Real Chili: Beans or No Beans

[REWahoo]

Time for another poll...

[Martha]

Must have pinto, kidney and black beans at a minimum.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martha Must have pinto, kidney and black beans at a minimum.

That's bean soup, not chili. :P

[BigMoneyJim]

It sounds like REWahoo may try to revoke my Native Texan status, but I love beans in chili. I like chili without beans, too.

[Adventuregirl]

I agree with Martha....my chili always has three different beans....
Adventuregirl

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigMoneyJim It sounds like REWahoo may try to revoke my Native Texan status, but I love beans in chili.

You will have to surrender your passport at the next border crossing...

[JPatrick]

I like it both ways, but if you showed up at a Texas chili cook off with beans you'd be repeatedly flogged, your kids sold as slaves, and yer dog skinned. * I believe the state would revote yer truck drivers license also*

[SteveR]

History

"Who invented chili? There are several theories. E. De Grolyer, a scholar and chili expert, believed it had its origins as the "pemmican of the Southwest" in the late 1840s. According to De Grolyer, Texans pounded dried beef and beef fat, chile peppers, and salt to make trail food for the ride out to the gold fields and San Francisco. The dried mixture was then boiled in pots along the trail, an "instant" chili. A variation on the same theory is that cowboys invented chili when driving cattle. Supposedly, cooks planted oregano, chiles, and onions among patches of mesquite to protect them from foraging cattle. The next time they passed the same trail, they would collect the spices, combine them with beef, and make a dish called "Trail drive chili". The chile peppers used in the earliest dishes were probably chilipiquíns, which grow wild on bushes in Texas, particularly the southern part of the state.

Probably the earliest mention of the dish, though not the name, according to Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach in "The Whole Chile Pepper Book," was by J.C Clopper. He visited San Antonio in 1828 and commented on how poor people would cut the little meat they could afford "into a kind of hash with nearly as many pieces of pepper as there are pieces of meat - this is all stewed together." The first mention of the word "chile" was in a book by S. Compton Smith, "Chile Con Carne, or The Camp and the Field" (1857), and there was a San Antonio Chili Stand at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

It was in 1902 that William Gebhardt, a German Immigrant in New Braunfels, Texas, created a "chili powder" which helped popularize chili throughout the Southwest. His brand is still one of the most popular, and specified in many recipes."


Texas Chilie has NO BEANS.........this was a California bastardization invention.

"Variations

Chili con carne is described as a dish of well-seasoned and well-cooked beef with chile peppers. In New Mexico, chili is often more of a stew with chile peppers and vegetables, with or without meat. In California, chili is usually a mixture of ground beef and beans, different from any other Southwestern versions. Cincinnati chili was created in 1922 by a Macedonian immigrant, Athanas Kiradjieff. Kiradjieff settled in Cincinnati and opened a hot dog stand called the Empress, where he created a chili with Middle Eastern spices which could be served a variety of ways. His "five-way" was a concoction of a mound of spaghetti topped with chili, then with chopped onions, then red kidney beans, then shredded yellow cheese, and served with oyster crackers and a side order of hot dogs topped with shredded cheese! "

Source:
http://southernfood.about.com/cs/chi...es/a/chili.htm

[sgeeeee]

Texans have screwed up a lot of things in this country. Now they think they have to screw up our chilli too?

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ((^+^)) SG Texans have screwed up a lot of things in this country.

Considering we brought you both LBJ and GWB, no arguement here..

Quote:

Originally Posted by ((^+^)) SG Now they think they have to screw up our chilli too?

...but I'll take issue with you on who is screwing up OUR chili!

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPatrick I like it both ways, but if you showed up at a Texas chili cook off with beans you'd be repeatedly flogged, your kids sold as slaves, and yer dog skinned. * I believe the state would revote yer truck drivers license also*

And people wonder why I've never been to Texas...

What if you don't care for beef? I suppose poultry-based chili (with lotsa beans) and TOFU over RICE is even more sacrilegious?

[HFWR]

Well, I voted yes, even though theoretically, at least for cookoff purposes, chili does NOT have beans. However, no self-respecting Texan really gives a rat's patoot what others think... 8)

FYI, the midwest version of chili, that I grew up eating, has both pintos and macaroni!!

Get a rope!!

[JPatrick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords And people wonder why I've never been to Texas...

If you're worried, I'm sure one of us could pick you up at the border. *Just let us know the time and which border. *

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords And people wonder why I've never been to Texas... What if you don't care for beef? I suppose poultry-based chili (with lotsa beans) and TOFU over RICE is even more sacrilegious?

Holy Mackerel, Nords! Are you trying to get lyched in effigy?

TOFU is an illegal substance south of the Red River. Penalty for possession is almost as severe as being caught with quiche. :P And if you're nabbed with more than one ounce, it's considered "intent to distribute", which will give a whole new meaning to the term "That Bubba is a real sweetheart".

[MJ]

I also enjoy a concoction of ground beef, beans, chili peppers, onions, garlic. I guess you can call it beef/beans/chili/ onion/garlic dish. Now, Texans can't go nuts since it's not "real" chili but is damn good.

MJ

[sgeeeee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveR History . . .

I have to believe that this is a bit of convenient revisionist history. Native cultures in what is now the Southwest US and Northern Mexico were agriculturists since around 100 AD. Their primary cultigens were corn, beans and squash. They also grew and gathered various spices from the dessert. Chilli peppers have been in use in Mexico since much earlier (at least a few 1000 BC). By about 900 AD, these groups were trading with each other over vast trading networks. Food, pottery, jewelry, cloth, stone tools, etc. moved back and forth from Northcentral Mexico to the four corners area. Agriculture had replaced hunting and gathering to a large degree. There is quite a bit of evidence in the archaeology record that meat became fairly rare among many of these groups by this time. It is hard to imagine that something resembling chilli including spices and beans and cooked in ceramic vessels was not around by 900 AD.

It is also interesting that although parts of West Texas may have been influenced by the Southwest Native tradition during this early time, most of Texas would have been influenced by the Woodland and Mississippian cultures instead. There is nothing in the material culture of the Mississipians that would indicate contact or influence from Mexico or the Southwest.

I'm going to claim that chilli was first invented by Southwest natives around 900 AD and was a spicy chilli pepper and bean stew -- rarely including venison and never beef or pork. Texan's have tried to hijack this dish and turn it into something else.

[MasterBlaster]

Fun Bean information that you can use:

Evidently, beans from the Americas imported into Europe allowed for the European population to expand. On a per-acre basis, beans produce many more calories and other food content than the grains that were predominately grown in Europe. This spurt in the food suplly really allowed the European economy and population to thrive.

So in a sense the later Renaissance and the life that we know was built at least partially on beans.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterBlaster Fun Bean information that you can use:

Who better to provide a short tutorial on the history of beans than "MasterBlaster"

[MasterBlaster]

Well that's just another positive thing about beans.

[sgeeeee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ((^+^)) SG . . .I'm going to claim that chilli was first invented by Southwest natives around 900 AD and was a spicy chilli pepper and bean stew -- rarely including venison and never beef or pork.* Texan's have tried to hijack this dish and turn it into something else.* *

Oops. A little bit closer examination of some archaeology sources tell me I'm wrong. "Chili originally meant beans served in a spicy tomato sauce. This nutritionally balanced combination was known to ancient Aztec and Mayan cooks." This could have dated to as early as 3000 BC.

Texans didn't start butchering the recipe for several thousand years.