Canned Beans vs Dry Beans

[jaybee]

The December Cook's Magazine holds a recipe for Boston baked beans.

The author says, unequivocally, that small dry white beans make the best Boston BB. He also says canned beans turn to mush in the 4-5 hour cooking process. The recipe reads quite nicely and is tempting for one who has eaten only Heinz and other varieties of canned baked beans.

Edit: It is the Jan/Feb 03 Cooks that has trhe BB recipe.

Edited January 13, 2003 by jaybee (log)

[Suvir Saran]

Now I'm confused, Suvir: you've come down adamantly FOR canned beans and AGAINST them in this thread, as well as saying we should ask chefs what to do, AND writing "Chefs hardly know better than the rest of us".

Is honesty misleading? Can one not have a complex view to things? Is it necessary and indeed a condition to live in a black and white world?

I have said from the very beginning that I cook my beans from dry ones.

That I have cooked with canned ones when traveling and know those that do and like most of us on eGullet or elsewhere, could not pass the test of guessing which is which unless being tested on simply boiled dry or unseasoned canned beans.

I am neither for nor against one or the other. I am against judgment of them one way or the other. They each have their place and moment. And they each have a place where they belong. In my kitchen, I have several pressure cookers and even with little time, I can easily prepare what would take several hours of cooking otherwise.

There is hardly any need for me to explain where I stand. Lest one wants to simply be pedantic. If that is the case, we can go post by post, and if they read each post and the one that follows, they would not find any need to question me. The answer lies in them. I am for accepting what people do and how and when and where.

I have said before, but since you may have missed it, I am for convenience and for enjoyment and for cooking. If someone is more apt to cook at all using canned beans over eating a frozen meal, I am all for using canned beans.

As for asking chefs what to do and them hardly knowing better than the rest of us... what is wrong with that????? I have asked the manager of the Green Market in Union Square about a certain produce even though I could have simply asked the question of Elizabeth Schneider. They are both valuable to me and each bring their own unique perspective. But neither, and I repeat, neither is of greater value to me. They are equals.

I do not deify others such as myself that are published food writers or professional chefs. I understand keenly and critically that we are cooking professionally, but I also understand how we know just as much or at times just as little as any home cook or another lay person.

And that is what makes at least my professional and personal work in the kitchen a joy. I am able to learn each time I cook something new and wonderful about food and life and happiness and the joys of being alive and willing to learn.

It is not all that difficult to see things in a multifaceted way as most thing are. I have never claimed to live in a world that is black and white. Mine is largely grey and I appreciate the gradations of it and look for new things that can inspirit me in each new shade.

PS: Baked beans are one canned beans that I simply cannot enjoy. And note, for those that do not understand this, canned beans are sold without seasoning and for those chefs that for some reason or another, often a reason of grave weight, cannot cook from dry ones. And then there are goods like canned baked beans that I have little if any taste for. I have no taste for most packaged foods. Be they jam or canned baked beans and bottled salsas. I can make them fresh and enjoy them better that way. I could use canned beans and make much better baked beans than what is sold already seasoned. That is what I am talking about not canned beans. Baked beans are a canned finished product. Baked beans is not EQUAL to canned beans.

Edited January 13, 2003 by Suvir Saran (log)

[Suvir Saran]

I hate canned baked beans.  i refuse to eat them--i don't care what you do to them--add bacon, molasses, whatever, they are mushy and nasty and taste like tin.

Agree with you totally.

Nothing tastes worse than canned baked beans, sorry I take it back, paatra (an Indian snack of rolled up colocasia leaves cooked with spices and cut into slices) tastes just as bad.

But canned are simply horrible. While I do not taste tin.. I certainly taste horrible when I have tried even a very small bite.

For the record, Stellabella was commenting on canned baked beans, and I was in agreement with her.

The post above shares my sentiment on canned baked beans (awful ).

[Coop]

Suvir: I respect and admire your stand on the bean issue. I believe you could build a political platform based on this issue alone. Will you be running?

[Suvir Saran]

Suvir: I respect and admire your stand on the bean issue. I believe you could build a political platform based on this issue alone. Will you be running?

Admiration?

Not what I think is necessary or even warranted. This is about living life and finding enjoyment and pleasure as one can. As simple as that.

