Ranch-Style Pinto Beans
Pintos simmered in stock, not water, with dried chiles and enough salt. Barbecue without beans is a plate missing something.
- Serves
- 8
- Total
- 2 to 2½ hours, mostly unattended
Beans belong beside barbecue in Texas and I won't be arguing about it. These are simmered low with bacon, onion and chile until the beans are soft and the liquid has turned into something you'd eat with a spoon.
Two things decide whether these are good, and both are things people skimp on.
Stock, not water, and a spoon of Better Than Bouillon on top of it. Beans have very little flavor of their own; everything they taste of comes from what they cooked in. Water gives you beans that taste like beans, which is not the compliment it sounds like.
Salt, and more of it than you think. Undersalted beans taste like nothing and no amount of chile fixes it. Salt at the end, taste, then salt again.
No soaking. It costs you an extra half hour of simmering and gives you better texture, because the beans cook and break down at their own pace instead of arriving pre-softened.
In a pressure cooker
Same ingredients, same order for the bacon and aromatics. Then 35 to 40 minutes at high pressure with a natural release. The liquid won't reduce, so expect it looser: either simmer it down with the lid off afterwards, or mash a cup of the beans back in.
If it's not right
- Beans still hard after three hours: old beans, or hard water. Nothing fixes old beans.
- Thin and watery: cook uncovered longer, or mash some of the beans back in.
- Flat: salt. Then more salt. Then acid, a splash of vinegar at the end. Undersalting is the single most common thing wrong with a pot of beans.
Ingredients
Method
-
Rinse the beans and pick out any stones.
-
Render the bacon in a heavy pot over medium heat. If you're using a hock, brown it and leave it in.
-
Onion into the fat until soft, about 8 minutes. Then the garlic, jalapeño, cumin and chili powder for a minute.
-
Beans, bay leaf, the dried chiles and the stock. Stir in the bouillon. Bring to a boil, then down to the barest simmer.
-
Cook 2 to 2½ hours, uncovered, topping up with hot water if they go dry. They're done when a bean crushes easily against the roof of your mouth.
-
Salt at the end. Taste, salt again, taste again. This is the step that decides the pot.
-
Fish out the chiles and the bay leaf, or leave them and warn people.
Comments (0)
No comments yet.
Sign in to rate this, mark it made, or leave a comment.