low and slow way to go with dried beans.

I received some Anasazi beans, and a bean soup mix with the said beans,(Thanks, rouxdog!)and i will be cooking one or both this weekend.Frankly, I could live on beans…I always do my beans in a crockpot-I never presoak or cook.Always turn out great…

Michael,
Working to keep our western heritage alive is an absolute pleasure, blessed to be a small part.
I believe each of us should work hard to keep alive the sweat,tears and joys of our forefathers.
We are all very fortunate.

quote:

Originally posted by rouxdog

Michael, we respectfully consider our Chuckwagon a slice of western history. She’s cared for, has her own safe storage space and we gather to care for the Circle Diamond Chuckwagon on a regular basis. We gather from a range of more tha 100 miles. OH, we always make time for fun and fellowship, thats important.

Maintaining a Western heritage that way is a wonderful thing to do.

Jim, "distilled" bottled water, not the foo foo french fancy drinking water. I to understand that perhaps the gas problem with beans is associated with lack of food fiber consumption. I enjoy fibrous foods and have no problems with beans. The fish cakes sound wonderful.

I do the quick soak method here at home, works well. At Chuckwagon Cookoffs, where we serve a minimum of 50 folks at high noon, early prep.(night before)is helpful.We soak the beans, cut up the Taters, slice and pound the daylight out of the big tough hunk of beef(for chicken fried steaks), soak the dried fruit which will become a cobbler,a little whisky makes a nice touch. Folks seem to like it.
Please remember, we only use items and equipment available more than 100 years ago on a cattle drive.

I don’t soak but do salt my beans. I do rince them as everyone should and pick out the bad ones. My guess about the gas problem may be the fact that some people don’t consume enough fiber and beans are loaded with fiber, therefor causing the gas problem.
I’ve had problems at times with hard beans, chalked it up to old age. I’ll have to take a look at the water problem, my water is pretty hard here. Homemade fish cakes and baked beans are planned for my Fri. evevening dinner this week, I may try bottled water. Chow Jim

Folks here are right, as usual. Old beans can also result in a hard product. You’d probably know if the beans are old by the taste, as well, though and since Gregg started with both pintos and split peas and had the same result with each I guessed it was something in the cooking rather than the beans (unless he’s buying his beans at an antique shop).

Gregg, in most of New England our water is "soft" and you’d probably know it if your’s is hard (i.e. friends in the Rockies have told me they must use fabric softener in their wash to rinse out the detergent). If you’re on a municipal system I highly doubt your water’s hard, but some New Englanders, particularly in the mountains, have hard well water. If you don’t like drinking the water, don’t use if for cooking. A Brita-type filter should be sufficient to filter out minerals in our area, if you want to try that.

BTW – I agree with faboulousoyster on the quick-soak method. I’ve had a couple of unfortunate experiences with long soaks during the summer and ended up with the beginnings of bean wine. It’s not a taste treat. [xx(]

ADD. – I’ve always understood that the gas effect is the result of sugars that most people of European descent don’t produce an enzyme to digest. The first rule to combat it I know of is to throw out the soaking liquid (although I won’t do that with peas).

I quick soak my beans (red kidney, black, pinto, cranberry):
Boil up a large pot of water
Add beans, continue to boil for 2 minutes.
Take off heat, cover, set aside for 1 hour.
Drain that water and now you can use your beans for cooking, usually I cook pintos and black beans in a recipe for 1.5 to 2 hours more.

I like the boil, cover, and change water after an hour method better than the soaking overnight method. And celery in Pintos, no way[|)]
2 ham hocks to 2 pounds of beans also[:o)]

I recently watched an episode of Good Eats about dried beans.Here is the transcript. Very informative.

Here is cooking directions Rancho Gordo.

Here is a bean discussion from eGullet that includes comments by the Rancho Gordo guy.

It seems "bean freshness" is very important. pb

I have no idea whatsoever.

Capt., How do you know the true age of dried beans. I’m serious.

I can attest to that from first hand experience. I bought a 10 pound sack of pintos in 2005 and after two dry as a bone 110+ degree Fontana summers in the pantry I couldn’t get those suckers to swell and soften for a batch of chili a few months ago for love nor money.

Michael, we respectfully consider our Chuckwagon a slice of western history. She’s cared for, has her own safe storage space and we gather to care for the Circle Diamond Chuckwagon on a regular basis. We gather from a range of more tha 100 miles. OH, we always make time for fun and fellowship, thats important.