Cooking Exceptionally With Gin Lee

Old Dried Beans? Use Baking Soda to Help Soften Them You’ve soaked dried beans, simmered them for hours, and they’re still firm. Before tossing the pot, check the beans: old dried beans may still be usable, and baking soda can help soften them. But the result depends on how the beans were stored, what kind you’re cooking, and how hard your water is. A small amount of baking soda may speed softening, but it can also affect flavor and texture. Use it with care, inspect the beans first, and cook them thoroughly. Age alone doesn’t mean a bag belongs in the trash. Why Old Dried Beans Can Stay Hard Age can affect how beans cook Dried beans can become harder to cook as they sit in storage. Researchers call this the “hard-to-cook” phenomenon: under some conditions, beans take much longer to soften, even after soaking. It can happen with older beans, but age alone doesn’t guarantee a problem. Heat and humidity can speed quality loss. A bag stored for years in a warm, damp cupboard may cook less...

Slow Cooker Classic BBQ Beans Recipe for Your Next Cookout Forget the watery, bland beans that come straight out of a can. Authentic, homemade BBQ beans should be rich, thick, and packed with layers of smoky flavor. When you make a classic BBQ beans recipe at home, you control the ingredients and the outcome. Using a slow cooker is the best way to get that deep, slow-cooked taste without spending hours standing over a stove. This method allows the sauce to thicken while the beans become tender enough to melt in your mouth. It is the perfect side dish for any gathering, from casual backyard dinners to big holiday potlucks. You do not need fancy equipment or hard-to-find ingredients to make this dish. The magic happens because of patience and the slow, consistent heat of your cooker. By letting the flavors meld together over several hours, you create a complex taste that store-bought versions cannot match. Whether you are hosting friends or just prepping meals for the week, this approach...

Homemade chili beans Do you want to get your spice on? If so, I think you'll really enjoy my recipe for homemade chili beans. You can make the recipe with or without ground beef. It's really good either way.  To begin making this recipe, I started by cooking a sixteen-ounce bag of dried pinto beans first. If you are unsure how to cook dried pinto beans, I wrote an article a while back, teaching you how I prepare them in a crock-pot. If you don't want to make the recipe with homemade cooked beans, you can buy canned pinto beans to use as a substitute. However, keep in mind that a sixteen-ounce bag of dried pinto beans roughly makes close to six cups once they're cooked, while a fifteen-ounce can of store-bought beans equals about one cup and a half. Ingredients: 6 cups of cooked pinto beans 1-24-ounce jar of pasta sauce (your preferred brand) 4-6 chili peppers, chopped and diced 1-2 jalapeno peppers, chopped and diced 4 teaspoons of chili powder 2 teaspoons of cayenne pe...