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Baked beans
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tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 05 1:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Better let us know how they turned out, piccies too (if possible)

Marigold123



Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 05 2:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Beans sometimes won't soften up if they are too old. You can cook them for hours and they still won't play ball. If you think this is the problem, the only thing to do is throw them out and start a new packet.

Problems with long cooking time and super home methane production can both be solved by sprouting the beans first. Obviously this takes a bit more planning ahead, but it's very simple to do.

You don't need any special equipment, - a large jar (pickled onion, mayonaise, etc), a bit of net curtain to put over the top and a rubber band to fasten it are all you need, as well as somewhere to drain them. You don't need a special stand, the washing up drainer will do, you just prop them up at a 45 degree angle for 5 mins and then turn them back the right way again.

Basically, you soak your seeds/grains/pulses etc for a certain length of time, depending on the size and type being sprouted, give them a thorough rinse to wash out any moulds etc that have washed off the beans during soaking, drain for 5 minutes, then leave the jar to stand for a few days, rinsing 2 or 3 times a day, depending on how warm the weather is.

Pulses, seeds, etc, contain protein, fat and starch, plus some fibre, but in the normal unsprouted state they are actually rather indigestible, even when soaked and boiled for a long time, which is apparently why we produce so much gas when we eat them.

When the seed germinates, enzymes convert the less digestible substances into those which are much more easily assimilated.

There is a nice little book called the Sprouter's Handbook by Edward Cairney, which gives details of the various soaking and sprouting times required by the different pulses, seeds, nuts and grains. I got mine from the Organic Gardening Catalogue for about £4, but if anyone wants me to check specific soaking/sprouting times, feel free to PM me. It also extolls the virtues of wheatgrass juice, which I must say, I am tempted by.

The book is really about the importance of including raw foods in our diet, and particularly sprouted seeds of all kinds. They are delicious raw, but they can also be cooked, and in a fraction of the time with no prior soaking, and though the valuable plant enzymes will have been destroyed, they are still a lot more use nutritionally than the unsprouted kind, and they don't make you toot!

I sprout seeds quite often, usually for salads and snacking, and I find that when we include these in our daily diet the whole family's energy levels are much improved, and I cope with everything (children, housework, stress, etc) much better. Since my eldest has become a veggie, though, I have cooked with them more as well, and produced a wicked sprouted butterbean and chick pea curry the other day. I had never sprouted butterbeans before, and had no idea that they could be so delicious. It was so good that my teenager came down and stole some of the leftovers I was going to have for lunch, and ate it for breakfast!

Marigold123



Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 05 2:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

selfsufficientish wrote:
tahir wrote:
Did you cook them with salt? They'll never go soft if you cook them with salt, the skins harden, soak and boil first.


Cheers wil try again boiling them first I think that was the problem. The rest of it tasted fine so I think this is a good recipe. Although nothing like shop bought baked beans is this what you mean by the consistancy Jema?
You are supposed to boil all unsprouted beans, (all pulses ?), especially kidney beans, hard for 10 minutes before simmering, to make sure you destroy certain enzymes naturally present in the dried beans. You don't have to pre-soak peas or lentils, but it speeds up the cooking time for the larger kinds if you do.

There was a big thing when I was in my late teens where people were 'poisoned' by improperly cooked kidney beans after cooking their own chilli con carne when it first became popular here. Since then, packet labels always warn about soaking and boiling for 10 mins first. It's less of a problem now that canned beans are available, but when I was little I once ate a dried butterbean that I had stolen from school and had terrible, painful indigestion for hours afterwards, so I know it can happen.

I'd like to try this recipe, probably with haricot beans, as it sounds good. My daughter is a great baked beans fan, so it would be lovely to be able to do a home-made version. It might persuade the six year-old to eat them too. I like also like haricots cooked with sausage and a bit of fatty bacon, like a cassoulet, but I haven't done it for ages.

Marigold123



Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 05 2:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Behemoth wrote:
Baked beans in the USA are not like ours as they don't load them with sugar so the sauce is more runny.
When I visited friends in Florida some years ago we had traditional southern food, like cornbread, fried chicken gizzards and beans. The ones I had there weren't at all tomatoey, but in thicker light coloured sauce and flavoured with lemon. I have to say it was all delicious. I now make cornbread from time to time and the family love it.

Nanny



Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales
PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 05 3:48 pm    Post subject: baked beans Reply with quote
    

what you buy here in the can is NOT a baked bean, that is a steamed or boiled one in a runny sauce which i quite like myself

the true baked bean is baked and if done correctly is almost solid and a really dark brown almost black in the pot. not to be hurried this one, it has taken me 2 days sometimes to get them to the right consistency consequently i hardly ever make them

it has brown sugar as well as treacle and is best eaten hot with either strips of bacon baked across it which adds a saltiness to the sweetness or with hot dogs/sausages

p.s.
can be sold on the black market as rocket fuel by unscrupulous arms dealers

Blue Sky



Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France
PostPosted: Sat Feb 26, 05 6:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

tahir wrote:
Better let us know how they turned out, piccies too (if possible)


Well, here goes!

We had our first baked beans on toast this morning for a long time.

They look better than they taste - sorry no, they tasted beautiful or at least the sauce did - it was just that the beans stayed rather hard as others have mentioned. will have to experiment with the soaking technique. we enjoyed our breakfast none the less. I will try to figure out how to attach photo now.

On a sadder note our youngest cat "Junie" was hit by a car this morning and is convalescing with a broken limb so I will now have to go and sit with him (poor sole). He is in for an operation on Monday and we are all praying for him.

Simon

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 05 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

That's a heck of a lot of beans, I notice you've got an open fire, I'd be very careful, best get some windows open...

Good luck with the operation

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism
PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 05 8:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

tahir wrote:
That's a heck of a lot of beans, I notice you've got an open fire, I'd be very careful, best get some windows open...

Good luck with the operation


What's wrong with an open fire?

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 05 8:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Treacodactyl wrote:
What's wrong with an open fire?


It's the byproducts of digesting all those beans mixed with a naked flame that worries me.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism
PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 05 8:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

That reminds me of work where we were discussing if a guiness and sprout diet would be good for you.

Blue Sky



Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France
PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 05 10:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

tahir wrote:
That's a heck of a lot of beans, I notice you've got an open fire, I'd be very careful, best get some windows open...

Good luck with the operation


Yes, I tripled up on the ingredients list - well no point in doing jjust a saucepan full! We now have three large jars in stock down in the cellar

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 05 10:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Were the beans home grown?

Blue Sky



Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France
PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 05 11:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

tahir wrote:
Were the beans home grown?


No. Sadly they were dried ones we bought in. We grew alot of french beans in the summer and have bags full of 'em in the freezer - not quite the same tho'. This summer we will be growing some haricots to bake. Maybe then they will not be so hard when cooked. That is what I am hoping anyhow.

Deeno



Joined: 09 Dec 2004
Posts: 6
Location: Here and there and every where
PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 05 1:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Hi all

Sorry to come in late on this one and it may have bean said already. We make beans often and it's Haricot beans you want if you wish to closely copy the Supermarkup ones.

Deeno

Blue Sky



Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France
PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 05 1:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Hello Deeno

Good work. Any chance of a copy of your recipe for the baked beans? We try out all sorts here and would be very interested in your approach (as I am sure alot of others on here would)

P.s. we did use haricots - but dried ones. Do you grow your own?

Simon

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