Probably our favorite make do dish is pinto beans, we call them soup beans. They’re cheap-sometimes you can find a bag for less than a dollar. Pintos are also easy to cook, especially if you throw them in a crock pot and forget about them.
Granny taught me the first step to cooking pinto beans is too look them, which just means to look through the beans and see if there are any bad ones or any little rocks like the ones in my hand. Sometimes I find stuff when I look the beans other times I don’t find anything but beans.
Next-rinse the beans off a few times.
The beans need to be soaked before you cook them. The easiest way to do it is too put them in a bowl, cover with water and let them sit overnight. That’s the method I use. After a night of soaking the beans plump up. (drain water before cooking)
The other method of soaking is good for those days when you’re in a rush or you forgot to soak the beans the day before. Place the ‘looked’ beans in a pot and cover with water, bring the water to a boil, and let boil for two to three minutes. Remove pot from heat, put lid on, and let beans sit for an hour. Drain beans before cooking.
Once your beans have been soaked it’s time to cook them. A few different options:
- Put beans in a large stock pot and cover with water and cook on top of stove. This is the method The Deer Hunter likes-he’s anti-crock pot. The beans cook up great, but you have to keep an eye on the amount of water in the pot and make sure it doesn’t cook out. The beans take several hours to cook.
- Put beans in a crock pot and cover with water. Turn the crock pot on low and forget about it. If you put the beans on early in the morning by supper they’ll be done perfectly.
- My Uncle Woodrow made the best pot of Pinto Beans ever!! He cooked his in a big pot on his wood stove. I’m not sure if it was him or the wood stove, but no one could cook pintos like Uncle Woodrow.
- You can cook pinto beans in a pressure cooker too-they get done fast that way!
After you decide which method to use you need to decide how to season the beans. I like to use a chunk of ham. When we have a ham I save every little piece that isn’t eaten and freeze it. Then when I need a piece for a pot of beans I have it. Some folks add a piece or two of fatback/streaked meat. Others add a little cooking oil. Salt and pepper to taste keeping in mind the salt content of the meat-if you use meat.
Once the beans are done add a cake of cornbread, some stewed potatoes, an onion, a jar of applesauce and that’s supper for us.
If you cook a bag of beans it makes a lot of beans. I usually cook the whole bag. We eat them for at least two nights and I freeze the rest for one of those busy days when I don’t have time to cook. I can warm up the frozen beans and add the rest of our favorites pretty quickly.
Sometimes I’ll freeze the leftover beans in smaller quantities so we can add them to chili or soup.
Anyway you look at it pinto beans is a cheap and tasty meal. Hope you’ll leave me a comment with your thoughts or tips on pinto beans.
Tipper
p.s. Everyone has their favorite way to eat pinto beans. I like mine mixed up with crumbled cornbread. The strangest way I ever seen someone eat theirs-they mixed mayonnaise with their pinto beans.
Born and raised in south-central Kentucky. I thought I was the only person left who still calls pintos, soup beans. When I was a kid, I used to like putting mayo in my beans. Beans seem to be made for adding stuff. Ham hocks, chopped onions, ground beef for chili (unless you are from Texas, then you have to do that in secret), sauerkraut, pepper relish, but my all time favorite is corn relish. Dang, I gotta go make some soup beans.
I do not remember hearing these called soup beans, Mama just always called them pintos. She made these a lot. We like to top with ketchup and maybe some raw diced onion on our pintos, or if we have access to chow-chow we would use that to top the pintos.
A Mexican “torta” sandwich can be made with refried beans(pintos), avocado, jalapeno and a layer of mayo+ other veggies. This is my hubby’s favorite version anyway. He says it’s the beans+mayo that really makes it!
Grew up in eastern Kanawha Co in southern WV and our whole family (going back generations) always added a *small* dollop of mayo! Still my fave way to eat them! That added fat makes them silky smooth and gives a surprisingly nice taste. Add some fried potatoes and cornbread and takes me back to summer nights at my grandma’s house.
