Pioneer Woman

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Replies

  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    suziecue25 wrote: »
    I think I'm like quite a lot of people in that I've got cookbooks I've read and never used eg a beautiful Mediterranean Cookbook someone bought me......recipe - take one goat and marinade for 3 days!

    I cook goat off and on. There is really no reason to marinate it for an extended period of time. It does respond well to brining but that would still not take 3 days. Was the recipe some kind of curing process?

    Love that this got a woo... someone must be questioning your brining expertise.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    suziecue25 wrote: »
    I think I'm like quite a lot of people in that I've got cookbooks I've read and never used eg a beautiful Mediterranean Cookbook someone bought me......recipe - take one goat and marinade for 3 days!

    Me too.

    For example, I have some Fuchsia Dunlop ones about the cuisine of different parts of China that are beautiful and interesting, but actually finding the ingredients and trying to do them justice at all always seems too much work.

    I mostly use cookbooks for inspiration and ideas, however.

    Yeah this is why I almost always buy cookbooks in stores instead of online. I need to be able to browse the recipes to, at the very least, see if I'd actually like a good chunk of them (this is actually why I don't buy knitting books anymore and the same thing I do with quilting books). I typically don't have a lot of trouble getting ingredients (with some frustrating exceptions), but I've definitely looked through cookbooks that look interesting upon first glance, but are ones I would get no real use out of if I bought them.
  • veganbaum
    veganbaum Posts: 1,865 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    try2again wrote: »
    Since pretty much everything seems fair game here, can I just share a pet peeve? I really hate websites, of which PW is a prime example, that make you scroll through 100 pictures documenting each step (yes, I know what sauteing onions looks like) to get to the recipe. I mean, if it's a little-known technique, or providing an example of how something should look at a critical stage, I can understand that, but a photo of each addition?

    Is it just me?

    Oh, not only that, but there's the long-winded narrative about the "journey" behind the creation of the recipe.

    I am very thankful for blogs that include a "jump to recipe" button at the top of the page.

    Across genres, there is a vein of bloggers (who sometimes also become TV personalities) who have a lot of "beautiful, gracious and admirable life" aspirational (?) content that's only marginally related to the core subject, if
    that core subject were to be taken as instructional in intent.

    I do see it in cooking, as here - that "lifestyle" dimension, the carefully-curated image; but also in crafts that interest me.

    For a specific example, some of the jewelry making or visual/art journaling and other mixed-media arts blogs are pretty nuts'n'bolts, showing some photos of finished work, some notes on the thoughts behind the specific work or the techniques employed, and the occasional free tutorial or technique video (plus links to stuff you can buy, usually ;) ).

    Other sites are very full of effusive prose about mystical creativity, and inspiration photos of stuff from the blogger's daily meditative nature walk, pictures of the adorable and accomplished family doing lovely things, and a small amount of more concrete "here's my work" and "here's how to do X" content (all of that surrounded by artsily-arranged studio photos, and sunshine coming through the stained glass piece "my dear friend Beth (here's her etsy page) made for my 40th birthday celebration" onto the piece of art/craft work that's the putative subject.

    To a certain extent, I think we're intended to think of these very much constructed public images as our friends, and to sort of create a community (or more cynically, cult of personality) around them. I see this somewhat in my mixed-media arts friends, who gossip about their favorite bloggers as if they were a personal friend in common, "get together" in groups to do projects "with" the blogger on video, buy all the blogger's new supplies demonstrated in said video, go to their live classes when the blogger travels, and that sort of thing. It's as if the person were the alpha person in a real-world social group, but without the exposure to the person's flaws that might be evident in real life (unless they really as a perfect as the blog would have us believe, of course).

    In a way, I feel like Martha Stewart and maybe Oprah were early standard-bearers for this sort of thing, but now there are specialized cases in lots of niches.

    Yeah, cynical again.

    I don't think you're being cynical, I think you're describing a real-life thing: parasocial relationships.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,419 Member
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    Pioneer Woman's overdone "folksiness" annoys me, but her recipe for baked beans is actually delicious. I have made it many times, and have not found another recipe that measures up.

    https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

    "Here, start by using all these lovely fresh ingredients like onion, bacon and pepper. Then halfway through, add a couple cans of prepared Pork N Beans..."

