garmachi.com

Garmachi · Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:36 pm Post subject: Bean Hole Beans

It's that time!

Turtle can fill y'all in on the rest of the recipe; it's a doozie. I'm getting up tomorrow at 5AM to start a hard wood fire in a giant hole in the back yard. (I've modified the fire pit by digging it twice as deep...) By 7 or 8 AM we'll have a heap of crackling coals, into which we'll submerge a large cast iron dutch oven filled with beans, ham, bacon, molasses, an onion, and the secret ingredient: love. We'll then bury the pot with more coals and dirt until completely covered. Come dinner time... OM NOM NOM!

The beans are actually soaking now, and have been since about 7:30.

It doesn't look like much now, but within an hour they'd soaked up enough water that we had to transfer half into a second bowl.

This is gonna be great!
_________________
My pants don't smell like sunshine anymore.

Garmachi · Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:03 am Post subject:

_________________
My pants don't smell like sunshine anymore.

psychicmidget · Joined: 15 Aug 2008 Posts: 309

Ezackly what time did they go in?

Travisimon · Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:49 am Post subject:

Oh. Bean HOLE beans. embarrassment

I get better at making an ass out of myself every day. Be there at 5:00!!!!!!!!! Num num num num
_________________
It's a volcanic planet. You'll be safe there.

Garmachi · Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:00 pm Post subject:

psychicmidget · Joined: 15 Aug 2008 Posts: 309

It was most excellent! It was like nothing I had ever experienced...and it was so nice to meet Turtle and Twister's Mom and Dad.

Simply indescribable. Nights like these can be counted on one hand.

smile

(I think Pepper adopted me.)

Garmachi · Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:39 pm Post subject:

Flashback!

Here's what happened before everyone showed up...

For starters (while the fire is going...) we had a hundred year old cast iron skillet. It need to be "big enough to hold a raccoon..." Line it with bacon.

While all of this was going on, Turtle was boiling the beans until "when you blow on them, your spoon sparkles." Just kidding. When she blew on them, THEIR SKIN CAME OFF!!! retard

Once the beans were ready, and the pot was lined with bacon, we poured the beans into the pot along with giant chunks of ham, chopped onion (yes, Becky, from the garden, get over it. stick out tongue

) brown sugar, molasses, salt, pepper, another layer of bacon, another layer of all that other good stuff, some water and a lid!

After all that, the whole thing was buried in the hot coals that Mr. Magnum and I had been preparing since early in the morn. It turns out that the amount of wood we burned produced a smaller bed of coals than we'd predicted, so we kept adding wood, which delayed the submersion of the beans from 8AM to 9AM to 10AM to 11:20AM. Rest assured, when those suckers were finally buried, they had a huge hot bed of coals waiting for them! We covered the whole thing with dirt, and waited exactly eight hours.

Bah! More pictures coming, but imageshack is down... I'll try again in the AM.

For now, let's just say, that I (and several others who were lucky enough to be present) experienced a new flavor tonight, unlike anything ever experienced before. The rich, dark mass which awaited us in that pot was so aromatic that when Mr. Magnum removed the lid everyone present gasped and smiled at the scent of it. Both dogs lept to their feet and wagged furiously. Dave, unable to control himself, dove to the ground, belly crawled to the bean pot, and snatched a single bean, began thumping his fist into the ground as he ate it, steaming, and yelled "Fuck YEAH these are good god damn beans!"

They were.
_________________
My pants don't smell like sunshine anymore.

psychicmidget · Joined: 15 Aug 2008 Posts: 309

I was particularly fond of the part when it was time for "The Digging of the Beans". Some of the youngsters were still in the house. The rest of us (at the beanhole) decided everyone needed to be present for this part. Becky jumps up and says "I got this one!" and marches off to the house saying something over her shoulder about Kindergartners. Amused and interested I watched, leaned over to Gary and says, "watch this." I swear that woman wasn't in the house 5 seconds and those youngsters were filing out the door!

That was great! laughing

dreamer · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:51 am Post subject:

One of the most entertaining (not to mention mouthwatering!) posts in recent g.com history!

yummy.
_________________
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Garmachi · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 1:38 pm Post subject:

The unburying! Dave was actually dancing around the hole singing a made up bean song to celebrate.

Almost the moment of truth... You never know what you're going to get until you remove the lid. It's entirely possible that you may have just wasted the entire day, and you'll never know it until you unearth a cauldron full of raw beans and stinky bacon.

Success! Compare this to the color of the raw beans! Notice how black that bacon is? The ham chunks were the same color. The texture was unlike anything I could possibly describe. And I'm usually pretty good at describing things.

FEEDING FRENZY!!! The smell that came out of that pot when we opened it was so intense and amazingly good that everyone stopped what they were doing, dropped to the ground, and started grabbing individual beans with their fingers.

Rest assured... we WILL do this again! big grin

_________________
My pants don't smell like sunshine anymore.

turtle81 · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 1707 Location: WNC

And they were just as awesome reheated today! Yum, yum!!

And a family tradition lives on! So fun to learn it and share it with new people. big grin

_________________
"To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is to be left." - Mr. Bennett

Garmachi · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:12 pm Post subject:

PFFFFFFFFFffft.

Nasty

_________________
My pants don't smell like sunshine anymore.

Vanch · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 755 Location: Erie, PA

So if your cast iron pot was sealed up and being heated from below by hot coals, what was the point in burying it in the ground instead of just sticking it in the oven?

I know there was a point, I just don't quite get it. I know when you bury stuff in foil like a pork loin or something it seeps some of the flavor from the wood smoke and everything, I'm guessing some of that happened with the beans as well?

Smokey hard wood beans sound quite good
_________________
rifles and bibles
doubters and disciples
i am the total incomplete
i am lurking underneath
i am the ultra-heavy beat
i am the antigeist

turtle81 · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 1707 Location: WNC

Tradition more than anything, I believe. Brief history of bean hole beans: Loggers in northern Maine would start them in the morning, bury them so nothing would bother them, then dig them up when they were done working for the day and have supper. A low maintenance meal that they could leave unattended in the middle of the woods.

We do cook beans with a very similar recipe (different pot) in the oven, but the flavor is just not as...rich...as with bean hole beans. Plus it's fun!
_________________
"To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is to be left." - Mr. Bennett

Travisimon · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 4:41 pm Post subject:

Angelica and I had such a good time. Those were the best beans I've ever had! I will perfect this style of bean cooking, I promise. Thanks for the cider and good friends!!!!! And... the thing that's different about cooking the beans in the ground is DIRT! Dirt, I say! And fire!!!

Brrrrraaaaap Nasty

_________________
It's a volcanic planet. You'll be safe there.