2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[reedy]

i must not be too picky, as of yet i don't think i've found any beans that weren't good as a dry bean. have you?

i think the hardest aspect to me is that some beans are not super productive so getting enough of them to cook up as a single batch to isolate the flavor doesn't happen (especially if they are a good snap bean because between replanting and giving away seeds it would be harder to get a lot of seeds kept).

I also like most all beans dry, except for black beans of any variety, we separate them out for black bean salsa. A lot of red beans are also separated and canned with spices and hot peppers for chili. All the rest are generally just mixed up for bean soup. I don't remember why I did the experiment of cooking the dry KY Wonder by themselves but glad I did.

I suspect there are lots of others that might be good that way too, I almost bet that any bean a person likes as a snap bean would have a similar flavor cooked by itself as a dry bean. I haven't tried others for some of the same reasons you mentioned

 

[flowerbug]

Yes. Lazy Wife's Pole Bean is one that I will never eat again. Usually though they just don't have much flavor, so I guess it depends on what you are looking for in a dry bean. For us, we want flavor; a delicious flavor that comes from the bean itself when cooked plainly with water and nothing else.

oh, ok, now i get what you were saying. to me a bean that doesn't have much flavor is also ok because it can be used as filler in soups or mashed and spiced like refrieds or hummus or ... i thought at first you were saying there were dry beans that had a bad taste to you in that they had some kind of vile flavor you couldn't tolerate.

i'm sure there must be at least one, but i've not found it yet.

We made baked beans for the first time. Those were tastey! I don't want to be eating so much sugar though, so it would only be an occasional dish for us.

you can come up with your own tradition for baked beans. a light tomato sauce with spices and if people in your family are ok with things like fennel or anise seeds those can add some sweeter spicy flavors but no sugar. but i only add the vinegar and tomato type stuff after the beans are cooked. onions are common for baked beans for us. Mom likes hot dogs (if you want to sound fancy you can call them medallions of sausage ) - i don't need meat or much spices in them as like you i can otherwise eat them pretty plain and appreciate their texture and flavor.

hmm, would something like a fresh onion relish (fine diced raw onions, with a bit of mustard or some other more vinegar and perhaps some soy based sauce on them, marinate only a little bit, a touch of sugar can go a long ways if you save it right towards the end instead of cook it in).

 

[flowerbug]

I also like most all beans dry, except for black beans of any variety, we separate them out for black bean salsa. A lot of red beans are also separated and canned with spices and hot peppers for chili. All the rest are generally just mixed up for bean soup. I don't remember why I did the experiment of cooking the dry KY Wonder by themselves but glad I did.

i haven't minded mixing all types of beans together to be used in bean soups. i haven't grown a lot of black beans though in many years. this past season was the first time in a while i refreshed my Black Coco beans but there weren't that many of them (not enough to eat or give away samples).

I suspect there are lots of others that might be good that way too, I almost bet that any bean a person likes as a snap bean would have a similar flavor cooked by itself as a dry bean. I haven't tried others for some of the same reasons you mentioned

interesting as i've not eaten a lot of snap beans in large enough dry bean quantities to know what they taste like. our main snap bean tastes like a mild pinto bean when cooked up from dry beans so we're pretty happy with that - i love dual or triple purpose beans.

 

[meadow]

I also like most all beans dry, except for black beans of any variety, we separate them out for black bean salsa. A lot of red beans are also separated and canned with spices and hot peppers for chili. All the rest are generally just mixed up for bean soup. I don't remember why I did the experiment of cooking the dry KY Wonder by themselves but glad I did.

I suspect there are lots of others that might be good that way too, I almost bet that any bean a person likes as a snap bean would have a similar flavor cooked by itself as a dry bean. I haven't tried others for some of the same reasons you mentioned

When you eat green beans, are the seeds well-formed inside?

 

[flowerbug]

When you eat green beans, are the seeds well-formed inside?

for us, not usually the kind we grow, but some do exist which are fine like that. when the pods get too thick then the beans are at what we'd call shelly stage or i'd just let them finish as a dry bean.

 

[reedy]

Yum, I love shelly beans often mixed with some still tender pods. Generally, I think when the beans start to fill out more the pods often get tuff or stringy, but it depends largely on the variety. Flavor changes too as the seeds get bigger. The woman here likes greasy beans when they are pretty much nothing but the pod and I admit I do too, but I think it a bit of a waste to pick them so small.

 

[Zeedman]

This reminds me of Tongues of Fire. The pod and dry bean both resemble it.

View attachment 54135
View attachment 54136

Yes, that does indeed look very similar to the bean I grow. The odd thing is that in the process of researching something else, I was able to confirm that my version of "Atlas" was in fact offered commercially - while the USDA lists "Atlas" as a bush wax bean. Really odd that two vastly different varieties would both be allowed to be sold concurrently under the same name.

I have sent off an inquiry to Vermont Bean Seed Co. requesting the provenance of their version of "Atlas", and will post an update if they provide any info.

 

[heirloomgal]

Yes. Lazy Wife's Pole Bean is one that I will never eat again. Usually though they just don't have much flavor, so I guess it depends on what you are looking for in a dry bean. For us, we want flavor; a delicious flavor that comes from the bean itself when cooked plainly with water and nothing else.

We made baked beans for the first time. Those were tastey! I don't want to be eating so much sugar though, so it would only be an occasional dish for us.

Was it fishy?

There's only one dry bean I've eaten and not been crazy about - navy beans. But with lots of onions and some canned tomatoes & parsley I can layer over that off taste and still make a great soup.

 

[Zeedman]

I also like most all beans dry, except for black beans of any variety, we separate them out for black bean salsa. A lot of red beans are also separated and canned with spices and hot peppers for chili. All the rest are generally just mixed up for bean soup. I don't remember why I did the experiment of cooking the dry KY Wonder by themselves but glad I did.

i haven't minded mixing all types of beans together to be used in bean soups. i haven't grown a lot of black beans though in many years. this past season was the first time in a while i refreshed my Black Coco beans but there weren't that many of them (not enough to eat or give away samples).

There are a few beans I've tried which were very strongly flavored, so some might not find them pleasant eaten plain & unseasoned. "Porcelain", "Ma Williams" ("Goose"), and "Kentucky Wonder White #191" are some that come to mind. The latter was a bit surprising, since "Kentucky Wonder White #191" and the dry bean "Brita's Foot Long" appeared nearly identical other than the "Brita's" being more fibrous green, so I expected them to be similar in taste dry - but the KWW #191 was noticeably inferior.

Some of the darker colored runner beans can be strong flavored too... which IMO is why I would recommend them best served with wild game.

I mix all of my different cowpeas together, and they turn out well in any recipe. However when I tried to mix all of my dry beans together - regardless of their intended use - the results were less than satisfactory. Different beans had different cooking times, so I ended up with some hard beans, some burst beans, or both. That was soaked & boiled; the results might have been better if baked.

Some beans seem to become "hard" quickly too, to the point where they will not soften or expand when cooked. "Ma Williams" / "Goose" was one of those. That really surprised me, given that "Ma Williams" is a good shelly bean.

 

[flowerbug]

Was it fishy?

There's only one dry bean I've eaten and not been crazy about - navy beans. But with lots of onions and some canned tomatoes & parsley I can layer over that off taste and still make a great soup.

ah, yes, i've gotten that taste from greasy beans at times and it wasn't my favorite aspect of them but i could also work around it. it wasn't so bad that i could not eat them or thought them vile. i do eat fish and other seafoods. navy pea beans do not give me that taste for some reason, but perhaps i'm so used to eating them that i don't notice it. hmm... good one!