Weekly Cooking Thread March 26, 2011

FreeRepublicCooks | March 26, 2011 | libertarian27

[bgill]

Could one substitute almonds or cashews here??

Sure. I'd think most any nut would do.

[Netizen]

Yeah, you really have to look at the ingredients these days because so many products claim zero trans fats, but a look at the ingredients often shows partially hydrogenated fats or oils and that means trans fats.

There are a few crackers out there that don’t use partially hydrogenated oils but often times they are an odd brand that major super markets don’t carry. They carry the products whose manufacturers pay the most for shelf space.

[Netizen]

I’ve never been one for adding salt and only add/use it when the recipe doesn’t have any and may need it. But, we still have to watch our salt. Sp many products these days are loaded with salt, to the point that one can have their day’s worth of sodium in just one meal.

Its amazing how much better one feels when they don’t have to take cholesterol or blood pressure medicine anymore.

[Netizen]

If you ever go to dollar stores check their crackers. Granted a lot of their stuff tastes off, but, I have found good trans fat free crackers at dollar stores before. Its been awhile though so I don’t recall the names/brands.

[libertarian27]

I don’t want trans-fat free...I want my trans-fats! (whine)

Manufactured cookies and crackers just aren’t the same anymore. I’ve pretty much given up on the cookie aisle(just as well) and bake cookies from scratch.

Now to find a good cracker recipe w/ lard :>)
(they changed crisco too- aargh- don’t get me started on the new crisco! - never thought I’d be buying lard but I am)

[rightly_dividing]

About 25 years ago, I was told by a lady that was a dietitian to throw away my can opener. She said that if you need a can opener to get to it, it has too much salt for you. I have always remembered that and taken it as good advice and avoided most canned goods, especially veggies; We never eat canned veggies, no matter what fresh cost.

[Netizen]

Good advice. We seldom use canned, but, I usually look at the recipe as a whole and removes as much salt as we can.

Another tid bit. When using fats. If it keeps its shape or stays solid at room temperature, its going to do that in your arteries as well. That is one I learned over 30 years ago and it makes so much sense.

[Netizen]

As a ps, a diabetic dietitian told me to use real sugar instead of artificial sweeteners. Just to keep an eye on the real sugars.

[Netizen]

You shouldn’t have a problem then since most crackers have trans fats.

[bgill]

Rinse prepared foods to get a bit of salt off. Or boil them before going on with the recipe. Don’t know how much it gets out but every little bit helps.

[illiac]

Might want to try this one....

Whole Wheat Sourdough Crackers
makes about 6 dozen crackers

1 cup Sourdough, fed with whole grain flour, such as wheat, spelt or kamut flour
1/4 cup Lard or coconut oil
1 cup White Whole Wheat flour(or a Sprouted spelt flour, if you can find it!) , or as much as you need to make a stiff dough + extra for rolling
1/2 tsp Sea salt
1/4 tsp Baking soda
Olive oil for brushing
Coarse salt (such as kosher salt) for sprinkling on top

In a large bowl, combine the sourdough and the lard and mix thoroughly. Mix the salt and baking soda in with 1/4 cup flour and add to the sourdough mixture. Knead it all together in the bowl, adding as much flour as necessary to make a stiff dough. Allow the dough to rest for about 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farhenheit and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Take a small portion of the dough (about 1/4 cup) and roll it out on a floured board using a rolling pin, adding flour if it’s too sticky, until it is very thin. Be careful, this is a rather delicate dough so feel free to use ample flour, if necessary.

Cut into cracker shapes using a dough cutter or sharp knife. Transfer the crackers to the sheet pan and brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Repeat with another 1/4 cup of dough until the sheet pan is filled with crackers. Bake crackers in batches as necessary for 15-20 minutes or until just golden brown.

[Flamenco Lady]

It doesn’t matter whether I need to presoak them or not, but I would prefer recipes where they don’t need to be precooked (which is what I have to do when I use them in recipes that call for canned beans). I really just want to be able to use dry beans and not canned beans in all the things I cook, since they are a whole lot cheaper and if I don’t have to precook the beans it would save a whole lot of time.

