Pinto Bean Recipes

Necessity is often the "mother of invention" in cooking, as well as the other practicalities of life. Many years ago as a young wife, I found myself face to face with a 50 pound sack of pinto beans that had been given to my DH. I was ashamed to admit I had never seen, eaten or cooked a dry bean in my life before then, so without a cook book or mother nearby I knew that I was doomed. After much trial and error this recipe for "Sweet Country Beans" evolved. I hope that you will enjoy it too.

Mrs. Miles

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Pinto beans
Ham hock or ham bone (other available meats discussed below*)
Garlic to taste
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon iodized salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon marjoram or oregano, or to taste
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 pinch of rosemary, or more
to 1 cup Karo dark corn syrup
1, 8 oz. can tomato sauce (or 2 cans, if desired)
1 tablespoon olive or corn oil, if using dry or canned meat
3 tablespoons corn starch (optional method)

Rinse and sort 2 pounds of pinto beans using a large colander. Pour beans into a 5 quart stock pot or larger. Pour in cold water to 4 inches above the beans...they will swell overnight.

In the morning, pour off soaking water. Move the pot to the stove and fill a pitcher with cold water to cover the beans (Taking the water to the beans is easier than carrying a heavy pot of beans plus the water!)

Bring pot to a boil. Lower heat to a slow simmer. At this point I add a ham hock or ham or pork roast bone with some adhering meat.

Now add salt, garlic, black pepper, plus several pinches of Rosemary, and Marjoram or Oregano. Add crushed red pepper or chopped Jalapeno pepper (optional)...this amount is not hot, just flavorful. If a pepper lover, use more.

Stir in ingredients, bring pot to a bubbling simmer and cover. Simmer for hour.

Next, I add Karo dark corn syrup and tomato sauce (or paste), and olive or corn oil (if the meat used contains little or no fat).

Continue simmering for hour or until beans are tender, stirring as needed to prevent sticking.

Add water as needed. If there is too much liquid, remove pot lid during the last part of cooking. But a "pot watcher be" as liquid evaporates quickly left unattended!

At this time, I mix the corn starch with a cup of cold water, and dip a half cup of the hot pot liquor into the corn starch mixture. Blend quickly and stir into the pot. This thickens the pot liquid into a sauce instead of a splashy juice.

The pinto's are now cooked and ready for a healthful meal. Beans are a "half protein," so served with a small amount of meat, cheese or milk they become a full protein source.

* Use any left over ham parts, including rinds, scrape excess fat from ham rind pieces and put them in with the beans. The rind will soften with cooking, adds flavor and is also edible.

Helpful hint: Instead of a cooking spoon, use a large size spatula, as its shape alone will scrape the bottom of the pot while stirring...more efficient to prevent sticking, which leads to scorched foods. An old friend once taught me this method to prevent scorching when cooking large pots of food or in jelly making.

"OTHER" CANNED MEATS TO STRENGTHEN PINTO RECIPES

A message from Mrs. Miles.

Other canned meats will work very will in the Pinto Bean recipes, should there be food shortages.

The very best "meat" that you will have stored away will be your Hamburger Rocks! Next, I would suggest the 16 ounce cans of cooked ham. I buy a brand named "Festival," product of Holland*, for $1.99 at discount stores. Given the low price, I have been able to purchase a quantity of these to use when necessary for a quick meal. I have squirreled away a good amount, as I will also be cooking for grandchildren in times of privation.

Canned corned beef* is a good buy these days. I use it happily in several recipes, or "as is" for delicious sandwiches. Corned beef will give protein to your bean pot. It is priced on sale at $1.50 per can, or $2.00 at regular prices.

Spam, or store brand generic "luncheon meat*," will give flavor and strength to a pinto bean meal. The "Brand X" types I have been finding for $1.00 to $1.50 each. How much longer these excellent canned meats will be easily obtainable at such a low cost is doubtful, as any series of disastrous weather events occurring now and predicted in the near future could cause dramatic food price increases, leading to rationing or unstocked shelves.

I urge all of you to fill your pantry's now while the processed food items are affordable. Once the cans are dipped in melted wax, they will keep in your homes under your control for years if necessary.

* Canned hams or luncheon meat from Holland, Denmark or Poland are excellent quality products. Canned corned beef from Brazil is also excellent. The food laws in those countries are far stricter than in the U.S., so there are no additives or preservatives in the meat, no hormones or antibiotics used in the animal feed, etc. In fact, those countries will not allow the importation of American meat products, which they consider tainted!

PINTO BEAN CHILI

Ingredients:

4 cups pinto beans
2 cups "Hamburger Rocks"
5 slices bacon (or canned ham or Spam)
1 large onion, chopped
Salt to taste
2 cups, (16 oz) canned tomatoes
or two 8 oz. cans of tomato sauce.
3 tablespoons chile powder, or to suit taste
1 tablespoon cumin seed or ground cumin (optional)
1 teaspoon oregano, chopped parsley or Mexican parsley
Hot green chili, chopped and sauteed with onion (optional)

Directions:

Soak 4 cups of beans overnight; drain beans in the morning, just cover with fresh water, and cook slowly until almost tender. Remove from heat and set aside.

