Colder weather, time for some beans!

[LoboGunLeather]

Made a pot of ham and beans the other day. As usual, I don't start with a recipe, just do what sounds good. This one worked very nicely!

Ingredients:
2 lbs. dry great northern beans
2 lbs. chopped ham
1 qt. chicken stock
1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes
3 stalks fresh celery, chopped
1 onion, diced
1 teaspoon dried minced garlic
1 tablespoon Lowry's seasoned salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation:
1. Soak beans overnight, drain and rinse, transfer to large crock pot
2. Boil ham bone 1 hour on low boil, strip off residual ham, transfer broth to crock pot, throw bone in trash (or give to the dog)
3. Add chicken stock to crock pot, add water to cover beans plus 1"
4. Crock pot on high setting for 4 hours
5. Add chopped ham, onion, celery, spices, and diced tomatoes, reduce heat to low for 2 hours.

Ready to serve! Makes 5.5 quarts (about 24 servings). Leftovers can be frozen and reheated anytime you feel like another bowl of beans.

Caught the smoked ham shanks on sale for $0.87 per lb, so this used $1.74 worth plus the bone. Beans were $0.89 per lb, so $1.76. Chicken stock $2.29. Onion about $0.20. Celery about $0.25. Diced tomatoes $0.89. Spices total maybe $0.20. So about $7.35 total, or about $0.30 per serving.

Nothing better on a cold winter day, guaranteed!

 

[LoboGunLeather]

By the way, I freeze my beans in 1-quart resealable containers. These are great for hunting, camping, or fishing trips, just put the frozen containers in the cooler where they will supplement your ice for a couple of days and still be good for several days when reheated to serving temperature.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Pinto beans and ham served with fried taters, green onions, skillet cornbread and hot sauce.

We're talking last meal territory, here.

 

[Muley Gil]

Here in the southern Appalachians, pinto beans were a staple food and not just during the Depression. Hog jowls were the preferred meat additive. Unless the mountaineer had been able to slaughter his own hog, jowls were easier to come by.

We still have bean suppers at churches, Ruritan clubs and other local gatherings.

 

[lkabug]

When I was a kid in Southern West Virginia, Pinto Beans and cornbread were a
big-time dinner. Hog jowls added to the pot was an even bigger event. As a kid I thought we had pinto beans so often because everyone liked them so much. I still have fond memories when I smell pinto beans cooking.

 

[Bakebfr480]

I live in Texas and I hate beans.........especially pinto. I like black eyed peas though!

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I love all beans and peas.
I cook Pintos pound at a time in a slow cooker and freeze them in pint containers.
King of the Pea, Guarantee?
It's the Purple Hull.
The Bush Boys can them.
They're hard to find in NM, when they are stocked look on the lowest shelf!

 

[Rustyt1953]

My bean story:

When my dad was 6 his father abandoned him along with his 4 brothers and their mother. They had a small dirt farm in Bracken County KY.

Early every morning his mom would make ham, bacon, eggs, grits and biscuits to fill her boys up for school (for the young ones) and a day of labor for the older ones.

She would keep a big pot of pinto beans on the wood stove and pans of biscuits on the table for the boys to eat the rest of the day.

Dad said one of the reasons he joined the Army in '44 was to escape pinto beans. Years later he taught my mom to make them as dad was starting to get his taste back for them and also to remind him of how strong his mother was and how she sacrificed to keep her family together and make it a home.

We have them twice a month and retell the story behind them. I'm sure by now that the grandkids are weary of hearing it but they have learned to like pintos.

Dad and Great Grandma would be pleased.
.

 

[VictorLouis]

I certainly do enjoy my legumes, also. For those of you who have not yet owned or experienced a pressure-cooker, beans alone are a great reason to buy one.. Without the pre-soak,, prep-to-done in 90mins or less, depending on the variety. Pintos are like 45mins, depending on the consistency you want. Lentils and green peas for pea soup are like 20mins! I cook my rice in it, too, without any messy startch boil-over or purging like some rice-cookers allow for. Rendering stock from bones like the shank, or a chicken carcass...wonderful.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Cooked a ham about a week ago.

