SAN ANTONIO - Legend has it that chili was invented back in the 1840s by Texas cowboys who needed to make tough meat appetizing as it began to go bad.
From
frommers.com…No one really knows exactly where chili originated, but San Antonio is the prime candidate for the distinction. There are written accounts from the mid-19th century that describe the town's "chili queens," women who ladled steaming bowls of the concoction in open-air markets and on street corners. They were dishing out chili in front of the Alamo as late as the 1940s.
William Gebhardt helped strengthen San Antonio's claim to chili fame when he began producing chili powder in the city in 1896. His Original Mexican Dinner package, which came out around 20 years later, included a can each of chili con carne, beans, and tamales, among other things, and fed five for $1.
