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Bowl of Red The story of Captain’s Texas Chili By Clyde Van Arsdall IV Photos by Karina Passos
Texans refer to chili as a bowl of red due to the color imparted by the abundance of chilis. Real chili is a cowboy thing with roots deeply embedded in Texas cattle culture. Captain’s chili took a move to the Lone Star state, and 10 years of trial and error to perfect. Nothing makes a cowboy more ornery than some yahoo putting beans in a perfectly good bowl of chili. Beans can be served alongside a bowl of chili — just do not mix the two, or cowboys can get a bit cantankerous. They didn't like beans in their chili because they were considered a filler used to mask the lack of meat in their bowls. Driving cattle is hard work. The famous Chisholm trail was 1000 miles long and stretched from the ranches of Texas to the stock yards of Kansas. To herd 3000 head of cattle there was usually a crew of 10 cowboys that worked in shifts. Cattle could only move between 15 and 25 miles a day, causing most drives to take over a month. Hangry would sum up how these cowboys felt at the end of a long day. The cooks and their chuckwagons were essential to keep these cattle drives in motion — the chili they served was tasty, nourishing and well-suited for the trail. Traditionally, Texas chili consisted of dried meat, fat, salt and chili peppers. The ingredients were pounded into bricks that could be stacked for storage then rehydrated. Tomatoes are a common ingredient in most bowls of chili today but because tomatoes perished too easily on the trail, they were not present in the earliest versions. Legend has it the cooks would plant chilis, oregano and onions in mesquite patches along the trail. This would allow the cooks some fresh ingredients to add the chili. 28
CROWN CITY MAGAZINE
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