Texas Bean Dip

Bean dip is an essential Texas food item. What would corn chips or tortilla chips be without bean dip? How could anyone hold a television football party without bean dip?
 
Texas bean dip is first recorded in the 1940s. It became popular nationwide in the 1960s. Texas bean dip recipes vary (as the Texas Beef Council recipe below—with beef!—shows).
 
 
Cooks.com
TEXAS BEAN DIP  
3 cans black eyed peas, drained
3 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped jalapenos
1/2 c. chopped green pepper

Serve with tortilla chips.
   
Texas Beef Council
Texas Bean Dip
This dip is so good, they’ll want a spoon!
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Servings: Serves 12-24
 
1 lb. ground beef, cooked and drained
or 12 ounces fully cooked ground beef
1 cup onion, minced
1 tsp. garlic, minced
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1 can (15 oz.) black beans
1 can (15 oz.) black-eye peas
1 can (15 oz.) pinto beans
1 can (15 oz.) whole kernel corn
1 jar (16 oz.) salsa with cilantro
1 jar (16 oz.) salsa with chipotle
2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, minced

Saute onion and garlic in 2 tsp. vegetable oil.
Drain and rinse beans, black-eye peas and corn. Add to onion and garlic.
Stir in the ground beef and salsas and heat through. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro. 
Serve in a crockpot with tortilla chips.
   
Gourmet Living
Texas Bean Dip
Source: The All New Diabetic Cookbook

1 (15 1/2 ounce) can black beans, drained
1 (15 1/2 oz,) can red beans, drained
1 teaspoon canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup diced tomato
1/2 cup mild picante sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon diced jalapeño pepper
1/4 cup low-fat Monterey jack cheese, coarsely grated
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Low-fat tortilla chips

Place beans in a bowl; partially mash with a potato masher or wooden spoon until chunky.

Heat oil in a frying pan. Add onion and garlic; sauté for 4 minutes over medium heat. Add beans, tomato, picante sauce, cumin, chili powder and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese and lime juice. Stir until well blended and cheese has melted.

Serve warm with tortilla chips.

Makes 40 (1-tablespoon) servings.
Nutrition information per tablespoon: 19 calories; 0.2g fat (0g saturated fat; 8% of calories from fat); 0mg cholesterol; 107mg sodium; 3.6g carbohydrate; 1.2g fiber; 1.1g protein
Exchange value per tablespoon: 1/4 starch

26 December 1949, Dallas Morning News, “What’s Cooking in Texas” by Arthur and Bobbie Coleman, part 1, pg. 7:
MRS. CHESTER SLIMP’S BEAN DIP
Cover well with water 8 cups of frijoles (pinto beans). Add 6 cloves of garlic and 3 medium-size onions, chopped. Cook until tender (about four hours).

Cream the beans while they are warm. You can use an electric mixer of blender for this. Add 1 pound of melted butter and 1 pound of sharp cheese, grated. Season to taste with salt and hot sauce, blending them in with a wooden spoon.

Serve with fritos or tostadas (fried tortillas) as a dip.

When we made the dip, this is the hot sauce we used. We got the idea of using limes, in Mexico. Mexicans use limes the way we use lemons or vinegar. Even street vendors will be found offering limes with hardboiled eggs. The eggs are peeled and eaten with a squeeze of lime juice. We have been converted to limes.

HOT SAUCE
Mash 1/2 cup of fresh green or dried red chiles. Cover with strained lime juice seasoned with garlic and a pinch of salt. To prepare the garlic, crush a clove or two, and rinse the cup with lime juice.
 
26 October 1950, Oakland (CA) Tribune, pg. 36D ad:
BEAN DIP
Drain GEBHARDT’S Chili Beans in dry skillet, Save juice from beans.  As the beans heat, mash with a potato masher. When they become creamy, add some of juice, 1 teaspoon of GEBHARDT’S Chili Powder, 1 clove, grated garlic, salt and pepper. Delicious on crackers, wafers, potato chips, etc.
 
20 June 1952, Kerrville (TX) Times, pg. 3, col. 3:
A delicious shrimp dip with carrot curls, cauliflower flowerets and celery sticks were placed on the main serving table, and hot tamales and a ben dip were served from the other table.
 
