Pinto Beans - how do you cook 'em?

[chellt]

About to attempt my first batch of pinto beans since college. That batch ended up in the backyard.

I want to use my slowcooker and would rather not add any kind of meat...

What are the best seasonings?

 

[Wishing on a star]

Southern Girl here...

You do not have to have meat in your pinto beans!

But, they also are not 'seasoned' like a soup.

Here is what I do.
First, soak your fresh beans in a pot of cold water for a few hours....
They will soak this up and soften up, and be 'pre-cooked'!

Rinse well.
This gets rid of the dark (bitter) residue that is on the coloring on the skin of the beans. You don't need that.

Slow cook...
You do not want to try to cook beans too fast.
A slow cooker would probably work really well.. But to actually simmer, you might need the higher setting? I cook them on the stove-top, and it is too easy to find them coming to a boil. You don't want/need them to actually be boiling. Just a simmer....

Okay,
After they have been cooking.. add plenty of salt. Yes, do not spare the salt. This is where you will really bring out the flavor. You could also add a bit of vegetable oil with the salt when they start getting done, just to add that component.

I can give you some tips on making a great southern cornbread (NO sugar please!) to that is just awesome out of the oven with a huge pat of butter... or crumbled over you bowl of beans.

Okay, it is spring, but you have me wanting to go get some beans and get my soup-pot and my cast iron skillet out!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Wishing on a star is absolutely right. Pintos just need salt. But, if you want you can use the same seasoning that you use in chili to season pintos. Personally, I just like some salt and bacon in mine (or just salt if no bacon).

And with cornbread? Oh MY! Yum!

 

[Goofyluver]

About to attempt my first batch of pinto beans since college. That batch ended up in the backyard.

I want to use my slowcooker and would rather not add any kind of meat...

What are the best seasonings?

You don't have to use meat, although it's my preference.

I have used my slowcooker to make mine as well. Doesn't require any pre-soaking.

You have to de-fart the beans (sorry, that's what it's called ). Pull out any broken or misshapen or discolored beans.

Add them to your slowcooker with a quartered onion, a few garlic cloves, a few jalapenos, LOTS of salt (but you should taste as you go along), pepper, and Mexican oregano. Put in enough water to cover the beans by an inch, adding water as needed.

You can replace some of the water with beer.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Trust me, your beans will be MUCH better pre-soaked and washed.

You will also want way more than one inch of water over your beans.

Enjoy!

 

[Goofyluver]

Trust me, your beans will be MUCH better pre-soaked and washed.

You will also want way more than one inch of water over your beans.

Enjoy!

If you're doing them in the crockpot, you don't HAVE to. That adds cooking time.

Monitoring your water is a way of ensuring you get beans, not soup.

Either way, beans are hard to mess up! Hope yours are great, OP!

 

[minkydog]

I make dry beans in my crockpot about once a week. DD18 is vegetarian so when she is around I dont' use meat or meat broths.

Tonight: Sort beans and throw out any deformed beans and look for the "lucky rock"--there is nearly always a little rock or two in the bag. Soak beans overnight in cold water.

Next morning: drain beans and put them in your crockpot. Add 3 cans of vegetable broth, more if you like it soupy. Cook on low for umpteen hours or until you get home from work. I dont' even add salt until I'm ready to serve because the broth has salt in it. Serve pinto beans over hot rice. Refrigerate leftovers--the pintos will even better the following day!

 

[AlwaysMoving]

The trick is not to use too much water. Let it cook down to a gravy. Fantastic over rice. Like the others say, it will need plenty of salt. I presoak mine for about an hour, then put in crock pot for about 7 hours. Perfection.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Oh, just thought of something!

There are two "cheat" method for beans if you don't want to or can't pre-soak them. The first one is to boil the beans for one hour then slow cook them them as normal. The second is to use a heavy skillet, and cook them in crisco, stirring constantly until they get all wrinkly, then cook as normal. (If you want to do fancy beans, plop in some some onion, garlic, bell pepper etc, when cooking in crisco.)