I am no bigot in any sense of the word. I came to a country where the stereotype of people like me was what they laughed at in late night shows... If I wanted to remain a failure and a depressed soul, I would only look at that which was most obvious and hateful and degrading of me and my people. But I was able to see in some an affection and acceptance that would not make it to the late night shows for it was humane and without drama. I chose that latter anyways.... for it gave me hope and reason to live and love and share. And I am happy I chose that, 10 years after having lived here, I call this city and country my home. And yes I have instances of hate and prejudice that should define how I feel about being here, but they are only a very small part of what I find here. Love and affection of countless others far outweighs what can go wrong and awry.

Beans give me a similar window into the world. It is easy to condemn their use and acceptance. But they provide food, happiness and enjoyment for just as many people as dry ones do. My personal choice of one over the other hardly matters. What does matter is that people enjoy life and cook and share and live happily. If it means cooking with canned beans, I would never deny them that pleasure, in fact I would happily join them and savor their meals with them if given the chance. I am perhaps going to be happier digesting a meal cooked without ego than one where the chef has such great ego that their food may taste good but leaves you with an upset stomach. I am a staunch believer in the policy that foods taste only as good as the temperament of the person cooking them.

And if for being honest and sincere, I find admiration, I am accepting of it, but I can tell you, I hardly deserve it. I do nothing noble by letting others live as they want to. I hardly define others by accepting or using canned beans. I am who I am regardless of whether I love or hate canned beans. And I would be a large failure in my own eyes if I were to live a life hating something as trivial as canned beans. I have greater worries in life.

PS: What makes you think I sound like a politician? I would be a very bad one I can assure you. I would never go with the popular decision. Not how I function.

[Jim Dixon]

But when you're sitting on a rock at the base of the eastern scarp of Steens Mt in October when the aspens are turning that incredible gold color, and out in front of you stretches this amazing flat, white, alkali playa called the Alvord Desert, nothing is better than opening up a can of pork'n'beans and eating them with spoon, right from the can, of course.

Jim

[Suvir Saran]

Even though I have a pot of beans in the oven right now, and I think that cooking dried beans makes the very best beans...I still love to eat lowly pork'n'beans right out of the can (curiously, the best tasting canned pork'n'beans are the vegetarian variety, which obviously lack any pork).

In my misbegotten youth, when I would hang out with biologists in the Oregon desert, one of our standard car-camping meals was beans and 'dines (as in sardines)....quick, tasty, and nutritous (not that we cared, but it gave us more time for drinking).

Jim

It is people like Jim Dixon that put life in perspective.

He has been an advocate of dried beans and yet has also shared above his enjoyment of a canned bean product. Maybe shocking to some.. but not to me.

Life is full of such ironies and it is these that make life marvelous. It would be tedious and sad for me if it were any more boring.

Jim, when I used to go trekking and rock climbing, that was the one time that my parents would spend great amounts of money to send canned beans with me. I would then buy tomatoes, onions and carry some spices and LPG cylinder on my shoulder and a stove. At night while the rest of the gang ate canned tuna, I would prepare beans and lentils and a couple of hours later, the canned tuna gang would be drooling over my pot of beans. Simmered with love and care, in the wilderness and cooked after enduring great pain (carrying for miles, a stove, a cylinder of gas and spices and vegetables, all alone since none of my friends ever understood why I would go through this) but never too much. Late into the night, as we sat across bornfires lit with droppings of branches and dry leaves, these beans that I prepared fresh from cans and the french fries I made with local potatoes were the celebration all us kids enjoyed the most. They encouraged us to sing and dance and share memories as we ate foods that seemed tasty, even if only made from a canned bean. My own youth was not any less misbegotten than yours.

PS: In India canned goods are amazingly and outrageously more expensive. Some consider canned beans in India a luxury.

[Suvir Saran]

But when you're sitting on a rock at the base of the eastern scarp of Steens Mt in October when the aspens are turning that incredible gold color, and out in front of you stretches this amazing flat, white, alkali playa called the Alvord Desert, nothing is better than opening up a can of pork'n'beans and eating them with spoon, right from the can, of course.

Jim

Jim, I shall try and taste these.

Is there a brand you prefer?

Is there a smoky flavor in these beans?

[Jim Dixon]

Suvir,

I'd only recommend this if you first fly to Portland (or maybe Boise, since the drive it shorter), rent some kind of 4-wheel drive vehicle, cross the entire state (diagonally, the long way, about 8 hrs from Portland) to the far southeastern corner (including about 50 miles of gravel road), turn off on the rutted track just north of the Alvord Hot Springs, and drive to the base of the steep hillside just where Pike Creek issues from its canyon.

Then pull out a can of the cheapest pork'n'beans you could find (maybe at the Safeway in Burns), open it with your Swiss Army knife (or, even better, one of those tiny Army surplus p-38 can openers), and use a thrift store spoon to eat.

I'm sure my affection for beans from the can comes more from my association with the circumstances of eating them than any perceived flavor. The beans I cooked last night...small whites simmered in the oven with olive oil, salt, and garlic...actually did taste great, so I think you're much better off avoiding the canned ones...unless, of course, you really do want to go camping.

Jim

ps....does anybody ever eat the "pork" in pork'n'beans? When I was younger I always picked the little cube of salt pork out and tossed it. And did you ever notice that there's only one cube per can?

[Wilfrid]

Or stay at home and use dried beans, because they taste better.

[jaybee]

It is possible by adding seasonings and ingredients to Busch's canned baked beans to get a tasty dish, expecially if one is in a location remotely as beautiful as the one Jim decribes.

[Suvir Saran]

It is possible by adding seasonings and ingredients to Busch's canned baked beans to get a tasty dish, expecially if one is in a location remotely as beautiful as the one Jim decribes.

What would you add to them Jaybee? That makes perfect sense.

Actually, as I noted above, I would use canned kidney beans, canned chickpeas and canned black eyes peas when rock climbing or trekking in the northern Indian moutain regions. I would carry spices, some tomato sauce and dried herbs. Find whatever local produce I could, and do the best one could in that situation and actually, the food always came out GREAT! I think it has more to do with the entirety of the experience than anything else. But that makes great difference.

[Suzanne F]

Now I'm really tempted to make some REAL baked beans -- although I'll wait for a slightly warmer day (when the heat won't come on and the apartment is freezing ).

I also grew up eating the Heinz Vegetarian version -- the one with pork was forbidden fruit. I agree with Suvir and the others that canned "baked beans" are awful. Too mushy, too sweet, no bean flavor left. And WAY too much of that sticky sauce -- I usually have to drain most of it off, it I'm trying once again to use them. Yes, I doctor them (as I do just about every canned food I use), but why should I have to??

[stellabella]

the recreation dept asked me to bring a pot of baked beans for the kids' cookout a couple years ago. my husband bought his favorite canned pork 'n beans--yes, i ate that white tasteless jujube once when i was a kid--gack! as jin would say--and even though they were for a bunch of kids who wouldn't eat them anyway, i added ketchup, mustard, molasses, hot sauce, anything to try to make them taste like something.

years back i took baked beans to a cook-out--i used canned baked beans and added molasses and a little dried mustard and laid strips of bacon over the top and baked them in the oven. the men loved them. that was a long time ago before i really knew how to cook right. but they were edible, it seemed. which only makes sense, considering that american eat tons of those things.

[awbrig]

anyone have a great recipe on how to make homemade baked beans?

[JSD]

My version of pork and beans is dried black beans and and a pork shoulder, along with an onion, garlic, and water in my pressure cooker. After about 45 minutes, I add epazote and salt, and then serve with hot pico de gallo (sp?). It's pretty good, easy and fast.

[KMPickard]

The Feb 2003 issue of Cook's Illustrated has a recipie for "Real" Boston Baked Beans that sounds delicious. I plan on trying it out this weekend and will report back then.

K.

[johnjohn]

When cooking dried beans - do you use the water that you soaked the beans in or do you use fresh water? I have seen it both ways in a number of recipes that I have been researching - what are the pros and cons. Also, should you stir beans while cooking or just leave them be and not disturb.

Any help would be appreciated.

johnjohn

[snowangel]

If a person has a crock pot, why would said person used canned "baked" beans?

[Wilfrid]

John, after soaking beans, I usually want to pick them over briefly to get rid of any grit, discarded skins or other garbage. This involves draining them, so they get cooked in fresh water or stock or whatever. As for stirring, it depends what dish you’re making and how you're cooking them. As a generalization, if I do stir a bean dish while it's cooking, it's usually to move other ingredients around; I'm not sure it does much for the beans. But again, I don't know if you're making soup, baked beans, cassoulet or something else.

[Suzanne F]

I'm with Wilfrid on the "drain off the soaking water and remove the crap" idea.

I am in the "always stir" camp, at least for stove-top cooking: you never know when something might be sticking to the bottom of the pot, even in masses of liquid. It's less a worry when cooking in the oven, since the heat is more evenly distributed around the pot, not concentrated only at the bottom.