Pour boiling water over 2 cups of "Hamburger Rocks" to rehydrate. Set aside.

Fry 5 slices of bacon in large frying pan, remove bacon, and saute` chopped onion in the drippings until tender.

(Optional: use 2 tablespoons corn oil or slices or chunks of canned ham or spam.)

Drain "Hamburger Rocks" and pour into mixture. Chop bacon or ham and return to pan. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer until well blended, about one half hour. This make 6 to 10 servings.

This chili mixture may be served over hot cooked rice. Add cheese if you like for a nutritious meal.

For seasonings, you might like to stock up on "Grandma's Chili Seasoning" packages, available now at grocery stores in the "instant gravy" section, often 2 for $1.00.

HONEY BAKES BEANS

Ingredients:

Soak 2 cups pinto beans overnight, drain water off
to 1 pound salt pork (bacon or ham), sliced or chopped.
1 large onion, chopped
3 fresh garlic cloves, crushed (or use granulated garlic)
1 cup pure honey
2 teaspoons dry mustard
3 tablespoons ground ginger (or fresh ginger root)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Cover soaked beans with 3 quarts fresh water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat, simmering until beans are tender, 35 to 45 minutes. Drain the beans into colander placed over sauce pan to save the cooking liquid. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Put the beans in a large baking pan, or in a 5 quart deep casserole with a lid, and mix with the salt pork, onion and garlic. Measure 2 cups of the saved cooking liquid, stirring in the honey, mustard, ground ginger, salt and pepper.

Pour the liquid over the beans. Stir and cover. Bake for 2 hours. If using a baking pan, cover with foil.

I like to remove the lid and stir beans every once in a while. The aroma is wonderful.

If you are "powerless" the casserole can be baked in a camp oven over a kerosene cooker, or in a solar oven.

I have made "baked" beans on top of a wood stove in a heavy cast iron covered kettle with trivet legs, so the temperature was low enough for gentle cooking. Just stir often and add more liquid as necessary to keep from scorching bottom of pot.

HEALTHY PINTO BEANS - and PEOPLE

About 20 years ago, someone noticed that the people in one remote village (A) on the East coast of Mexico were very healthy, yet the people in another remote village (B) about 70 miles away were not healthy. Their diets were virtually identical: a little fish, their home grown beans, some corn, and a few vegetables. The soil conditions and water available for gardening were virtually identical, and the villagers used similar clay crocks or jugs for storing their harvests.

Another obvious difference between the two villages was that the first one was able to store beans from one harvest to the next, but the poorer villagers often ran out of stored beans, as bean weevils destroyed their dried beans.

The people in village A were healthy and industrious, their children full of energy, with strong limbs and teeth, ran to their tasks and games as healthy children do. Meanwhile, in village B, the people were listless, did less work, and the children all had symptoms of rickets and scurvy.

So what could make such a tremendous difference in the health of people in two neighboring villages? After considerable study, it turned out there were two things the people of the distant villages were doing differently.

In village A, a watchful villager had noticed that bean weevils had to brace themselves against one bean in order to gnaw through the hard outer shell of another bean. So they only filled their storage crocks three-fourths full, and once a month would shake them. The shaking of the beans would by itself kill the been weevil larvae, and thus their beans would remain unharmed in storage.

Again, in village A, persons long before had noticed that beans were hard to digest, which meant that all of the food value was not being extracted from them. So they added a teaspoon full of wood ashes (lye) to the soaking water for their beans, then rinsed the beans and discarded the soaking water before cooking. The lye altered the state of the lysine in the beans, so the available amino acids were much more readily assimilated by the human digestive tract. It worked: they were healthy.

You are wondering if the researchers took those lessons from Village A back to Village B, and everything turned out just fine, like in a fairy tale, right? Well, they tried, but the B villagers said they had been growing and saving beans for years, they knew what they were doing, and something as simple as shaking their beans was dumb, and they weren't going to put any wood ashes in their beans. Sounds like the tale of the ant and the grasshopper to me!

DIGESTION OF LEGUMES

Some people have a problem digesting beans, claiming bloating or flatulence. Cooking the beans in the soaking water can be responsible for this annoyance.

A very few individuals have a sensitivity to all legumes: beans, peas, lentils, garbanzo beans, etc, causing diarrhea. They should not eat any legumes, including bean sprouts, soy oil or products containing soy proteins. The symptoms are almost instant diarrhea, or a slight episode after ingesting a small amount of soy oil, flour, or "textured" soy protein from a "packaged," ready to cook box of prepared food. Frozen TV dinners almost always contain soy oil. Virtually all mayonnaise is made from soy oil. So "let the buyer read the ingredients" - carefully!

A simple reason for "normal" symptoms of "gas" after eating a meal of beans is the following: some persons who seldom eat dry beans in their meals may feel the temporary effects of an overload of B vitamins. Legumes are a rich source of the B complex family. The unwanted symptoms will quickly disappear once beans are a part of the regular diet.

PREPARATIONS

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