FOOD Beans and Rice
- Thread starter nehimama
- Start date
The VIGO brand of rices has some interesting mixes. I buy them occasionally for one of my sons and then he dumps in his protein choice of the day.
It seems that the type/category of reaction depends on the particular antibodies the body makes: IgA, IgD, IgE (true allergy), IgG, and IgM. I don't know much about the differences but I think it bears research. Too many people blow off such things as all in the head, fad diets, no big deal (and of course *some* are), but there is usually *something* going on in the body, and it can be significant.
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Vigo rice is good until I saw the sodium content. I bought a few packs about a year based on the recommendations here
I forget which one but it was pretty darned good!
Yellow bag?
Anyway it was so salty I probably won’t fix that one much.
bbbuddy
DEPLORABLE ME
While there may be some truth to that, the actual reason southerners on a high corn diet had poor health (rickets, pellagra,etc) is the Mexicans nixtamalized the corn, which frees up the niacin and tryptophan etc.
Many nutrients are locked in corn without nixtamalization. Anyone prepping with corn to grow or dried corn should also stock plenty of Cal (calcium hydroxide). I've got about 50 lbs in a bucket around here somewhere, lol. Figured it would be a good barter item, if nixtamal recipe was included.
Is that what turns it into hominy?
Profit of Doom
Dismember
My son cuts it using ground turkey, asparagus, or something similar. It spreads the sodium around and flavors whatever he is cooking with it or has cooked to go with it.
Barry Natchitoches
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I have cooked 8 year old red beans, stored in their original cellophane bag. (Camilla brand red beans from New Orleans, of course). Actually, I have done this a number of times, as I am from New Orleans and eat them every Monday night for supper, per New Orleans tradition.
10 to 12 hours on HIGH in my crock pot softened them and completely cooked them - including cooking out the poisons.
No pre-soaking before putting beans in the crockpot.
One thing you MUST NOT DO, when cooking beans in a crock pot, is to add any acidic or fatty extras to the pot until the beans are soft enough to smash with a spoon against the wall of the pot!
I always add a can of diced tomato and a meat (usually either ham hock or smoked sausage) to my pot of beans. But I add these items only in the last hour before serving,, as tomatoes are acidic and sausage has fat in it.
Acidic or fatty foods added in before the beans are softened will prevent the beans from ever softening, depending on how early you add these things in.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I remember my grandparents making hominy outside in big cast iron kettles over an open fire. I don't remember if Grandma canned it or froze it when it cooled. I never developed a taste for it, but Dad loved it.
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Good idea!
Melodi
Disaster Cat
That is true, but I forgot to mention it. We don't have grits here in Ireland, so that is not a storage option. I discovered the hard way: you can't do this with turf ashes; it has to be wood ash.
However, it is also true that combining even nixtamalized corn. (or cans of hominy) will do better for long-term health if combined with beans. But I'm glad you added that extra step. At least I now have a source for organic and properly processed corn tortillas here (I keep them in the freezer). The usual ones in the store just used yellow corn meal and wheat flour to make something they called a corn tortilla but was anything but.
Beans are great - I usually opt for the "red beans and rice" theme, or go with baked beans and cornbread in normal times,
but for long term storage (#10 cans), have leaned mostly toward lentils, split peas and refried bean powder and of course, rice to go with. A lot easier to get to edible stage without hours of prep.
but for long term storage (#10 cans), have leaned mostly toward lentils, split peas and refried bean powder and of course, rice to go with. A lot easier to get to edible stage without hours of prep.
Toosh
Veteran Member
We are meat eaters. Beans & rice are the last option for us. 1 cup rice + 1 cup beans is about 430 calories, 19g protein, 84g carbs and 1 g fat. That's 16% protein, 81% carbs. Protein is important but beans & rice is not the perfect meal that everyone envisions. Your body can rob from muscle to produce protein but it cannot produce fat, you must ingest it.
