Brown meat in a skillet. Put beans and 12 cups of water in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. When the beans begin to rise to the top, drain off the water and rinse the beans with cool water. Add 12 cups of water back to beans and all other ingredients except for salt. Bring to a boil on a high fire and when boiling lower fire to medium. Let cook for about an hour and then add the salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until beans are all tender and most of them have broken up to form a gravy. Add more water if needed to get a consistency like that of thick pea soup. Serve the way you like to serve chili or like us Cajuns do, over rice!!