Cooking challenge - fix the beans!

[EliteRetard]

So my mom decided to try her hand at baked beans, made a few gallons of them (8 quart).

Unfortunately it's basically just molasses and tomato paste. Tastes like sweet tomato paste with tons of beans in it. I was trying to think of a way to fix these beans so they are more edible.

Still needs to be vegetarian (no bacon), so I figure this may be a tough one.

I figure the first thing is to add some seasoning...but I don't just want a sweet/spicy tomato paste with beans. So what else you think will make these great? Perhaps double the beans and add other sauces/ingredients?

I could properly make my own baked beans from scratch, but I don't want to experiment with a half done recipe and end up with a literal truck load of odd tasting food.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Why would anyone make 2 gallons of a recipe they never tried before?

Break 'em down into 1 cup batches and experiment with different things to see if anything works.

Saute onions and peppers for one
Barbecue sauce for another
Cayenne and/or chili powder for a third
Mustard, garlic and cumin for another

something in there ought to help to make them edible

 

[Chocu1a]

Add 2 cup yellow mustard, 4 cups of yellow onion, 4 cups of green bell pepper, 1/2 cup chopped garlic, 2 chopped & seeded jalapeno, add 2 cup of balsamic vinegar. Season with black pepper & kosher salt. Cook covered on low heat for 1 hour, or until the peppers & onion are soft. If Balsamic is not available, use equal parts coca cola & cider or white vinegar.
Your beans will probably still be sweet, but they will be a lot more flavorful and balanced. Tomato paste is never a good choice to use. Large amounts will turn out more bitter than sweet.
Tomato sauce or crushed tomato are a better choice.

btw, I am a Chef by profession.

 

[EliteRetard]

Yeah I don't mind sweet beans to much...but the sweet tomato paste thing is just wrong. I don't really think tomato belongs in baked beans either, maybe just a little.

I didn't think to experiment on small batches. Kind of a "no duh" moment there.

I was kinda thinking chopped onions, maybe worcestershire sauce, definitely some pepper/spice...

I'll try some mustard too, and experiment with Chocu1a's recipe on a smaller scale.

I know these can be fixed, might not be baked beans anymore, but as long as they taste fair I'll eat them.

One concern I had was after adding so many ingredients to thin out the current sauce I may need to add more beans. Are the canned beans (like pinto/black/kidney beans) already cooked and ready to go? That would be the simplest method of adding beans as needed. Normally I don't buy canned shit, to much salt and chemicals and crap added.

 

[Iron Woode]

vegetarian baked beans makes baby Jesus cry.

 

[Iron Woode]

I have seen baked beans in molasses (which I prefer) and in tomato sauce. There is also a Canadian option of maple syrup.

 

[AreaCode707]

Add 2 cup yellow mustard, 4 cups of yellow onion, 4 cups of green bell pepper, 1/2 cup chopped garlic, 2 chopped & seeded jalapeno, add 2 cup of balsamic vinegar. Season with black pepper & kosher salt. Cook covered on low heat for 1 hour, or until the peppers & onion are soft. If Balsamic is not available, use equal parts coca cola & cider or white vinegar.
Your beans will probably still be sweet, but they will be a lot more flavorful and balanced. Tomato paste is never a good choice to use. Large amounts will turn out more bitter than sweet.
Tomato sauce or crushed tomato are a better choice.

btw, I am a Chef by profession.

Nice recommendation! What kind of chef are you?

 

[EliteRetard]

vegetarian baked beans makes baby Jesus cry.

I understand the idea/joke here, but in this case it doesn't really work. Pretty sure Jesus is vegetarian. Now after we broke the rules and introduced sin, animals had to be killed for that mistake. Jesus thought that sucked so he sacrificed himself to remove the need to sacrifice animals. Meat was allowed to be eaten in the bible (after sin introduced), but even then vegetarian was strongly preferred and some meats were still strictly forbidden...like pork. The goal is also to get everyone to go vegetarian in the afterlife, nobody (animal or human) will kill anything anymore and even the lions tigers and bears will eat plants.

