Let’s Talk About Beans: Pot of Beans (in the oven)

Well, the good folks at Simon and Schuster came through for me and sent over a copy of the Food Matters Cookbook! For at least the next month or so I’m going to switch the blog over to recipes from this new monster of a cookbook. I’m very excited: the Food Matters philosophy is one I more or less subscribe to, with varying degrees of commitment, and nearly every recipe in this book looks like a winner.

Beans are central to the Food Matters philosophy. They are convenient, versatile and healthy, but they are also hearty and filling and can be delicious. In Food Matters, and now the Food Matters Cookbook, Bittman writes alot about how deprivation is not recommended. “Feel free to eat the foods you’d miss, just in smaller portions and less frequently,” he writes. As such, you find a lot of recipes where a small amount of meat flavors a huge amount of beans or veggies or grains. Having beans on hand all the time is encouraged (as it was in How to Cook Everything), and cooking them yourself means they will be infinitely tastier. Keep reading to see the best way to cook beans.

The method for cooking a pot of beans in the Food Matters Cookbook is not much different from the method described in How to Cook Everything: cover with three inches of water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, simmer until done (anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours depending on the type and age of the bean). Since I first made beans, I’ve expanded my repertoire and tried some different methods. What I find works even better than the stove top is cooking beans in the oven, a la The Paupered Chef’s 90 Minute, No-Soak Beans. I don’t know why this is, exactly, but if you start the beans boiling on the stove then move them to a 250 oven, they cook much faster and without having to stir. So much easier, and so much less hassle.

The other major change is that I always cook beans with some aromatics. This is something Bittman himself recommends in the Food Matters Cookbook (and HTCE). Throwing in just a handful of herbs or a whole onion cut in half will impart way more flavor than using just water (you could also replace all or some of the water with meat or veg stock). When I can, though, I cook the beans with a smoked ham hock or trotter. Smoked meat imparts a flavor to beans that isn’t overbearing, but is incredibly delicious. A smoked trotter at even the finest stand in the Greenmarket (I’m partial to Flying Pigs Farm from Shushan, NY) runs something like $3, but is worth its weight in gold (for added value, after the beans are cooked, take out the trotter and simmer it in some more water to make homemade pork stock). It’s not kosher, but it’s oh so delicious. The only thing is that your roommates will be really disappointed when they walk in and proclaim “It smells like BACON in here!” only to be told that no, it’s just beans.

So, throw beans in a pot covered with a couple inches of water and/or stock, throw in an onion or some herbs or a smoked ham hock or trotter, bring to a boil, and stick in a 250 oven for as long as it takes. From here, you can make any number of the bean dishes featured in the Food Matters Cookbook, which is exactly what I plan to do. Stay tuned.