Still working on the container of white Northern's with ham.....
and yes,

corn bread for this Yankee boy.

 

[vonn]

Beans of any type,cornbread crumbled up in them with chopped onion or green onions and I am good to go. Cornbread with butter and grape jelly to finish me off. When you come from a big family you learn to like them or go hungry. Used to get jowl bacon when I was a kid but haven't seen any of that for years.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

My bean story:

When my dad was 6 his father abandoned him along with his 4 brothers and their mother. They had a small dirt farm in Bracken County KY.

Early every morning his mom would make ham, bacon, eggs, grits and biscuits to fill her boys up for school (for the young ones) and a day of labor for the older ones.

She would keep a big pot of pinto beans on the wood stove and pans of biscuits on the table for the boys to eat the rest of the day.

Dad said one of the reasons he joined the Army in '44 was to escape pinto beans. Years later he taught my mom to make them as dad was starting to get his taste back for them and also to remind him of how strong his mother was and how she sacrificed to keep her family together and make it a home.

We have them twice a month and retell the story behind them. I'm sure by now that the grandkids are weary of hearing it but they have learned to like pintos.

Dad and Great Grandma would be pleased.
.

We had pintos and butter beans with cornbread back in the day because that was all my Mother could afford. (Chicken on Sunday) I still love them today with some of Grandpa Jones "fried taters."

On a somewhat related subject. My precious Mother would put 2 homemade biscuits with store bought apple jelly in them in a paper bag for lunch for me. I ate those things until I just could not stand apple jelly. It's still not my favorite but I can eat it.

Precious memories.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[LoboGunLeather]

Bowing to popular preferences I will acknowledge that pintos, Anasazi beans, red beans, baby limas, or other fine beans can be substituted as personal tastes dictate.

 

[walkinghorse]

Friday night was pinto beans with ham bones, corn bread, and jello with grated cheese.
Some catsup and chopped onion in the bowl of beans made it perfect. Very filling for a growing boy, and my Dad was happy after a long day on a construction site!

Did not know about other beans until I married. Wife's favorite is navy beans cooked with ham bones, so we alternate.
Guess difference between a New Mexico boy, and a California girl?

 

[LoboGunLeather]

I live in Texas and I hate beans.........especially pinto. I like black eyed peas though!

Black eyed peas are also known as "designer beans". Nothing wrong with them!

 

[Mule Packer]

That recipe is almost identical to the recipe our old ranch cook, Andre Culbertson, would whip up years ago when I was "playing cowboy." About the only difference is that Andre would add "jes' about a tablespoon of brown sugar durin' the last two hours...not for sweetin', but fer flavor."

I still remember coming in around two o'clock in the afternoon from the fall gather after being in the saddle since six in the morning. My stomach was practically rubbing up against my back bone. We'd all put up our horses that we had used that morning and go inside to the big kitchen.

There'd be that large pot of ham hocks and beans simmering away on the stove, and Andre would pull out a couple of big pans of hot corn bread from the oven of the old Wolf range.

Golly. I can still remember how delicious everything smelled...and tasted...to a hungry young man. Those are definitely meals to savor...and they'd sure stick to your ribs Quite a few of those old boys I worked with back then are dead and gone, but the memories of the times and meals we shared will last a lifetime.

 

[Usmc5811]

I like my beans with cornbread, raw onion, and spicy chow chow. Nothing makes them beans better then some chow chow heaped on top. Well maybe a little tobasco too.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I'm not fond of great northerns, but pintos and blackeyed peas are the stuff dreams are made of. Cornbread goes with both. Pork, ham, or (my preference) bacon cooked with them is a must along with chopped jalapenos and onions, a dash of salt, and some chile powder for pintos, but not for blackeyes. I also like to dump a can of diced tomatoes in with pintos.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Chow Chow?
My Mother used to make it.
Haven't had it or even thought about it in a long time.
A quick online search of the usual suspects reveal that my best bet is Cracker Barrel.
The next time I eat lunch there I will get some.
Red or Green?
My Mother made both.
I don't actually remember which one I likes best.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

Ya'll are making me mighty hungry!

Have a blessed day,

Leon