1 cup rabbit is about 480 calories with 71g protein, 20g fat and 0 carbs. that is 63% protein, 37% fat, 0 carbs. Rabbits grow faster than beans and they grow in the winter. Fresh or home canned rabbit is my beans & rice alternative.
1 cup rabbit is about 480 calories with 71g protein, 20g fat and 0 carbs. that is 63% protein, 37% fat, 0 carbs. Rabbits grow faster than beans and they grow in the winter. Fresh or home canned rabbit is my beans & rice alternative.
I think your fat percentage is way high, even for domestic rabbit. I *know* it's way off for wild rabbit... people eating only wild rabbit suffer from "rabbit starvation", due to the lack of necessary fat.
Can you clarify the weight of "one cup" of rabbit?... I've never seen that measure in nutritional charts.
Don't get me wrong... I raised meat rabbits for years. It's a practical meat for "stealth" raising, and is easier to raise than chicken if you don't have access to grain.
But it's never been recognized as a significant source of fat.
Summerthyme
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Melodi
Disaster Cat
Meat is good for people who can or want to eat it, but it has limitations in terms of long-term storage. I think that is why beans and rice were brought up for this thread. I prefer my beans to have some meat or broth in them, and dried broth is easier to keep and store than meat pieces.
In our climate, even brittle jerky will tend to mold after a year or two. I tried several times to make an acceptable stew using homemade jerky, and it was unsuccessful. The meat pieces stayed hard, stringy, and unedible even with long-term or pressure cooking. They would have done better if they had made it into a hard (and dried) sausage or ground it into powder.
Long-term smoked or dried meat may last longer in places with a dry climate. Traditionally, meat was brined and smoked in the kitchen chimney in Ireland. I am sure the giant fireplace hidden behind the built-in one in the kitchen has a niche for this. But the money to try to tear down what is there and restore it isn't anywhere in my immediate future. We have a "clothing" hanger that can (and has) been used to dry meat. Nightwolf had a smokehouse for a few years, so that is another option, but it is a lot of work - in our climate, it fell apart and washed away after about five years. Salted meat and sausage were also used for meat preservation here, which is why Americans think Corned Beef is an Irish dish. It isn't, but it was close enough to the "Spiced Beef" traditionally preserved for Christmas dinner that Irish immigrants would buy and make at home with cabbage.
The advantage of long-term storage of peas and lentils (or DAL, as they call it in India) is that pre-soaking is unnecessary. Pre-soaking will make it faster (like 15 minutes instead of 30), but it doesn't take two or three hours like most beans if you don't soak them. I've had a vegetarian quickie dinner on the table in 45 minutes to an hour using lentils and rice, starting with dried lentils. You can't do that with dried beans unless you have cooked them and then dehydrated them afterward.
Edited to add—the best way to "store" meat in a crisis is to have chickens, rabbits, ducks, or other small animals that don't need a lot of space and can, in a pinch, eat what the family does. The other day, I explained to my housemate that chickens usually won't eat raw potato skins, but we could cook them in a pinch. Geese will eat raw potato peels, and ducks prefer them to be cooked. Quails work well in small spaces, but they are messy and require a lot of work for small eggs and not much meat (Nightwolf raised them for a time).
And crises can differ. During WWII, the people in the United Kingdom ate a lot of chicken, rabbit, and eggs, so beef and pork became popular once rationing ended in 1954. But my housemate tells me that in Germany, chicken was what everyone wanted right after the war because conditions in Germany were so dire that the population could not keep chickens by the end of the war. In England, it was still safe to gather. weeds and other plants to feed the chickens (along with any family leftovers), but things were so bad in Germany that this wasn't possible.
In our climate, even brittle jerky will tend to mold after a year or two. I tried several times to make an acceptable stew using homemade jerky, and it was unsuccessful. The meat pieces stayed hard, stringy, and unedible even with long-term or pressure cooking. They would have done better if they had made it into a hard (and dried) sausage or ground it into powder.
