Stop Buying Boxed Refried Beans. Make Them The Mexican Way

Why do your pinto beans stay hard after three hours? It may not be you. It may be your water, or an old bag of beans. In this video, Elena shows you how to cook pinto beans from scratch the old Tejano way, then turn one pot of frijoles de la olla into three dinners: frijoles de la olla, charro beans (frijoles a la charra), and homemade refried beans (refritos) that never turn stiff. My name is Elena. I'm Tejana, from a norteño family that has cooked in South Texas for generations. I've stood next to a pot of pintos since I was seven years old, and these are my mother's bean rules from her kitchen in the 1970s, finally written down. In this video you'll learn: - Why beans stay hard and crunchy in the middle (hard water and old beans) - How a pinch of baking soda softens beans, and how much is too much - How to pick fresh dried pinto beans at the store - The salt brine soak: why salt does NOT make beans tough - The quick soak method if you forgot to soak overnight - How to cook beans on the stove at a low simmer so they don't split - The five-bean test to know when beans are really done - Frijoles a la charra (Mexican cowboy beans) with bacon, serrano and tomato - How to make refried beans from scratch in bacon fat or lard (manteca) - The secret most people wipe into the trash: the brown bits in the skillet - Why refried beans turn stiff, and how to fix it - How to store and freeze cooked beans safely - Cooking in a clay bean pot (olla de barro) and why it must be lead-free NIGHT ONE: FRIJOLES DE LA OLLA (Mexican pinto beans from the pot) Salt brine soak: - 1 pound dried pinto beans, sorted and rinsed - 4 quarts water + 3 tablespoons salt Soak 8 to 24 hours on the counter. Drain and rinse. (Quick soak: boil beans in the brine 2 minutes, cover, rest 1 hour.) The pot: - 11 cups filtered water - 1/2 white onion, peeled, in one piece - 3 garlic cloves, smashed - 1 tablespoon manteca (lard) - 1/8 teaspoon baking soda, only if you have hard water (never more than 1/4 teaspoon) - About 1 teaspoon salt, to taste after the first hour Boil 3 minutes, then simmer on the lowest heat, lid slightly open, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. Add hot water if needed. Done when 5 beans in a row are creamy all the way through. NIGHT TWO: FRIJOLES A LA CHARRA (charro beans / cowboy beans) - 5 strips thick-cut bacon, cut in pieces - 1/2 onion, chopped - 2 serrano chiles, sliced thin - 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped - About 4 cups cooked beans with plenty of broth - 1 sprig epazote (optional), chopped cilantro to finish Simmer 20 minutes. Save the leftover bacon fat in a jar for night three. NIGHT THREE: REFRIED BEANS FROM SCRATCH (frijoles refritos) - 3 tablespoons saved bacon fat or manteca (vegetable oil works too) - 1/4 onion, chopped fine - About 2 cups cooked beans + warm bean broth, one ladle at a time Cook the onion until golden, add the beans, scrape up the brown bits with bean broth, mash, and stop while they're still a little looser than you want. They thicken as they sit. FOOD SAFETY Cool cooked beans in shallow containers and refrigerate within 2 hours. They keep about 4 days. Freeze the rest with their broth. Hot fat spits when wet beans go in: lower the heat and keep little ones back from the stove. Only cook in a clay pot that is clearly labeled lead-free. Tell me in the comments where you're cooking from and whose beans you grew up eating. Was it the pot that stayed crunchy, the beans that tasted like warm water, or the refritos that set up like spackle? I read every single one. Waste nothing. Feed everybody. Buen provecho. #mexicanfood #mexican #mexicanrecipe #elenacooking