Calling bean/Rancho Gordo people: Gonna make some brisket beans with Rancho Gordos: are these good choices?

[Mosca]

I’m picking purely on what colors would go together and make riotous beans. I also could sub in pintos, piquintos, eye of the goat, or black beans.

[texastweeter]

I'm a pinto and black bean fan myself.

[Henrik]

This is way over my pay grade, I’m a total bean noob. Here to learn though, looking forward to the replies.

[Draznnl]

I’ve done pintos and Scarlet Runners as brisket beans and each turned out well. I haven’t tried the limas for brisket, but they will give you a bigger bean - whether that is good or bad is purely a matter of personal taste.

[Mosca]

I called Rancho Gordo, figuring “customer service” could mean just about anything… and of course, it does! The nice woman who answered the phone advised me to choose pintos, rio zape, and Domingo rojo instead.

This is a tomorrow cook, for the beans. No time today.

[ofelles]

I agree with all of those. I have used all 3.

[Bkhuna]

The Domingo Rojo is my favorite. So is the Ayocote Morado, yup that's my favorite. Oh yeah, the Negro Santanero is really my absolute favorite.

On the other hand I really, really, really like the.....

[barelfly]

I’d say pintos or black beans would be great, from my experience. I think I used the Domingo rojo for Santa Maria style beans as well and those were good. Pinquito are good, just a smaller bean. I have not tried the others you mentioned though.

[ecowper]

The helpful lady at Rancho Gordo was spot on .... I would have told you Pintos or Pinquitos myself :-)

[Mosca]

ecowper CaptainMike this is going to be traditional Kansas City style molasses/honey etc beans, still piquintos? When I make them from scratch I usually go with Great Northerns.

[CaptainMike]

I suppose you could, but I think their great flavor might get lost in the sauce. Pintos, red kidney, or some other hearty and sturdy bean might be a better choice.

[ecowper]

For that type of beans, pintos are a better choice. Pinquitos will get lost, as Mike says.

[DaveD]

Yup, I would have said pintos & domingo rojo as well, we've made those and they rock. And this thread is a great prod for me to remember to bust out a portion of the pintos I made recently to go with the rack of ribs I've got thawed for my next cook...

[Mosca]

This bean cook didn’t come out the way I expected it to. It’s a sh*t ton of beans that are really meh. Not aggressively bad, but polite-bad.

IDK. Sometimes everything works, and every now and then, things don’t work. I could post a picture, but I could have posted the same picture and said they were OUTSTANDING.

I’m going to give them a taste this morning to verify, that cooling and giving everything a chance to meld improved them, but I am not hopeful.

[barelfly]

Which bean did you actually use? Pinquito? Or something else?

[Mosca]

I used pintos and Domingo rojo, mixed. It’s not the beans themselves, it’s the sauce that doesn’t work for me. It’s unbalanced, too “dark” tasting.

[fzxdoc]

Well, that's too bad. I hate when a dish goes sideways, especially one that I put a lot of thought into. It happens to us all.

Knowing your creativity in the kitchen, my money's on you figuring out a way to salvage them all the way to tastiness.

Kathryn

[DaveD]

Mosca which beans did you make, and what was your process? I've only ever just followed the directions on the bag and they've come out great every time but once, when I overcooked them and they were way past creamy to just mushy (although the flavor was still great). Curious to know how you went about cooking them...

[Mosca]

Mosca which beans did you make, and what was your process? I've only ever just followed the directions on the bag and they've come out great every time but once, when I overcooked them and they were way past creamy to just mushy (although the flavor was still great). Curious to know how you went about cooking them...

Bacon, onions, garlic, mixed bell peppers. Sautéed veg, cooked beans along with them for an hour. Added ketchup, molasses, honey, brown sugar, brisket pieces, apple cider vinegar and a touch of yellow mustard and baked for 4 hours. The beans themselves are fine, it’s the whole dish that just doesn’t work for me.

[DaveD]

Copy that!

[bbqLuv]

We use canned pinto and black beans.

[Mosca]

They aren’t so bad today, just not what I was looking for. I dumped a large can of Bush’s beans into it, and that was close enough; I decided to bag and freeze rather than drain pour, which was my intention before doing a little work.

I want my sides to star, but in supporting roles; they can’t be more seasoned than the main course. I just got a bit carried away with the sauce, is all.