Capaul Family Chili Beans
If you make chili for a crowd and you're not using Speckled Bayo with actual flavor, what are you even doing? This recipe comes straight from our farmer Chris Capaul, who grows the Speckled Bayo bean — a rare regional bean you've probably never heard of, grown by one of the only farmers we know keeping it around for future generations. It's a bean worth knowing.
Meet the Speckled Bayo
The Speckled Bayo once grew in backyard gardens across Louisiana, California, Oregon, and Washington. It was never a commercial darling — no big ag operation was ever going to standardize its dappled, speckled coat — and so it quietly retreated from the food system as industrial commodity pinto and kidney took over. Today it is genuinely hard to find, which is exactly the kind of situation that keeps us up at night and gets us out of bed in the morning.
Chris Capaul is one of the only growers we know of producing Speckled Bayo beans at scale. He grows them alongside baby butter beans and black valentine beans, keeping these regional varieties alive through the simple and radical act of planting them every season.
So what does a Speckled Bayo taste like? Imagine a pinto bean and a red bean had a baby, which makes it a natural for chili. It has a wonderful creamy texture but holds its shape. It's again somewhere between kidney and pinto holding its shape but not with that thick skin the kidney is known for. It has a lovely earthy bean flavor all its own but is best when complimented with onion, garlic and celery that you find in Chris's chili beans.
About This Recipe
This is Chris's recipe, shared as he makes it: with two types of beans for a big crowd and a pantry list that leans on what most of us already have on hand. He calls for both Speckled Bayo and Peruano but I'm suggesting Bayo beans here because they hold their shape better and cook up in about the same time, which is a practical detail worth appreciating when you're managing a big pot.
If you're not feeding 6-8 people, feel free to use just one variety. If forced to choose — and the Chief Bean Officer around here would choose — go Speckled Bayo, every time.
Both bean varieties need to be cooked ahead of time using our cooking guide. I like the, cooked with onion, garlic and of course Kombu for this dish. Cooked beans keep in their cooking liquid in the fridge for up to a week, so if you want to get ahead, cook them on Sunday.
The Speckled Bayo bean is grown for us by Chris Capaul, who also grows our baby butter beans and black valentine beans. We are proud to support farmers who keep rare regional varieties in the ground and on your table.
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