    How is that a recipe for homemade baked beans? That's cheating!!!:lol:



    p.s. @AnnPT77 loved your winky post. :wink:

  • hrafnkat
    hrafnkat Posts: 10 Member
    edited January 2019
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    Pioneer Woman's overdone "folksiness" annoys me, but her recipe for baked beans is actually delicious. I have made it many times, and have not found another recipe that measures up.

    https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

    "Here, start by using all these lovely fresh ingredients like onion, bacon and pepper. Then halfway through, add a couple cans of prepared Pork N Beans..."

    How is that a recipe for homemade baked beans? That's cheating!!!:lol:

    Oh, it's definitely, 100% cheating! But the end result is amazing, and far tastier than you would guess from a tin of pork-n-beans. I add chopped-up cooked bacon to the beans mixture as well, not just on top (and skip the bell pepper, but that's just my personal preference). Mmm. Now I'm hungry!

    I've tried making baked beans from dried beans, and it never comes out quite as well. Maybe I am just not a good enough cook to pull it off. :lol:
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    MsBaz2018 wrote: »
    @suziecue25 I take it you are not into bread making? I have tried sourdough starter in vain. 10 day endeavor. However I successfully managed to ferment cabbage (one week).

    @pinuplove Yay! Another Chef John fan! I Watch his YouTube channel but I haven't quite managed to navigate his blog. Too confusing.

    @French_Peasant I do love sharing food. I guess if I had a husband I'd like to cook his favorites once in a while. Most of the cookies and breads I bake are for that. Someone mentionned earlier that's also Mary Berry's philosophy - taste a bit, share a lot. At 200+ lbs I think I still taste too much and don't share enough :smile:

    GBBO fan all the way. The cookbook I use the most is Paul Hollywood's How To Bake.

    Yeah, I don't generally make his favorite cookies (plain oatmeal)....love can only go so far. I make MY favorite cookies, which overlaps with the kids' favorites (Neiman Marcus for my daughter, snickerdoodles for my son, and thumbprint just for me), and that gets me in a lot of trouble.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,419 Member
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    Pioneer Woman's overdone "folksiness" annoys me, but her recipe for baked beans is actually delicious. I have made it many times, and have not found another recipe that measures up.

    https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

    "Here, start by using all these lovely fresh ingredients like onion, bacon and pepper. Then halfway through, add a couple cans of prepared Pork N Beans..."

    How is that a recipe for homemade baked beans? That's cheating!!!:lol:

    Oh, it's definitely, 100% cheating! But the end result is amazing, and far tastier than you would guess from a tin of pork-n-beans. I add chopped-up cooked bacon to the beans mixture as well, not just on top (and skip the bell pepper, but that's just my personal preference). Mmm. Now I'm hungry!

    I've tried making baked beans from dried beans, and it never comes out quite as well. Maybe I am just not a good enough cook to pull it off. :lol:

    ...and it's Pam Anderson's recipe. Double Cheater!!

    yeah, it's hard to get homemade from dried beans to be as tasty as Pork N Beans. Must be the cauldrons they use over at Van Camps.

    tenor.gif?itemid=9460762

    *waves @pinuplove

  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    Pioneer Woman's overdone "folksiness" annoys me, but her recipe for baked beans is actually delicious. I have made it many times, and have not found another recipe that measures up.

    https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

    "Here, start by using all these lovely fresh ingredients like onion, bacon and pepper. Then halfway through, add a couple cans of prepared Pork N Beans..."

    How is that a recipe for homemade baked beans? That's cheating!!!:lol:

    Oh, it's definitely, 100% cheating! But the end result is amazing, and far tastier than you would guess from a tin of pork-n-beans. I add chopped-up cooked bacon to the beans mixture as well, not just on top (and skip the bell pepper, but that's just my personal preference). Mmm. Now I'm hungry!

    I've tried making baked beans from dried beans, and it never comes out quite as well. Maybe I am just not a good enough cook to pull it off. :lol:

    Every time I've been determined to be "authentic" and use dried beans for a recipe, I've been disappointed. I just like the reliable, consistent texture of a good old canned bean! And my mom's baked bean recipe (truly the best, though I haven't seen PW's- maybe they're similar) also started with canned pork & beans. :)
  • suziecue25
    suziecue25 Posts: 289 Member
    MsBaz2018 wrote: »
    @suziecue25 I take it you are not into bread making? I have tried sourdough starter in vain. 10 day endeavor. However I successfully managed to ferment cabbage (one week).

    @pinuplove Yay! Another Chef John fan! I Watch his YouTube channel but I haven't quite managed to navigate his blog. Too confusing.

