Frito Pie ... without Frito-Lays

[Johntodd]

Anybody got a recipe for a "real" Frito Pie made without bag chips?

 

Thanks!

-Johntodd

 

[Lisa Shock]

Well, the Frito Pie was invented at Woolworth's on the plaza in Santa Fe. They used to pour the red or green chile over lettuce in a bowl, then topped it with shredded cheese and grated raw onions and sliced olives. Then, one day in the 1940s, they had these new chips for sale and one of the gals poured the chile over the chips.

 

So, I am not certain what you want to make without the Fritos. You can sub tortilla chips for the Fritos. Or just eat your chile in a bowl without chips, maybe add some papas fritas to it.

[Jenny@SnP]

Anybody got a recipe for a "real" Frito Pie made without bag chips?

 

Thanks!

-Johntodd

 

Not quite sure because frito pie's basic ingredients include corn chips. Well, maybe you can do some experiments. Find some alternatives to use instead of chips. 

[Steve Irby]

Some of life's guilty pleasures just have to be embraced. 

[IndyRob]

Isn't this like asking for an Apple Pie recipe without tree apples? 

 

Surely there's a backstory here. I'm intrigued.

[Jenny@SnP]

Me too. After reading the question, I actually think about why did he came up such idea of cooking a recipe without having its main ingredient. Well, maybe its a part of his experiment. But I really couldn't think of  what could the possible alternative for chips.

Edited November 28, 2014 by Jenny@SnP (log)

[pastrygirl]

Are you wanting to make your own fritos?  You'd just need some sort of cornmeal dough and oil to fry it in.  Maybe get some masa and make tortillas but fry them from the raw state instead of cooking dry first then frying like for tortilla chips? 

[Tri2Cook]

I've never had Frito pie but if I made it, I'd cut up some corn tortillas and toss 'em in the deep fryer. That or, at the very least, make Dorito pie instead. Anything to avoid the Fritos, which I'm not a fan of. It wouldn't be authentic but authentic went out the door at "Frito pie without Fritos" so I don't think that's a worry.

[Johntodd]

Sorry I didn't get back to the thread sooner.  I went and ate Thanksgiving dinner ... then a little while later ate again!

 

Home made Frito are the answer!  You nailed it.

 

But Frito corn is different from nacho corn.  Frito corn is not nixtamalized.  How can I make my own "fritoes"  ?

 

EDIT:

 

This?

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/dining/homemade-fritos-recipe.html?_r=0

Edited November 28, 2014 by Johntodd (log)

[Smithy]

Try it, and let us know what you think!

[Johntodd]

Good idea, I will.

 

Got to wait a few days, though.  I cooked enough food yesterday that Iwon't have to cook for a week. LOL!

 

This morning I had "Thanksgiving Dinner Sandwiches" for breakfast.  Toasted bread with ham, casserole, and tater salad.  Yum Yum!

[GlorifiedRice]

I dont see how this would work...cornmeal tastes like cornbread, not Fritos.

I cant eat a corndog and be put in the mind of Fritos chips.

There is something else going on with a Frito.that gives it that special taste.

Maybe roasted Masa?

[MSRadell]

This?

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/dining/homemade-fritos-recipe.html?_r=0

That certainly sounds like an easy recipe, I think I'd make them thinner than recommended however, when the recipe called for seems to be too thick.

[Lisa Shock]

I suspect that real Fritos were one of the first foods to be pressure extruded (kind of like some pasta shapes) directly into hot oil. The pressure and resulting high heat changes the starch and other components. They probably grow a little as they are extruded. (Cheetos are a further refinement of the process, and they bloom as they come out of the extruder.)

 

Honestly, of all the snacks out there, Fritos are one of the simplest. I am not fond of them straight from the bag, too salty + thick, but, I like how they remain crunchy in a Fritos pie. I also have fond memories of buying Fritos pies at the takeout window at the Santa Fe Woolworth's.

[johndan]

Possibly apocryphal, but many sources say that the Frito Pie recipe originates with Daisy Doolin, Elmer Doolin's mother. Elmer launched Frito using a patent he purchased from a Mexican man who had created a machine that made extruded masa chips he sold at beaches in Mexico (so maybe GlorifiedRice's guess about masa is correct).

 

I read the story in a Tex-Mex cookbook years ago, but NPR has the story here: http://www.npr.org/2007/10/18/15377830/the-birth-of-the-frito. NPR's source for this is the Frito-Lay archives, so take with a grain of salt. I think I originally heard the story from an old El Paso Chile Company cookbook (where it was the head note for their version of Frito pie).

