# Should chili have beans? Let's settle this once and for all! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459 "2005-12-13T19:28:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/21 "2005-12-13T22:54:26Z")
Chili in its purest form is meat, chili peppers and spices, just like pizza in its purest form is dough, tomato sauce and cheese. You can add beans/tomatoes/onions etc. to chili just like you can add toppings to pizza. It’s still chili, just gussied up. Note, however, that someone saying that you MUST have beans for it to be chili, is dead wrong. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/22 "2005-12-13T22:56:25Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#): > > Let’s get this straight right now, heat level and flavor are not the same thing. No they’re not, but good chili has both. Then again, it depends on your tolerance for heat. The chili may have been beyond your heat tolerance and the flavor may have been lost on you. This is not a criticism of you, just that one man’s spicy is another man’s mild. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/23 "2005-12-13T23:00:44Z")
Good chili should make your eyes bleed! Side story: One of the best batches if chili I ever made was in Alaska one year, when my roommate bagged a moose. Moose meat, chilis, spices…we ate the whole batch just standing around the stove with 3 big bags of Fritos. Dip, munch, sigh. Repeat. That batch almost made the paint on the range hood bubble. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/24 "2005-12-13T23:02:17Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > just like pizza in its purest form is dough, tomato sauce and cheese. Sorry to nitpick, but I’d go even further and say pizza in its purest form is just a disc of dough. Plenty of pizzas don’t have tomato sauce (like the classic Potato & Rosemary pizza, or any of a variety of pizza biancas), and some don’t even have cheese (as in the pizza marinara–tomato, garlic, and olive oil). Also note that the aforementional pizza marinara or the popular pizza marghareta also don’t contain tomato sauce, but rather tomato slices. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/25 "2005-12-13T23:07:00Z")
Personally, I like my chili with beans. I’ve got two types I like. One’s the ground beef/chili powder version. It’s good and quick. The fam likes it just fine. The other is the beef/pork/whatever version with _chiles_ that takes a bit longer to cook and has a bit more heat than everybody in my family but myself can take. As long as you’ve got some form of chile in there (either the peppers or the chili powder), who cares what else you do to it. It’s chili. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/26 "2005-12-13T23:12:50Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > There’s no reason a meal shouldn’t provide a little entertainment as well. > > With beans. If only the effects were as quick as Blazing Saddles would lead us to believe… It has always been my impression that beans were cheap filler for chili. You make it with meat - and if the budget is kinda tight you stretch the chili by adding beans. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/27 "2005-12-13T23:40:20Z")
Chili without beans isn’t chili. That being said, I hate beans, so whatever chili without beans _is_, I’m a fan of that. I call it usually call it “hot dog chili”, and nobody has yet had trouble understanding that. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/28 "2005-12-14T01:56:23Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > If God wanted chili to be beanless, why the hell did She make chili-beans? > > I never knew about this debate, and haven’t had the Texas style chili, but I’m game. I never thought I liked beans much until I had Texas BBQ w/ beans on the side. Them is some good eatin’ beans!! I only first heard about this dispute recently, on an episode of “America’s Test Kitchen”. Based in Brookine, MA, they made a chili loaded with beans and such, which is how I have always encountered it, even on hot dogs, but the host was the first to admit that a Texan would call it “wussy chili”. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/29 "2005-12-14T03:14:25Z")
Chili should not have beans or tomatoes. It shouldn’t have any meat either. Real chili consists of a bowl of cayenne pepper that you consume anally. ---
**Author:** ![Billy\_Powell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Billy\_Powell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy_Powell)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/30 "2005-12-14T03:14:40Z")
Chris Kimball. In one of the issues of “Cook’s Illustrated” (from 2003 or 2004) they give a recipe while admitting that they are only going for a very middle-of-the-road “base” recipe. If I’m not mistaken, which I could well be, considering this is pretty much the pattern for all their articles. [gloat]I was fortunate enough to find bound volumes of 2002-2004 CI for $5 each at a local bookstore which sells remaindered stock.[/gloat] Pound for pound, the best writing on chili and, more generally, the serious business of the relationship of cowboys to their meat, can be found in the essay of John Thorne in his book, “Serious Pig.” For me, I love beans, but I prefer them served on the side, seasoned just the way I like them, and the chili itself pure. No tomato, either. Never been to Texas neither. I’ve never lived with a woman, however, who accepts this version of chili. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/31 "2005-12-14T03:22:46Z")
