Bean Freaks

April 19, 2018 9:04 AM

Fifteen years ago, when Sando founded Rancho Gordo, he had no food-retailing or farming experience. Now he’s the country’s largest retailer of heirloom beans and a minor celebrity in the culinary world. He’s a side dish who’s become a staple. "The Hunt for Mexico’s Heirloom Beans: Rare varieties discovered by Rancho Gordo’s Steve Sando have turned the humble legume into a gourmet food," by Burkhard Bilger.
posted by lazuli (47 comments total)

Must... not.... overthink.......
posted by lumpenprole at 9:26 AM on April 19, 2018 [11 favorites]

Aw, I remember Steve from my old lurker days on eGullet! (god I miss that forum) Just finally ordered some Royal Corona beans from him a few months ago, they definitely did not disappoint. :)
posted by Knicke at 9:30 AM on April 19, 2018 [5 favorites]

Have purchased from these folks. Their whole corn hominy is utterly wonderful. Big fan.
posted by which_chick at 9:32 AM on April 19, 2018

Steve is the Willy Wonka of beans. There is no one out there doing what he does. His beans, compared to anything you'd get in a supermarket or even a farmer's market, are like the difference between cheap deli ham and proscuitto. I have a soft spot for the yellow ojo de cabra (eye of the goat) and the christmas limas (which don't at all have the texture of limas), but I have literally never had a bad bean from him. The best part is that he is genuinely a kind and generous man, based on the one time I met him in person, before Keller, before he even had a stand at the Ferry Building farmer's market in San Francisco. (That was a meetup on eGullet, which was sort of the Metafilter of the culinary enthusiasts before they became the "eGullet Society of Culinary Arts and Letters".) So many foodstuffs have been elevated; you can get single-estate coffee and varietal criollo chocolate and jamon iberico de bellota from at least a dozen sources. But Steve not only identified these superior varieties, he brought them to the public and is still the best and only source for them. I never thought a bean dude from Napa would get a lavish New Yorker profile, but it couldn't happen to a better guy.
posted by wnissen at 9:35 AM on April 19, 2018 [5 favorites]

I was gifted an Instant Pot for my birthday this year, and while I had been "meh" on them beforehand, I discovered that for the first time ever, I'm able to make good beans. No matter what I did before, everything was too firm for my taste, even after doubling or tripling the cooking time. But the Instant Pot? Perfect beans.

I've been thus inspired to fling myself headlong into the Rancho Gordo catalog and try all kinds of beanstuff - I'm polishing off a couple stews made with beautifully-done flagoulets, I thanked my super for repair service above and beyond by making him black beans with sofrito for a lunch break, I'm going to be contributing two kinds of refritos to a DIY taco party my roommate is hosting this weekend.

Plus jars of different colored beans in a row in your pantry just look so pretty.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:37 AM on April 19, 2018 [5 favorites]

Their Mexican chocolate is to die for.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 9:39 AM on April 19, 2018

I love ojos de cabra!! we've been on a bit of a bean frenzy lately. can't wait to get into this.
posted by supermedusa at 9:43 AM on April 19, 2018

Rancho Gordo is absolutely amazing. I am having their Ayocote Negro right now for lunch and they are truly magnificent. Six bucks a pound might seem steep for a bag of beans, but once you taste the difference there is no going back. I place a multi-pound order once every few months and never have a problem plowing right through them.

And EmpressCallipygos is right, an Instant Pot is a huge help for making perfect beans. It's important to know your bean to get the right cooking time – thin-skinned beans go shorter, thick-skinned go longer. This chart is especially helpful for getting it right.

Beans, beans, great for the heart!
posted by slogger at 10:00 AM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Their beans are great. I’ve been really liking their cassoulet beans especially, so much tastier than the other options I have tried.
posted by Dip Flash at 10:06 AM on April 19, 2018

We got some Rancho Gordo beans last week! They tasted just like beans! A+, would eat beans again.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:15 AM on April 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

Beans, beans, great for the heart!

Oh, this brings up the best tip I got for How To Presoak Beans:

1. Dump them into a pot and cover with enough water to cover by a couple inches.
2. Bring that to a boil and boil the hell out of it for a couple minutes.
3. Then turn off the heat and let soak for an hour or two. (Longer is okay, but not necessary.)

