What the Texanist Asked Us About Beans

Texas Monthly's Texanist column asked a question this fall that chili cooks have argued over for a hundred years: if cowboys ate beans at almost every meal, why do Texans insist they do not belong in chili?

Paul Ryan, who helps run the Tolbert group and is Frank X. Tolbert's son-in-law, gave the short answer. "The original chili was just spices and meat on the trail with the cowboys. There weren't any beans in it." He also pointed to a short interview with Tolbert himself, recorded years ago, in which Tolbert explains that beans break down and turn the pot to goo.

The piece is a good read either way. It traces the argument back to H. Allen Smith's 1967 magazine article, the challenge that started the Terlingua cook-off, and the two events that still keep beans out of the pot. It also notes, fairly, that Tolbert's Restaurant in Grapevine serves a beaned version listed on the menu as North of the Border.

Read the article: The Texanist: Old-Time Cowboys Liked Beans Just Fine

More on that clip: Frank X. Tolbert in His Own Words