The Once and Future Beans

[navychop]

Watched Alton Brown's show on Food Network and he covered his baked beans. The title of this thread is the official name of the recipe. Besides the beans recipe, he dispelled some myths I believed about beans, such as throwing away the soaking water. You don't have to. Although his doubts about Epazote I found unbelievable. It works for me, and has allowed me to continue to eat large portions of beans without agony later.

Back to the topic. I regularly cook Red Beans, and occasionally other types. He made these sound REALLY good, so I tried the recipe out.

They turned out great! The recipe is here. They're so good, I thought I'd have to share them here.

I'd only caution that you need to soak them in enough water to allow for the beans to swell to twice their size. The recipe seems to imply an insufficient amount of soaking water. And I cut back on the cayenne pepper. And I cooked them the full 8 hours. Next time, I might increase the water a bit and cook them a bit longer.

Is anybody else making these beans? If anyone else tries this recipe, please report back here your results.

 

[Tom in TX]

Sounds delicious, I'll have to give it a try!
What would you serve this with? Have them as a "side" or, the main course?
Tom in TX

 

[navychop]

Side. Actually had a late, light supper tonight and put them next to scrambled eggs!

Anywhere you'd use pork 'n beans. Which for me, is next to anything whatsoever. :


If you google "The Once and Future Beans" you'll get 2,450,000 hits! They seem to be rather popular.

Some have tried cooking them in crock pots (I'd guess on high - MUST get a boil) successfully. Some cut the bacon in half (obviously these people are sadly deranged ), some use the full (tiny) can of tomato paste so as not to waste it. Lot's of variations. Some drop the Jalapenos. Don't. They really don't add heat, just flavor. Assuming you remove the seeds and membranes. For those that like it hot- well, you know what to do!

I really can't emphasize enough how good these beans are- they are well worth the time. It's really a simple recipe, just takes a long time in the oven, and the overnight soaking beforehand.

 

[starman345]

These sound great, I love beans but have never tried this recipe. I'll show my ignorance here and ask if red beans is another name for red kidney beans? We have those around here but I can't say I've seen beans that go by "red beans"

 

[navychop]

Yes, red kidney beans. There are some small beans sold as red beans also, but yes, I meant the red kidney beans. I prefer to use Camillia brand. Follow their recipe on the back, as a start, but double all the ingredients per pound of beans.

 

[starman345]

Thanks, I'm going to try this.

 

[starman345]

Well, today was the day. The beans were very good, but hot and just a touch tough. I stuck to the recipe except for bacon. 1/2 pound I left in strips and laid out on the bottom of the pot, the other 1/2 pound was chopped up and thrown in. Before putting the beans in the oven I fished out the 1/2 pound of strips-since they had already rendered their fat. I just couln't bring myself to put all that artery clogger in the beans.
The flavour was great, next time I will try 1 pepper instead of 2 and maybe cut the cayenne pepper a bit. Also, instead of just bringing the mixture to a boil and then putting into the oven, I think I will boil for 5-8 minutes to soften them a bit, then into the oven for 8 hours. I had them in there 7 hours today, I think 8 might have softened them a bit more.
Can't wait to try them again tomorrow and see how they "age".
Thanks Navychop, these were well worth trying, I will bake them again. BTW, they were well received by my better half.....and she is picky.

 

[navychop]

Good. And I, for one, did not have any gaseous side effects, oddly enough for me.

 

[starman345]

Good. And I, for one, did not have any gaseous side effects, oddly enough for me.

Sorry, can't say the same here

 

[kenny911]

I tried these beans and they came out very dry and I had them in for less than 6 hours. It seems you need to add more than 4 cups of liquid.

 

[starman345]

You need to add water as needed while they are cooking. I never measure water when cooking beans, I always start out with enough to cover all the beans and as they cook I try to keep the level high enough so all the beans are in water.