It's like a happy medium with the presoaking - it takes a little bit of advance prepwork before you cook, but you're not having to soak overnight, so you can be a little more spontaneous. This particular soaking method also seems to help eliminate the, er, flatulent tendencies for those who are prone to that*. And in your average Instant Pot, presoaked beans only take about ten mintues to cook once the pot comes up to pressure.


* I learned this particular presoaking method from a Greek playwright who explained the digestive benefits by saying "this way, you get rid of the farts".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:15 AM on April 19, 2018 [6 favorites]

I heard about this on LTH Forum a while back and wanted to try some after reading all the ecstatic reviews. But I backed out as most of these are not something I cook with normally. I am a South Indian Vegetarian (so I eat a LOT of beans :-) ) and I have always gravitated to the tastes of the lugumes/beans that I grew up with. Most of the New World Beans don't do it for me. Except Black and Pinto beans for making Mexican dishes and Chili.

I have an Instant Pot now and bought Black and Pinto beans from my neighborhood Mexcian grocery that imports em in bulk from Mexico and rebags them in smaller amounts. The taste difference between cooked beans from scratch and canned stuff I used to use before is noticeable.

My question is whether the taste diference between the 80 cents/pound beans that I buy, and the 6 bucks/pound Rancho Gordo will be noticeable by the time I make a Chili (with all the added spices, tomatoes etc.) with it? The reason I ask is I want to try these beans (especially Black and Pinto) in a dish that will highlight the taste difference between the Rancho Gordo beans and supermarket beans. Now that I have an Instant Pot I can actually do an experiment and cook the exact dish with the two beans and see if I can taste the difference. What would be a good recipe/dish to try this experiment? Thanks.
posted by indianbadger1 at 10:26 AM on April 19, 2018

Rancho Gordo's web site actually has some recipes, indianbadger. I bet that their bare-bones "how to cook beans" might be best for a taste-test - it's pretty much just seasoned with salt, maybe a little onion.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:37 AM on April 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's like a happy medium with the presoaking - it takes a little bit of advance prepwork before you cook, but you're not having to soak overnight, so you can be a little more spontaneous.

I think this only works sometimes—yeah, if you're soaking overnight, it's not exactly "spontaneous", but how often do I want to spontaneously delay my meal by two hours on top of the bean-cooking time (which for some kinds of dried beans, especially if they're fresh*, is not that long)? On a weekend, though, yeah.

* "fresh dried beans" is a thing!
posted by kenko at 10:43 AM on April 19, 2018

Regarding pressure cookers, from the article: "Is pressure-cooking allowed? (The French Laundry swears by it; Sando says it kills the broth.)"

I do prefer pressure cooking (Instant Pot) for convenience and consistency of the bean, but it does indeed produce a watery, insipid broth. I've never quite gotten a handle on getting consistently perfect beans on the stovetop, but when I do the pot liquor is something divine. Perhaps I don't have the patience for the low, slow simmer needed to do it just right, but it always seems to take way too long, or I end up with a bunch of blown out beans.
posted by slogger at 11:01 AM on April 19, 2018

OK, here's where I confess my ignorance: I've never been much of a bean-eater, but I have an InstantPot and the fancy organic grocery down the street sells Rancho Gordo beans, so I bought the ones that are like pintos and cooked them and they were ... fine? They were beans? This is the ignorance part: I didn't really know what to do with them besides chili, which I don't like, so I had a few servings with hot sauce as side dishes and that was ok but not great and then froze the rest.

