Dedicated to my momma…
Juanita Laura Johnson Maness

PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION IS coming shortly….

While I did primarily grow up in the city in my younger years, my parents were born and bred country folks, through and through. My mom and dad grew up on dried beans, corn bread, and homegrown garden fare because that is what they had. While many associate dried beans with a poor man’s diet, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Surely you have at one time in your life heard the saying, “She’s as country as cornbread.” If not, you have not ventured far below the Mason Dixon line.

This recipe is dedicated to my momma, who truly loves pinto beans and taught me growing up that simple things can very often be amazingly good things. Food does not have to be gourmet or expensive to taste good. My momma and daddy believed in good country comfort foods: simple, affordable, and delicious.

Growing up in a family of 7 (yes 7, there are 5 kids in my family), my mom and dad had to stretch a dollar as far as they could. We never went hungry, and we grew up healthy and strong.

Beans are loaded with protein, and are quite tasty served up with diced sausage, rice, cornbread, sliced tomatoes, onion chunks, or those beautiful delicious green bulb onions, oh my I am getting hungry.

My husband and I are big chow chow and hot tomato relish fans, so we usually top off our beans with a big heap of hot chow chow or tomato relish. Beans are affordable, and they are easy to cook. Leftovers have so many uses such as burritos, nachos, tostadas, soup, and taco salads.

I love pinto beans served along with southern sauteed cabbage, heavily peppered and cooked in bacon grease. I KNOW it is not healthy, but you HAVE to taste it just once. I will go find that recipe after this so I can be sure to post it. Yummy.

Down Home Style Southern Pinto Beans and Cornbread

First of all, THE PINTO BEANS

Ingredients:

  • Dried Pinto Beans
  • Salt
  • Fresh Ground Black Pepper
  • Salt Pork, Thick Sliced Bacon, Ham Hock, Diced Ham Chunks
  • Water

Directions:

  1. Wash and sort beans. Be sure to remove any stones or rocks; these are common in raw agricultural products.
  2. Place in a large stock pot, cover with water and soak overnight.
  3. If you do not have time to soak overnight, then place in pot early in the day. Heat to boiling, and boil for 1-2 minutes. Let sit and cool down for an hour or so before beginning the cooking time.
  4. Don’t over do it on the water, just keep an eye on them while they cook. You want to have SOME liquid, but not a pot full of it.
  5. The beans will absorb water during their soak period, after that just keep enough water to produce what my momma calls “soup beans.”
  6. General rule of thumb is to maintain about 2″ of water above the beans.
  7. Slice your bacon or salt pork and add to beans.
  8. If using ham hock, place the entire hock in the beans. You will later remove the hock, salvage any meat left on the bone, and return it to pot.
  9. I tend to think the bacon makes for a tasty pot of beans, so I usually go that route. Use about 4-5 slices of thick bacon.
  10. As the beans simmer, check them often, adding water as needed.
  11. Beans require sufficient time to cook. Always test the beans to see if done. A cooked bean will be mealy and mushy. An uncooked bean will be crunchy. You do not want crunchy beans.
  12. You want to end up with a pasty thickened soup liquid at the end; I usually take a few of the cooked beans (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup) and “mash” them up and return to the pot to thicken the “soup.”
  13. When beans are nearly done, and the liquid is about the way you want it, add salt and pepper to taste.
  14. Pinto bean “season” is optional, it is simply a “blend” of spices usually containing: onion, chili pepper and other spices, salt and garlic. If you use this seasoning, remember that it contains salt so don’t add too much extra salt.
  15. When beans are the way you want them, cover them and let sit warm on the stove until time to eat.

Serving Suggestions:

  • Crumble cornbread in bowl; ladle soup beans on top; add chow-chow and chopped diced onions.
  • Top hot pinto beans with cheese, sour cream, and jalapenos, and chopped onions.
  • Serve a large green onion with a nice size bulb alongside. Take a bite of beans, a bite of onion, and so on.
  • Place warm cooked rice in bowl; add beans to bowl along with diced Hillshire Farms Hot Links and stir. Top with Hot Chow Chow.
  • Make refried beans out of leftovers. Use in burritos, tostadas, nachos, or as a side dish topped with melted quesadilla cheese.

Second of all, THE CORNBREAD

My momma taught me to have one pan for cornbread and nothing else. I use Old Mountain Pre-Seasoned Iron Skillets. It is best not to wash your cornbread skillet with certain soaps, abrasives, etc. as it will affect the seasoning; (don’t gross out, just read the manufacturer’s directions).

Based on how you use your skillet, it is most likely you will, at some point, have to re-season it. It is not hard to do, just follow the directions that came with your iron skillet. I have one iron skillet for JUST cornbread, and other skillets for frying, blackening, etc.

In case you lost your directions on how to re-season your iron skillet. I’ll make a note to add a post on how to do that very thing.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup yellow corn meal
  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1 cup whole or lowfat buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup white sweet milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Arm and Hammer baking soda
  • 1/4 cup melted Crisco shortening
  • 2 tablespoons Crisco shortening for prepping skillet (I prefer Crisco; I’m a brand freak with some stuff)

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Combine everything in a mixing bowl, except the 2 tablespoons Crisco. Make note the 1/4 shortening should be MELTED prior to adding.
  3. Place 2 tablespoons Crisco in your cornbread only iron skillet.
  4. Place in oven to heat.
  5. Don’t leave and go watch TV or wander off outside. Shortening CAN CATCH FIRE!
  6. You want to get the shortening hot enough not to BURN or SMOKE TOO MUCH, but hot enough to “fry” that cornbread mixture when it is added to the pan. This takes practice, but is not hard once mastered. It should make a nice, sweet, SIZZLING sound.
  7. Once heated sufficiently, again practice makes perfect, CAREFULLY (don’t get burned) pour your cornbread mixture into the hot iron skillet.
  8. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to gently spread in the pan evenly if necessary.
  9. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown on top.
  10. Remove from oven, and use a butter knife or spatula to “loosen” the cornbread edges from skillet. I have also been known to take a spatula and slide it “up under” my cornbread to make sure it plans to release properly.
  11. CAREFULLY, I cannot stress this enough, place a plate on top of the iron skillet larger than its diameter, and flip the skillet.
  12. Hopefully, again practice makes perfect, your cornbread releases perfectly onto the plate.
  13. If it does not, it is absolutely fine. It won’t hurt the bread, the plate, you, or the skillet.
  14. Just maybe your pride cause you wanted to be like those waiters and waitresses at that restaurant called “Cock of the Walk;” they came to your table and threw the cornbread up in the air, perfectly every time.
  15. NEWS FLASH… I am suspecting that their cornbread got released in the kitchen before they came to your table?
  16. Their skill lay in the fact they could throw and catch. The release came from inside the kitchen. I don’t know for sure, I never worked there.

Serving Suggestions:

  • Slice cornbread, insert room temperature butter (NOT margarine) inside slices, and close cornbread back to allow butter to melt.
  • Crumble cornbread into a chilled glass of buttermilk (THIS is living. You either LIKE or DON’T LIKE buttermilk.) Can’t say you hate it til you try it. You can also crumble it in a glass of sweet milk if you do not like buttermilk.
  • This is more of a VARIATION than a serving suggestion: instead of cooking cornbread, I fry it like pancakes in a hot skillet. Cornbread “fritters.”
  • Another variation, I see this as a separate post, and that is my homemade Hush Puppies! Too GOOD!