The trials of using new pots or methods. Cool pot, though, and the beans still look delicious & creamy. I like you use large pieces of celery, carrots & onions.
The Semolina Box seems great!
Look what M. Marcel at Fairfax Farmers Market has @Dommy! This was yesterday and they may still have them. I ordered thru Mercato (issues to be discussed on another thread 
) and M. Marcel called to say they were out of RG Garbanzos and would I like something else… like the Caballeros. What?! YES!
So excited! Now I can do the cooking comparison @WireMonkey.
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Those Yellow Indian Woman beans are pretty awesome too 
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Oh yes, in my excitement over finding something RG has removed from their website I forgot to give Yellow Indian Woman their props. I 
that bean, so far even more than my first batch of Caballeros last month… but we’ll see.
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Nice!
Not Rancho Gordo but I did a little ad hoc comparison myself this week. I made the below red beans, used some from the bulk bin and some of the beans weren’t quite done through.
This compares to the exact same recipe I used a few months back with packaged beans and I couldn’t figure out what the difference was. Then the first episode of Home Cooking came out and Samin Nosrat mentioned not buying beans in bulk bins because of lack of turnover and that made a lot of sense. She also specifically mentioned Rancho Gordo beans as particularly fresh of course.
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Looks great. All beans - not just RG - are welcome. 
Did you post the original recipe on this thread? If not, can you explain a little what’s in these?
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I didn’t post, thanks for the reminder! It’s actually one of the last recipes from Good Eats I’ve continued to make years later.
One thing: I don’t have ready access to andouille or Tasso so I use the pickled pork and a pound of hot links. I know the latter isn’t traditional, it’s just nice being able to build a fond as a base for the dish. I’ve used Tasso in the past from Marcondas and Little Jewel but the pickled pork is pretty amazing and easy to make by itself if you have the time. If I remember correctly the Little Jewel owner also gave pickled pork bigups when I was buying the Tasso.
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What a wonderfully informative and interesting thread! Thanks everyone!
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Nice! Thanks @WireMonkey.
And a clove or four of smashed garlic. It depends on what I want to use the beans for. These were destined for Chili and Re-fried for crunchy tacos, which I can add garlic to the second cook, so I only added two… For Frijol con Puerco… I add four…
So glad that MM was able to stock you back up! For such a small place their stock is impressive and they are working hard keeping it up! I follow them on Instagram butI haven’t been in nearly a month since all this came down and am trying to keep my grocery store visits to once a week if that… this week it was Tokyo Central because I was really jonesing for some Tofu (and they did have Meiji!) and need to restock rice and noodles…
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That is a very nice photo @WireMonkey
How did you get the lighting and black background?
Thanks, it’s actually just a picture from my phone next to the window in my house with one edit on Adobe’s Lightroom CC mobile app to darken the background. The lighting is from the window using the curtain as a silk to diffuse it a little bit (although you can see shadow is heavier on the top of the bowl).
It’s part of a larger food related project I’ve been doing which is why it’s fairly stylized (putting it in a black void as it were) but it can be done comparatively very cheaply and help isolate what you’re trying to emphasize. I’m working on developing a different style I think would be more conducive to instruction but in the meantime I’ve been taking cues from the less photography intensive techniques in Modernist Cuisine.
If you’re interested I certainly suggest checking out “The Photography of Modernist Cuisine” which does a very good job describing how they do what they do. It’s actually available as reference (not checkout) from the Central Library in LA if you don’t want to stump up for the cost and storage space (because it is HUGE, the biggest folio I’ve ever handled). They go way beyond what I’m doing in terms of technique and certainly worth a look.
EDIT: I just realized it was one edit to darken the background and one to crop it to 1:1 ratio. Either way, pretty minimal
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Clever makeshift photography studio, you used a curtain to diffuse the light and lessen the glare. I’ve found natural white some of the best for food shots. I’m still ‘old fashioned’, and use my laptop photoshop (and a mouse 
).
It comes across pretty well. Look forward to your finished gallery opening. Hope your research leads to an ideal style for your instruction (you’re teaching lessons?)
That’s a good book to reference. I browsed it once at Barnes & Noble, and remember it being gigantic and heavy. The techniques this book employs goes way beyond a simple table setup, and would probably require a lot of money for rental of equipment, and a lot of time to set up. Though I would be interested in trying it just once.
The Alinea cookbook, which is one of the earliest books I’ve bought, also seemed to favor that sort of look.
Of a few memories I have in a studio, where they were taking pictures for magazines, is how they spray a liquid on real food, rendering it inedible. However, the smell does not go away, making everyone hungry. I also like using the light box for smaller objects.
