Munch, munch, munch a bunch of Fritos Corn Chips.
It's not polite to smack your lips.
But you can't help it with Fritos Corn Chips.
Munch, munch, munch a bunch of Fritos Corn Chips.
As I memorized from a Fritos ad in the late 1950s.
Fritos came about when C.E. Elmer Doolin, who owned Highland Park Confectionery, an ice cream store, was nearly put out of business in a price was where quality was eliminated as a consumer choice.
Looking for another business, he was impressed by a product which came on the market in 1930 called Tony's Toasted Tortillas. According to a letter C.E. Doolin submitted to the editors of the Fritos Bandwagon on the 25th anniversary of their company in 1967:
"This product had a very good taste being a salted, triangular type chip made from cutting pie-shaped pieces and frying them. (I) approached the operator of the business with a view to getting in business with him. (I) was told that it was impossible to make a profit because of the stale problem. So then it was dropped.
In 1932 I ran across a product in one of my wholesale ice cream accounts that had the tenderness of the present Frito product and the taste of the toasted tortilla."
Doolin bought the recipe from Gustavo Olgnin, plus his adapted hand-operated potato ricer (to create the texture for the chips) and 19 accounts for $100. Olguin had wanted to return to Mexico, so in true Texas entrepreneurial style, Doolin borrowed $20 from Olguin's partner, and the other $80 when his grandmother hocked her wedding ring, and he was in business.
He was successful immediately and continued to innovate with hybridized corn for use in Frito products food production machinery, and along with Fritos engineers, the racks and display devices with clip-and-bracket locking devices.
He believed that names ending in the letter "o" were highly marketable - it would give all his products a name-brand recognition.
Cheetos were introduced in 1950 with the powdered cheese flavoring created by Doolin in his own kitchen. (Kaleta Doolin's company timeline records the date as 1949).
Doritos as a brand name made its debut in 1965.
Who in the 1950s does not remember eating Fritos Chili Pie? Not even a pie, but a combination of Fritos, chili, cheese and onions usually served by opening the end of the Fritos bag and pouring the items inside. At 5 cents per bag, they were also stronger than today's bags.
It's somewhat unclear who at Fritos created the original recipe, but it was on the menu of the closing banquet of the Dallas Dietetic Associated in 1949, and the recipe was widely distributed in grocery stores in 1956.
Eating Fritos Chili Pie in a bag became a standard on Boy Scout camping trips as well as a convenient meal at home with no dishes to wash.
In the spirit of anything-can-be-made-better-if-it's-deep-fried, the Texas Fried Frito Pie garnered the Best Taste award at the 2010 State Fair in Dallas - a perfect combination of spice, crunch and texture.
Heresy was created in a 2012 Texas Monthly article on Frito Pie in the Food Vittles section. The accompanying picture had a bag of Fritos laying on its side atop a pile of napkins 0 the bag was cut down the center which they added chili, cheese and onions, along with sour cream and sliced jalapenos. It made a good photo, but nobody would eat a Fritos Chili Pie from a bag cut down the middle - simply too messy.
Fritos, along with two other Dallas food institutions are being featured in a two-year long exhibit beginning in December 2012 at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. They are all part of the new exhibit - "Food: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000" at the National Museum of American History.
The exhibit also features Julia Child's home kitchen which started out as a six-month exhibit when it opened 10 years ago, and is still the most popular exhibit in the museum.
The two other Dallas institutions include Mariano Martinez and his world's first frozen margarita machine. In 1971, unable to make margaritas fast enough at his newly and highly popular restaurant "Mariano's" in Old Town Shopping Center, Mariano became inspired by a 7-Eleven Slurpee machine. He used a soft-serve ice cream machine to chill alcohol. Today, frozen margaritas are the number 1 cocktail in America.
Also included is El Chico Tec-Mex Restaurant. It all started when Adelaida Cuellar started selling homemade tamales at a country fair. Her five brothers (AKA "Mama's boys) used her recipes to open their first restaurant, and helped pioneer Tex-Mex in Dallas and America. When the family sold El Chico in 1997 for $65 million, the chain had nearly 100 restaurants in 14 states. Three generations of the Cuellar family became part of the American dream,
For the opening reception of the exhibit, Smithsonian curator, Rayna Green (Bryan Adams Class of 1962!) said, "The caterer couldn't quite wrap his head around Frito Pie for 300." Rayna's been championing the importance of Tex-Mex cuisine since 2003. "I may have to make Frito Pie at least for our staff because I've been talking about it so much."
Frito Chili Pie for 300 is a no-brainer for concession stands at most high school football games in Texas during the fall.
If you want to know more about the company, the granddaughter of C.E. Doolin has a new book out on its history - "Fritos Pie: Stories, Recipes and More," Kaleta Doolin, Texas A&M University Press, 2011.
Her current recipe for Fritos Pie includes ground, grass-fed beef, Wick Fowler's One-Step Chili Seasoning Mix, Fritos, onions and garlic, topped with shredded aged Gouda cheese, diced organic red onion and chopped jalapenos served in individual bowls.
The legacy continues.
In the 1950s Fritos had its own canned chili, which won the accolades of Frank X. Tolbert in his book, "A Bowl of Red," in a list of canned chilis he considered admirable because they followed classic recipes.
In our home there has only ever been canned chili - Wolf Brand. Many died at the Alamo so we can have Wolf Brand Chili in our Frito Pie, atop our scrambled eggs or just by itself with saltine crackers. May the Trinity flow backwards if someone tries to add beans to the mix!
On October 1, 2012 State Fair visitors got to taste the World's Largest Fritos Chili Pie as Frito-Lay celebrated its 80th birthday. Guinness Book of World Record officials were on hand to validate the feat.
It took 635 10.5-ounce bags of corn chips, 660 15-ounce cans of Hormel Chili (without beans) and 580 8-ounce bags of shredded cheddar cheese to create 1,325 pounds of Frito Chili Pie.
Nowhere but Texas...
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