Canned Beans vs Dry Beans

[Suvir Saran]

I find most canned beans to be infinitely preferable to the dried.

Any difference in taste is minimal and the convenience factor is immeasurably better

I always keep a stock of canned beans in the larder as they can be used in a million and one different ways

S

Words of a smart man.

These Bengalis always have a way of being ahead of others.

I have to draw back to words from Simon.

He is way too smart.

For day in, day out, I am with Simon.

I would rather at healthy, day in, day out. And if that means doing less drama with my food, and cooking more regularly and happily, I would use canned dried beans.

And it is that day in, day out, winning feature of canned beans that make them boldly and greatly attractive. It makes them the winner.

[Toby]

I've been making dried beans several times a month (sometimes several times a week) for over 30 years. I love cooking pork in with the beans (ham hocks, andouille sausage, leftover ham picked off the bone, salt pork); long, slow cooking with the flavor and fat from the pork seems to plump the beans, and the thickening of the pork-flavored liquid from the breakdown of the beans would seem to me impossible to achieve with canned beans which are already cooked. Even making beans without meat, such as Mexican black beans cooked with only a head of garlic and some herbs, it seems as if the delicious thick broth and melting of the garlic into the beans and broth would also be impossible with canned beans. I sometimes make Egyptian fava beans (the small, round brown ones) that are cooked without meat, and they're so much better made from the dried ones than from doctoring the canned ones. I also like cooking beans in glazed earthenware pots, which give the beans a very silky texture.

There are some farmers in the U.S., such as Phipps Farm, who grow all sorts of unusual (and often organic) beans that have their own distinctive tastes that would not be available canned.

Once you get the pot of beans started, there's so little to do, other than let them cook, that I can't see the whole convenience issue as really being a factor.

[Wilfrid]

SUvir, do you have preferred brands?

Let me make a specific point. Beans straight out of the can are already too sloppy for a good cassoulet. Any more cooking time, and the problem gets worse. One can certainly cook the cassoulet meats and other ingredients separately,and use the juices to give the beans some flavour. One can combine the beans and meats at the last moment and let the beans warm through. But these are desperate measures only in the absence of dried beans. One cannot give back the canned beans a texture that has disappeared.

I say the same for the great pork and bean dishes of Iberia.

(I would suggest an eGullet bean party, but we'd better wait for warmer weather so we can open the windows. )

[Suzanne F]

I think you might be just a tad more enthusiastic about this than I am.  

Maybe a Beau more? Since Tad has gotten to be tiresome.

Haven't you heard? a HUSBAND more, now.

[Suvir Saran]

Once you get the pot of beans started, there's so little to do, other than let them cook, that I can't see the whole convenience issue as really being a factor.

I am glad you have the convenience of doing that. I do too. And glad you have the arrogance that comes with being snobbish of such great luck.. I do too. We are very similar. Maybe that is why we each love food. We share so much in common.

But my grandma, cannot afford such luxuries and snooty-ness. Theirs (grandparents and their friends) are lives that are eternally grateful for living without need to be hospital bound and dependent on another. They have life against them (human mortality, fragile bones, failing memory etc...), their lives do not give them the luxury of forgetting things and doing other tasks... forgetting anything for too long, as my grandma says, means forgetting forever... and she has friends (Caucasian elders, if that matters) who like her are elderly and have had fires and such happen due to usage of an oven or slow cooker or have hurt themselves trying to use pressure cookers they so readily used once. These are realities of life as well. Unfortunately.

Many elders in our country and others have great problem maintaining any sense of semblance around their lives as older citizens. We can grant great attitude to ourselves in thinking their foods are not the same for they are not cooked as we would hope for, but while that can be true for food made in their hospices with little if any care for taste, I wish I could agree with you and give grandmas food such mediocrity. Her beans and stews (with beans), and she cooks many Mexican dishes, having lived in San Francisco, are better than most I make following recipes. Her cornbread, made by her just by tasting that made by another, is better even than my own which I make after great research. And my cornbread is one of the best even I have ever eaten and know will ever eat. But certain people are great cooks and their hands have magic and their brains an undying brilliance that can make the most of any situation life presents them.

While you have been cooking 30 years, grandma has been cooking 63. And first 45 with dried beans only. Maybe she has failing memory and poor taste buds in old age, but fans of her food (friends and family, cooks or non cooks, white, black, yellow or brown or green, of any race) seem to find no way of telling which of her bean dish is made with fresh and which with dry. She tricked us first.. and from her I understood how life can be our best teacher. And it is sad to expect generalizations.

