It's rumored that Texas caviar was the creation of a lady who lived in, you guessed it Texas, back in the 1940s. She was an executive chef at a prestigious institution in New York, and moved to Texas. There, she became aware of how common black eyed peas were. But she didn't like black eye peas. So she came up with a way to make them more palatable. Her recipe was served at a hotel at the time, gained fame, the name stuck, and here we are today still enjoying the recipe we know as Texas caviar. Since cowboys and Texas go hand-in-hand, it's not surprising that this easy appetizer recipe also took on the name cowboy caviar, although as I previously mentioned, they're on in the same. Note: This is my condensation of a variety of "facts", stories, information, and details I pulled from a dozen sources or so on the internet. I do not guarantee accuracy and it could be a true old wives tale - no one knows. But this is what is the reported truth.