MEXICAN CHILI STEW

Initially, after reading the cookbook and the recipe we noticed that it seemed simple, old  -- it was created in 1905 -- and therefore authentic. We figured that it was very simple because of the lack of resources people had in 1905 so recipes tended to not be as complex as they are today where people have a variety of resources and technology. This also can explain why the cover was also very simple and that there were no photos in the cookbook.

Furthermore, it made sense that although the recipe has a fair number of ingredients it seemed generally easy to follow. The recipe was intriguing as we are familiar with chili, but after reading it we noticed that it doesn’t include things that are normally associated with chili today such as black beans, chickpeas, and other types of lentils.