So I’m seeing this post really late after the original. I’ve read everyone’s comments and no one eats them the way my mama always served them. Cornbread is a given but Mama always made a dish called Tomato Pudding to serve with beans. I know it was tomatoes and white bread and a little sugar, not sure if there was anything else. My daddy loves Tomato Pudding! We always used cranberry beans instead of pintos. I know now it was Mama’s way of stretching a dollar but we thought it was a grand meal! Thanks Tipper for the great blog, website, YouTube channel!
My in-laws used to eat pickled green tomatoes with their pintos. That was so good! Now my husband and I put salsa on ours —- with corn bread, of course. When I was growing up, however, we had meat with almost every meal so pintos were just a side dish.
I tell my California friends; “I wouldn’t be here without Mother’s Soup Beans.” Slaty Fork West Virginia was my birthplace as my Mother and Dad had moved from the Smoky Mountains when the Park was created. Salt Pork or Jowl was added And the beans were ready when the meat was done. I was walking on a wooden sidewalk in Cass W. Va. recently and I caught the smell of Soup Beans coming from a house as I passed by. Instant Joy! Like the sound of the Greenbriar River gurgling or a Banjo in the distance or the sight of a Cardinal, Bluebird or Robin. As for sugar in cornbread; SINFUL! I’ll send you my song about Appalachian memories. First line; “Take Me Back to West Virginia Let Me Hear The Greenbriar River Take Me Home Oh Love Of Mine Smell the Honeysuckle Vine.” This Damned Computer Machine is fightin back. All for now.
Cranberry or October beans are our go to bean…. they seem to make their own gravy. Lately I have been a fan of black beans. No matter what kind, they all go better with corn sticks ( get more all around crunch than with cake cornbread).
Had soupbeans tonight. We have hard water so I added a pinch of baking soda at start of cooking, and toward the end of cooking (around the last hour or so) I minced up a clove of garlic and added it. I use fatback during the full cooking time, no ham or ham bones.
made it with fried potatoes on the side and cornbread (also known as cornpone but made in an iron skillet in the oven) Its not a sweet cornbread (my husband calls sweet cornbread corn cake, says it isn’t right at all although I like the sweet cornbread sometimes 🙂 )
If you want to doctor it up when reheating to give it a different taste (especially when you eat it a lot you might get bored) you can do anything with it.. beans take on flavors well, and you can throw just about anything in it you have on hand, and make it taste slightly different during the reheating of the next meal… but the first cooking is always the same.. fatback, salt at the end only if you need more, clove garlic and a little black pepper, never forgetting the pinch of baking soda at the beginning of cooking.
Laverne-Glad you like the layout of the Blind Pig! I use Typepad. Ive been blogging for over 5 years and Im totally pleased with Typepad : )*UPDATE I now use WordPress.
Tipper
Hey there would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with? I’m planning to start my own blog
soon but I’m having a hard time making a decision between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.
P.S Apologies for getting off-topic but I had to
ask!
As long as i can remember, my mama would shell beans from the garden, soaked, cooked with eith bacon, or hamhock… with cornbread, fried okra, fresh tomatoes, cornbread and fried potatoes and onions… use to complain sd a child had them so often, but now i would give anything for all that back.. the hard work but with much love was put into that good ole’ home cooked from scratch cooking.. best values i ever learned.
I put mayonaise in pinto beans too! My granny use to make them often and we either put mayo in them, or cole slaw. Always had corn bread with a bowl too! Sweet corn bread… delicious meal and I love it till this day. My husband however, demands I have meat along side pinto beans if I serve them today! Just made a pot yesterday, using the ham bone from Thanksgiving… and I paid a little over $3 for a bag of them. Not cheap like they use to be, but still reasonable and a good hearty meal on a cold winter day!
My Dad used to add a spoonful of Duke’s mayonnaise to his pintos, and and my sister and I carry on the tradition today. Got a big lump in my throat just now as I added that Duke’s to my beans, and I said out loud, “In your honor, Dad.” Much love from the Upstate of SC.