This works with all dry beans, btw. It's been a great help to me over the years!

 

[disneydreamertoo]

I don't know if you have access to this brand but in Texas the "cleanest" (I have never found a rock in this brand) is the CASSEROLE brand. If you can't find that brand, you will need to be sure you inspect them very carefully and cull out those rocks.

I NEVER soak my beans and they come out fine on a low setting in the crockpot. I fill the crock pot up to the brim with cold water then add salt. I do this in the morning and when I come home from work, I taste the "soup" and add salt as necessary.

If the beans are old and they don't cook nice and rosy I add a HUNTS tomato sauce can to them--helps with the appearance and taste. YUMM!

As you can see, I'm BRAND loyal!

 

[2disneyboys]

Gawd....I am so hungry right now! Wish I had read this BEFORE I wentto the store today.... Now I'm gonna have to run by the store tomorrow

 

[chellt]

Thanks for all the advice! I love the DIS! Here's how i cooked em'. THey were super yummy! I just wish the juice would have been a little thicker...And they were falling apart, guess I cooked a little too long....Any suggestions?

Soaked for about 5 hours. Sorted and rinsed. Added to crockpot. Added a quarted onion, 4 cloves of garlic, and a can of rotel. Cooked overnight.
About an hour before they were done I added a package of turkey summer sausage and a bag of frozen okra..... Salt and pepper..... YUMMY!!!

 

[Wishing on a star]

Sounds like you really loved your Pinto Bean recipe this time!


About the thicker juices....
I think in a crock pot, it is like a contained system, and you aren't losing much water to steam and evaporation... I never have that problem on the stove top..

You could add less liquid.
Maybe cook at a higher temp, if you weren't at the highest...
And at the end 'vent' and stir them a little ever so often????
Maybe that would do the trick??

Glad you loved your beans!

I am not much for the Tex-Mex, Rotel, thing with mine....
Strictly a beans-n-cornbread southern girl
But it sounds wonderful!

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

For those who do like meat in theirs, I cook my beans with garlic, onion, New Mexico or Anaheim green chiles (I roast them first & take off the skin, & remove the seeds). I also throw in salt pork (not sliced). When the beans are done cooking I remove the fat from the salt pork and shred the meat and put it in the beans (you can remove the meat if you wish). With the salt pork I don't need to add any additional salt.

I only cook on the stove, so I fill up the pan with water at first. They always come out so yummy.

I'm going to try the crockpot method.

 

[dngnb8]

About to attempt my first batch of pinto beans since college. That batch ended up in the backyard.

I want to use my slowcooker and would rather not add any kind of meat...

What are the best seasonings?

First

are these pretreated (soaked). They should soak overnight. And if you can, change the water a couple times.

If not, I usually cook them in chicken broth. with


1 TBS Chili Powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp pepper (I use Cayenne but black is good too)
You can add additional salt to taste but remember, Garlic Salt is a salt.

stir and slow cook.

 

[debknight]

You don't have to use meat, although it's my preference.

I have used my slowcooker to make mine as well. Doesn't require any pre-soaking.

You have to de-fart the beans (sorry, that's what it's called ). Pull out any broken or misshapen or discolored beans.

Add them to your slowcooker with a quartered onion, a few garlic cloves, a few jalapenos, LOTS of salt (but you should taste as you go along), pepper, and Mexican oregano. Put in enough water to cover the beans by an inch, adding water as needed.

You can replace some of the water with beer.

How do you "de-fart" the beans? Not by simply pulling out broken beans!?

 

[dngnb8]

How do you "de-fart" the beans? Not by simply pulling out broken beans!?

Pull the finger?

 

[Goofyluver]

How do you "de-fart" the beans? Not by simply pulling out broken beans!?

My itty bitty Mexican grandma taught us that bad beans are what gives you the toots.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Actually, this is another reason for soaking and rinsing the beans...

 

[Imzadi]

Actually, this is another reason for soaking and rinsing the beans...

Yes, I had always read that the de-farting process had to do with soaking beans and getting rid of that water. It takes out the farty starch or something.