Sooooo, since this is a bean thread, can we overthink this? Who wants to share their favorite bean recipes with me?
posted by lunasol at 11:05 AM on April 19, 2018

lunasol, I really like this dish, though since it has Hatch chiles in it it might not be your speed.
posted by kenko at 11:17 AM on April 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

The Rancho Gordo Christmas limas have a kind of chestnutty flavor which is really nice (the broth is excellent). I used to make a pot of them, and serve in a bowl with broth, some sauteed mustard and dandelion greens, and a bit of grated sheep's milk cheese and olive oil. But you could omit any of those additions and it would still be good.
posted by kenko at 11:19 AM on April 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

kenko, that sounds amazing, and I actually have a pound of Hatch chiles in my freezer right now! I should clarify, I don't dislike all varieties of chili, just the standard middle-American "pinto beans, cumin, and ground beef" variety, which I know many don't even consider to be proper chili!
posted by lunasol at 11:24 AM on April 19, 2018

This made me think about the role of beans in the food I grew up eating, which as it turns out really encompasses a very limited set of types: the "back-to-basics rainbow" of hongdou, ludou, huangdou/maodou( edamame), heidou (more as a flavoring than the actual basis of the dish), and then shijidou which is not really a matter of individual beans.

Anyway, that's to say: hongdou and ludou are sweet beans (especially hongdou), but now I'm wondering if it's reasonable to make savory analogues/derivations of hongdou and ludou foods. So like, bean-paste buns, but savory? Now I'm curious about it myself, but I don't cook...

Or, turning to the matter of huangdou/maodou, which are savory themselves... I can't imagine just steaming and eating any bean other than maodou, tbh, but I recall I used to enjoy the fried cakes/patties made of the smashed-up huangdou mash that remained after being pressed for doujiang*. Probably this would work best for a mild-flavored bean, but I see that there are recipes online for all kinds of fried bean cakes, so that seems like a go either way.

Just out of curiosity, are there any other kinds of beans that are good to eat by picking them fresh in the pod, steaming them, and then shelling? Is it just the drying process that renders these other beans unsuitable for such methods of consumption?

^{*soymilk, but I really hate the word "soymilk", but then I worried that people wouldn't understand so I guess here's a parenthetical that I turned into a footnote because it was getting too long sorry}
posted by inconstant at 11:27 AM on April 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

The most recent (last weekend) bean related thing I made was a delicious soup with cannelini beans, tomato, kale (swapped for the spinach in the recipe), and lots of parmesan cheese, which gives the whole thing a nice body.

Actually thats a lie, last night I cobbled together some black bean burritos from cupboard stuff (beans, frozen peppers and onions, garlic, chili powder, salsa verde, cheese, sour cream) but they were unremarkable.

I love beans.
posted by quaking fajita at 11:31 AM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Lunasol - this is a bean recipe that has been expressly designed for the Instant Pot. Plus the name is awesome.

I also think that using the "saute" function in the Instant Pot first to get some sofrito-type flavoring going could help. That's pretty much what I did with the black beans, using the recipe from Binging With Babish's take on the pollo a la plancha; that called for cooking bacon and onion and green pepper in the pot first, so I just used the Instant Pot "saute" function for that before proceeding with the pressure cooking.

I tend to cook beans to use as an ingredient in a further dish anyway - 85% of the time I'm using it for some kind of soup or stew, like a minestrone or a Soupe au pistou. Those can be pretty improvisational, too - minestrones in particular are good for "i have vegetables I need to use up, I'mma throw them in some broth with some cooked beans and a handful of ditalini pasta and call it soup". Pasta e fagioli is another option, and I've also made a variant of a soup called a "guazzetto" with beans, greens, fish soup stock, chopped tomato, and some random fish (anything from chunks of a filet cut into bite-sized pieces, to canned clams, would work).

And we haven't even gotten into the DIY hummus and stuff like that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:36 AM on April 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

Just out of curiosity, are there any other kinds of beans that are good to eat by picking them fresh in the pod, steaming them, and then shelling? Is it just the drying process that renders these other beans unsuitable for such methods of consumption?

