Tex-Mex Food: Putting the Tex in Tex-Mex

The tipping point for Texas-Mexican food was the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago, where the state set up an exhibit re-creating a typical San Antonio chili stand. After that, chili stands appeared in U.S. cities from Chicago to New York. Not everyone was pleased. Anglo-Americans so thoroughly co-opted the dish that Francisco J. Santamaria, the author of the Diccionario General de Americanismos, fumed that chili con carne was “a detestable dish identified under the false title of Mexican.” Another development cemented chili con carne’s Anglicization. In 1890 two Texas Anglos introduced commercial chili powders after devising methods for grinding dried chilies. German William Gebhardt, who emigrated to New Braunfels, Texas, just north of San Antonio in 1885, created Gebhardt’s Eagle Brand Chili Powder, and in Fort Worth, DeWitt Clinton Pendery called his blend of dark red chilies, garlic, cumin, and oregano Chiltomaline. Around 1908 Gebhardt published a pamphlet called Mexican Cooking: The First Mexican-American Cookbook to tell housewives how to use his chili powder. Gebhardt claimed that the recipes were authentic Mexican, “used by some of the most famous chefs of Old Mexico.” But they were not. Mexicans rarely used chili powders in their meat-and-chili stews. More than anything, chili powder standardized the flavor of Texas-Mexican food and set it apart.