Mexican Cookery

Published in 1908 by the Gebhardt Chili Powder Company (now owned by ConAgra Foods, Inc.), this cookbook collected for the first time in the United States recipes that went on to define Mexican food for generations. Includes recipes for chicken, cheese, egg, fish, game, oysters as well as chilis, enchiladas, envueltos, tamales, tortillas, and more.

Published in 1908 by the Gebhardt Chili Powder Company (now owned by ConAgra Foods, Inc.), this cookbook collected for the first time in the United States recipes that went on to define Mexican food for generations. This little historic book includes recipes for chicken, cheese, egg, fish, game, oysters as well as chilis, enchiladas, envueltos, tamales, tortillas, and more.

The Gebhardt Chili Powder Company was founded by William Gebhardt, a German, who migrated about 1885 to New Braunfels, Texas. Gebhardt opened a cafe, which served chilis imported from Mexico. To preserve them, he dried and crushed them into powder. He began bottling his powder, and in 1890, he opened a factory to San Antonio. Six years later he trademarked the name "Gebhardt's Eagle Brand Chili Powder." The powder became an important ingredient to such an extent that recipes in Texas cookbooks specifically recommended its use. When Gebhardt began marketing chili powder to a wider audience beyond Texas, he ran into a very serious problem-consumers not familiar with Tex-Mex cookery had little idea what to do with it. To help cooks understand Tex-Mex cookery, Gebhardt produced a small 32-page cookery pamphlet. This cookbooklet was originally published about 1908. As such, it was the first English-language booklet published in the United States that focused on Mexican-American cookery. It proved so successful that new editions of it were regularly published through the 1950s. In 1911, Gebhardt sold his company to his brothers-in-law, who expanded their product line to include beans and tamales. During the 1920s, they introduced to the tourist trade Gebhardt's Original Mexican Dinner Package, consisting of cans of chili con carne, Mexican Style Beans, shuck-wrapped Tamales, Deviled Chili Meat, and a bottle of Chili Powder-all for one dollar. By the 1930s, Gebhardt products were sold throughout the United States and Mexico. The company survived until 1960 when it was purchased by Beatrice Foods, which in turn was acquired by ConAgra in 1990.

Andrew F. Smith teaches culinary history at the New School University in Manhattan and serves on the Board of the Culinary Trust. He is the General Editor for the University of Illinois's Food Series and the editor in chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. He is the author or editor of eight books on food history.