I've seen some varieties of dried beans also get used fresh; I know I've seen fresh cranberry beans for sale, and there's also fava beans.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:39 AM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Lunasol, I have so many thoughts about beans. I would say that some of the Rancho Gordo varieties are not especially flavorful, because the variety isn't. I had a similar experience with the cassoulet bean, which is grown from authentic Tarbais seed and tasted... fine. It's like apples or tomatoes, plenty of popular varieties, even if you get them from the best conditions, just aren't that great. A red delicious or early girl will never be a great culinary experience, even if Alain Passard himself raised them. But the distinctive, heirloom varieties, farmed with care, are amazing. I personally make my standard chile (which relies heavily on smoked and dried peppers like ancho) with good old Bush's canned pintos and black beans, because I didn't find the flavor difference to be worth the cost and time. Pretty much any bean dish less powerful than that gets the Gordos, though. And it's true that the simple ones are the best. Christmas Limas with tossed with fried sage leaves and a bit of vinegar are incredible. The Vallarta bean that the French Laundry uses has an unbeatable fudgy texture straight out of the pot.
posted by wnissen at 11:42 AM on April 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

Count me in as another lover of Rancho Gordo beans. I bought a pound each of four different varieties some months ago, and I think there's one package left. I need to cook it, but I want to use it for the 'perfect' recipe, which probably doesn't exist. I know my housemates think I'm nuts, buying super-expensive beans, when beans and rice are like...those foods that are supposed to be cheap, right? But once I hit a certain amount of affluence, I've realized that the first place I've always wanted to up my spending on is food. Before better clothing, furniture, or experiences, money spent on good food is never wasted. And these beans are super good food.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 11:46 AM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh yeah, we never had fava beans because most of us weren't supposed to. Cranberry beans look super fun! I thought I would go look up the species in case that offered any clues as to what sorts of beans can be eaten fresh, only to discover that apparently seventy million kinds of beans you see in the store (scientific estimate) are actually all the same species -- so there goes that clever idea. Anyway, I don't think I've ever seen this particular cultivar at the grocery store -- but it looks like the titular company does indeed carry it, although the page for it only mentions the usual cooked-down-in-liquid types of recipes.
posted by inconstant at 12:10 PM on April 19, 2018

A favorite of mine is Cuban black beans (frijoles negros) over rice.

Other Instant Pot-specific recipes mentioned that the beans only need 25-30 minutes to cook (after pre-soaking, such as the method mentioned by EmpressCallipygos upthread), then let the pressure completely release slowly before opening the pot. I prefer brown rice to white but YMMV. If you want a single-pot meal, you could probably throw the rice into the Instant Pot to cook along with the beans.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:57 PM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Lots of shelling beans are delicious before they're dried; here's a seed catalogue's favorite strains.

I like a pressure-cooker broth, though it helps to know your bean well enough that you don't use any extra liquid. Also, sometimes it's fastest to pressure-cook them and then simmer them down while adjusting seasonings.

For beans and rice at once in the Instant Pot, I think the Pot-In-Pot method is worth it. (Lo, modern food culture has rediscovered the -- steamer.)
posted by clew at 1:13 PM on April 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

Just out of curiosity, are there any other kinds of beans that are good to eat by picking them fresh in the pod, steaming them, and then shelling? Is it just the drying process that renders these other beans unsuitable for such methods of consumption?

garbanzo beans can be eaten this way (and they are good).
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 1:59 PM on April 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

For beans with amazing broth, try Russ Parsons' no-soak oven method. Almost as low-effort as a slow cooker but much better results.
posted by Lexica at 4:09 PM on April 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm so glad I posted this. This thread makes me happy.
posted by lazuli at 4:14 PM on April 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

Cranberry beans are delightful both fresh and dried.
posted by kenko at 4:53 PM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

My favorite feature of the Rancho Gordo stores has been their bean-touching vat. The now-defunct SF Ferry Terminal store and their still-extant Napa store had/have a big galvanized-steel bin of assorted dried beans (wondering whether it was inspired by the Revuelto bin mentioned in the article) with a sign saying "Please touch!" and you can just run your hands through a big vat of gorgeous dried beans. I am not a person who tends toward tactile comforts but that bin is pretty close to my conception of heaven, though I don't believe in heaven. A vat of dried heirloom beans is calming in a way that I didn't know existed.
posted by lazuli at 8:27 PM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

...until you remember all the grubby dirty hands that have been fondling those beans before you got there...
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:54 PM on April 19, 2018

No, that's ok! They don't sell out of that vat. I like the feeling of hundreds of other hands having sifted through the vat. It's the intellectual equivalent of velvet.
posted by lazuli at 9:01 PM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

No worries, I just couldn't resist the phrase "fondling the beans".
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:37 PM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow, guys, thanks for all the recommendations! I knew mefites would not disappoint.

