Lady Bird Johnson’s Pedernales Chili Recipe

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum is currently working on its Texas exhibit, highlighting all of the wonderful things about Texas cuisine and culinary culture, from cowboys and chuckboxes to nuevo Tex-Mex okra rellenos.  This month, we tip our (cowboy) hats to a classic, Lady Bird’s Chili.

Lady Bird’s Chili

(yield: 12 cups)

4 pounds chili meat (ground beef chuck)

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1.5 cups canned whole tomatoes + liquid

a few dashes of hot sauce

Salt

Saute meat, onion, and garlic in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it begins to gain some color

Add spices, tomatoes, hot sauce, and 2 cups hot water.

Simmer (do not boil proteins) for about 1 hour, skimming off fat while cooking.

Salt to taste.

Do you have something to contribute to the Texas exhibit?  Margarita glasses, chuckwagon items, something? Email stephanie AT southernfood DOT org

Library Director from Texas Donates Cookbooks to SoFAB

by Chris Smith

SoFAB has received a box of 24 cookbooks from Belton, Texas.

The books are a combination of gifts from the library director, Kim Kroll, who shops for cookbooks at antique stores, and de-accessioned books from the Lena Armstrong Public Library, City of Belton, Texas.

The cookbooks are from Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico, and Kansas. Among the books are:

• Prize Winning Recipes of the State Fair of Texas
• The Art of Cooking in Cameron Texas
• Farm Journal’s Freezing and Canning Cookbook
• Home Cookin’ compiled by the Junior League of Wichita Falls
• Best of the Best of New Mexico
• Feastin’ with the Federation, the City Federation of Women’s Clubs, Temple Texas, (1955)
• Bell County’s Kitchen Secrets (from the early 1950s and has an Aunt Jemima type character on the cover)