As a boy growing up poor in northern Alabama, we had pintos almost every night. Many times a few fried potatoes and a pan of cornbread was all we had. You would think after years of the sameness of the nightly supper that I would have rejected it years ago. Nope. Still my favorite meal. Add a cold glass of milk and I am the happiest man on earth. Any leftover cornbread gets crumbled up in the milk and eaten with a spoon for dessert.
someone told me they like to put
pickle relish in their pintos and that they were good with fritos.now this i havent tried but i do like to cook pintos ever now and then ,i soak mine (usually)overnight , add whatever seasoning you like .i also use ginger instead of soda , it works better for me
now on chocolate cake huh?
but if one likes it go for it
to each his own but without the corn bread i couldnt eat the beans
Yum, I want a pot of beans after reading all these comments!! Then of course a glass of cornbread and milk!!! Antique Rose
A staple food here in the south I like mine with colesaw and vidalia onion and white cornbread.I hae cooked pinto’s so many ways..But the tried and true method in my family is just salted fat back w/ the skin. It seasons the beans just right. There is some other good ways Ham hocks Etc,Feista make a great product called Pint bean seasoning to0…But for my family its just pinto’s w/ Fat back salted with the skin. I guess it the way my mom cooked them..
Pinto beans with ham and cornbread are a frequent meal here. When I was little we rarely had ham in them but mother did put bacon or fat meat. And she always fried potatoes too – the best meal ever. I remember my brother stirring his potatoes and beans all together – the rest of us thought that was awful but he loved it. blessings, marlene
You’re really making me want some now! Think I’m gonna have to cook some tomorrow with some cornbread!
When I was young, my Dad always cooked the pinto beans. We made a big pot every week and it lasted several days. My husband makes them now, he also makes a huge pot. You have to have cornbread and fried potatoes with them. Sometimes I put a slice of light bread in my plate and cover it with the beans and lots of the soup and I like a few tablespoons of apple butter with mine.
PINTOS! Oh how I love them – grew up on pintos and cornbread. When I married GMR, who is from New Orleans, he didn’t even know what a pinto bean was! omg! He ate red beans — and the time I spent in Louisiana, they rarely if ever ate pintos — huhn…well, pintos RULE over red beans 😀 —
I sure do like pinto beans. I cook them in a pot on the stove….anti crock pot and pressure cooker for beans, and for anything else . lol
I look, wash and soak the beans over night then cook the next day, refrigerate over night and cook again the next day. They are good and thick on the second day.
Also don’t salt till the end. It does seem to me to make them tough to salt at the beginning.
Season with ham, ham bone, fat back, streaked meat, hog jowl (usually only available around new year), bacon grease, etc.
Eat the beans with cornbread and onions or light bread. Save the leftovers for soup or tacos.
I’m not from here — I grew up in Tampa, Florida, nourished on black-eyed peas and Cuban black beans — I still haven’t learned to love pintos. But with enough raw onion, I’ll eat them.
Thank you for the comment! Fatback or streaked meat is salt cured pork. It usually comes in small slices and is fattier than regular bacon-and is also cut thicker than bacon. Some people call it streak o lean too.
I love, we always called brown beans, we would have them just about every day with fried potatoes and fried apples, we would take two slices of bread, put the beans between them and it was good,and we eat a lot cranberry beans, thank goodness for beans.Thanks so much for this, I always look forward to see your blogs. God Bless, Kay
Hi Tipper. I enjoyed reading all about Pinto Beans here. Beans are a favorite around here for sure, however pintos are usually my last choice. I’ve even taken the time to grow my own dry beans before, which in the PNW isn’t always easy, but because dry beans store for nearly ever that is an easy go ’round. My favorite are a smaller all brown bean called Swedish Brown Beans. Second are Navy Beans (as a child I thought it was funny that they were white not blue, I thought my mom was a bit off callin’ them navy)
I love all the comments about soup beans and lookin’ the beans before cooking. I have a request from you and/or your readers. My sweet grandma used to make a chocolate cake when I was a little girl that was sooooo good. I didn’t get the recipe but am hoping that one of you may have something close. The best that I can remember, it was a dense, deep dark chocolate cake with raisins added and a chocolate fudge-like frosting. My sister said that she once heard our grandma say that she put a dozen eggs in that cake. That sounds like a pound cake but I don’t know. Would love to have any recipe that sounds even close to this. Thanks.