Other Instant Pot-specific recipes mentioned that the beans only need 25-30 minutes to cook (after pre-soaking, such as the method mentioned by EmpressCallipygos upthread), then let the pressure completely release slowly before opening the pot.

This was one of the things that stymied me about the beans I attempted to cook in my Instant Pot. I pre-soaked my beans and then followed RG's recommendation of 12 minutes at pressure - they were definitely not done at that point! So I had to bring it back to pressure twice more, and by the time I was done, they were actually overcooked. So next time I'll set it for 25 minutes.
posted by lunasol at 9:34 AM on April 20, 2018

If only they'd ship to Canada!
posted by peppermind at 9:49 AM on April 20, 2018

So next time I'll set it for 25 minutes.

It would be interesting to hear the result of that. (I don't have an Instant Pot-style doodad to try it myself)
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:36 AM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'll report back!
posted by lunasol at 1:15 PM on April 20, 2018

I pre-soaked my beans and then followed RG's recommendation of 12 minutes at pressure - they were definitely not done at that point! So I had to bring it back to pressure twice more, and by the time I was done, they were actually overcooked. So next time I'll set it for 25 minutes.

Have not looked this up, but Instant Pots (especially early ones) don't all get to 15 PSI, the "high pressure" setting on most stovetop cookers, so the cooking is usually a bit slower.
posted by clew at 2:41 PM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

I tend to cook beans to use as an ingredient in a further dish anyway

That is how I use the Instant Pot. I'll cook beans (usually no presoaking, just because I don't usually plan that far ahead) until they are just short of done, and then the cooking moves to the stovetop or oven for the remaining steps of whatever I am making.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:46 PM on April 20, 2018

Eye of the Goat beans just put in water to soak. I'm going to try the recipe kenko posted from the RG blog.
posted by lazuli at 7:20 AM on April 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Inspired by this post, I cooked some of their yellow indian woman beans last night and they came out great.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:07 AM on April 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

And I just came back from the only market in my immediate neighborhood that sells Rancho Gordo beans, so I could use their beans for the refritos this weekend. I was thisclose to getting a third kind of bean aside from their black beans and pintos, but made myself put it back ("there will also be taco meat and other things and we're going to have a shit-ton of leftovers as it is, and this store will always be here and you can try these beans later, be good"). The beans are now starting on their quick-soak on the stove, and I will be cooking them tonight in advance of the refrito process tomorrow.

Question, though - I've always used bacon dripping to make refritos and was going to do that, but then realized that the whole reason I'm making them is because a vegetarian friend is coming by for tomorrow's movie night, and using animal fat would kind of defeat the purpose. What's a good alternative fat? Or what's the best way to veggie-fy classic refritos? (I'm following a Moosewood recipe for the black beans, and they use olive oil, but they also have a whole lot of other spices and flavorings going on so that punches up the flavor; the pintos are going to be pretty plain, and I don't want them to be insipid.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:00 PM on April 21, 2018

Veggie refritos report:

The black beans, made from scratch with Rancho Gordo's Midnight Blacks, used a Moosewood cookbook recipe and included some chopped jalepeno, chopped tomato, and the juice of two oranges (!?). I used only one orange. The batch with pinto beans used the Rancho Gordo pintos; the recipe I had called for cooking the beans themselves with onion and lard, and then using more onions and lard with the refrying stage; but I omitted the lard. Instead I threw in a little chopped jalepeno and cumin and and upped the salt and onion. Bingo.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:40 AM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

clew: Have not looked this up, but Instant Pots (especially early ones) don't all get to 15 PSI, the "high pressure" setting on most stovetop cookers, so the cooking is usually a bit slower.

As far as I know, none of the electric pressure cookers go to 15psi. I have a Cuisinart one the does 12psi (I think?), so times definitely need to be extended if you're working from a recipe intended for a stovetop PC.

Instant Pot announced a new model (I think it's called the "Max") that does a true 15psi. It should be out in the next month or two.
posted by Surely This at 12:35 PM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]