Food Debate

[tacologic]

Yesterday I went to the Chili Takedown. Good times were had and much chili was eaten. But amongst the discussion, this question was brought up... What is the difference between chili and stew?

Just curious to hear what people think.

Comments

[bonerici]

according to texans if it has beans it is not chili. according to yanks, beans always go in a chili.

to me, a stew has potatoes, a chili has no potatoes.

But to a texan nothing from new york is a real chili cause they all have these vegetables. To a texan a chili is all meat, some texans even say you're not allowed to use tomatoes.

[tacologic]

Beans was a general point of debate at the Takedown. However, I heard once that some of the first American places to embrace chili were prisons in Texas, and they used a lot of beans so as to make the meat stretch.

[cheerfulstoic]

As an Official Texan™ I don't give a damn whether you put beans and/or tomatoes in your chili. I generally do; it gives additional depth of flavor and textural variety, though if you intend to put your chili on hot dogs or in frito pie textural variety may be undesirable. But what are "all these vegetables" you're talking about? Aside from onion and garlic and chilis of course and the optional tomatoes nothing else goes in it.

Vegetarian chilis are stew with peppers. White chilis are stew with peppers. That's not to say that they aren't worth eating, but chili they are not.

[umopepisdn]

imo, stew has (too much) veggies and potatoes in it.. chilli is spicier and made of MEAT! (and beans) hehe ;)

[tacologic]

I think there can be vegetarian stews, but chili rarely has potatoes, and is usually spicier yeah.

[umopepisdn]

yeah.. but even beef stews i've had ... consisted of lots of potato and veggies like celery and carrots.. sometimes corn.

[keith_london]

Chili sounds more specific whereas stew sounds more general. A chili is a type of stew, but not all stews are chili!

[tacologic]

That's one of the few truisms that we were able to determine. :)

[wornblankie]

i guess i always thought it was the chili powder. i wouldn't put it in anything other than chili.

[tacologic]

I think spices used is definitely a determinant.

[discodoris]

The fact that it is named after the spice is a fairly huge clue to the difference imo. Stew is a dish originating in the "old world" - there are various types of stew even then, a Hungarian goulash is quite different from a Moroccan tagine to an Irish stew to a French ragout to an English hotpot to a Spanish cocido. I firmly believe that a real stew is the Irish variant. Chili is a Mexican dish, originating with the spice geography. All of them are really determined by local meat, vegetable and spice availability. Of course, all of this is complicated by the cooking term of stewing, meaning just boiling it all together in the same pot, hence I suppose the consideration of stew as a generic dish. I don't believe it is. Does that make sense?

[tacologic]

Sort of!

:)

[damnitnicole]

I think of chili as being thicker, where stew would have more of a soup/broth base.

Also a lot of the above differences.