Yes dry beans can be GREAT. And in fact I only use them for most of my cooking. IN fact sometimes I have to fight to use them instead of canned. But I also understand clearly that most of this is drama. There are dishes I am not savvy enough to prepare like grandma without losing a great deal in using canned beans, but there are those dishes, which I was lucky enough to see grandma prepare, and in those dishes, I find no variance.

So, I find little if any need to defend one of these beans over the other. But if I have to defend ease over drama, I would go with ease. And if I have to defend attitude over humility, I take the latter. And if I have to choose between wisdom of grandmas over that of arrogant cooks such as myself, I do have some sensibilities still left in myself, and I choose grandmas wisdom and experience over mine and those of others like me. I am a fool I guess, but I am happy being a fool like that.

[Suvir Saran]

SUvir, do you have preferred brands?

Well my preferred brands are dried beans I grew up eating that were farmed in the great rich soil of the Indo-Gangetic plain.

Soil rich in minerals that were given to the water (of the river, Ganga) that came from the Himalayas (worlds youngest mountains, and so very rich in alluvial goodies) and onto the Indian plains.

But unfortunately I have to make do with the trash we get here.

But I seem to be surviving.

I take what I can find easily... I make great fuss over certain things. And beans are not one of those.

[Suvir Saran]

I think you might be just a tad more enthusiastic about this than I am.  

Maybe a Beau more? Since Tad has gotten to be tiresome.

Haven't you heard? a HUSBAND more, now.

smart cookie, you.

[Priscilla]

Suvir has so majorly thrown down the gauntlet on this I'm wracked with self-doubt.

I am/was sure that I very much preferred cooked-from-dry ceci garbanzos chick peas, for instance, although I do keep canned around for instant hummus. There are a couple of ceci-based soups from Marcella Hazan that are favorites of mine, and I have never prepared them with canned beans. Maybe I oughta give it a try, though, with Suvir is staking so much on this claim, plus, I do endeavor to be openminded.

There has been mention of avoiding sugar in canned beans, but what I don't like the taste of is citric acid, which seems to be in nearly every brand. (I have this problem with mustards, too, and search continually for those without this additive.) In Middle Eastern and Indian stores one can buy canned beans with just water and salt. And rinse rinse rinse, still, even with no citric acid.

Also, as Malawry said, there is a world of difference between a high-turnover market's dried beans and pulses and those from a regular supermarket. For the beans I use the most frequently and have the most comparative cooking knowledge of, pintos, for example, the superiority of the bulk ones from the natural-foods store is striking. Flavor- and texture-wise. Middle Eastern and Indian markets are good sources for dried beans, too, as well as the aforementioned canned.

[Wilfrid]

Only Suvir could lend such eloquence to the improbable claim that dried beans, of all things, are a snobby, snooty luxury. Staple of the poor in many countries, of course (as he well knows ).

[Suvir Saran]

Even making beans without meat, such as Mexican black beans cooked with only a head of garlic and some herbs, it seems as if the delicious thick broth and melting of the garlic into the beans and broth would also be impossible with canned beans.  I sometimes make Egyptian fava beans (the small, round brown ones) that are cooked without meat, and they're so much better made from the dried ones than from doctoring the canned ones.  I also like cooking beans in glazed earthenware pots, which give the beans a very silky texture.

I miss those days when I would eat beans that had been cooked all night, only on the very spent (almost not hot) flames of what was left from cooking at night in the Tandoor in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh. Will I live to see them again? What is happening to the jungles of Bandhavgarh?

The moonlight would add just enough heat for the coal to remain hot all night, and the fanning every couple of hours would keep the coal from getting totally cold. And in the morning, when we would wake up, the beans had cooked, plump and fat, without any trace of bursting, and the un-glazed (terracotta pots, baked so that they can take heat without needing a glaze. Glazed pots were for those city slickers that had lost their soul after being raped and bought over by the firangees, the British invaders in the case of India) pots in which the beans had been cooked all night, nicely and slowly and romantically in the forests of Bandhavagarh, had allowed only the very filtered flavor of the coal to come into the pot and leave the beans with every so slight a flavor of the cooking that no barbecue sauce I have ever found has been able to bring me that same magic.

When can I get those beans again? Dry or canned... can someone create those nights in Bandhavgarh. Do I really want those beans again? How can they be a part of my life when I live so differently. Does it even matter?