I grew up eating pinto beans, cornbread and fried taters. Honestly, I didn’t care much for the beans, but could make a meal on the fried taters. And cornbread and milk were for dessert later.
My Captain doesn’t like the smell of pinto beans cooking, so I never make them. But after reading this post and the comments, I’m thinking of making them while he’s not home and either freezing or canning them to have for chili. We do eat a lot of chili, so this will be cheaper than buying prepared cans of beans to add. Thanks to you, Tipper and your readers for all the great bean tips.
Thank you! This was a great read.
Back in New England we add molasses, maple syrup or brown sugar to our beans and bake ’em until they’re all rich, dark brown and sweet. I don’t really care for beans, sadly, but want to try your recipe and another one from a good friend here in Kentucky. She swears by them!
It’s nice to check your blog out again! I have a new one at http://www.FarmwifeatMidlife.blogspot.com [as well as http://www.InthePantry.blogspot.com]
All best to you!
Catherine
Tipper, I love pinto beans, we eat them alot. I have started canning them in quart jars so that I always have some. It makes a fast meal when I add those to some hamburger, Rotel & sauted onions. This is a quick meal that we make at deer camp. Also I was suprised to see someone else meniton that it was good on cake. My father always wanted chocolate cake with beans on top. It really is good.
Oops! Meant to say, “a totally different cornmeal bread than cornbread”.
Pinto beans are one of my favorite means. We eat them with fried potatoes, kraut and weiners and cottage cheese instead of the applesauce. We always have corn pone which is a totally different cornmeal bread than corn pone. Lawsey mercy how my mom could make a good corn pone.
I’m not sure I know what you mean by “fatback/streaked meat.” Is this an Appalachain term? Is it a particular kind/cut of meat? Thanks!
I always soak my beans and drain and rinse several times before bed. I drain and rinse before cooking. The overnight soaking is best for controlling gas. I like the crock pot, my DH doesn’t either. It must be a male thing.
I really like the little navy beans the best with or without the ham. I always add onion, garlic and sometimes celery. I never add salt if I use ham, but always pepper.
Shortly after I enlisted in the Navy, I was in NC on leave. An Aunt, on learning that I was a cook, asked how many pintos do you cook. I told her that a ship the size of mine used about thirty pounds for a meal. Her reply, “My God, who looks all them beans?’
Before Daddy died, he would buy pinto beans in 50 pound burlap bags. He didn’t consider it a meal unless you had pintos.
“My goodness”..I must have grown up deprived, for sure. In Southern Mississippi, I saw nary a pinto bean. We had those creamy giant fordhook dried beans, cooked for hours with ham hock or smoked ham; we had canned pork’n’beans liberally doctored with flavorings. There also had to be a “pone” of cornbread to go with. When we moved to Louisiana, we learned that red (kidney) beans spiced copiously with something pork-salt fat back, ham hock, smoked ham, ideally smoked pork sausage served over rice was a staple; was also at every holiday meal..Another tradition was small white beans cooked the same that was on every festival table….but no pinto beans. When we were blessed with our first trips to the NC mountains, we saw an entry of pinto beans, onion slices, cornbread, and applesauce was on the menu of every cafe or restaurant we went in! I remember our first breakfast in a tiny diner in Leicester,NC because when I told the waitress that I had never had pinto beans, she went straight into the kitchen and brought me what she exclaimed would be “the best meal you have ever eaten”. The beans had been simmering since 4 a.m. she said!
My bowl was clean when I put down my spoon, I’ll tell you.
I have since introduced LA Cajuns to pintos.
