Beans

Refried Beans
from the kitchen of Dawn VanNosdol

Soak and cook small red beans until very, very tender. Drain and while still hot, put in food processor or blender. Add a little water and process until desired consistency is achieved. Then add spices—these may include: garlic, onion, chili pwd., salt, dried green peppers, pepper, bacon fat or rendered ham fat, liquid smoke, or any others you like. All of the spices are optional.

Cook just long enough to blend spices together. This is all “make to taste.” You may use immediately or freeze.

*If beans are old, add ½ tsp. baking soda or more to your beans while you are soaking them. Rinse before cooking.

To cook old hard beans:

Wash and sort to remove any discolored beans or foreign material. For each cup of dry beans, add 2 ½ c hot tap water and 2 tsp. of baking soda and soak overnight. Drain and rinse two times. Then add water to cover. Cook until tender and soft, about two hours, adding more water as needed.

Adding a Tbsp. of oil will cut down on foam as beans cook. Stored beans should be rotated regularly. They continue to lose moisture and will not reconstitute satisfactorily if kept too long.

Cooking Beans
from the kitchen of Karen Wilcox

Soaking and cooking beans before mixing with other recipe ingredients helps to get the right tenderness and can minimize final cooking time.

Overnight Soaking:

For each 1 lb. beans, dissolve 2 tsp. salt in 6 c water. Wash beans, add to salted water, and soak overnight.

Quick Soaking:

For each 1 lb. beans, bring 8 c of water to boiling. Wash beans, add to boiling water, and boil for 2 min. Remove from heat, cover and soak 1 hour.

To cook soaked beans:

For each 1 lb dried beans, dissolve 2 tsp. salt in 6 c hot water; bring to boil. Add soaked beans. Boil, uncovered, adding water if needed to keep beans covered until tender. Yield: 6-7 cups.

To soak/cook beans in crock pot:

For small crock pot:
2 c beans. Fill the rest with water. Add 2 tsp. salt. Leave to cook all day (8 hrs.)

For large crock pot:
4 c beans. Fill the rest with water. Add 4 tsp. salt. Leave to cook all day (8 hrs.)