"Real" beef chili has beans? yes or no?

[GreenPartyVoter]

Please help settle a dispute between the hubby and me. And let me know if you live in a tex-mex area and really know whereof you speak. :P

(Added a meatless option for the veggie people)

[Celeborn Skywalker]

1. In Texas, no. In New Mexico, yes. (nt)

[alarimer]

2. Yes

Chili is a meal. Chili without beans (or bell peppers, tomatoes, and onions) is simply a topping for hot dogs. I have this silly argument at work all the time. For some reason Texans insist chili shall have no beans (must be a law or something LOL). But I use the argument above; it gets me nowhere. I also put ketchup on hamburgers, another affort apparently to the dietary laws of this state.

[Telly Savalas]

11. Furthermore, chili is a meal that's supposed to warm you up.

So if someone isn't from a place where it regularly gets in the teens fahrenheit or below in the winter, they shouldn't be able to claim authority as a chiliologist.

Nothing is better than going for a 30-45 minute jog on a freezing winter evening, then coming home to warm up with a big ole bowl of chili and a hockey game on the tube. And that chili better have beans and veggies in it.

[youthere]

13. I think I love you....

"Nothing is better than going for a 30-45 minute jog on a freezing winter evening, then coming home to warm up with a big ole bowl of chili and a hockey game on the tube. And that chili better have beans and veggies in it"

Yes...I definitely love you...if you're a redwings fan then just take me now.

[alarimer]

15. For us it is a Christmas Eve tradition

Don't ask me why. Well it used to be oyster stew (in Minnesota where oysters used to be hard to get an expensive) but the kids all hated (including me but I eat it now).

It is a winter thing. I don't eat it in the summer, not in Texas.

[youthere]

17. Oyster stew is our New Year's Eve tradition...

And my kids hate it too. I don't know where or why it started but for some reason...gotta have oysters on New Year's Eve.:shrug:

[bridgit]

3. hm, as a practical matter: no...

but the permutations flow as a natural event from that base :thumbsup:

[achtung_circus]

4. Of course,

the Mesoamerica agriculture developed on corn, beans and squash. Beans predate burger by a long stretch.

[Nikia]

5. I have heard that the original chili had no beans

And that the meat was regular meat, not ground. Adding beans made the dish cheaper.
In Wisconsin, people seem to like to have noodles in their chili. I never knew that people did that and thought of it as regular chili until I came to Wisconsin.

[TrueAmerican]

9. Don't go near Cincinnati

Their chili is put on spaghetti.

[ok_cpu]

16. Mmmmm. Skyline. n/t

[quisp]

6. if it doesn't have beans it's just sauce - n/t

[Xipe Totec]

10. No, it's just meat flavored with chili

That's why it's called chili, not beanie.

[punpirate]

7. It's question of where one lives....

... Texas chili has meat, and, very often, beans. (I suspect this is a collision of eastern Texas and Mexican Texas--where chile stew met red beans and rice.)

In New Mexico, it's chile, and is usually a stew made of green chiles (there are lots of variants--the most common being a stew made of hamburger, potatoes and green chiles).

In Texas, I find lots of people who are sure chili has beans, but no meat, meat but no beans, and many more who think it isn't the real thing without both, but should never have tomatoes in it.

But, go to any chili cook-off in Texas and you're going to find dozens of people who swear that theirs is authentic. Obviously, they can't all be right.

If one goes back six hundred years, what we know of as chili today probably started as a stew of green and red chiles, root vegetables, beans, fresh peppers and corn nibs in season, sometimes with a corn meal covering like a pot pie. Meat would have been relatively scarce, so it would have been a welcome option.

On edit, I've lived in eastern Texas, western Texas and New Mexico, and tend to combine the tastes. These days, I make chile/chili, with a little bit of everything--the hottest fresh green chiles I can find, freshly mortared and pestled dried cayenne peppers, one diced habanero per pot, maybe a chipotle or two in adobo sauce, red beans, pinto beans, and enough fresh tomatoes to add some body to it. Then I throw in a couple of cups of red wine, because the tannic acid in the wine sets off the chiles nicely, some garlic, some Mexican oregano, a little curry and some ground coriander, and I'm good for days. :P

Cheers.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Of course not...

http://southernfood.about.com/cs/chilirecipes/a/chili.htm

[eyepaddle]

12. On a side note,

beans are OUTSTANDING, I think they belong wherever they fit--for example, chili--yes, sundaes--no.

I'm a big fan of fusion cooking myself, for instance cumin goes very well in many Asian themed dishes. So I don't like to get to hung up on other people's recipe fetishes. If somebody doesn't want beans in their chili, they don't have to put 'em in.

However, if youwant to sample my "Bomb-Ass Kitchen Sink Pork Chop Chili" you're gettin' black beans. And that's all there is too it!

However, you'd probably like it! :D

[khashka]

14. Definitely no, at least in Texas

Khash.

[Flying Dream Blues]

18. I believe the definitive quote is...

"Anybody who knows beans about chili knows chili ain't got no beans!"

Personally, I LIKE it with beans, but true Texans consider it a sacrilege on par with charging for iced tea refills.

[sendero]

19. There's nothing wrong with..

.... adding beans to your chili. But of course if you do, you are eating "chili with beans", because chili by itself has no beans.

And that crap the make in Ohio (skyline?) isn't chili at all, it's some kind of strange hamburger stew.

[skygazer]

20. Why limit yourself to beef?

Beans are the basis of a good chili but you can get really creative with the meat you use. Ground beef is the norm but I know people who use beef stew type meat too. I don't eat beef anymore so I make my chili with ground turkey and some mild Italian sausage (I make VERY good chili). I've had to-die-for venison chili and I've had excellent chili that contained meat, beans and potatoes!

Chili is one of those meals that evolved from people throwing what food they had in a pot and slow simmering it all together. There are really no limits to it.