I vote for beans. If that means it’s not “real chili,” fine. I hereby suggest that we call it, “Better than chili.” Because it is. ---
**Author:** ![lonesome\_loser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@lonesome\_loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lonesome_loser)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/32 "2005-12-14T03:48:57Z")
Not only do I put beans in my chili. But I put celery too. So there. ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/33 "2005-12-14T03:56:52Z")
> [@DeVena](#): > > DeHusband is from New Mexico. He thinks that not only should chili not have beans, it should not have anything resembling tomatoes, either. His recipe is shredded beef and ground red chiles (hot!) in stock. With chopped onions as a garnish. > > He’s so cute, but so so wrong. DeHusband isn’t making chili. He’s making chopped hamburger in a bowl. Tell him to straighten up or his kitchen privileges will be revoked. Depending on the bean, beans detract from the authentic Red River experience. I cook mine separate and add only at the last minute. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/34 "2005-12-14T04:02:30Z")
> [@lonesome loser](#): > > Not only do I put beans in my chili. > > But I put celery too. > > So there. HEATHEN!!! [Go here.](http://www.chilicookoff.com/History/History_of_Chili.asp) Read. Learn. Frankly, put whatever you want in _your_ chili. Just don’t expect me to call it chili. ---
**Author:** ![lonesome\_loser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@lonesome\_loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lonesome_loser)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/35 "2005-12-14T04:06:59Z")
chili n 1: ground beef and chili peppers or chili powder often with tomatoes and kidney beans [syn: chili con carne] > **[Definition of chili | Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/chili)** > > Definition of chili from Dictionary.com, the world’s leading online source for English definitions, pronunciations, word origins, idioms, Word of the Day, and more. So…according to [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com)…you have to use ground beef. Heathens! 🙂 I don’t use ground beef. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/36 "2005-12-14T04:20:26Z")
> [@lonesome loser](#): > > Not only do I put beans in my chili. > > But I put celery too. > > So there. I agree with Kolak of Twilo. That’s not chili. With the addition of celery, you’ve just crossed over into stew. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/37 "2005-12-14T04:22:50Z")
I’m with Miller, Odin and many others. If you like beans or tomatoes or turkey or chocolate in your chili and that’s how you like it and you want to call it chili then good for you. If you are a chili snob … sorry, I mean “purist” and you come to my home and rant about how stupid I am because my chili can’t have 3 kinds of beans, celery, green peppers and tomatoes and I shouldn’t call it chili because it’s really vegetable bean tomato soup with chili spices then you are not only welcome to not eat my “chili” but you are also welcome to leave. Thankyouverymuch. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/38 "2005-12-14T04:58:22Z")
In my opinion, chili is a stew primarily spiced with chili peppers and cumin. The rest is just details. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/39 "2005-12-14T05:48:04Z")
> [@fluiddruid](#): > > In my opinion, chili is a stew primarily spiced with chili peppers and cumin. > > The rest is just details. So, curry qualifies as chili? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459/40 "2005-12-14T13:55:25Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > DeHusband isn’t making chili. He’s making chopped hamburger in a bowl. You people are weird. **Kolak’s** link has a very good explanation of the history of chili, and in chili cook-offs where chili itself was invented beans are generally not allowed. So much so that the songwriter Ken Finlay wrote a little ditty called “If You Know Beans About Chili, You Know That Chili Has No Beans.” A sample lyric: > [@](#): > > You burn some mesquite > And when the coals get hot > You bunk up some meat > And you throw it on a pot. > While some chile pods and garlic > And comino and stuff > Then you add a little salt > Till there’s just enough > You can throw in some onions > To make it smell good > You can even add tomatoes > If you feel like you should > But if you know beans about chili > You know that chili has no beans Obviously, each region has its own take on chili, and the definition of the stew has evolved to include variants with beans & celery & spaghetti & whatnot. Generally, everywhere outside the Southwest, I expect chili to contain all sorts of unorthodox ingredients, and I don’t care. I think most people outside the Southwest, as evidenced by this thread, think real chili comes with beans and an assortment of vegetables. That’s fine–just be careful what you call it to a New Mexican or Texan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-chili-have-beans-lets-settle-this-once-and-for-all/335459.md?page=3)