    @French_Peasant I do love sharing food. I guess if I had a husband I'd like to cook his favorites once in a while. Most of the cookies and breads I bake are for that. Someone mentionned earlier that's also Mary Berry's philosophy - taste a bit, share a lot. At 200+ lbs I think I still taste too much and don't share enough :smile:

    GBBO fan all the way. The cookbook I use the most is Paul Hollywood's How To Bake.

    No I'm not much of a baker and don't make bread but because we had a glut of good apples this year I made an Apple, Ginger & Honey cake from a Waitrose supermarket recipe which the family raved about....I had to make them all one. I really like sauerkraut but have only had it in Germany.

    ml0i6ofpngea.png
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,228 Member
    try2again wrote: »
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    Pioneer Woman's overdone "folksiness" annoys me, but her recipe for baked beans is actually delicious. I have made it many times, and have not found another recipe that measures up.

    https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

    "Here, start by using all these lovely fresh ingredients like onion, bacon and pepper. Then halfway through, add a couple cans of prepared Pork N Beans..."

    How is that a recipe for homemade baked beans? That's cheating!!!:lol:

    Oh, it's definitely, 100% cheating! But the end result is amazing, and far tastier than you would guess from a tin of pork-n-beans. I add chopped-up cooked bacon to the beans mixture as well, not just on top (and skip the bell pepper, but that's just my personal preference). Mmm. Now I'm hungry!

    I've tried making baked beans from dried beans, and it never comes out quite as well. Maybe I am just not a good enough cook to pull it off. :lol:

    Every time I've been determined to be "authentic" and use dried beans for a recipe, I've been disappointed. I just like the reliable, consistent texture of a good old canned bean! And my mom's baked bean recipe (truly the best, though I haven't seen PW's- maybe they're similar) also started with canned pork & beans. :)

    I'm going to be weird here, again. Don't worry, it's different weird than earlier in the thread.

    I've never liked the canned "baked" beans, and consider it an abomination to put them in actual baked beans. IMO (which clearly is not shared here or elsewhere), they're a seriously over-sweetened too-liquid bean-based quasi-confection. Furthermore, they're sweetened - if one wants to sweeten beans - with the wrong stuff, mostly.

    I don't make baked beans (well, super rarely). My mother made them with dry Great Northern beans, very minimal seasonings - too little for my preference, really - and topped them with strips of side pork (not bacon) before baking. When done, the side pork was ambrosial: Crispy on top, melt-y into the beans on the bottom. There were no tomatoes, only a very little mustard powder, small amount of brown sugar, some onions, salt, and a bit of molasses, if I recall correctly.

    As I said, I don't often make baked beans. If I did, I wouldn't make them that way, and not just because I'm vegetarian. They need more seasoning than that . . . but not a boatload of white sugar (no flavor!), and I prefer minimal to no tomatoes. If sweet, definitely some molasses.

    I think those trying baked bean recipes from dry beans, but not finding them as tasty as when including canned baked beans, mostly just need to add a bunch more sugar and other seasonings. Really lots. Beans absorb that stuff. Getting the right bean texture is more a matter of catching them at the right time when pre-cooking the beans.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    try2again wrote: »
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    Pioneer Woman's overdone "folksiness" annoys me, but her recipe for baked beans is actually delicious. I have made it many times, and have not found another recipe that measures up.

    https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

    "Here, start by using all these lovely fresh ingredients like onion, bacon and pepper. Then halfway through, add a couple cans of prepared Pork N Beans..."

    How is that a recipe for homemade baked beans? That's cheating!!!:lol:

    Oh, it's definitely, 100% cheating! But the end result is amazing, and far tastier than you would guess from a tin of pork-n-beans. I add chopped-up cooked bacon to the beans mixture as well, not just on top (and skip the bell pepper, but that's just my personal preference). Mmm. Now I'm hungry!

    I've tried making baked beans from dried beans, and it never comes out quite as well. Maybe I am just not a good enough cook to pull it off. :lol:

    Every time I've been determined to be "authentic" and use dried beans for a recipe, I've been disappointed. I just like the reliable, consistent texture of a good old canned bean! And my mom's baked bean recipe (truly the best, though I haven't seen PW's- maybe they're similar) also started with canned pork & beans. :)

    I'm going to be weird here, again. Don't worry, it's different weird than earlier in the thread.