Long-term smoked or dried meat may last longer in places with a dry climate. Traditionally, meat was brined and smoked in the kitchen chimney in Ireland. I am sure the giant fireplace hidden behind the built-in one in the kitchen has a niche for this. But the money to try to tear down what is there and restore it isn't anywhere in my immediate future. We have a "clothing" hanger that can (and has) been used to dry meat. Nightwolf had a smokehouse for a few years, so that is another option, but it is a lot of work - in our climate, it fell apart and washed away after about five years. Salted meat and sausage were also used for meat preservation here, which is why Americans think Corned Beef is an Irish dish. It isn't, but it was close enough to the "Spiced Beef" traditionally preserved for Christmas dinner that Irish immigrants would buy and make at home with cabbage.
The advantage of long-term storage of peas and lentils (or DAL, as they call it in India) is that pre-soaking is unnecessary. Pre-soaking will make it faster (like 15 minutes instead of 30), but it doesn't take two or three hours like most beans if you don't soak them. I've had a vegetarian quickie dinner on the table in 45 minutes to an hour using lentils and rice, starting with dried lentils. You can't do that with dried beans unless you have cooked them and then dehydrated them afterward.
Edited to add—the best way to "store" meat in a crisis is to have chickens, rabbits, ducks, or other small animals that don't need a lot of space and can, in a pinch, eat what the family does. The other day, I explained to my housemate that chickens usually won't eat raw potato skins, but we could cook them in a pinch. Geese will eat raw potato peels, and ducks prefer them to be cooked. Quails work well in small spaces, but they are messy and require a lot of work for small eggs and not much meat (Nightwolf raised them for a time).
And crises can differ. During WWII, the people in the United Kingdom ate a lot of chicken, rabbit, and eggs, so beef and pork became popular once rationing ended in 1954. But my housemate tells me that in Germany, chicken was what everyone wanted right after the war because conditions in Germany were so dire that the population could not keep chickens by the end of the war. In England, it was still safe to gather. weeds and other plants to feed the chickens (along with any family leftovers), but things were so bad in Germany that this wasn't possible.
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They cause asthma for my husband if he eats them more than once a month. Soy will kill him.
bracketquant
Veteran Member
Soaked overnight, most of the beans, that I use, are done cooking (simmering in a stove top pot) in about 55 minutes. Adding meat and/or veggies, herbs, etc... throughout that cooking time, means that a bowl of soup is ready in about an hour.
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Then, you don't want to use them as a primary source of food storage for your family.
Also, almost every culture I know of that eats a lot of soy beans only eats them after fermentation. Three may be an occasional dish here and there that doesn't. But almost everything soy-based is fermented, like soy sauce, tofu, and other similar products. But again, if your husband has a deadly allergy, it is best not to have it in the house or only in a particular place and labeled. That's how my housemate and I handle her shellfish storage. She is a Pesctarian, but since I don't eat fish (and am deathly allergic to shellfish), we mostly eat vegetarian. She will eat meat in a survival situation, so we keep a lot of organic stock cubes and the like around, in case of a long term emergency.
Thank you, Summerthyme. My husband is exquisitely allergic according to his allergist. He went into anaphylactic shock the first time he tested. He had seen DH 10years before he tested for new syrum. After 100 mg of Benedryl, 2 breathing treatments, and a shot of theophylin, we could finally go home. He had never seen him have a problem and probably thought he was exaggerating. He looked over at me and said "You DO take good care of him",
I have found that the beans DH tolerates the best are Anasazi beans. Possibly because they are an ancient variety, they don't have the problems that modern varieties have. I also find that I can give him Pinquito beans from Lompoc, CA occasionally too. I like to add them to vegetable soup as well.
I usually add pearled barley to my beans to complete the protein. It has a lower glycemic number and you can't tell it's in the pot because it takes on the. taste of the beans. About 3 beans to 1 barley is a good ratio.
Profit of Doom
Dismember
War is hell!