Tipper, I save our ham pieces and ham bones for beans, especially smoked ham like you said. By the time they simmer all day, you are nearly intoxicated by the aroma.
Ahhhhh..Tipper..you sure do stir up some wonderful memories.
Thanks for inviting us all to your mountain family and your supper table!!
Pinto beans, cornbread and chopped onions made the very best meal .. yum!
I have only recently started cooking pinto beans and now always have some in the freezer for an easy meal. I like mine with crumbled cornbread too. I like the idea of saving “scraps” of ham throughout the year to add to things,,makes so much sense. Thanks, Tipper!
Had to laugh!!My husband is non crock pot also and always adds mayo to his!!!
Tipper,
I can’t believe I forgot this…Mom always added a little “sodie” to the beans like Grandma to help kill the “stink”..etc…
She never soaked her beans…
I have always soaked my beans or cook on high, turn off and let sit and hour then rinse and cook..This way I never add soda…but Mom did…
We always had pinto beans when growing up and still love them today. Always put in ham chunks and hambone when i had it, if not used salt pork at just plain bacon.Bacon grease or just plain grease when no meat was available.Always crumbled cornbread with a bowl of them.As kind of a dessert they are delicious over chocolate cake.Know that sounds awful,but don’t knock it til you try it.So good!!!
Hey Tipper,
You know I never remember my Mother soaking pinto beans before cooking. She looked, washed and put them on to cook. Starting on high to bring them to a rolling boil and turning them down to medium low…After about an hour..she rendered out streak meat or added bacon grease to the beans..never added salt until they were nearly cooked, she always said that made them tough. If we had a ham hock left over..that went directly in the pot of beans…A big old onion was added sliced in larger pieces to add to the flavor..as well as sliced on the table…these beans were cooked all day and water added as needed…she said she cooked the “stink” out of the beans…LOL I don’t remember but the one time she burnt the beans, and that was trying out her new little Presto pressure cooker..about blew the iid off..and she never cooked beans in it again…
I cooked pintos last week with my Thanksgiving leftover ham hock out of the freezer…I always cook enough beans so we can have Chili in a day or two..especially in the winter..Chili is better with fresh beans….
I try to have turnip greens, cornbread..sliced green onions. In the spring those tender green onions right out of the garden are the best..dip and bite and chew..The only other thing we add is..in the summer fresh sliced tomatos on the side..
One more thing, my Mom used to shake it up a bit and mix white beans and pintos..cooked with ham hock…we thought we were getting a different bean dish…then she made white bean chili…
Thanks Tipper…
I also remembered when we were first married we had a wood stove in the living room an “insert” but it had a little edge on it so I cooked my beans on the wood stove. A few months into the second winter I got to looking at the mantle I had warped it from the bean cooking!!
Haha!! Love what Don Casada said! We grew up eating pinto beans and greens!! The combination is wonderful with cornbread and onions!
It seems to me that if I soak the beans first and drain the water that I don’t get as much nice brown soup with them.
To this day pinto beans, cornbread, and onions are a favorite with me and my siblings. Nothing better….well…except adding some mustard greens on the side! Yummy!!
Right after I got married I was looking some pintos to cook. They way we did it was dump them on the table put the pot in our lap and slide them in the pot and slide rocks and bad beans to the side. My husband heard the beans hitting the pot and stated “I did not realize you had to count them” I almost spilled the beans I was laughing so hard. I think someone asked my Mom that once as well. My birthday dinner was always Pintos, Fried Sweet Potatoes, Turnip Greens and cornbread. All though easy to cook you have to watch them or they will cook down. The first few times I cooked them till there was no flavor but I have it mastered now LOL. Once my beans are done I put a little salt and about a teaspoon of brown sugar in them. I use about 2 Tablesppons of cooking oil in mine I used to use fatback but you know got to get all healthy. Chow-Chow is always a good side or some diced onions.
I love pinto beans, but there is another dried bean I like better. My family always eats “yellow eye beans.” They have a really great taste and one I remember from my childhood. Of course we eat them with cornbread. Onions, tomatoes, homemade pickle relish, and potatoes go well with them.