    I've never liked the canned "baked" beans, and consider it an abomination to put them in actual baked beans. IMO (which clearly is not shared here or elsewhere), they're a seriously over-sweetened too-liquid bean-based quasi-confection. Furthermore, they're sweetened - if one wants to sweeten beans - with the wrong stuff, mostly.

    I don't make baked beans (well, super rarely). My mother made them with dry Great Northern beans, very minimal seasonings - too little for my preference, really - and topped them with strips of side pork (not bacon) before baking. When done, the side pork was ambrosial: Crispy on top, melt-y into the beans on the bottom. There were no tomatoes, only a very little mustard powder, small amount of brown sugar, some onions, salt, and a bit of molasses, if I recall correctly.

    As I said, I don't often make baked beans. If I did, I wouldn't make them that way, and not just because I'm vegetarian. They need more seasoning than that . . . but not a boatload of white sugar (no flavor!), and I prefer minimal to no tomatoes. If sweet, definitely some molasses.

    I think those trying baked bean recipes from dry beans, but not finding them as tasty as when including canned baked beans, mostly just need to add a bunch more sugar and other seasonings. Really lots. Beans absorb that stuff. Getting the right bean texture is more a matter of catching them at the right time when pre-cooking the beans.

    It's definitely a texture issue for me, which I have played with in the past, but honestly would just rather open a can. When times get tougher, I will bite the bullet ;)

    I agree... I don't like canned "baked beans". I guess I don't view plain "pork & beans" as being the same. But it's true, our family liked them sweet, and mom would add brown sugar & molasses, along with all the other good stuff.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited January 2019
    NovusDies wrote: »
    suziecue25 wrote: »
    I think I'm like quite a lot of people in that I've got cookbooks I've read and never used eg a beautiful Mediterranean Cookbook someone bought me......recipe - take one goat and marinade for 3 days!

    I cook goat off and on. There is really no reason to marinate it for an extended period of time. It does respond well to brining but that would still not take 3 days. Was the recipe some kind of curing process?

    Me too, and don't do anything special. Mostly goat loin chops, however, where the main concern is drying them out. I usually just roast similar to rack of lamb, but am aware that there's less fat so they cook fast.

    Here's an option involving a shorter amount of marinating: https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/grilled-goat-chops-with-garlic-oregano-and-lemon
    aokoye wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    suziecue25 wrote: »
    I think I'm like quite a lot of people in that I've got cookbooks I've read and never used eg a beautiful Mediterranean Cookbook someone bought me......recipe - take one goat and marinade for 3 days!

    Me too.

    For example, I have some Fuchsia Dunlop ones about the cuisine of different parts of China that are beautiful and interesting, but actually finding the ingredients and trying to do them justice at all always seems too much work.

    I mostly use cookbooks for inspiration and ideas, however.

    Yeah this is why I almost always buy cookbooks in stores instead of online. I need to be able to browse the recipes to, at the very least, see if I'd actually like a good chunk of them (this is actually why I don't buy knitting books anymore and the same thing I do with quilting books). I typically don't have a lot of trouble getting ingredients (with some frustrating exceptions), but I've definitely looked through cookbooks that look interesting upon first glance, but are ones I would get no real use out of if I bought them.

    I was aware of the nature of the recipes before buying (I have 3 of her books, bought at different times, and bought the first based on a review). It was a feature not a bug. Partly because I love reading books about the traditional cooking of various areas with beautiful photos, whether I make them or not, and partly because I have aspirational ideas about someday doing it. And partly because I get inspired and do some half-a*sed US knock off. (Although I have great ethnic groceries in my city (Chicago), so could try to do it right, I'm just lazy.)

    My thing is I hate cooking from recipes. Once I realized that I became a much better cook. I read recipes to learn about cooking and try things from them, but I cook without them (which is why I prefer cooking to baking, where recipes are more important unless you understand the ratios and science better than I do).
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    MsBaz2018 wrote: »
    @suziecue25 I take it you are not into bread making? I have tried sourdough starter in vain. 10 day endeavor. However I successfully managed to ferment cabbage (one week).

    @pinuplove Yay! Another Chef John fan! I Watch his YouTube channel but I haven't quite managed to navigate his blog. Too confusing.

    @French_Peasant I do love sharing food. I guess if I had a husband I'd like to cook his favorites once in a while. Most of the cookies and breads I bake are for that. Someone mentionned earlier that's also Mary Berry's philosophy - taste a bit, share a lot. At 200+ lbs I think I still taste too much and don't share enough :smile:

    GBBO fan all the way. The cookbook I use the most is Paul Hollywood's How To Bake.

