Try to find yourself some fresh pinto beans and cook them while fresh. They’re SO much better when fresh. Basically, when you dry fresh food you lose the natural sugars contained therein. Have you ever pulled an ear of corn and tasted it immediately after pulling by eating a raw kernal? It’s very sweet.

All dried beans need a little sugar and sweet onion to get back close to where they tasted when fresh. We always had an acre or two rented from a local farmer for our garden. There were seven of us working it so it was actually more fun than work. Beans and I go way back.

PSA ... Casserole brand when buying dried beans. My wife was getting low in the pantry and picked up some HEB brand dried beans on one of her grocery runs recently (they were out of Casserole brand) ... no comparison. We normally find most HEB brand products to be close to or as good as name brands, that does not hold true with dried beans (or at least the bag my wife cooked over the weekend). Many more split, hulls and when soaked swelled up to huge, then turned overly mushy when cooked.