Beans?

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by C.T.Horner, Oct 10, 2013.


  1. C.T.Horner

    C.T.Horner Monkey

    Been thinking a lot about beans lately. I post this here because it’s not a recipe so much as general knowledge that can go a long way. And for most of us beans are undoubtedly in our log term food storage.

    So the other day I’m watching a cooking show and the host who is a well known and respected chef, is making beans and warns the viewer not to salt your beans because it will make them tough.

    Then we come to today and it’s a bit cold and I decide to make some Northern bean soup. I missed breakfast, and was pretty hungry. I wasn’t planning on bean soup for lunch so I hadn’t soaked my beans. But I still wanted bean soup for lunch and I wanted it now. So I pulled a pound of dry beans from the cupboard and a chunk of frozen Virginia ham from the freezer.

    Less than an hour later I was sitting in front of the fireplace eating creamy bean soup with moist and tender chunks of salty Virginia ham.

    How’d I do it?

    Now if someone beats you to the answer, just check the agree box. If they left something out let us all know.

    Thanks for playing. CT.
     
  2. Sapper John

    Sapper John Analog Monkey in a Digital World

    Pressure cooker...
     
    VisuTrac and Airtime like this.
  3. C.T.Horner

    C.T.Horner Monkey

    Yes I used a pressure cooker, but how?

    Also how did I overcome the salt in the ham?

    And for a bonus question, The beans I used were 4 years beyond their expiration date, and tough as nails, how did I overcome that problem?
     
  4. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Cook them seperatly inside the pressure cooker ( two containers) then combine when finished cooking.
     
  5. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    erm, that's a problem? sounds like a soup with texture.
    nom nom nom
     
  6. C.T.Horner

    C.T.Horner Monkey

    I dumped the pound of beans in the pot and rinsed them off covered them with water and brought it up to high pressure for 5 minutes. While they were cooking I diced an onion and a carrot and browned them in a skillet with a generous amount of salt, when they were brown and caramelized, I threw in a diced celery stalk and a minced garlic clove and added pepper to taste. After 5 minutes I released the pressure, and rinsed the beans again filling the pot three inches above the beans and dumped in the veggies and the hunk of salted ham.

    Then I added a pinch of a secret ingredient.

    Brought it up to pressure and held it for 20 minutes and cut the heat and waited 10 minutes, opened the lid and stirred vigorously to let the beans mush up a bit to thicken and make for a creamy soup.

    First off salt has nothing to do with how tough a bean is. You can cook the same beans in two separate pots one with lots of salt and one with no salt and they would come out the same. Well not the same because the salty one would be tastier.
    A beans toughness comes from its age, the older the bean the tougher it gets.

    Once you understand this your halfway to solving the toughness problem.
     
  7. janjak

    janjak Monkey

    I dont know about solving the problem but that soup sounds dam good about now.
     
  8. Hanzo

    Hanzo Monkey+++

    I like beans. Delicious, nutritious. And after, you have methane for fuel. The, ugh, collection is the problem.
     
  9. marlas1too

    marlas1too Monkey+++

    love beans and eat them all the time and just before the beans are done I add some rice to them -mmmmmm very good
     
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7