    Yeah, I don't generally make his favorite cookies (plain oatmeal)....love can only go so far. I make MY favorite cookies, which overlaps with the kids' favorites (Neiman Marcus for my daughter, snickerdoodles for my son, and thumbprint just for me), and that gets me in a lot of trouble.

    Snickerdoodles are obviously the best cookie, your son is smart.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    try2again wrote: »
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    Pioneer Woman's overdone "folksiness" annoys me, but her recipe for baked beans is actually delicious. I have made it many times, and have not found another recipe that measures up.

    https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

    "Here, start by using all these lovely fresh ingredients like onion, bacon and pepper. Then halfway through, add a couple cans of prepared Pork N Beans..."

    How is that a recipe for homemade baked beans? That's cheating!!!:lol:

    Oh, it's definitely, 100% cheating! But the end result is amazing, and far tastier than you would guess from a tin of pork-n-beans. I add chopped-up cooked bacon to the beans mixture as well, not just on top (and skip the bell pepper, but that's just my personal preference). Mmm. Now I'm hungry!

    I've tried making baked beans from dried beans, and it never comes out quite as well. Maybe I am just not a good enough cook to pull it off. :lol:

    Every time I've been determined to be "authentic" and use dried beans for a recipe, I've been disappointed. I just like the reliable, consistent texture of a good old canned bean! And my mom's baked bean recipe (truly the best, though I haven't seen PW's- maybe they're similar) also started with canned pork & beans. :)

    I'm going to be weird here, again. Don't worry, it's different weird than earlier in the thread.

    I've never liked the canned "baked" beans, and consider it an abomination to put them in actual baked beans. IMO (which clearly is not shared here or elsewhere), they're a seriously over-sweetened too-liquid bean-based quasi-confection. Furthermore, they're sweetened - if one wants to sweeten beans - with the wrong stuff, mostly.

    I don't make baked beans (well, super rarely). My mother made them with dry Great Northern beans, very minimal seasonings - too little for my preference, really - and topped them with strips of side pork (not bacon) before baking. When done, the side pork was ambrosial: Crispy on top, melt-y into the beans on the bottom. There were no tomatoes, only a very little mustard powder, small amount of brown sugar, some onions, salt, and a bit of molasses, if I recall correctly.

    As I said, I don't often make baked beans. If I did, I wouldn't make them that way, and not just because I'm vegetarian. They need more seasoning than that . . . but not a boatload of white sugar (no flavor!), and I prefer minimal to no tomatoes. If sweet, definitely some molasses.

    I think those trying baked bean recipes from dry beans, but not finding them as tasty as when including canned baked beans, mostly just need to add a bunch more sugar and other seasonings. Really lots. Beans absorb that stuff. Getting the right bean texture is more a matter of catching them at the right time when pre-cooking the beans.

    Agreed. Also will say that I adore instant pot for cooking from dried beans. I can already tell it's going to make my dishes so much easier.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,228 Member
    veganbaum wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    try2again wrote: »
    Since pretty much everything seems fair game here, can I just share a pet peeve? I really hate websites, of which PW is a prime example, that make you scroll through 100 pictures documenting each step (yes, I know what sauteing onions looks like) to get to the recipe. I mean, if it's a little-known technique, or providing an example of how something should look at a critical stage, I can understand that, but a photo of each addition?

    Is it just me?

    Oh, not only that, but there's the long-winded narrative about the "journey" behind the creation of the recipe.

    I am very thankful for blogs that include a "jump to recipe" button at the top of the page.

    Across genres, there is a vein of bloggers (who sometimes also become TV personalities) who have a lot of "beautiful, gracious and admirable life" aspirational (?) content that's only marginally related to the core subject, if
    that core subject were to be taken as instructional in intent.

    I do see it in cooking, as here - that "lifestyle" dimension, the carefully-curated image; but also in crafts that interest me.

    For a specific example, some of the jewelry making or visual/art journaling and other mixed-media arts blogs are pretty nuts'n'bolts, showing some photos of finished work, some notes on the thoughts behind the specific work or the techniques employed, and the occasional free tutorial or technique video (plus links to stuff you can buy, usually ;) ).