24 May 1953, Los Angeles Times, pg. J26:
TEXAS BEAN DIP
by Clementine Paddleford
Spicy hot and velvet smooth, it’s something news and special to serve at the cocktail hour
SAN ANTONIO
BEAN dip is a red-brown paste-like concoction, a dull eyeful to a frijoles greenhorn. But scoop up a bite on a piece of tortilla—it’s soft in the mouth and velvet smooth, it’s spicy hot. The tortilla gives “chew.” What I like about it is that it satisfies and tantalized at one and the same time.

I had stopped for a few days in San Antonio, Texas, to inquire about dishes unique to that area. Mrs. Hattie Lewellyn, Food Editor of the “Express,” suggested a chat with the Arthur Colemans, co-authors of “The Texas Cook Book.” (...) The Colemans heard I was using their book as a guide to Texas eating and promptly invited me to join them for a bean dip. (...) On the range was the huge Olla holding the bean dip which gave forth with an occasional lazy bubble; cozy warm, not quite to a simmer. Tortillas we dipped in, dipped up. “Isn’t that good!”

“It’s made with frijoles,” Bobbie said, showing me a bagful of the uncooked pinto beans. Arthur explained, “Frijoles stand for the pinto or red beans, not for navies. And they take special cooking too.” The most rewarding way, I was told, is to use a molcajete, an olla and the proper seasonings. The molcajete is a little round tripod stone dish of Aztec origin and with this goes a pestle, the tejolote, to use for grinding up the chiles, cominos, garlic and other spices and herbs. The olla is an earthenware pot from Mexico in which beans cook to perfection. Both items can be purchased in the Mexican stores.

Bean Dip
4 cups pinto beans
2 cups chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, mashed or chopped
2 tablespoons ground cumin seed or 4 teaspoons of the seed, crushed
6 tablespoons bacon drippings or lard or a fist-size chunk of salt pork
6 tablespoons chili paste or chili powder
Salt to taste
1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
Dash of salsa picante (Mexican hot sauce)

Wash beans thoroughly and remove any foreign particles. Soak beans overnight (or boil for two minutes in 10 cups of boiling water, remove from heat, cover and let stand for one hour). Put in a pottery, enamel or glass pot with soaking water. Add onions, garlic, cumin seed and fat. Simmer until beans are very soft, three to four hours, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking. If additional water is needed, use boiling water as cold water will darken the beans. When the beans are soft add chili paste and continue cooking a few minutes. Add salt to taste, about 3 teaspoons. (Salting too soon harden the beans.)

While the beans are still warm, mash in the butter, cheese and Mexican sauce. Blend until smooth. Serve warm. Approximate yield: 2 quarts.
 
12 March 1956, Dallas Morning News, part 2, pg. 2:
WASHINGTON (AP).—Texas bean dip is the concoction served up to tempt guests at parties given by U. S. Court of Claims Commissioner and Mrs. Mastin G. White, who hail from that part of the world.

Mrs. White makes the dip of pinto beans, cooked six hours, mashed with garlic, cumin seed and chili powder, and served up in a tureen kept hot over a flame. Guests scoop the dip up with tortillas which Mrs. Mastin (sic) buys in tins at her neighborhood market.
 
18 March 1960, Washington Post, pg. C4:
FRONTIER BEAN DIP
Use 4 cups pinto beans, 1 cup hot bacon fat, 2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon garlic, salt, juice of one lemon.

Cook beans and drain. Heat bacon fat in large skillet. Add beans and fry, stirring constantly until lightly browned. Drain off surplus fat. Mash beans to a smooth consistency. Blend in rest of ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with corn chips or cheese crackers. makes about six cups of dip.

27 October 1962, Chicago Daily Tribune, “This Pungent Bean Dip Tantalizes the Taste Buds” by Mary Meade, pg. B16:
Midwesterners have learned about bean dips only in the last year or two, but they’ve taken to them with gusto. Corn chips or potato chips or, something newer, crisp slices of fresh turnip with bean dip as hot as you like it and preferably well cheesed, can be the conversational hub of a social evening.
(...)
SOUTH OF THE BORDER BEAN DIP
[Four cups]
4 cups well cooked red or pinto beans, sieved
2 sticks [1/2 pound] butter
1/2 pound grated provolone or sharp cheddar cheese
4 jalapenos [pickled green chile peppers], minced
1 tablespoon liquid from jalapenos
1/4 cup minced onion
2 medium cloves garlic, crushed

Mix and heat ingredients over hot water, stirring constantly until cheese and butter are melted and dip is hot. If mixture thickens too much as it waits to be used, stir in a little hot water. Garnish top with minced onion.