You'd think I'd know beans by now (pinto beans)

[Nightclub Dwight]

I hear that.

I'm fairly strict into "no four legged meat" but if there's bacon fat in the fridge, I will grab it and add it to the bean pot. If I don't have any, I'll use butter and olive oil. Someone was recommending avocado oil to me the other day but I haven't gotten to try it yet.

Avocado oil has some health benefits. I'm not sure, but I think the heirarchy goes olive oil, canola oil, avocado oil in terms of health benefits. Avocado oil shines in that it has a high smoke point, so it is very good for high heat cooking.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

.

2cups beans. Soak 24hrs, cook until done, rinse in a collander (if you have the vapors, it's due to undigestible sugars that rinsing removes). Then cook your recipe.

1cup dent corn, boil with a tbsp baking soda, or pickling lime, or CAL, or hardwood ashes, for an hour. Turn off heat and cover for 24hrs. Rinse well, rub to remove the softened shells, and cook with the beans. This is the nixtamal process that releases many more vitamins, authentic hominy too. Dent corn is also known as flour corn, field corn, and is ground for cornmeal, cornflakes, tortillas, etc.

.

Very interesting. You've touched on a few things here that I'd like to try.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

The disparity in cooking times is related to a recent change in the laws of physics. Not everyone got the memo about that.

Yeah, and those dingbats who disavow the laws of gravity....

Physics doesn't care if you believe.

 

[Lies&Distortion]

The fresher dried beans are, the faster they cook and reach softness. Who knows how long that one pound bag of pintos has been for sale on your supermarket shelf. They will still be good, just take a lot longer. ....

This is a big factor. Seems along the lines of weighing flour vs going by volume/measuring cup. Controlling for moisture content.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

This is a big factor. Seems along the lines of weighing flour vs going by volume/measuring cup. Controlling for moisture content.

Repeated for truth. European baking recipes are by weight.

 

[Frisco 57]

When you say, "They give me gas..." are ya bragging or complaining?

 

[CCK1]

I was scrolling through the posts so that I could make this point. The age of the beans is usually the most important factor in how quickly they cook. Old beans take exponentially longer to cook properly. Some will never cook properly if they are too old. They might be edible, but I consider a properly cooked bean to have a soft, creamy consistency. Any trace of grit or toughness is unacceptable in my book.

This past year I grew Vaquero beans, an heirloom bean from Rancho Gordo. At the end of the summer I picked all the beans and dried them. I saved a bunch to plant this year. I cooked several batches of beans that I had recently dried and they cooked in record time. I make dried beans about three times a month (my partner is a vegetarian). I have had old beans that never fully softened after several hours of cooking, but these "fresh" dried beans were soft and creamy in about an hour, with no pre-soaking.

As far as pre-soaking, it is totally optional. It does work, but it is not a deal breaker either way. It will cut down on time in the pot on the stove, but not really significantly so. But I don't mean to argue with success. If you have a method that works for you, by all means, keep doing it!

Beans are one of the most underrated foods on this planet. They are nutritious, taste great, and are very easy to prepare.

Rancho Gordo is THE source for beans. Much more expensive than the supermarkets, but beans are still quite a good deal as far as nutrition for the dollar.

 

[billy logan]

Nightclub Dwight - Are the Vaquero beans you grew from seed the exact same item from Rancho Gordo as the Vaquero beans they sell by the pound?

I always wonder if peas or beans etc., from the kitchen cupboard would sprout. I accidentally found out quinoa WOULD sprout - on the rim of the garbage dispose-all, underneath the surface of the sink

I previously HAD been simmering beans in a very generous extra amount of water - thinking, "even out the temperature throughout the pot" "let no bean go un-simmered!"

and thinking "if the simmering left way too much water I would throw in a handful of brown rice 30 minutes from the anticipated finish" (yes - some sources recommend 45 minutes for brown rice)

But now ... it might take only 20 minutes to simmer the beans; they'd be too soft by the time the brown rice was cooked.

random beanery:
Once I added a little chopped celery at the beginning and then near the end; that was good; oregano too; simmered beans = bean soup with most of the water gone

If you want a pleasant mooshy-ness between the beans (?) - throw in some ground flax or chia.