And then I remember those stories shared by the elders of Bandhavgarh of the same beans made in their own youth and that of their parents. The coal had its own pure and sacred flavor the farmers said. A flavor that was raped by the British. The elders that had lived through the British Raj, spoke to me just before their death of the coal that India had before being raped by the British being so very different. The blood that Mother India had been bathed in had changed the flavor or coal, and I was told these beans I ate could never ever taste the same. The Sahibs (white men from England that has enslaved Indians) and their sweat and dirty ways had left a stench in the Indian landscape, an energy that could not be conducive to the same cooking... and Alas, me and the generations to come would never know what real rajmah cooked over coal (Pre-British), and made from beans (harvested from farms not polluted by the blood of innocent Indians killed by the British) tasted like.

[Wilfrid]

The coal had its own pure and sacred flavor the farmers said.  A flavor that was raped by the British.  The elders that had lived through the British Raj, spoke to me just before their death of the coal that India had before being raped by the British being so very different. The blood that Mother India had been bathed in had changed the flavor or coal, and I was told these beans I ate could never ever taste the same.  The Sahibs (white men from England that has enslaved Indians) and their sweat and dirty ways had left a stench in the Indian landscape, an energy that could not be conducive to the same cooking... and Alas, me and the generations to come would never know what real rajmah cooked over coal (Pre-British), and made from beans (harvested from farms not polluted by the blood of innocent Indians killed by the British) tasted like.

Okay, you're right about the beans, and I apologize for British history.

[Suvir Saran]

Staple of the poor in many countries, of course (as he well knows  ).

And a favorite of many of the rich too.

And an affectation that some work hard to preserve.

[Suvir Saran]

The coal had its own pure and sacred flavor the farmers said. A flavor that was raped by Okay, you're right about the beans, and I apologize for British history.

Why apologize? We got Butter Chicken as late as 1950's maybe.

And that is a great dish. Life moves on. Drama remains drama. We should take from it only those things that make a real difference. There will always be fluff and fluffier ways of making more fluff. The key is not to get lost in the fluff. Know when we can swim over it, and only taking in as little of that water as we can whilst still swimming safely.

[g.johnson]

And then I remember those stories shared by the elders of Bandhavgarh of the same beans made in their own youth and that of their parents.  The coal had its own pure and sacred flavor the farmers said.  A flavor that was raped by the British.  The elders that had lived through the British Raj, spoke to me just before their death of the coal that India had before being raped by the British being so very different.

So they must have been, what, 200 years old at that point?

[Suvir Saran]

And then I remember those stories shared by the elders of Bandhavgarh of the same beans made in their own youth and that of their parents.  The coal had its own pure and sacred flavor the farmers said.  A flavor that was raped by the British.  The elders that had lived through the British Raj, spoke to me just before their death of the coal that India had before being raped by the British being so very different.

So they must have been, what, 200 years old at that point?

In their 90s.

Remember the Brits were not able to conquer all of India from their first entry into India.

Many territories never had any British rule. Some were plundered as late as the 1930s and 1940s.

History keeps track of such things better than our minds.

And legend and lore and memories, play an interesting game with history.

The same type of game slow cookers and pressure cookers play with food. Need I say more?

[Wilfrid]

Methuselah sahib.

[Suvir Saran]

Suvir has so majorly thrown down the gauntlet on this I'm wracked with self-doubt.

Priscilla, the only thing I would do here, is to trust you and your taste buds.

The rest is nothing more than legend and personal biases and affectations.

Go with what you are comfortable with, for that will give you most pleasure in the end. Following another and their logic could bring you similar happiness, but that is no given.

I would trust you first.. me and the gang, way after.

[Priscilla]

Yeow! I am so taking my medicine today. Dried beans ARE an affectation, or maybe, an anachronism. But it is just so cool to do the Italo-PNW Jim Dixon thing, and bung some cannellinis and into the old Emile Henry bean pot with some sage leaves and garlic and olive oil and salt and into the oven and forget about it and then open to find--something really good.

Also a part of cooking, that sort of thing.

[Suvir Saran]

Methuselah sahib.

Genes of those not eating red meats do seem to support the Methuselah logic.

No wonder the beans of Bandhavgarh were so famous... A largely vegetarian people, they kept good health and lived long.

Toast to Methuselah!

