I was reading a tip on the recipes for chili dip and it stated to use half a chili brick. What's that? As I live in the U.K, I have never heard of it. Many thanks. xxx This is a link to the specific recipe in question: Chili Dip
By helen from U.K
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I just did some research. I am 71 years old and have never heard of a chili brick. What it amounts to is that it is basically chili and packaged in a box, shaped like a brick and found in stores in the meat/deli department. My guess is in the US it would be found in the area where we find pre-mashed potatoes, etc., the refrigerated section of the stores. I would also look in the freezer section too. It sounds like it is kind of hard to find. Some of the sites said you have to add water to desired thickness and some didn't say anything about that. My guess is that if you can't find this item you could use two cups of regular chili as long as it isn't too thin.
My mother used to buy the chili bricks all the time and they made the best chili or am I just remembering my mother's chili perhaps? Really it was great. It was found in the prepackaged meat cooler and was a round log. He had all the seasonings in it. I believe all my mother added was the beans, hamburger and tomato juice perhaps some water as redhatterb mentioned.
My mother made her chili using a chili brick. She purchased it from Smart and Final. She had a bar in the antelope valley in SoCal and people would come from all over just to have her chili.
The best thing to do is call your local supermarkets and ask if they carry it.
This is what I found when I googled
Origins and history
Chili was first invented by the Spanish Canary Islanders, in the city of San Antonio, Texas, which they founded. The recipe used for American expeditions consisted of dried beef, suet, dried chili peppers (usually chilipiquenes), and salt, which were pounded together and left to dry into bricks, which could then be boiled in pots on the trail.[citation needed]
The San Antonio Chili Stand, in operation at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, helped people from other parts of the country taste and appreciate chili. San Antonio was a significant tourist destination and helped Texas-style chili con carne spread throughout the South and West.[1] Chili con carne is the official dish of the U.S. state of Texas as designated by the House Concurrent Resolution Number 18 of the 65th Texas Legislature during its regular session in 1977.[2]
[edit] Chili queens
During the 1880s, brightly dressed Hispanic women known as "chili queens" began to operate around Military Plaza and other public gathering places in downtown San Antonio. They appeared at dusk, when they built charcoal or wood fires to reheat cauldrons of pre-cooked chili. They sold it by the bowl to passersby. The aroma was a potent sales pitch; mariachi street musicians joined in to serenade the eaters. Some chili queens later built semi-permanent stalls in the mercado (local Hispanic market).
In September 1937, the San Antonio Health Department implemented new sanitary regulations that required the chili queens to adhere to the same standards as indoor restaurants. Unable to provide lavatory facilities, the queens and their "street chili" culture disappeared overnight. Although Mayor Maury Maverick reinstated the queens' privileges in 1939, the city reapplied the more stringent regulations permanently in 1943.
San Antonio's mercado was renovated in the 1970s, at which time it was the largest Mexican marketplace in the U.S. Local merchants began staging historic re-enactments of the chili queens' heyday. The Unofficial re-enactment is, "Return of the Chili Queens Festival".
Since 2006, the historic Bonham Exchange Building, located behind the Alamo, has hosted the official Chili Queens event, which is held in April as the first Sunday of every Fiesta.
[edit] Chili parlors
Before World War II, hundreds of small, family-run chili parlors (also known as "chili joints") could be found throughout Texas and other states, particularly those in which émigré Texans had made new homes. Each establishment usually had a claim to some kind of "secret recipe."
As early as 1904, chili parlors were opening outside of Texas. After working at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Charles Taylor opened a chili parlor in Carlinville, Illinois, serving "Mexican Chili".[3] In the 1920s and 1930s chains of diner-style "chili parlors" grew up in the Midwest. As of 2005, one of these old-fashioned chili parlors still exists on Pine Street in downtown St. Louis. It features a chili-topped dish called a "slinger": two hamburger patties topped with melted American cheese and two eggs, then smothered in chili, all topped off with shredded cheese.[4]
One of the best-known Texas chili parlors, in part because of its downtown location and socially connected clientele, was Bob Pool's "joint" in Dallas, just across the street from the headquarters of the elite department store Neiman Marcus. Stanley Marcus, president of the store, frequently ate there. He also bought Pool's chili to send by air express to friends and customers across the country. Several members of General Dwight Eisenhower's SHAPE staff during the early 1950s were reported to have arranged regular shipments of chili from Pool's to their Paris quarters.
Chili Brick Recipes
Dolores Chili Brick is an Award Winning All Beef Chili. Just add water to reach desired consistency!
Available in Retail and Food Service sizes
Grocery Stores:
Best displayed in fresh meat case in 1# catch wt. pkgs.
Use our Dolores 20 oz. Chili Brick. It simply goes from our box to your meat case.
Best displayed in fresh meat case. 90-day shelf life after removing from freezer.
Food Service
Use our Dolores 5# Chili Brick for your Restaurant, Catering Trucks, or Hot Deli
Easy to use, great taste and very economical
I used to see it down here in TX a long time ago, but had forgotten about it coming in bricks til I read that same recipe. It was some fantastic chili though.
I live here in the US and never heard of a chili brick. I make a warm chili dip and all I do is use a can of Hormel chili w/o beans and an 8 oz package of cream cheese. Heat and mix well. Serve with tortilla chips. I usually put mine in a small crock pot so it stays warm. So you don't have to go try to find this chili brick! Actually any canned chili would work and I don't suppose it matters if it has beans or not. Usually for the dip I buy the kind w/o but I like chili w/beans so wouldn't matter as far as I'm concerned.
I call it a chili block as opposed to chili brick, it comes in a small round tub,size of small butter tub and is made bt BLoemers, they call it chili base. You put it in microwave for 2 minutes to liquify it and add it to your chili. It adds lots of flavor to your chili.In Ky, most stores carry it in winter and fall.it is an 8 oz pkg.I never make my chili without it.
Hi, many thanks for the replies to my request. Once again T/f members have shone through with help. Helen xxx
Hi, I also live in the UK and whenever I make chilli or dip I use dried chilli flakes, you don't need many unless you want a real strong dip or chilli. If you want beans there are plenty of tinned choices in the supermarkets. It depends on where you live but Adsa and Tesco stock world foods, if you have any asian stores they stock chilli flakes, if you think they are to large you can always grind them down. Just wash your hands after handling them and don't touch your face or eyes. Boy will you know about it if you do. Any problems, let me know. Go luck.
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