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Seasoning for soup beans?

Mike

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Since growing up and still today, my father will make soup beans from time to time during family get together's, etc using the this recipe:

1 lb Great Northern Beans (soak in water the night prior to cooking)
1 lb Ham
1/2 Onion
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
2-3 drops Dave's Insanity sauce
Seasoning

Cook for 2-3 hours (he's always cooked them in a cast iron pot over a wood fire).

Basic to the bone I know but what I'm looking for is what you guys would think would make for good seasoning in soup beans?

What my father uses is a local guy I do believe who calls his stuff "Jims Seasonong". While I haven't gathered what ingredients are in his seasoning and will look next time I'm back home - in the meantime wanted to look at alternatives.

What would you guys suggest?
 

w_r_ranch

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We do just about the same here for navy beans/great northern (minus the 'Dave's Insanity'). We do put some hot mustard in it at the table though.

The staple here in Texas is pinto beans... The best off-the-shelf seasoning is 'Fiesta Brand Pinto Bean Seasoning'. Send me an address & I'll mail you some if you can not locate it at your location. Throw in 3 or 4 diced up jalapenos, you'll think that you died & went to heaven!
 
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ErnieCopp

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I did not know anyone else put mustard in their beans except me. My family used it back in Kansas during the depression, but since leaving their, i have never seen anyone else do that. I think it is always good with beans, and really good when there is ham in the beans.

Apparently not many people in CA will use the shank end of the hams, so around Thanksgiving and Christmas when there is a big demand for the Butt ends, we buy two or three of the shank ends to put mostly in beans. They are one of the biggest bargains, as they sell for around a dollar a pound, and that is smoked perfectly.

Ernie
 

w_r_ranch

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Since it going to be cold the next couple of nights, I thawed out some smoked wild hog & got a pot of them simmering right now... While these are going, I need to get to work moving plants into the greenhouse & bring up some firewood... wind is steady out of the north @ 11 MPH, supposed to hit 24 MPH around 1500 hrs. I don't like the cold... at all.

Northern_Bean_Soup.jpg
 
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Mike

Might know the answer
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977
Location
Kentucky
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6b
Sam thanks for the suggestion on jalapenos and the Fiesta Brand Pinto Bean Seasoning. Looks like I can get it here on Amazon, also locally at Sams CLub in jumbo size and even direct from Fiesta so I'll pick up some of that and get these beans over the open fire!

I'll admit I've never heard of mustard in beans. New on me.
 

Ibtsoom

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Hitchcock,Tx
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9A
I 've never heard of the mustard thing either but I love mustard and will surely try it the next pot I make. I usually drench mine in pepper sauce that I make from the tabasco peppers that I grow in the spring.
 

w_r_ranch

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I'll admit I've never heard of mustard in beans. New on me.

I never did either... I acquired the 'taste' for it from my wife... we picked up a number of bad habits from one another over the years, most of them taste pretty good!!!

Except for her peanut butter & onion sandwich fetish. UGGGGHHHH... still can't bring myself to even try it. First time I ever saw her eating that combination, I asked her if she was pregnant, LOL!!!
 

Mike

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Location
Kentucky
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Well I certainly didn't need 6x 4.5oz containers of Fiesta Brand Pinto Bean Seasoning but I just picked some up from Amazon for $14.70 shipped to my door by Friday... just in time for when my parents should be in town to visit. :D

If anyone would like one let me know and I'll send one out.

Looking forward to me and the old man trying this out together!
 

Mike

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977
Location
Kentucky
Planting Zone
6b
Parents came in town over the weekend to see their grandchild, any maybe the wife and I but mostly the grandchild. While they where here we made up some soup beans and some sweet corn bread. It was delicious!

soup-beans.jpg
 
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Slowngreen

Guest
Actually yeah, that looks perfect Mike! Not a huge bean fan but Id eat it, lol. Gonna steal this recipe.
 
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Mr_Yan

Guest
I make a large pot of bean and chicken soup each Sunday during the fall and winter. Works out that this gives us Sunday dinner and lunches for about 3 days. My bean soup seasoning mix is mostly what ever is not nailed down on my spice shelf and varies week to week. I've gotten casual with this and don't really measure it but here goes:

2 - 3 T Parsley flakes
1 T thyme
2 t oregano
1 T chili powder or flakes
1 T paprika
1 sprig rosemary
1 t tumeric (added this for the first time this week)
4 bay leaf
1 T cumin
1 T sage (not rubbed sage)
1/2 head garlic (fresh minced and sauteed with the onion, carrot, and celery)

I did this with 1/2 cup each of black, white, red, pinto, and cranberry beans, 3 chicken leg quarters, 3/4 pounds of carrots, 1 large onion, 6 ribs of celery and we added about 1.5 cups of small pasta stars at the end.

Another good reference for a white bean soup is the Senate White Bean Soup. This is the soup that the US senate lunch room has served for over a hundred years without significant changes.
 
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Slowngreen

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I made some last night, but didnt have ham or bacon so I used some chicken lunch meat sliced up along with some garlic, was great.
 
M

MB3

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by mustard, do you mean prepared mustard, mustard seed (whole or ground), or greens? I have done the last two, but not prepared mustards. When adding mustard greens, I add them at serving as a garnish. Especially good are really hot varieties.
I do my soup beans a bit different, though, as I don't eat meat,
I soak them, o/c but for flavors, I usually rely on making a mirepoix (onions, celery, carrots) and perhaps mushrooms and bell and hot peppers (roasted or not), for a basic vegetable stock, then add in tons of savory and spicy spices and herbs (things like thyme, rosemary, basil, epazote, celery seed, ground mustard seed, turmeric, garlic powder, onion powder, bay leaf), and *lightly* even add a few sweet ones (clove, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, galangal, etc... never cardamom, and typically not cinnamon). It all depends a lot on the end desired product, but this is a gist of what I do for soup beans. Simmered for a few hours in a cast iron dutch oven or slow cooker (takes longer). Usually cooked with balsamic or raw apple cider vinegar, coconut oil. Sometimes I add in tomatoes or paste, sometimes greens and stuff like that at the end or garnish. Often I garnish with fresh cilantro and parsleys, and olive oil, sometimes fresh squeezed lemon juice. Things really change depend on end result and even what beans I am using (black beans, black eyed peas, navy, home made mix of 10- 20 beans/legumes, etc).
 

w_r_ranch

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We do put some hot prepared mustard in it at the table (navy/northern bean soup only). Never in pintos or limas.
 
M

MB3

Guest
might have to try that some time. love navy / northern beans.
go well especially for the times I have no spicy mustard greens as garnish.
 
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ErnieCopp

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We always bring our beans to a boil the night before and let them soak all night,Then rinse good and use new water for cooking them, per Julia Child, and that really diminishes the gas problems.

I use whatever yellow prepared mustard is open, and more of it if there is ham cooked in the beans.

Ernie
 
M

MB3

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I do sometimes add boiling water, like a quick soak, but still do a long soak with that if I can, rather than just a quick soak. I always wash after soaking, then cook.
 
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