[Stone]

And then I remember those stories shared by the elders of Bandhavgarh of the same beans made in their own youth and that of their parents.  The coal had its own pure and sacred flavor the farmers said.  A flavor that was raped by the British.  The elders that had lived through the British Raj, spoke to me just before their death of the coal that India had before being raped by the British being so very different. The blood that Mother India had been bathed in had changed the flavor or coal, and I was told these beans I ate could never ever taste the same.  The Sahibs (white men from England that has enslaved Indians) and their sweat and dirty ways had left a stench in the Indian landscape, an energy that could not be conducive to the same cooking... and Alas, me and the generations to come would never know what real rajmah cooked over coal (Pre-British), and made from beans (harvested from farms not polluted by the blood of innocent Indians killed by the British) tasted like.

o.k. So now you've explained why you like canned beans over dried. But why do I prefer them? Oy. (Hey, I bet that if Coop kept reading, he's learned something else today.)

[Suvir Saran]

Yeow!  I am so taking my medicine today.  Dried beans ARE an affectation, or maybe, an anachronism.  But it is just so cool to do the Italo-PNW Jim Dixon thing, and bung some cannellinis and into the old Emile Henry bean pot with some sage leaves and garlic and olive oil and salt and into the oven and forget about it and then open to find--something really good.

Also a part of cooking, that sort of thing.

My sister does the same with Maa Kee Daal. (red beans made Indian style)

And that is her medicine for most tired minds.

Maa Kee Daal with chaawal (rice), sirke waalee pyaaz (pickled red onions) and some karaaree bhindi (crispy fried okra).

If she were to make it for me today, I would skip my medicine for sure.

[Suvir Saran]

And then I remember those stories shared by the elders of Bandhavgarh of the same beans made in their own youth and that of their parents.  The coal had its own pure and sacred flavor the farmers said.  A flavor that was raped by the British.  The elders that had lived through the British Raj, spoke to me just before their death of the coal that India had before being raped by the British being so very different. The blood that Mother India had been bathed in had changed the flavor or coal, and I was told these beans I ate could never ever taste the same.  The Sahibs (white men from England that has enslaved Indians) and their sweat and dirty ways had left a stench in the Indian landscape, an energy that could not be conducive to the same cooking... and Alas, me and the generations to come would never know what real rajmah cooked over coal (Pre-British), and made from beans (harvested from farms not polluted by the blood of innocent Indians killed by the British) tasted like.

o.k. So now you've explained why you like canned beans over dried. But why do I prefer them? Oy. (Hey, I bet that if Coop kept reading, he's learned something else today.)

I am waiting for Chopped Liver to tell me why they like beans.

[Stone]

And then I remember those stories shared by the elders of Bandhavgarh of the same beans made in their own youth and that of their parents.  The coal had its own pure and sacred flavor the farmers said.  A flavor that was raped by the British.  The elders that had lived through the British Raj, spoke to me just before their death of the coal that India had before being raped by the British being so very different. The blood that Mother India had been bathed in had changed the flavor or coal, and I was told these beans I ate could never ever taste the same.  The Sahibs (white men from England that has enslaved Indians) and their sweat and dirty ways had left a stench in the Indian landscape, an energy that could not be conducive to the same cooking... and Alas, me and the generations to come would never know what real rajmah cooked over coal (Pre-British), and made from beans (harvested from farms not polluted by the blood of innocent Indians killed by the British) tasted like.

o.k. So now you've explained why you like canned beans over dried. But why do I prefer them? Oy. (Hey, I bet that if Coop kept reading, he's learned something else today.)

I am waiting for Chopped Liver to tell me why they like beans.

Well, obviously because they're good for the heart.

But to sum up, Awbrig, use canned beans. Be carefull with the cooking time. And if anyone at dinner says, "Hey, you lazy bastard, these aren't fresh beans," I'll eat my hat.

[Varmint]

Oh, to think what this thread could have bean.

Seriously, ever since I was a child, I loved to eat chick peas right out of the can. I pile them on salads, toss them in pasta, add them to soups. I haven't ever had a great need to explore the world of dried chick peas. If I were to eat those chick peas out of a can (after a thorough rinsing, of course), would I discern a difference between a properly prepared dry chick pea?

[Suvir Saran]

Oh, to think what this thread could have bean.

Seriously, ever since I was a child, I loved to eat chick peas right out of the can.  I pile them on salads, toss them in pasta, add them to soups.  I haven't ever had a great need to explore the world of dried chick peas.  If I were to eat those chick peas out of a can (after a thorough rinsing, of course), would I discern a difference between a properly prepared dry chick pea?

Yes there is a great difference at this stage Varmint.

I want to add this before those ANTI-Suvir for being so Anti-American and refined for supporting canned beans, totally go nuts.

This is the only stage where one can easily make out their difference.