    Other sites are very full of effusive prose about mystical creativity, and inspiration photos of stuff from the blogger's daily meditative nature walk, pictures of the adorable and accomplished family doing lovely things, and a small amount of more concrete "here's my work" and "here's how to do X" content (all of that surrounded by artsily-arranged studio photos, and sunshine coming through the stained glass piece "my dear friend Beth (here's her etsy page) made for my 40th birthday celebration" onto the piece of art/craft work that's the putative subject.

    To a certain extent, I think we're intended to think of these very much constructed public images as our friends, and to sort of create a community (or more cynically, cult of personality) around them. I see this somewhat in my mixed-media arts friends, who gossip about their favorite bloggers as if they were a personal friend in common, "get together" in groups to do projects "with" the blogger on video, buy all the blogger's new supplies demonstrated in said video, go to their live classes when the blogger travels, and that sort of thing. It's as if the person were the alpha person in a real-world social group, but without the exposure to the person's flaws that might be evident in real life (unless they really as a perfect as the blog would have us believe, of course).

    In a way, I feel like Martha Stewart and maybe Oprah were early standard-bearers for this sort of thing, but now there are specialized cases in lots of niches.

    Yeah, cynical again.

    I don't think you're being cynical, I think you're describing a real-life thing: parasocial relationships.

    Hunh! New term to me: Interesting. I'm reading up on it a little. Thank you! :flowerforyou:
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,228 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    try2again wrote: »
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    hrafnkat wrote: »
    Pioneer Woman's overdone "folksiness" annoys me, but her recipe for baked beans is actually delicious. I have made it many times, and have not found another recipe that measures up.

    https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

    "Here, start by using all these lovely fresh ingredients like onion, bacon and pepper. Then halfway through, add a couple cans of prepared Pork N Beans..."

    How is that a recipe for homemade baked beans? That's cheating!!!:lol:

    Oh, it's definitely, 100% cheating! But the end result is amazing, and far tastier than you would guess from a tin of pork-n-beans. I add chopped-up cooked bacon to the beans mixture as well, not just on top (and skip the bell pepper, but that's just my personal preference). Mmm. Now I'm hungry!

    I've tried making baked beans from dried beans, and it never comes out quite as well. Maybe I am just not a good enough cook to pull it off. :lol:

    Every time I've been determined to be "authentic" and use dried beans for a recipe, I've been disappointed. I just like the reliable, consistent texture of a good old canned bean! And my mom's baked bean recipe (truly the best, though I haven't seen PW's- maybe they're similar) also started with canned pork & beans. :)

    I'm going to be weird here, again. Don't worry, it's different weird than earlier in the thread.

    I've never liked the canned "baked" beans, and consider it an abomination to put them in actual baked beans. IMO (which clearly is not shared here or elsewhere), they're a seriously over-sweetened too-liquid bean-based quasi-confection. Furthermore, they're sweetened - if one wants to sweeten beans - with the wrong stuff, mostly.

    I don't make baked beans (well, super rarely). My mother made them with dry Great Northern beans, very minimal seasonings - too little for my preference, really - and topped them with strips of side pork (not bacon) before baking. When done, the side pork was ambrosial: Crispy on top, melt-y into the beans on the bottom. There were no tomatoes, only a very little mustard powder, small amount of brown sugar, some onions, salt, and a bit of molasses, if I recall correctly.

    As I said, I don't often make baked beans. If I did, I wouldn't make them that way, and not just because I'm vegetarian. They need more seasoning than that . . . but not a boatload of white sugar (no flavor!), and I prefer minimal to no tomatoes. If sweet, definitely some molasses.

    I think those trying baked bean recipes from dry beans, but not finding them as tasty as when including canned baked beans, mostly just need to add a bunch more sugar and other seasonings. Really lots. Beans absorb that stuff. Getting the right bean texture is more a matter of catching them at the right time when pre-cooking the beans.

    Agreed. Also will say that I adore instant pot for cooking from dried beans. I can already tell it's going to make my dishes so much easier.

    I'm thinking about whether I should get one, just for that reason (mainly), even though I'm not a big appliance enthusiast, in general.

    Before they became a big thing, I'd been mulling getting the largest possible slow cooker just for beans, because I cook giant pots of them (soup kettle) to freeze in portions. On the stove, even with the cast iron heat-spreader thingies under, they do want to stick a bit towards the end if I'm not careful. (I usually have to set a timer to stir, toward the end, because I'm easily distracted.)

    But I'm thinking I'd still want to freeze; I'm impatient for dinner, so the frozen beans are super quick. I assume lentils could be pretty quick via intant pot, but maybe not the big/slow beans. Any thoughts?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,419 Member
    Any thoughts?

