Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
Chief's Tip of the Day
Don't be afraid to change it up. I have made baked beans or something similar for a long time. My wife loves them. My kids enjoy them. I really like them too.
Last night, I decided to make beans from scratch, using dried navy beans, brown sugar, a little pork, onion, and prepared mustard, like I usually do. I was out of molasses, which i really like in my beans. Sometimes, I use maple syrup instead. I like that version equally well. I didn't have either. Also, I didn't want to wait hours for the beans to cook. So I added a 1 pound package of dried beans to my pressure cooker, and covered with water, plus two inches. I cooked them for 45 minutes and they were perfectly tender.
Now it was time to turn them into baked beans. So I peeled, then threw a whole vidalia onion into the blender and liquified it. I added it to the beans, along with 1 cup of brown sugar, and a teaspoon of liquid smoke. Throw in 1/4 cup of tomato puree and you have what I had.
After tasting the beans, I realized that there was no pork flavor, or salt in the beans. No pork was available (2 days before payday). Turkey shares some flavor characteristics, and so I added some Better Than Bullion - turkey flavor, to the beans. and a half tsp. of mesquite flavor Liquid Smoke. It really added a great flavor. After that, with no molasses in the house, I decided to add maple flavor, but had no maple syrup. I did have some dried candy-cap mushrooms. I added 3 mushrooms to the pot.
I put the lid back onto the pressure cooker and brought it up to pressure over medium heat, and cooked for 30 minutes more, to force the flavors to blend, and soak into the beans. I released the pressure, and tasted the beans. They were very good. I placed them into a suitable container, and into the fridge for today.
After church, I wanted some beans for lunch. I heated up a bowl-full and tasted them. I still wasn't quite satisfied. So, a tsp. of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce added to the beans added just the right flavor. The beans needed that little bit of acidity to balance the flavors.
The moral of this story is that I changed things, fairly dramatically to a tried and true recipe, and it created a very good batch of beans. Don't be afraid to change things up. You might just be surprised how good whatever it is you are making will turn out.
There is never just one way to make a particular recipe taste great. Change things up, both for variety, and to expand your culinary expertise.
Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Don't be afraid to change it up. I have made baked beans or something similar for a long time. My wife loves them. My kids enjoy them. I really like them too.
Last night, I decided to make beans from scratch, using dried navy beans, brown sugar, a little pork, onion, and prepared mustard, like I usually do. I was out of molasses, which i really like in my beans. Sometimes, I use maple syrup instead. I like that version equally well. I didn't have either. Also, I didn't want to wait hours for the beans to cook. So I added a 1 pound package of dried beans to my pressure cooker, and covered with water, plus two inches. I cooked them for 45 minutes and they were perfectly tender.
Now it was time to turn them into baked beans. So I peeled, then threw a whole vidalia onion into the blender and liquified it. I added it to the beans, along with 1 cup of brown sugar, and a teaspoon of liquid smoke. Throw in 1/4 cup of tomato puree and you have what I had.
After tasting the beans, I realized that there was no pork flavor, or salt in the beans. No pork was available (2 days before payday). Turkey shares some flavor characteristics, and so I added some Better Than Bullion - turkey flavor, to the beans. and a half tsp. of mesquite flavor Liquid Smoke. It really added a great flavor. After that, with no molasses in the house, I decided to add maple flavor, but had no maple syrup. I did have some dried candy-cap mushrooms. I added 3 mushrooms to the pot.
I put the lid back onto the pressure cooker and brought it up to pressure over medium heat, and cooked for 30 minutes more, to force the flavors to blend, and soak into the beans. I released the pressure, and tasted the beans. They were very good. I placed them into a suitable container, and into the fridge for today.
After church, I wanted some beans for lunch. I heated up a bowl-full and tasted them. I still wasn't quite satisfied. So, a tsp. of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce added to the beans added just the right flavor. The beans needed that little bit of acidity to balance the flavors.
The moral of this story is that I changed things, fairly dramatically to a tried and true recipe, and it created a very good batch of beans. Don't be afraid to change things up. You might just be surprised how good whatever it is you are making will turn out.
There is never just one way to make a particular recipe taste great. Change things up, both for variety, and to expand your culinary expertise.
Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North