To Bean or Not to Bean

The bean is what separates the Texas chili lover from all other chili lovers. Even in neighboring Arizona and New Mexico, both chili-loving states, the bean is never far removed from the chile. This is because beans and chiles have been partners in the pot there since ancient times.

Ray Shockley, of Wolf Brand Chili in Corsicana, Texas, has looked into the great bean controversy among chili eaters and concludes that only in Texas do the straight chili fundamentalists outnumber the chili-with-beans libertarians. In Texas, the preference for straight chili runs about three to one, while almost everywhere else in the country, chili with beans is preferred by about the same three-to-one majority. Only in Oklahoma and the cities of New Orleans and Charlotte, North Carolina, are the pro- and anti-bean factions equal.

The great bean controversy:

Bob Pool, who operated one of the Dallas, Texas chili joints in the 1950's, never served his chili without beans and claimed: "Nobody ever walked out because of the beans."

J. Frank Dobie, Texas author and bean lover, maintained that chili spoils the texture and flavor of a good pot of beans.

The Teralingua Chili cookoff anthem, written by Kent Finlay of San Marcos, Texas, is titled: If You Know Beans About Chili, You Know That Chili Has No Beans. Only chili sans beans is allowed to compete at Teralingua.

Straight chili purists argue that a pot of simmering chili, no matter how many times it is reheated, is getting nothing but better and better. Any beans therein are getting worse and worse through overcooking. Although a convincing point of view, my belief is that any good chili, with or without beans, will not or should not last through more than a couple reheatings. There simply just isn't enough if it's any good.

©2006 Pepperville