Bean Recipe Refinement

I cooked this recipe again today with a few adjustments.  We had a ham bone leftover from the holidays and after trimming the country ham we ate for Thanksgiving, I set it aside the fridge to use with some beans later one. Well, today was the day.

Bean Recipe

• 1 cup great northern beans
• 1 cup garbonzo beans
• 1 cup pinto beans
• 1 cup white beans
• 1/2 cup chick peas
• 1/2 cup black-eyed peas
• 2 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp onion powder
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp Kosher salt
• 1/2 cup George Dickel No. 12 whiskey

Directions: Soak dry beans for 4 hours. Drain beans. Add bean mix, ham bone, 2 quarts of water to a medium sized dutch oven (or crock pot). Cook for 4 hours on low heat or until beans are tender (use bottom heat only if using a dutch oven).

I always pre-mix spices when I cook and last night I mistakenly doubled the black pepper in the mix. Instead of 1 tbsp I mistakenly added 1 tbsp. Rather than scrapping it all and starting over, I "went with it".

After sampling the beans after 3 hours of cooking, the pepper was a little strong (o.k. very strong). A few Google searches later, it occurred that I happened to have a solution - a half empty bottle of George Dickel. The alcohol is known to help take the edge off excessive heat from too much pepper in a recipe. It actually worked pretty well. And in case you're wondering...the beans had only a hint of the whiskey flavor when I served them two hours later.

Here's a little more information about George Dickel No. 12 if you're interested:

There are many fine Tennessee whiskies. Then there is George Dickel No. 12 Tennessee Whisky. Displaying enormous depth, range and personality, it is considered by many to be the gold standard of Tennessee whisky. 

Back to my original recipe change, before the whiskey....

I doubled the amout of cumin in my bean recipe from 1 1/2 tsp to 1 tbsp. I think beans benefit from a stronger cumin flavor. For those who might be reading this who have ever tasted a bowl of competition quality chili, you know what I mean.

And one last tip about cumin....

Adding the cumin toward the half-way point of cooking will help reduce the chance of your pot of beans turning bitter. For some reason, simmering cumin for several hours sometimes produces a bitterness.