Chile Con Carne

A meatless chile from the era of the first commercial soy foods, built to be assembled from things already cooked. Nothing here is browned or simmered down, so the seasoning and the quality of the tomatoes carry the dish.

• Soy bean meatThis means an early manufactured vegetable-protein meat substitute of the kind sold to vegetarian households, or possibly a firm pressed soybean cake sliced and dried until chewy; the recipe does not identify the product, and the best-known analogue of the period, Protose, was made from peanuts and wheat gluten rather than soy. Extra-firm tofu pressed hard, cut to the given dimensions and toasted in a hot oven until the edges are leathery is the closest current stand-in; seitan strips work if you want more chew.
• A pint is two cupsTwo cups of drained cooked beans, two cups of soy strips, two cups of tomatoes. Canned beans and canned crushed tomatoes both fit the intent exactly.
• Canned sweet pepperA pimiento, sold then in small cans and now in jars. Half a canned pimiento, shredded, is roughly two tablespoons; a jarred roasted red pepper is the same thing.
• The heat levelHalf a teaspoon of paprika in six cups of food is colour, not heat; the dish is not built for chile heat at all. If you want it to taste like chile con carne, add a tablespoon or more of chili powder and a little ground cumin with the onions.
• Double boilerEverything is already cooked, so this is gentle reheating rather than cooking, and the double boiler guards against scorching. A heavy saucepan over low heat, stirred, does the same job in about fifteen minutes. Give it long enough for the toasted strips to soften and take up tomato.
• SaltOne teaspoon assumes unsalted home-cooked beans and plain canned tomatoes. If you use canned beans and a seasoned tomato product, hold back and salt at the end.
• YieldAbout six cups, serving four to six with the rice or potato border. The border is not decoration -- the mixture is loose and needs the starch.