I myself don't follow the rules though, and I don't expect I will be going to heaven. I guess I'm betting on the fact that he's going to burn the sinners like Sodom and Gomorrah and not actually torture them forever. Though during the great trial all you greatest and worst sins will be revealed. Boy that's going to suck trying to explain things to my family/friends.

Worth it? Probably not...and I know I could control myself if I really tried. But excuses.

Anyway...back to the beans. I'm going to go experiment with a few things real quick, I'll be right back.

 

[AreaCode707]

I understand the idea/joke here, but in this case it doesn't really work. Pretty sure Jesus is vegetarian. Now after we broke the rules and introduced sin, animals had to be killed for that mistake. Jesus thought that sucked so he sacrificed himself to remove the need to sacrifice animals. Meat was allowed to be eaten in the bible (after sin introduced), but even then vegetarian was strongly preferred and some meats were still strictly forbidden...like pork. The goal is also to get everyone to go vegetarian in the afterlife, nobody (animal or human) will kill anything anymore and even the lions tigers and bears will eat plants.

I myself don't follow the rules though, and I don't expect I will be going to heaven. I guess I'm betting on the fact that he's going to burn the sinners like Sodom and Gomorrah and not actually torture them forever. Though during the great trial all you greatest and worst sins will be revealed. Boy that's going to suck trying to explain things to my family/friends.

Worth it? Probably not...and I know I could control myself if I really tried. But excuses.

Anyway...back to the beans. I'm going to go experiment with a few things real quick, I'll be right back.

Wow, this thread's about to take a turn. But you're the OP, it's your thread.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24:41-43&version=KJV

Luke 24:41-43

King James Version (KJV)

41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
43 And he took it, and did eat before them.

I take it you're from a Seventh Day Adventist family?

 

[Baked]

2 Words: Pressure Cooker.

 

[ussfletcher]

I'd use some red wine vinegar to help cut down on some of the sweetness, then add garlic, jalapenos, and mustard powder to give it some flavor. If you want it to taste a little smokey you can add liquid smoke to it as well.

 

[spaceman]

its ok
theire beans

 

[EliteRetard]

*snip*
I take it you're from a Seventh Day Adventist family?

Nope.
I have heard of them though.

My mom has just started a vegetarian diet as an experiment to loose weight and lower cholesterol. She's always kind of been a bad cook. The last mistake was a week ago, she tried to make a cake and screwed up the recipe, twice. One was bad, the other nearly inedible, somehow turned into hard rubber cookies.

 

[EliteRetard]

Wow, this thread's about to take a turn. But you're the OP, it's your thread.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24:41-43&version=KJV


I take it you're from a Seventh Day Adventist family?

Interesting, I dug out an old King James bible...and the text is different.

He asks for food, not meat. The do hand him fish and honeycomb, and it does say he ate in front of them, but it does not say he ate the fish. This appears to be some convenient subtle editing to change the actual meaning of the passage.

Edit: Yeah there seems to be some subtle editing of various versions, removing mention of the honeycomb, changing food or eat to meat, etc.
Now I can't say for certain he did not eat fish here, or ever in his life...but I know there have been many attempts to alter whats written in an attempt to skew or obscure the actual meaning. At the time Jesus was human people did eat meat so it is possible he did so as well, but the bible makes is clear that vegetarian is better (and science says so as well) but did allow certain meats to be consumed. Fish being allowed, but not for example shrimp or clams.

 

[Iron Woode]

actually, I was doing the Jewish/Pork baked bean thing. Jesus being Jewish and all.

I only like baked beans with pork. I can't stand any other way.

 

[EliteRetard]

It seems that mustard, franks red hot, worcestershire sauce, onions, and a few other things have significantly improved the beans. I could eat these.

Like I guess though, not really baked beans...it just sweet beans with stuff now. I'll try a larger batch and tweak things a bit more. If I go full scale I think adding more beans will be good too.

 

[WelshBloke]

OP, you need to learn about the wonders of tamarind. (or at least your mum does)

 

[tcsenter]

GAWD clearly preferred lamb. Not sure why Jesus would be different.