 

- Johndan

[Jaymes]

Possibly apocryphal, but many sources say that the Frito Pie recipe originates with Daisy Doolin, Elmer Doolin's mother. Elmer launched Frito using a patent he purchased from a Mexican man who had created a machine that made extruded masa chips he sold at beaches in Mexico (so maybe GlorifiedRice's guess about masa is correct).

 

I read the story in a Tex-Mex cookbook years ago, but NPR has the story here: http://www.npr.org/2007/10/18/15377830/the-birth-of-the-frito. NPR's source for this is the Frito-Lay archives, so take with a grain of salt. I think I originally heard the story from an old El Paso Chile Company cookbook (where it was the head note for their version of Frito pie).

 

- Johndan

 

There are some things we don't have to take "with a grain of salt."  Some things are provable historical fact.

 

One of these is that San Antonio was so famous for chili, even as far back as 1880, that the "Chili Queens" were drawing tourists from across the country.  That's provable beyond dispute.

 

Second is that Elmer Doolin began packaging and selling Fritos in San Antonio in 1932.  Provable beyond dispute.

 

For anybody to think for even so much as one minute that, in a town famous for chili, nobody, for some thirty years, ever had the notion to ladle some over Fritos is ridiculous.

 

And, it's really impossible for me personally to believe that a Santa Fe waitress "invented" this dish in the early 1960's, since I was eating it, in the little bags, with cheese and onions on top, at a drive-in in San Angelo, Texas, in 1950.

 

I'm sorry but it's obvious to me that the most logical scenario is that, as soon as Elmer turned out his first batch of Fritos in San Antonio back in 1932, somebody, probably his mother Daisy but who knows, said, "Boy, I'll bet some chili would be great over these."

[Lisa Shock]

I did not say they were invented in SF in the 60's, Jatyes, go back and read my post.

 

It was during WW2, as I posted earlier, in the early 1940s (42 they think), and, I met the woman who invented it. And, yes, the Fritos distributor caught onto it really fast and was promoting it in early 1940s signage. The Fritos people were also selling the pie at Disneyland in the beginning, as they were one of the first vendors at the park.

 

Now, it's not the most complex idea, and, I don't doubt that it would be possible for multiple people to have done the same thing. Catch is, especially in TX, the chips were being sold and marketed as a side dish for lunches at luncheonettes where the main dish was a sandwich. Even at Woolworth's, the chile was sold out of a window, not inside, because it was a cheap food being sold to people who could not afford the full lunch in the cafe.

[Jaymes]

I did not say they were invented in SF in the 60's, Jatyes, go back and read my post.

 

It was during WW2, as I posted earlier, in the early 1940s (42 they think), and, I met the woman who invented it. And, yes, the Fritos distributor caught onto it really fast and was promoting it in early 1940s signage. The Fritos people were also selling the pie at Disneyland in the beginning, as they were one of the first vendors at the park.

 

Now, it's not the most complex idea, and, I don't doubt that it would be possible for multiple people to have done the same thing. Catch is, especially in TX, the chips were being sold and marketed as a side dish for lunches at luncheonettes where the main dish was a sandwich. Even at Woolworth's, the chile was sold out of a window, not inside, because it was a cheap food being sold to people who could not afford the full lunch in the cafe.

 

I do know what you said but, as my roots go very very deep in both New Mexico and Texas, I've heard that story all my life and your post is the first time I've heard anyone claim it was Santa Fe in the 40's.  You've backed up the usual timeline by about twenty years.  Usually it's "Teresa Hernández, who worked at the FW Woolworth's lunch counter in Santa Fe, New Mexico" in the 1960's (1962 is the usual exact date cited for this supposed "invention").  

 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frito_pie

 

So I wasn't responding just to your post.

 

The part I agree with is that it's "not the most complex idea" and that multiple people likely began doing it pretty early on.  Like about five minutes after Elmer fried up his first batch in San Antonio, Texas, a city already world-famous for chili. 

 

And probably even before that, as corn and chiles had been a well-known combination for centuries.

 

That's just one more reason why I find it utterly ridiculous, absurd even (and frankly arrogant), for Santa Fe to keep saying that somebody there, 700+ miles from the place where, in 1932, Elmer first packaged up his new product that he called "Fritos," "invented" Frito Pie. 

 

To me, that's like trying to determine who "invented" chocolate sauce over ice cream.

 

And then taking credit for it.

 

 

.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Jaymes (log)

[Johntodd]

Didn't wanna start a thing ... just want to know how to make this w/out purchasing additive-loaded Fritos.

[pastrygirl]

Didn't wanna start a thing ... just want to know how to make this w/out purchasing additive-loaded Fritos.

 

Fritos original are corn, corn oil, and salt, so I think you're good

[Dave W]

Ewww "added" salt no doubt