 

[srvy]

I love making boracho beans in the instapot. This gal here I make many Mexican dishes using her methods its quick and easy and they are delicious.

 

[boris bubbanov]

Pretty much any sort of smoked meat works well with any kind of beans; liquid smoke can be a great help with vegetarian bean dishes (or non vegetarian,, for the matter of that), though it's not the whole answer. Umami ("savoriness") is currently a trendy concept among cooks, and there are a lot of things being used (overused) to promote it- fish sauce, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, anchovies, mushroom powder etc.

ps- I tried a slow cooker for a while, didn't like it and gave it away, but Insta Pots, or other pressure cookers, are a great boon to bean fanciers.

Maybe I'm The Dissenter, but I never added salt pork or whatever to the pot for the flavor really. To me, this is really about texture. I add plenty of spices and soy sauce and what have you for flavor, but if I leave out the animal fat, I get a texture that's just not luxuriant like it is supposed to be. I'd venture to say, that what differentiates White and Red Beans and Split Peas (and so on) from a bunch of "loser" beans like Crowders and Field Peas and Black Eyed Peas, is their texture even if you add 10% pork fat. They just don't go down the gullet the same way - wrong mouth feel.

 

[oldunc]

Maybe I'm The Dissenter, but I never added salt pork or whatever to the pot for the flavor really. To me, this is really about texture. I add plenty of spices and soy sauce and what have you for flavor, but if I leave out the animal fat, I get a texture that's just not luxuriant like it is supposed to be. I'd venture to say, that what differentiates White and Red Beans and Split Peas (and so on) from a bunch of "loser" beans like Crowders and Field Peas and Black Eyed Peas, is their texture even if you add 10% pork fat. They just don't go down the gullet the same way - wrong mouth feel.

You're far from alone; fat craving is a major selling point throughout the food industry; French cuisine is built largely on finding clever ways to include more fat in dishes. However, it is not the only source of the sort of mouth feel (known in the industry as "luxurious", though I tend to see it more as slimy) that you want. There are many substances, mostly sorts of jelly that bind water molecules to them, that are used. One is aquafaba; Latin for "bean water", which is produced when beans are cooked in water (how about that). Gelatin, produced when the colagens that bind meat together break down, mostly through long cooking- think pot roast, various pulled pork dishes etc., is a major one. It is becoming popular to add commercial gelatin to various dishes for this purpose. New Orleans cuisine is particularly rich in these substances- the ubiquitous roux, file, okra, and the hambone that is so essential in Red Beans and Rice, all contribute this sort of feel. Commercially, things like guar gum and xanthan gum are much used.
Speaking of RB&R, it is one of the great bean dishes of the world; it is basically a (smoked) ham dish, often including smoked sausages, bacon etc. Other great dishes depending on smoked meats- Brazilian feijoada, a black bean stew that may include a dozen or more smoked meats; it's the national dish. French cassoulet is another; there are plenty more, but names aren't coming to mind; I'm not really a bean scholar.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

Nightclub Dwight - Are the Vaquero beans you grew from seed the exact same item from Rancho Gordo as the Vaquero beans they sell by the pound?

I always wonder if peas or beans etc., from the kitchen cupboard would sprout. I accidentally found out quinoa WOULD sprout - on the rim of the garbage dispose-all, underneath the surface of the sink

I previously HAD been simmering beans in a very generous extra amount of water - thinking, "even out the temperature throughout the pot" "let no bean go un-simmered!"

and thinking "if the simmering left way too much water I would throw in a handful of brown rice 30 minutes from the anticipated finish" (yes - some sources recommend 45 minutes for brown rice)

But now ... it might take only 20 minutes to simmer the beans; they'd be too soft by the time the brown rice was cooked.

random beanery:
Once I added a little chopped celery at the beginning and then near the end; that was good; oregano too; simmered beans = bean soup with most of the water gone

If you want a pleasant mooshy-ness between the beans (?) - throw in some ground flax or chia.

Yes, the Vaquero beans were from same batch of "eating" beans I got from Rancho Gordo. My friend gave me the idea. She saves even regular beans from the grocery store and grows them. My partner always gets me 3 or 4 different beans from Rancho Gordo for Christmas, and I always save 10 or 20 to plant. At this point I have determined that those Vaquero beans are the ones I like the most, so I plan on growing a ton of them each year.