    My only thought was that I was nodding along in agreement about paying close attention at the end. My iPhone timer is worth the cost of the iPhone. Siri is so helpful!

    You must have a big freezer! Living alone that's the one thing I don't like, having to freeze stuff and not having the room.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,419 Member
    The weirdest thing happens to me on this thread. When I post in it - it doesn't bump it up in the Recent Posts list. I've never had that happen. Oops. It's all about me, isn't it?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,228 Member
    Any thoughts?

    My only thought was that I was nodding along in agreement about paying close attention at the end. My iPhone timer is worth the cost of the iPhone. Siri is so helpful!

    You must have a big freezer! Living alone that's the one thing I don't like, having to freeze stuff and not having the room.

    Nice big chest freezer in the basement. That's one appliance I'm extra happy to have: Still lots of 2C tempered glass bowls of the super-delicious heirloom squash I got at the farmers market in the Fall, and a few left of split green peas.

    Still lots of room for the big bags of frozen veggies and fruit from Costco, among other things. If I only had a refrigerator-compartment freezer, there's no way I could do this, as a single person who likes variety.

    I need to cook up a new batch of black beans and/or lentils, now that enough bowls are free again. I usually freeze plain foods, vary up how I use them come prep time, though occasionally I freeze mini-frittatas/crustless quiche (1C bowls) all made up.

    Love my freezer.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    The weirdest thing happens to me on this thread. When I post in it - it doesn't bump it up in the Recent Posts list. I've never had that happen. Oops. It's all about me, isn't it?

    I've seen that happen before, though usually on threads that were controversial enough I assumed someone decided to make them 'unbumpable' to encourage them to die faster. I only keep seeing this one because I get notifications from the tag about Chef John :lol:
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,419 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    The weirdest thing happens to me on this thread. When I post in it - it doesn't bump it up in the Recent Posts list. I've never had that happen. Oops. It's all about me, isn't it?

    I've seen that happen before, though usually on threads that were controversial enough I assumed someone decided to make them 'unbumpable' to encourage them to die faster. I only keep seeing this one because I get notifications from the tag about Chef John :lol:

    R e a l l y ?

    Well, this one might fall in that category.

    I've never noticed that before.

    What happens when you post in it? (or anyone?) Is is just me??
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    The weirdest thing happens to me on this thread. When I post in it - it doesn't bump it up in the Recent Posts list. I've never had that happen. Oops. It's all about me, isn't it?

    I've seen that happen before, though usually on threads that were controversial enough I assumed someone decided to make them 'unbumpable' to encourage them to die faster. I only keep seeing this one because I get notifications from the tag about Chef John :lol:

    R e a l l y ?

    Well, this one might fall in that category.

    I've never noticed that before.

    What happens when you post in it? (or anyone?) Is is just me??

    I also see notifications but it's not on the recent list. I suspect since it's wandered so far from the original post, the idea is to let involved posters continue chit chatting without reading in new posters who will be responding to posts we've all long since forgotten making :wink:
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,419 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    The weirdest thing happens to me on this thread. When I post in it - it doesn't bump it up in the Recent Posts list. I've never had that happen. Oops. It's all about me, isn't it?

    I've seen that happen before, though usually on threads that were controversial enough I assumed someone decided to make them 'unbumpable' to encourage them to die faster. I only keep seeing this one because I get notifications from the tag about Chef John :lol:

    R e a l l y ?

    Well, this one might fall in that category.

    I've never noticed that before.

    What happens when you post in it? (or anyone?) Is is just me??

    I also see notifications but it's not on the recent list. I suspect since it's wandered so far from the original post, the idea is to let involved posters continue chit chatting without reading in new posters who will be responding to posts we've all long since forgotten making :wink:

    Well, that's not right. Where's the stomp-all-the-flowers emoticon?
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    The weirdest thing happens to me on this thread. When I post in it - it doesn't bump it up in the Recent Posts list. I've never had that happen. Oops. It's all about me, isn't it?

    I've seen that happen before, though usually on threads that were controversial enough I assumed someone decided to make them 'unbumpable' to encourage them to die faster. I only keep seeing this one because I get notifications from the tag about Chef John :lol:

    R e a l l y ?

    Well, this one might fall in that category.

    I've never noticed that before.

    What happens when you post in it? (or anyone?) Is is just me??