Pinto beans, home fried potatoes and cornbread! Always season my pintos with ham or bacon if I don’t have ham. My favorite meal in the world!
Tipper,
Seems like those pinto beans mama
cooked on the old wood stove just
tasted better, or it took so long
we were always hungry for them. I
know folks today that put mayo in
their beans…never could understand that. But an old ham
bone sure adds to the taste, and
with cornbread its like a King’s
meal. I love a fresh rainbow trout
rolled in a cornmeal mix and greens to complete a grand supper.
Of course, fried taters with onions are a must. I’m gettin’
hungry! …Ken
Speaking of “looking” the pintos — when I was in graduate school in Auburn, Alabama, I had a boyfriend from Nashville. I decide to cook pintos and started the “looking” process. The boyfriend spoke up and said “You don’t have to count them!” I had to explain about the little pebbles and bad beans that need to be discard. I thought that was cute!
We like them with a can of tomatoes+chilis (rotel)
We also like cornbread and rice with them. Actually we eat all sorts of beans that way
We always called them soup beans-I don’t know why. I’ve eaten them all my life with fatback, cornbread, and onions. Now the doctor has me off the fatback; the salt in the cornbread is bad for my blood pressure, so it leaves the beans pretty bland. But I do still enjoy the onions!
Tipper – I found the truly lazy-person’s way to cook pintos (or black-eyed peas, etc.) and that’s to pick ’em over and put them in the Crock Pot with enough water to cover by about an inch or two. Plunk in some hocks (smoked ones are yummy). Set the CP on low and let em go overnight. In the morning, check the water level and add enough to simmer them for another several hours. If you’re going to eat the whole pot (takes a mess of people to eat that many), dish ’em up. If not, take out what you need for the meal and let the remainder cool. I like to actually make my beans a day or so ahead. Seems they always taste better after they’ve cooled and married a while.
I do the same thing with white beans for soup. Through the ham bone in, pick through the beans, add stock & water, celery and onions, and a bay leaf and let them cook on low until they plump up. Then add cut up carrots (and taters if you wat) and enough water to make the soup.
May be lazy, but makes really good beans!
Tipper–We love pintos, and if there are concerns of the nature brother Don hints at, there’s a fine product known as Bean-O (that will keep you off of Al Gore’s blacklist for too much CO2 emission).
A few additional thoughts on cooking pintos. First, if you put them in water to soak, bad beans will often float to the top–remove these. Second, for those who dry tomatoes (as we do), adding a few slices of dehydrated tomatoes to the pot late in the cooking process is mighty tasty, or you can just add canned tomatoes. A third possibility is to save bacon grease and add some of it to the beans (waste not, want not) for flavor. Fourthly, you can make a hearty bean soup using pintos, bits of ham or bacon, tomatoes, onions, and perhaps a modest infusion of dried hot pepper. Finally, leftover pintos can be crushed for use in all sorts of Tex-Mex dishes calling for re-fried beans.
As for side dishes, I’m mighty partial to cornbread and turnip greens with pieces of turnips diced up in them (and cooked with streaked meat). Incidentally, such a meal is mighty fine meatless meal fare.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
I LOVE pinto beans. (with corn bread) I had an Uncle Adam that had to have a bowl of beans with every meal. Aunt Katie always had a pot cooking. They lived to be in their 80’s. I just made a pot of navy bean soup last week. Any pot of beans is a treat. I’ve finally got Casper to eat them. Danes don’t have dried beans in their diet. Now I;m going to have to make a pot. Last post about white bread “made” me go buy some baloney for a sandwich with grape jelly. I was sooooooo good.
that is exactly how i cook ours. let them cook on really low temp for 3 or more hours. yum yum used to use a pressure cooker when my kids were little, don’t even have one now and don’t have a crock pot. but when i had a family to cook for i had both.
I thought there was a law saying that you had to have greens to go with the pinto beans and cornbread….
and that the fine for not doing it was being locked up in a small space with someone that ate too many beans.