The virtues of canned beans can't be denied: They offer a significant time savings, are almost always cooked perfectly, and don't taste half bad. But whenever someone tells me that their dried beans don't taste much better than canned, I know instantly that they're not cooking the dried beans right. Follow just a couple of simple rules, and I guarantee that your cooked-from-dried beans will be worlds better than anything you can get from a can.
Always Add Aromatics to the Pot
The first rule is to season them properly with salt. The common wisdom says to do that only after cooking them, but, as Kenji has shown, you should actually salt both the bean-soaking water and the bean-cooking water for best results. Since he's written about that at length, I'm going to focus on the second rule here: Always add aromatics to the pot.
It may sound too basic to be true, but aside from salt, there is no more drastic way to improve the flavor of your dried beans than to cook them with flavor-enhancing vegetables and fragrant, woodsy herbs.
There's very little to the method itself, which I use no matter the bean recipe. After soaking the beans and draining the soaking water, transfer them to a pot, fill it with cold water, and then add a bit more salt, along with whichever aromatics are available. Bring the water to a low simmer, then cook it all together until the beans are tender. Those aromatics in the pot will revolutionize the beans' final flavor.
The aromatics I tend to use are onions, carrots, garlic, and celery, and then heartier, woodsy herbs, like rosemary, sage, and thyme, which marry beautifully with the earthy-sweet flavor of beans. If I have rosemary, sage, and thyme, I might put a sprig of each in; if I have only one of them, then I'll add a couple of sprigs. I try not to be too fussy about the specifics, and am extremely casual about quantities. If I don't have celery and carrots, then I'll just toss in an onion and a few cloves of garlic, plus the herbs. No herbs? Probably not worth a special shopping trip just to get them. If I'm at the market and know I'll be cooking some beans, though, I always try to grab the most essential aromatics (onion, carrot, and garlic) and at least one of the herbs.
That said, it's fun to experiment, as well as to keep the geographic origins of the dish you're making in mind. Maybe some leftover fennel bulb or fronds will find their way into my bean pot one day, or perhaps I'll reach for a different herb, like Mexican epazote, if I'm going to be making refried beans on another occasion.
On lazy days (i.e., most days, at least for me), I just toss the vegetables into the pot and deal with fishing them out later, which can be a little tricky after slowly simmering them to the point of turning them to mush. As for the herbs, I'll often tie up rosemary and thyme with some kitchen twine (or stash them in a tea infuser), since their small leaves can otherwise fall off and get scattered throughout the pot—a lazy person does not want to stand around hunting for rosemary needles in a pot of cooked beans, ever.
If I'm being particularly obsessive about my need to retrieve every last bit of the aromatics, I'll tie them all up in a cheesecloth bundle, making their ultimate removal extremely easy.
I'll leave it up to you to decide whether to go commando or create a cheesecloth sling, just as long as the aromatics end up in the pot one way or another. Because leaving them out isn't much better than reaching for the canned stuff.
The aromatics I tend to use are onions, carrots, garlic, and celery, and then heartier, woodsy herbs, like rosemary, sage, and thyme, which marry beautifully with the earthy-sweet flavor of beans.
Add acidic ingredients, such as tomatoes, vinegar, or citrus, late in the cooking process, or use them as a post-cooking seasoning. (If using precooked or canned beans, you can go as heavy-handed with the acid as early as you'd like.)
We're talking onions, shallots, garlic, and chiles. Or maybe some fresh herbs like rosemary, sage, bay leaves, and thyme. This is where the flavor really starts to build. Salt the liquid again (lightly) after about an hour of simmering.
You can add crushed whole seeds (coriander, cumin, fennel, mustard, etc.), woodsy herbs (thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage), red pepper flakes, crushed garlic cloves, and of course salt and pepper.
Herbs: A sprig of fresh rosemary or thyme, or sage, parsley, or cilantro leaves or stems. I often add frozen herbs to my home cooked beans. Spices: Black peppercorns, freshly ground black pepper, bay leaves, or dried chiles. Vegetable scraps: Onion ends, fennel fronds, scallion tops, celery leaves, and more!
Once the beans have been properly soaked, it is time to cook. Strain away the soaking liquid and cook the beans with no salt in a flavorful broth with plenty of spices and aromatics or in plain water to keep the flavor of the bean itself as the forefront of the flavor in the finished dish.
While lard has been replaced with vegetable oil or shortening in many households, the distinct richness and velvety texture it imparts to a skillet of refried beans is hard to beat. The closest substitute for lard is bacon grease, which is another form of rendered pork fat that's arguably even more flavorful.
After soaking the beans and draining the soaking water, transfer them to a pot, fill it with cold water, and then add a bit more salt, along with whichever aromatics are available. Bring the water to a low simmer, then cook it all together until the beans are tender.
Add a few flavor enhancers and dinner is served! Drain and rinse the beans (remember, that's optional). Place a pot on the stove and set to low or medium heat. Add fat (olive oil, avocado oil, canola oil, butter - whatever you prefer to cook with) and natural flavor enhancers like garlic, onions, and tomatoes.
Slowly caramelize a chopped onion in a bit of oil, then add bacon and cook until crispy. Add the can of beans and stir, making sure to scrape up any tasty bits that have stuck to the pan. To finish, toss in a pinch of espresso powder for an extra hit of earthy flavor.
Use aromatics, like onion, garlic, and herbs, in your cooking liquid—they'll transform any pot of beans into something far more flavorful. Oh, and don't worry about making too many beans at once.
It may sound too basic to be true, but aside from salt, there is no more drastic way to improve the flavor of your dried beans than to cook them with flavor-enhancing vegetables and fragrant, woodsy herbs.
Beans cooked with a tiny amount of baking soda (about one teaspoon per cup of dry beans) added to the cooking water cook in about half the time as beans cooked without.
Cook up beef sausages with onion to create a super-flavorful base for your dressed up baked beans. Upgrade #3: All of the condiments! Maple syrup, molasses, ketchup, vinegar, mustard—basically throw every sweet, salty, tangy condiment you've got at those canned baked beans and you know they're going to taste delicious.
Overcooking can detract from the eating experience, leaving your beans bland and lifeless. Undercooking beans, on the other hand, can put yourself at risk of food-borne illness. This is especially true for red beans like kidney beans.
Hobby: LARPing, Kitesurfing, Sewing, Digital arts, Sand art, Gardening, Dance
Introduction: My name is Amb. Frankie Simonis, I am a hilarious, enchanting, energetic, cooperative, innocent, cute, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2016__09__20160901-bean-aromatics-vicky-wasik-4-7d1231f7579349c1b5e560f9da169a10.jpg "Transform Any Pot of Beans With Flavor-Packed Aromatics and Herbs (1)")
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2016__09__20160901-bean-aromatics-vicky-wasik-2-fdeba6dc6117400ea69d908416138c59.jpg "Transform Any Pot of Beans With Flavor-Packed Aromatics and Herbs (2)")
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2016__09__20160901-bean-aromatics-vicky-wasik-5-135529babfd74cc2b7887937774d38c9.jpg "Transform Any Pot of Beans With Flavor-Packed Aromatics and Herbs (3)")