I know my mother and grandmother never precooked them when they used dry beans when I was a very small small child, but by the time I was old enough to learn to cook from them, they both had switched to using canned beans since they were more convienient and took less time to prepare.

When I was really little, however, I remember them putting beans to soak at night before going to bed and then they would cook them up the next day. I do remember that they always said not to salt the beans or to add an acid to the pot until the beans were soft, but I was too little to pay attention to all the other ingredients they would add to their bean concoctions.

They both made really wonderful baked beans using the dry beans, but I haven’t been able to figure out what I am doing differently.

[Netizen]

This site has tons of recipes, but, the link is going directly to beans.

http://www.justbeanrecipes.com/index.html

My mom always presoaked her beans. then dumped the water in the morning. I sometimes presoak, but, sometimes I do the short cut on the bag where you boil them for a few minutes then let them sit, then drain and continue with the recipe.

Anyway, there are a lot of bean recipe there and you should be able to see which recipes suit your needs.

[rightly_dividing]

I wish that I could help you. My mom made great baked beans, with latticed bacon strips on top. But I never learned her recipes and now wish that I had. I know that she started with dry navy beans, but don’t have the rest of the details. They were so good!

[Netizen]

The first recipe is the one I use. At the time, it was the one I found that most resembled the ingredients that my mom used, though it does use the precooked beans. Having said that, I quickly looked through the bean site and grabbed a couple of recipes where the ingredients closely resemble the above, but use dry beans.

Easy Baked Beans
1 (48 oz) jar Randall cooked Great Northern Beans 1 1/2 lbs cubed pork 1/2 tsp salt (optional) Dash of pepper	1 (14 oz) bottle of catsup 3 T prepared mustard 1 1/2 cups brown sugar 1/4 lg onion, chopped 2 T molasses
In a 3 qt casserole, combine all ingredients, mixing well.  Let it marinate in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight.  Bake uncovered at 325 for 4 hours, stirring after a couple of hours.

I need to comment on something here about the cubed pork. We found that the longer the cubed pork sat in the finished beans, the tougher the cubes got. Whatever recipe you eventually do, its something to keep in mind. My mom always used bacon. At the family Christmas dinner where I took them, everyone loved them and some said they liked the cubes better. But, if you have left overs you might want to use them fairly quickly to avoid the meat getting tough. Now, that might have been my fault. First time I made it that way I thought the pork needed more flavor so the next time I let the pork sit in the liquid mixture for a few hours, then added the beans just before cooking. First time around they were gone the next day so maybe they didn't get a chance to get tough. I just don't know. My son says the sweetness in the mixture pulls the moisture out of the meat. (He's majoring in plant genetics and minoring in biotech)

I tried them using Eckrich Smoked Sausage, but after a day or two the sausage gets odd. Almost candied. I'm thinking of trying it without meat once just to see how they are, but may wind up going back to the bacon.

The one recipe below cooks the baked beans on top of the stove. My mom did hers in the oven. I remember her using ketchup, molasses, yellow prepared mustard, brown sugar. The second recipe doesn't use a few of those, and I'm not sure how to adapt it, since it uses a lot more molasses, which is why I ended up using the precooked bean recipe.

As for cooking them on the stove, I would probably avoid that simply because, trying to simmer something for a long time like that ends up being a pain on our stove. Its either too high or too low. I might try that last recipe, and just pop them in the oven and see how that goes.

Hopefully one of the recipes at that site will pop an ingredient into your head that maybe you were missing.

Boston Baked Beans

3 lb Dry Pea beans or Navy beans
1 1/2 c Dark molasses
1 tb Dry mustard
1 ts Salt
1/2 ts Pepper
1/2 lb Salt pork; diced
1 lg Onion; chopped

Rinse beans; in a large kettle combine beans and 24 cups (6 quarts) cold water. Bring to boiling; simmer 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover; let stand 1 hour. (Or, add beans to water and soak overnight.) Bring to boiling; simmer till beans are tender, about 1 hour. Drain, reserving liquid. Combine molasses, mustard, 1 teaspoon salt. 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and 3 cups reserved cooking liquid. In 6-quart bean pot, mix beans, salt pork, and onion. Stir in molasses mixture. Cover, bake at 300 degrees for 3-1/2 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more reserved cooking liquid, if needed. Serves 15.

Baked Beans

1/2 lb Bacon diced
1 Yellow onion diced small
1 ga Water
1/2 c Molasses
1/2 c Brown sugar
2 c Ketchup
2 tb Yellow mustard
1 1/4 lb Navy beans (soaked in water to cover overnight)
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

In a large pot, saute the bacon over medium heat until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the diced onions and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the water,sugar, molasses, ketchup, mustard and bring to a boil. Add the beans and bring back up to a boil, then reduce to a slow simmer and cook 4-5 hours until the beans are soft, adding water from time to time if necessary and stirring often to prevent burning. Season with salt and pepper to taste. These beans will keep covered and refrigerated about one week.

[rightly_dividing]

Thanks for that link that you posted.I will spend much time reading those recipes. Also, for the recipes that you posted. I can see baked beans on the supper menu tonight or tomorrow night.

[Netizen]

I like that site for times when I have an ingredient that I’m not sure what I want to do with it. The recipes are categorized fairly well, too. You can kind of zero in on what you are looking for.

I couldn’t even begin to determine the hours/days I’ve spent going through that site! lol

[rightly_dividing]

I couldn’t even begin to determine the hours/days I’ve spent going through that site!

I understand. I have been studying bean recipes there for a while now this morning. I have always been a dry bean cooker. Slow cookers and dry beans were made for each other, although I am going to cook baked beans in the oven like my mom did.

Since moving to Texas seven months ago, I have been cooking the state bean of Texas a lot; the Pinto. Restaurants of all descriptions serve Pintos. Many BBQ restaurants and seafood restuaurants have free Pinto beans at a self serve station. When someone says beans in Tx. they mean Pintos. They usually have Jalapenos in them, and sometimes are spiced like meatless chili.

[Netizen]

I like Pinto beans. I use them because they have a little less iron than some of the others. I usually add a can of pinto and a can of red kidney beans to my chili. I would probably like the ones with jalapenos since I like spicy.

Just looked over there and found a recipe! lol Gotta save it and give it a try. Does this look about right?

Spicy Hot Pintos

1 lb Pinto beans, dried
1/4 lb Salt pork; cubed
1 Garlic clove; minced
3 Jalapeno peppers; seeded and chopped; to 6 peppers
3 Green onions; chopped
2 md Tomatoes; peeled and chopped
1 ts Coriander, whole; dried
1/2 ts Salt

Sort and wash beans; place in a large Dutch oven. Cover with water 2 inches above beans, and bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes. Remove pinto beans from heat; cover and let soak about 1 hour.

Add salt pork and garlic to beans; cover and simmer 30 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients; cover and simmer an additional 30 minutes or until beans are tender.

Also found this. I can’t decide but it might be worth trying. I can see it for ham sandwiches.

Mustard Wheat Rye

2 ts Yeast
1/3 c Dijon mustard
1 c Bread flour
2/3 c Water
1/2 c Whole wheat flour
1 tb Lecithin granules
1/2 c Rye flour
1 tb Molasses
1 tb Gluten

Dump yeast in machine. Dump in flours and lecithin granules Fill measuring cup to 2/3rds with warm water. Add mustard until liquid measures a full cup. Add molasses and stir. Dump in machine.

Set machine to BASIC bake.

[rightly_dividing]

The pintos sound good. We usually go light on the jalapenos in the recipe, then have them available at the table so that we can adjust the heat to individual taste. I can tolerate a bit more heat than my wife, but she does like heat.

I don't know why, but I never make fresh bread. We have a bread machine. Maybe I will look at some bread recipes; I love wheat and rye breads. Well, actually, I like all kinds of breads. Hmmmmmm.......