Today I made my "Mexican" style pintos and rice. It isn't technically Mexican. I call it that to differentiate from my other iterations.
So. I used half a jar of chunky salsa as a large part of the cooking liquid. First I sauteed the sofrito (diced onion, celery and bell pepper) in lots of butter, then I added the rice and beans, 1/3 cup of each. I used quick-cooking (dehydrated) pintos and par-boiled rice. The cooking times are about the same for both. I used shelf-stable granulated beef bullion (Knorr), minced garlic, and a dash of cumin. Didn't need any salt. Once this cooked to perfection (Simmered), I put a GOOD amount of queso blanco atop my serving, AND IT WAS HEAVEN! (I think shredded cheese would also be heavenly.)
While this is simmering, one must keep an eye on it, stirring frequently, and adding liquid (broth or water) as needed. If it comes out too soupy, you can add instant rice (a LITTLE BIT at as time to soak up some or most of the liquid.)
So. I used half a jar of chunky salsa as a large part of the cooking liquid. First I sauteed the sofrito (diced onion, celery and bell pepper) in lots of butter, then I added the rice and beans, 1/3 cup of each. I used quick-cooking (dehydrated) pintos and par-boiled rice. The cooking times are about the same for both. I used shelf-stable granulated beef bullion (Knorr), minced garlic, and a dash of cumin. Didn't need any salt. Once this cooked to perfection (Simmered), I put a GOOD amount of queso blanco atop my serving, AND IT WAS HEAVEN! (I think shredded cheese would also be heavenly.)
While this is simmering, one must keep an eye on it, stirring frequently, and adding liquid (broth or water) as needed. If it comes out too soupy, you can add instant rice (a LITTLE BIT at as time to soak up some or most of the liquid.)
Great Northwet
Veteran Member
I do it myself. Salsa turns it into Mexican rice. If you're having it with chicken or fish add raisins and small grapes, or cashews. A Bechamel sauce is perfect for rice. Pesto also works to help the flavor change. It's really versatile and you can put it in many soups, either stock or cream based like the Cheddar broccoli soup I made over the weekend.
All that being said, when you add beans that changes a few things. Your going to get the nutrition but it will also lack flavor. The solution is many different kinds of peppers, or hot sauces. There are too many to count so I'll just lay out a couple basics.
If making a burrito, try to add some sliced tomato, onion, corn anything acidic to help with digestion. I would suggest "lite" peppers like a Poblano or Anaheim. There is no need to hurt your mouth with a Serrano.
There are 1000's of hot sauces. They are easy to make and cheap to distribute. So, I look for the least ingredients to make it on the label. Tabasco sauce is just heat. Sriracha is Viet ketchup but also just heat. Tapatio has a smoky flavor, so that's better. imho. The best ones that I have found have citrus extracts like orange, pineapple, etc. once again keep it down to 5 ingredients or less. My favorites that I can find at the big box stores are: Cholula Verde, and Yucatan Sunshine.
bracketquant
Veteran Member
Chili - served with, or over, baked potatoes?
I would never serve chili over baked potatoes (I tried it once). I doubt that I'd serve it with baked potatoes, either. I love the delicate flavor of a baked potato, with nothing more than a pat of butter, and a very light sprinkle of salt & pepper. I'd likely have roasted chicken, or a steak with the potato, or just the baked potato by itself.
I would serve chili (without beans)) over beans & rice, or chili (with beans) over rice. Plain beans taste awful, and plain rice ain't much.
Mtsilverback
Veteran Member
Is it Ohio, that serves chili over pasta.
bracketquant
Veteran Member
Well aware of Cincinnati chili, about the weirdest food in America.
For those that don't know, look up the full ingredient recipe. It should contain cocoa and cinnamon.
ainitfunny
Saved, to glorify God.
It's Mexacan-ized goulash.
