My aunt told me I was ruining chili by skipping the soak on beans

She saw me dumping canned beans straight into the pot and about lost her mind. Told me to use dried beans and soak them overnight instead. I tried it with a bag of pintos from the grocery store, cost me maybe $1.50 for two meals worth instead of $3 for cans. The texture was way better too. Has anyone else had family call them out on a cooking shortcut they thought was fine?

2 comments

2 Comments

thompson.reese1mo ago

Oh man, that's exactly the kind of thing my grandma would call me out on too. She caught me using pre-shredded cheese once and gave me a whole lecture about how it's coated in sawdust to keep it from clumping. I ignored her for years until I finally tried shredding my own block of cheddar for tacos. It melted way better and didn't have that weird powdery taste. For the beans thing specifically, I started keeping a bag of dried pintos in the pantry and just tossing them in the slow cooker with some water and a ham hock overnight. No soak needed, just rinse them and let it go on low for 8 hours. The texture is way more creamy than canned, and I swear the broth gets this rich flavor you just can't get from a can. Now I feel like a snob whenever I go back to canned, but I still keep a few on the shelf for when I'm in a pinch.

dixon.iris1mo ago

That slow cooker method with the ham hock is exactly what my wife does for Sunday dinners, @thompson.reese, and you're right about that rich broth being something you just can't fake with canned beans. I started doing the same thing a few years back and now I won't even bother with the canned stuff unless I'm making a quick lunch and forgot to plan ahead.