    It doesn't get bumped for me either. I went ahead and starred it because I'm nosy and want to see any new posts :tongue:
  • suziecue25
    suziecue25 Posts: 289 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    The weirdest thing happens to me on this thread. When I post in it - it doesn't bump it up in the Recent Posts list. I've never had that happen. Oops. It's all about me, isn't it?

    I've seen that happen before, though usually on threads that were controversial enough I assumed someone decided to make them 'unbumpable' to encourage them to die faster. I only keep seeing this one because I get notifications from the tag about Chef John :lol:

    R e a l l y ?

    Well, this one might fall in that category.

    I've never noticed that before.

    What happens when you post in it? (or anyone?) Is is just me??

    It doesn't get bumped for me either. I went ahead and starred it because I'm nosy and want to see any new posts :tongue:

    and it won't bump for me either......we're doomed....I say we're doomed folks....see you on page 46 :#
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    The weirdest thing happens to me on this thread. When I post in it - it doesn't bump it up in the Recent Posts list. I've never had that happen. Oops. It's all about me, isn't it?

    I've seen that happen before, though usually on threads that were controversial enough I assumed someone decided to make them 'unbumpable' to encourage them to die faster. I only keep seeing this one because I get notifications from the tag about Chef John :lol:

    R e a l l y ?

    Well, this one might fall in that category.

    I've never noticed that before.

    What happens when you post in it? (or anyone?) Is is just me??

    I also see notifications but it's not on the recent list. I suspect since it's wandered so far from the original post, the idea is to let involved posters continue chit chatting without reading in new posters who will be responding to posts we've all long since forgotten making :wink:

    Well, that's not right. Where's the stomp-all-the-flowers emoticon?

    Meh, it started out as a contentious thread and has settled down to a fun conversation about vaguely related stuff, and this way no new posters react to just the OP and turn it back into a thread that needs to be closed. Instead we can talk about cooking shows and millenials and This Old House and recipes until we all drift away, undisturbed. :wink:
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,419 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    The weirdest thing happens to me on this thread. When I post in it - it doesn't bump it up in the Recent Posts list. I've never had that happen. Oops. It's all about me, isn't it?

    I've seen that happen before, though usually on threads that were controversial enough I assumed someone decided to make them 'unbumpable' to encourage them to die faster. I only keep seeing this one because I get notifications from the tag about Chef John :lol:

    R e a l l y ?

    Well, this one might fall in that category.

    I've never noticed that before.

    What happens when you post in it? (or anyone?) Is is just me??

    I also see notifications but it's not on the recent list. I suspect since it's wandered so far from the original post, the idea is to let involved posters continue chit chatting without reading in new posters who will be responding to posts we've all long since forgotten making :wink:

    Well, that's not right. Where's the stomp-all-the-flowers emoticon?

    Meh, it started out as a contentious thread and has settled down to a fun conversation about vaguely related stuff, and this way no new posters react to just the OP and turn it back into a thread that needs to be closed. Instead we can talk about cooking shows and millenials and This Old House and recipes until we all drift away, undisturbed. :wink:

    Oh, yeah - I mean I understand the reasoning. That's why where our friends post doesn't come up on the Home feed any more - I just didn't know it was a thing and this is the first time I've noticed it. Kinda puts the brakes on the Debate section, doesn't it?

    The Man. #features.

    RIP Anvilhead.

  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    The weirdest thing happens to me on this thread. When I post in it - it doesn't bump it up in the Recent Posts list. I've never had that happen. Oops. It's all about me, isn't it?

    I've seen that happen before, though usually on threads that were controversial enough I assumed someone decided to make them 'unbumpable' to encourage them to die faster. I only keep seeing this one because I get notifications from the tag about Chef John :lol:

    R e a l l y ?

    Well, this one might fall in that category.

    I've never noticed that before.

    What happens when you post in it? (or anyone?) Is is just me??

    I also see notifications but it's not on the recent list. I suspect since it's wandered so far from the original post, the idea is to let involved posters continue chit chatting without reading in new posters who will be responding to posts we've all long since forgotten making :wink:

    Well, that's not right. Where's the stomp-all-the-flowers emoticon?

    Meh, it started out as a contentious thread and has settled down to a fun conversation about vaguely related stuff, and this way no new posters react to just the OP and turn it back into a thread that needs to be closed. Instead we can talk about cooking shows and millenials and This Old House and recipes until we all drift away, undisturbed. :wink:

    Where's my 'Get Off My Lawn' sign? :lol: