Black beans are among my favorite of the legumes. We eat a lot of them in this house. Not because we are poor, because we like them. That they are inexpensive is just a plus.
I read over the recipe more carefully. 12 cups of vinegar must have been a typo. We never used vinegar.
When we were poor Cuban refugees, we ate beans and rice every day. Now that we are rich, we still eat a lot of them.