It’s amazing this day in age, how we can photoshop images on a phone in only two steps. Just 10 years ago, the same would require modifying levels etc… with many clicks. Just imagine what people in the darkroom had to deal with decades ago, with burning and dodging.
Wow, I want to dig right into that bowl. So enticing
Man, the gravy alone- I’ll make this recipe until the day I die
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Hi @Dommy -
When I was looking at your pot of beans I was imagining the creamy refried beans they’d make. 
Still want to make the Frijol con Puerco once the Ayocote Negro beans become available.
That’s a good idea. We’re well-stocked right now but I’m going to practice that when the shelves get low.
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Chamba Clay Pot Take 2!
Today is my low meeting day (just three. ) so I was able to take another swing at the whole clay pot thing… I had pre-soaked the marcella bean with a plan to roll it low and slow given that they have such delicate skins. As soon as the pot hit a boil… simmer city…
So the first half hour rolled around and then it went into simmer. Second half hour in a nice simmer… I added salt as per usual. Third half hour and the beans were done!! It kinda shocked me again. I pulled it from the heat tasted the liquor… at first blush it was kinda thin. I tasted a bean… it needed salt… ACK! I decided on round 3 to go 20/20/20 instead with my timing…
So I went ahead and started to make my planned meal which was beans with fresh chorizo and chard. I made little chorizo chunks got them nice and brown. Removed them from the pan. Then added sliced garlic… with the chorizo renderings left over in the pan the smell was just outradeous. I added a ladle full of the bean liquor and the smell just got even more delicious. I admit, I took out a jar of my general ‘fix it all’, trader joes jarred bruschetta, but by this time in the cooking the beans had been resting a bit and both the liquor and the beans seems to really harmonize. The salt was fine in the bean and the liquor seemed richer. So Bruschetta went back into the pantry to be a hero for another day… as I wilted the chard and added more beans into the pan.
After tasting how delicate and non starchy the beans were, I decided to make it into a pasta dish. I had half a bag of this Shamrock Pasta I got from a friend’s kid’s band camp fundraiser (yes.) which actually came in handy when we had to stay in place for P’s birthday… so I decided to use that up as it was a thin light pasta itself… cooked it a bit short but then added the chorizo and pasta back into the pan and covered it to get one last cook in…
In the end it was absolutely delicious. The liquor made a wonderful sauce from everything else that gave in the pan. And now I am really looking forward to making that White Bean Dip with the rest of the beans I cooked up. I just need some Pita Chips…
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Yum… they look perfect. I like your story too. 
What aromatics did you use in the beans? I see onions, celery and something else…
Bayleaf, Smashed Garlic and Carrots (That is what those pale sticks are). Part of my concern with the liquor being thin was that the aromatics didn’t really get enough time to penetrate it. usually the ones I toss out of the pot are pretty lifeless. This time P saw the bowl before I dumped it out and ask… “What are the carrots for?!?” He loves cooked carrots… LOL!!
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Caballeros! 
The best pot of beans I’ve ever made!
These are tricky beans and normally take a long time to cook, so I decided to try the controversial salt-brine and soaked overnight. 
The skins are wrinkled!
After hours of soaking they plumped and smoothed nicely. I discarded the salt water and rinsed the beans.
I still couldn’t bring myself to salt the beans in the beginning of the cook (old dog new tricks) and started them w/Fresh Water, Shallots, Garlic, Bay Leaves, White Pepper & Olive Oil. News Flash: Salt-brining works! I expected a really long cook like previously, but a lot of beans were soft within an hour. I panicked a bit and threw in the Salt, Uncooked Bacon & Chicken Stock, a Skosh of Vinegar later. This was the first time I didn’t brown the meat and probably won’t again - the uncooked bacon melded-in and the bean broth was so delicious! BUT! When I put in the salt & salty bacon the beans started to seize-up, cook slower and ultimately took about 2.5hrs, but much faster than my previous batch. Yep, I know what the scientists say but I’m sticking with the old-wives-tale method.
Look at those plump beans and luscious bean broth.
I used my CI Dutch Oven but didn’t bake them in the oven like I wanted to because it’s a new oven and we need to have our hyper-sensitive smoke-detectors temporarily unhooked to blow it out. But just these few changes made a big difference. They’re incredible and now my favorite White Bean - literally creamy like a dairy product and make a velvety, gravy-like, bean broth. 
Notes & Thoughts: It’s true that Caballeros cook unevenly and some beans cook faster than others. Just keep cooking them until the harder ones are soft and cooked thru and don’t worry about the other ones overcooking or splitting - they’ll be delicious. They’re a little starchy so best served over Basmati or any less starchy, Long-Grain Rice.
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