cutting the meat into long strings or ropes, which they threw to another who rubbed them well with salt: after this, no other process remained but to hang the beef in festoons over long poles to dry in the sun. I breakfasted with the Rancheros, when their work was done, on dry meat with chili sauce and piping hot tortillas served up in rapid succession. Our second course was a dish of cow's blood stewed with sweet herbs: and having prefaced our meal by a glass of white brandy distilled in the Rancho, we all ate heartily.
French colonist Mathieu de Fossey had a similar experience in 1831 when he was served tasajo cooked in chili in the village of Jáltipan near Coatzacoalcos in southern Veracruz:
That day we had a completely Indian meal, in which they served us tasajo cooked with chili, beans and tortillas. They call tasajo the meat that is dried in the sun after being salted and cut into long, thin strips to prevent putrefaction, which would be more active than the absorptive force of the sun, if one tried to dry it in thicker pieces, and despite this caution, it always retains an unpleasant smell and taste.
In her 1843 book Life in Mexico, Scottish noblewoman Frances Erskine Inglis wrote about eating a dish called embarrado, a composition of meat and chili, while attending the rodeo (cattle roundup) and herradero (cattle branding celebration) in the village of Santiago in the state of Hidalgo in 1840: