Pinto Beans Cooking Now.

First attempt using a mixture of recipes. Please save me if you see where I have goofed up and can still make adjustments!

Cleaned and soaked 2lbs of Pinto Beans for 4 hours this am because I forgot to do it last night
Put beans in crock pot then chunked everything else in no certain order.

Big Ham bone
2 Slices of thick bacon in quarter size pieces
end of 2 ST Louis style ribs that I had smoked previously.

1 large white onion coarsely chopped. Looks like a lot, is it?
7 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 large Jalapeno deseeded and finely diced
Some Cilantro
2 Tbsp of Sea Salt and Pepper
1 Tbsp of Cajin Classic Seasong
1 Beef Bulion cube

Poured enough water on it to have about 1/2 of water covering it then turned the Crock Pot on high about 30 minutes ago.

Three questions: Do I have about the right amount of water, should I have it on high if so how long, does it look like there is to many onions?

Appreciate the input

Dried beans need some sugar. You’ll probably need more water. Don’t sweat the onions.

Plan on adding more water after a couple hours, I cook mine on low all day then put on high for the last hour or so.

everything sounds about right, as others stated, might need to add water (or some form of liquid) part of the way thru the cook to keep liquid over the top of the beans. Can't get too many onions I don't think, at least not for me.

Pure greatness. Love cilantro in there.

I'm impressed you have the beans. Who did you have to rob to get them? They've been gone along with all rice at the stores I shop. Your ingredients look good. I'm not a cilantro fan but to each his own. How about the cornbread to go with it? I like Mexican cornbread with mexicorn, japalenos and a little cheese mixed in.

If needed add chicken or beef broth instead of water, and warm it up in the micro before adding.

I wouldn’t add bullion. You’ve got the ham bone for that. I would hold the cilantro and add it to the bowl when serving. Consider trying Summer Savory in your beans sometime.

Thanks for the feedback.

I watched to many you tube versions on how to cook them and it can confuse the heck out of a rookie

Cast my wife reminded me that I needed to add the sugar, so I did 2 Tbsp. Make sense on not using the beef bullion cube especially after putting Ham, Bacon and couple of little Ribs.

Cast & PMK god to know on the onions, had a smaller one out first and switched to the bigger one.

jetdad my wife has a couple of older lady friends who work displays at grocery stores and they always bring us stuff, most of it I give to our cleaning lady at work, glad I held this bag back.

DC one of the youtube videos the guy said only add hot liquids once they are cooking.

rickym turned the heat down to low about 45 minutes ago.

Bill agree on the Cilantro!

How do you know when they are done?????

If you find you need more liquid, a warm can of Tecate will not only add liquid, it will alter the taste profile a bit. DON'T USE A "LIGHT" beer for this! No Bueno por shift!! Stick with the high octane stuff.

Stub, they are done when the beans are soft enough for you to mash them up against the side of the cooker with a fork.

I cook mine in beer.....

x2

Looks as if you got a.good scald on that pot.

Well I had to many of these and went to bed early. and that is why I need one last piece of advice please.

Last night my options were to trust the wife (who hates any kind of beans) that she would watch them until she went to bed after watching TV with the daughter or go ahead and put them in the fridge and finish cooking them today.

Obviously I did not trust the Bean Hater so I put them in the fridge. So whats the best way to finish cooking them? Do I set them out and let them warm towards room temperature or go ahead and slow cook them on low heat?

Last pic of them before the nodding out began.

Doesn’t matter. I bet resting in the fridge is really gonna make them good. Start them cold and on low heat to minimize thermal shock to the ceramic pot. Once it warms up, put it on high and finish them. They’re getting done when you blow on a bean and the skin peels off.

Thanks

It was awful darn good, couple things I would do different that were mentioned above.
Will not cook the Cilantro with the beans, add the Cilantro to the bowl you are eating, will not add any type of Bullion.

I promise you none will go to waste and the price of natural gas is about to go lower with a well thats about to come in

I had 1 1/2 bowls.

Ok Cast, I’ll bite why put sugar in dried beans? I’m really curious

Looks like you done good there Stub.

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.

I’ve only got two pounds of pintos left. I’m very tempted...

I’m gonna hold out a while.

We always keep lots of beans at our house even prior to this. When we get down to 5 pounds of pintos it’s time to buy more. We typically have 5-10lbs of pintos, 4-5lbs of red, 3-5lbs of kidney, and 2-3lbs of white navy. I’m sure we’ve got a pound or two of others as well. Gonna do some home made refried tomorrow or Sunday to go with beef and chicken fajitas.

Thank you, I never thought of it like that, so I’m going to give it a go the next time I cook a pot of pintos

Diced up a couple of small slices of spicey sausage, added some Tabasco and it is whats for lunch!

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.

I think Wallymart carries them, I had the wife put them on the grocery list.

Again appreciate all of the feedback