National Chili Week during the first week in October encourages you to cook up your favorite flavor of the historic red stew. When temperatures slide, raise the heat with a blend of spices, meat and if you like, add beans or other ingredients. Varieties of chili seem endless. Every cook has a secret ingredient or combination of ingredients. It’s one of those recipes you can get creative with. A search for chili recipes will turn up soda chili, red wine chili, beer chili, hot dog chili, spaghetti chili, biker gang chili, and even chili with chocolate. Spanish chili con carne is literally translated ‘chili pepper with meat’. One of the great debates has been the essential “MUST HAVES” of chili. Beans? Meat? Both? In 1731, sixteen families from the Canary Islands settled in San Antonio, Texas. According to historians, the women made a spicy “Spanish” stew similar to chili. In the late 1800s, chili queens were a kind of original food truck. They set up mobile chili stands in public areas and for special events where people would congregate. Their trade became a major tourist attraction, and they were featured in the San Antonio booth at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893. From 1876 to 1903, chuckwagons fed the men on cattle drives, moving herds north from Texas to markets in northern states. They served chili with its own flavor and style. As the drives moved northward, the chuckwagons introduced it to northerners. By the 20th century, chili joints scattered all over Texas. During the depression, chili parlors found a home in most small towns. They usually consisted of nothing more than a shed or room with a counter and some stools. Customers could get a bowl of chili, a slice of bread and a glass of water for about 10 cents. One story tells how Jesse James (1847-1882), outlaw and desperado of the old American West, once gave up a chance to rob a bank in McKinney, Texas. Why? Well, his favorite chili parlor was there, of course. Celebrate National Chili Week in Texas by ordering a “bowl of red,” which is chili without beans. In Texas, “chili” is shorthand for chile con carne. The phrase translates to “chile peppers with meat” – no beans in sight. How do you make your chili? Use #NationalChiliWeek to share on social media.