Cinnamon, Cocoa, and Chili powder is frequently paired together. Cocoa and chili powder was the original wake-you-the-heck-up morning drink that came from South America and then into Europe.
We had the chili, separate from the baked potatoes. I will eat them either way. I love rice with butter or soy sauce also. Last night we tried Black beans and rice. My brothers-in-law family recipe. It was the first time I ever liked black beans, so another food dish is now something I am willing to eat. I am focusing on trying to learn to eat more simple foods and expand what i will eat. I had a bad experience in the military when overseas I was served dog and rat! Now If I cannot id what the food is I do not eat it!!!
bracketquant
Veteran Member
"...frequently paired together..."
Not in traditional white-bread New England cooking.
inskanoot
Veteran Member
Save Time Using a Pressure Cooker | Bean Institute
Want to save some time and energy when cooking dry beans? Use a pressure cooker! A pressure cooker is a great tool for preparing dry beans quickly. Pressure cookers combine high pressure and high heat, which dramatically reduces cooking time. Beans cooked in a pressure cooker will cook in about…
beaninstitute.com
Save Time Using a Pressure Cooker
Want to save some time and energy when cooking dry beans? Use a pressure cooker!
A pressure cooker is a great tool for preparing dry beans quickly. Pressure cookers combine high pressure and high heat, which dramatically reduces cooking time. Beans cooked in a pressure cooker will cook in about one-third of the time it takes to cook beans on the stove.(Looking for information on an Instant Pot? Click here.)
Pressure Cooking Fears
Some people have a fear of using a pressure cooker, often based on childhood memories of a rattling old pressure cooker on a family stove. However, today’s pressure cookers are nothing like Grandma’s. Like any modern piece of kitchen equipment, when you follow the directions carefully, it’s as safe and convenient as every other kitchen appliance.STEP 1: Clean the Beans
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STEP 2: Rinse the Beans
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STEP 3: Soak the Beans
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STEP 4: Cook the Beans
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For best results, follow these tips!
While cooking dry beans in a pressure cooker is a fairly simple process, they do have a tendency to froth and foam during cooking. Therefore, it is necessary to use the following guidelines when pressure cooking dry beans:- Never fill the pressure cooker more than the half full line. This includes beans, ingredients, and water.
- Pressure cookers must contain a minimum of ½ cup of liquid in order to operate correctly.
- Add 1-4 tablespoons vegetable oil and up to 1 tablespoon of salt to one pound of beans during the soaking or cooking. Tests have shown that when oil and salt are added, dry beans keep their shape and exterior skin intact, and froth and foam less during pressure cooking.
- Allow pressure to drop on its own accord. This will add another 18 to 20 minutes to the cooking time but requires no tending.
Night Owl
Veteran Member
All good choices and I like the soups over rice idea…..but my thought was only in a SHTF scenario. Those package gravies which you just add water is very cheap and can give variety to rice. Walmart sells They’re great value brand for brown gravy, chicken, white or turkey gravy, sometimes at $.40 a package. They rotate that price on different gravy at different times of the year. Right now it’s brown gravy for $.40 a package.
lisa
Veteran Member
Hmmm I'd check your crock pot then. I used my slow cooker all the time when we lived in Denver and it always worked fine for me. I have an instant pot now that I love for beans ..after pressure cooking for an hour I let it sit for a bit, release the pressure and then simmer for about twenty minutes to get the nice thick soup consistency I like.
Great Northwet
Veteran Member
Now that you mention it, Mom used to do a casserole using brown rice and she would add a can of mushroom soup into it then top the whole thing with cheddar. My guess is, covered at 350 degrees in the oven for 30-ish minutes. I was a kid so I don't remember exactly how she did it, but it was delicious!
Y2KProf
Contributing Member
We pan fry homemade ground beef meatballs (ground beef, egg, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce, onions, garlic) until browned and then add Cambell's mushroom soup diluted with 1 1/2 - 2 cans of water and simmer meatballs until done. We then serve this over cooked brown rice. Yum.