The arguments
The controversy is the tradition.
Chili people agree on very little. We lay out each fight with every side's case and every source, and we leave the verdict to you.
Beans
Do beans belong in chili? This is the oldest fight in the bowl. Competition red chili bans beans under both major rulebooks, yet the International Chili Society now requires them in two of its own categories. Texans have eaten beans with chili for a very long time, and they still argue about whether the beans go in the pot or beside it.
The Versions
What really happened at the first Terlingua cook-off in 1967? On 21 October 1967 a Texan and a New Yorker cooked chili in a ghost town and nobody won. Everyone agrees on the draw. Almost everything else, from who organized it to how many people came to why the third judge stopped, depends on who is telling it.
The Schism
How did one chili cook-off become three world championships? The 1967 contest now has three heirs: CASI's championship at Rancho CASI, the Original Terlingua cook-off behind the old store, and the International Chili Society's World Championship. They broke apart in two stages, around 1974 and in 1983, and each side remembers the breaks differently.
Tomatoes
Do tomatoes belong in chili? Purists say tomatoes, like beans, turn chili into something else. The rulebooks allow them, and the Texan who defended Texas chili in 1967 used tomato sauce himself.
The Cincinnati Question
Is Cincinnati chili really chili? Cincinnati chili is a spiced meat sauce served over spaghetti, first sold by Macedonian immigrant brothers in 1922. Its most famous Texan critic called it too sweet to count. The region's more than 300 chili parlors say otherwise.
Sweet Spices
Do chocolate, cocoa and cinnamon belong in chili? Cinnamon is central to Cincinnati chili, and some cooks add cocoa for depth. Texas purists find the result too sweet. Neither major competition rulebook mentions any of these ingredients.
The Chili Queens
Did the Chili Queens of San Antonio give us chili, and why did they disappear? For decades, women cooked and sold chili con carne from open-air stands in San Antonio's plazas, beginning on Military Plaza. Many accounts treat them as chili's origin story, while others see a dish with older and wider roots. The city's health department pushed them out, and sources disagree on exactly when.